Resisting Reagan: The U.S. Central America Peace MovementA comprehensive analysis of the U.S. Central America peace movement, Resisting Reagan explains why more than one hundred thousand U.S. citizens marched in the streets, illegally housed refugees, traveled to Central American war zones, committed civil disobedience, and hounded their political representatives to contest the Reagan administration's policy of sponsoring wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Focusing on the movement's three most important national campaigns—Witness for Peace, Sanctuary, and the Pledge of Resistance—this book demonstrates the centrality of morality as a political motivator, highlights the importance of political opportunities in movement outcomes, and examines the social structuring of insurgent consciousness. Based on extensive surveys, interviews, and research, Resisting Reagan makes significant contributions to our understanding of the formation of individual activist identities, of national movement dynamics, and of religious resources for political activism. |
Contents
SOURCES OF CENTRAL AMERICAN UNREST | 3 |
UNITED STATES INTERVENTION | 18 |
LOWINTENSITY WARFARE | 33 |
The Movement Emerges | 57 |
LAUNCHING THE PEACE MOVEMENT | 59 |
GRASPING THE BIG PICTURE | 87 |
THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF MORAL OUTRAGE | 133 |
THE INDIVIDUAL ACTIVISTS | 169 |
FACING HARASSMENT AND REPRESSION | 280 |
PROBLEMS FOR PROTESTERS CLOSER TO HOME | 325 |
THE MOVEMENTS DEMISE | 348 |
Assessing the Movement | 363 |
WHAT DID THE MOVEMENT ACHIEVE? | 365 |
LESSONS FOR SOCIALMOVEMENT THEORY | 378 |
The Distribution and Activities of Central America Peace Movement Organizations | 387 |
Notes | 393 |
Maintaining the Struggle | 209 |
NEGOTIATING STRATEGIES AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY | 211 |
FIGHTING BATTLES OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE | 231 |
| 419 | |
| 453 | |
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Common terms and phrases
According action administration's America peace activists America peace movement anti-movement arrested began campaign Casey Catholic Central Amer Central America activists Central America organizations Central America peace Central American policy church CISPES civil disobedience commitment Congress congressional Contras Corbett covert death squads delegates Dennis Marker economic El Salvador example FMLN forces foreign policy frame Gelbspan grassroots groups Guatemala guerrillas Honduras human rights insurgent consciousness involved Iran-Contra issue Jim Rice Jim Wallis Kornbluh leaders liberation theology major ment Mike Clark military aid mobilized moral Nicaragua North American Oliver North organizational participation percent Pledge of Resistance political opportunities President Reagan's protest Reagan administration refugees regional religious reporters repression Salvador Salvadoran Sanctuary activists Sanctuary movement Sandinistas social movements stories strategy struggle tactics thousand tion tral America Tucson U.S. Central U.S. citizens U.S. invasion U.S. military U.S. policy Varelli Vietnam White House Witness for Peace York