"When he entered the Navy in 2004, Hutto brought his social values and commitment to human rights with him—as this book testifies. His life as student activist, human rights campaigner, and now citizen-sailor has been a living witness to the enduring legacy of Dr. King's struggle for justice and peace." —From the preface by David Cortright
With American soldiers dying almost daily in Iraq, more and more members of the armed services are questioning the purpose of the war and calling for withdrawal. Last year Able Seaman Jonathan Hutto banded together with a small group of fellow servicemen and servicewomen and formed Appeal for Redress, one of the first active duty antiwar groups since the Vietnam era. Antiwar Soldier offers military personnel and their families a practical toolkit to make their voices heard. It draws on Hutto's own experience both as an activist and an enlisted serviceman but also on the wealth of experience from the GI resistance movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Hutto seeks to educate military members and the public to the citizenship rights active-duty, reserve, and National Guard forces have. "In the short term, " Hutto writes, " the Appeal seeks to mobilize hundreds and thousands of military members throughout the world to file their grievances and reservations with members of Congress on the Iraq War. In the long term, the Appeal seeks to build permanence with the formation of an Active Duty Network that can advocate on behalf of active duty members on a range of issues to all levels of government." Navy PettyOfficer JONATHAN W. HUTTO, Sr., previously worked for Amnesty International USA as Membership Program Coordinator (MPC) for the Mid-Atlantic United States from May 2000 to January 2003. In the fall of 2001, after the brutal killing of Howard University alumnus Prince Jones by a Prince Georges County officer, Hutto initiated a police accountability project in Prince Geoges Country, Maryland, to combat police brutality that affected mostly Black and Latino citizens. Hutto is alumnus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. |
