Courage or Complicity? - by Steve Early & Suzanne Gordon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

For generations, America has thanked its

veterans for their service but then forgotten promises made to
them.

That's why some former soldiers have
always ended up on the barricades or picket lines, demanding justice for
themselves or fellow workers back home. From Revolutionary War volunteers who
later joined Shays's Rebellion to World War I soldiers who staged a
multiracial march on Washington to Vietnam War-era GIs who helped end
the war they served in, such rank-and-file voices are hard to ignore.

In this timely collection of essays, reviews, and
firsthand reporting, Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon trace that dissident legacy
to the present day. They chronicle the critical role that disillusioned
post-9/11 veterans now play in challenging MAGA Republicans and corporate
Democrats over privatized healthcare, big money in politics, and ballooning
Pentagon budgets. Inside these pages are stories of courage and complicity:
veterans fighting to defend public healthcare from corporate takeover; resisting
anti-union attacks; and opposing the use of federal troops for domestic
policing and mass deportations. Their struggle is part of a broader fight for
rights, dignity, and a better life for all poor and working-class
Americans.

Courage or Complicity? is a
searing indictment of political betrayal and a big salute to vets organizing
against it. This book reveals the frontline battles shaping the future of
American democracy.

Review Quotes

"In a nation much devoted to hero worship
of veterans, too little attention is paid to actual life in the military and
its aftermath. Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon offer the most comprehensive and
honest accounting of what my fellow veterans have experienced post-9/11 and the
challenges we face today. Their new book is sweeping, authoritative, and bold.
As more Americans stand up against the politicians and corporations falsely
claiming to be on our side, the authors show how military veterans can join the
charge against them."
--Matthew Hoh,
former marine captain and State Department officer, Iraq War combat
veteran

"As this timely book reports, the
unlawful use of National Guard units in a nationwide assault on immigrants and
DOGE-driven attacks on federal jobs and services has led to a new wave of
labor, community, and political activism by former service members and military
families. In their dispatches from the frontlines, the authors chronicle the
role of veterans and their organizations in this critical defense of democracy
against authoritarianism."
--Joanna
Sweatt, Marine Corps veteran and national organizing director, Common
Defense

"Early and Gordon provide us with an
urgent guide to understanding how and why the ruling class has turned and
always will turn its back on veterans. Veterans looking to harness their sense
of betrayal to the struggle for a more just world should read this essential
book--and then spread the word about it."

--Rory Fanning, Afghanistan war veteran, former army ranger,
and author of Worth Fighting For

"This book chronicles the struggles of
veterans whose disillusionment with traditional advocacy organizations led them
to form new networks, more labor-focused, grassroots oriented, and engaged with
social justice issues. The result is a new generation of incredible warriors
whose presence in unions and progressive movements is needed more than ever
before."
--RoseAnn DeMoro, former
executive director, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United

"If you're a student thinking
about joining JR ROTC or talking to a military recruiter about what to do after
high school, you need to read this book, before signing
up!"
--Kim Scipes, Marine Corps
veteran and emeritus professor of sociology at Purdue University
Northwest

"Courage or Complicity
describes the use of past military service by politicians from both major
parties. As the authors show, most who are elected to Congress champion bloated
defense budgets that are now bigger than the total expenditures of the next
nine largest military spenders in the world. The authors provide a useful
scorecard for assessing candidates whose brand of patriotism includes little
solidarity with fellow veterans in need of jobs, healthcare, and workplace
rights."
--Larry Cohen, cochair of Our
Revolution and former national president of Communications Workers of
America

"In recent years, few nonveterans have
done more reading, writing, critical thinking, and public speaking about
veterans' issues than the authors of this collection, which
highlights the past and present role of former soldiers on the left, in labor
unions, electoral politics, and antiwar campaigning."

--Jon Melrod, attorney, labor activist, and author of
Fighting Times

"Combining deep research and first-rate
journalism, this book deftly exposes the machinations and terrible results of
corporate militarism. Early and Gordon expertly cut through the fog of class
war, showing how the profit-driven system of the US warfare state routinely
shafts veterans, workers, and society as a whole."
--Norman Solomon, author of War Made Invisible: How
America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine

"The authors are longtime advocacy
journalists who reveal how corporate profiteering is cannibalizing both
Medicare and the VA, thus undermining the possibility of real healthcare reform
in the US. Reading this book will make you want to march, organize, and lobby
to defend the single-payer financing and public delivery of veterans'
healthcare, which provides such a good working model for what the broader
systemic change."
--Ana M. Malinow,
National Single Payer Steering Committee

"Gordon and Early expose the great
injustice of VA privatization and union busting, which has an adverse impact on
veterans as federal workers and patients. Their reporting and commentary tells
our story and uplifts our voices, as we carry on the fight!"
--Aimee Potter, VA clinical social workers and AFGE
Local 789 Steward in Chicago

"The Trump administration's
billionaire-backed push to hollow out and privatize large swaths of the federal
government is an attack not just on critical public services but also on the
many veterans who deliver them. At the VA, former service members who signed up
to continue serving their country have faced unlawful firings, mass reductions
in force, ongoing understaffing, and the gutting of their workplace rights and
protections. This book shows how federal workers are fighting back--by
building power through rank-and-file organizing on the job and in cross-union
formations like the Federal Unionists Network. Veterans in FUN are helping to
lead the charge."
--Mark Smith,
president of NFFE-IAM Local 1 at VA in San Francisco

"Once again, Steve Early and Suzanne
Gordon are providing a rare worker-centric perspective on veterans'
problems, which the Trump administration claims to care about but actually
doesn't. I look forward to sharing their well-researched new book
with veterans in my community, union coworkers, and other labor activists
trying to save the VA from further privatization and eventual
dismantling."
--Betsy Zucker, retired
VA nurse practitioner, member of AFGE 2157 and FUN supporter in
Portland

"Anyone who has worked on difficult
strikes and organizing fights knows the kind of rank-and-file leadership that
military veterans can provide. This book tells the story of former soldiers,
like the late Tony Mazzocchi, who campaigned for job safety and health, union
democracy, and a labor party. We meet younger veterans who are now frontline
resisters to Republican union busting and defunding of essential public
services."
--Rand Wilson, union activist
and organizer, CHIPS Communities United

"Courage or Complicity
exposes how bipartisan support for outsourcing VA care has undermined, rather
than improved it. Let's hope this book will spur collective action
among my fellow caregivers in our rank-and-file fight to restore workplace
protections and contract rights that benefit us and our
patients."
--Latisha D. Thompson,
organizer with Federal Unionists Network and rank-and-file member of AFGE at
the VA in Philadelphia

"The book is an excellent introduction to
the politics surrounding military labor and veterans' affairs. It
provides a timely reminder of the long history of left organizing and dissent
from within the US armed forces and among military veterans. For a socialist
left looking to rebuild links with the US working class--and vying
with right-wing populist appeals to labor--it's a vital
read."
--Derek Seidman, contributing
writer, Truthout

"In this wide-ranging and important
collection, Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon document how VA care is the canary
in the coal mine of a broader corporate drive to undermine and privatize all
public goods and services. They argue that veterans can become a bulwark
against the divisive and corrosive politics of the MAGA right and a force for
progressive social change. Anyone looking for hope in these difficult times
should read this book."
--Mark Dudzic,
Labor Campaign for Single Payer

"Courage or Complicity
asks how a country always ready to spend billions more on war can't
find money to meet the basic social needs of millions of poor and working-class
Americans, including those who served in the military? As the authors document,
veterans who challenge 'forever wars' and fight social
injustice are helping to build a more broad-based progressive movement
today."
--Gene Bruskin, poet,
playwright, and labor solidarity campaigner