The Secret Soldiers’ Union
The Secret Soldiers’ Union
Labor and Soldier Politics in the Philippine Scout Mutiny of 1924
This chapter presents the strike of Secret Soldiers' Union—a group of 380 Filipino soldiers and scouts—at Fort McKinley. The group protested disparities in wages between white and Filipino soldiers, as well as the indignity of a raid on their barracks the night before by military police. This movement sheds light on the complex history of collective labor action in the U.S. empire. In particular, their actions can be conceived in three ways: as a mutiny by colonial soldiers in a world of empires and imperial armies, as a strike by workers in postwar Manila, and as a form of soldier politics embedded in U.S. political culture. Taken together, the three perspectives demonstrate the dependence of the interwar U.S. military on Filipino labor, and the centrality of labor politics to the ongoing contest over the terms of colonial rule.
Keywords: Secret Soldiers' Union, Fort McKinley, mutiny, colonial soldiers, soldier politics
NYU Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
