Latin American political movements linking traditional peasant values of subsistence with a leftist critique of imperialism are contributing to new forms of environmentalism there. While in the ...United States labor and environmental movements tend to operate within mainstream political and economic models based on privileging high levels of consumption and economic growth, Latin American voices are challenging both the global economic order and traditional concepts of economic development. From indigenous and peasant movements to leftist labor unions to political leaders, Latin Americans are calling for economic development that privileges the rights of rural peoples and their environments, and redistribution of resources domestically and globally. Yet they remain imbedded in an international economy based on extractivism and economic growth, which poses significant challenges to any alternative paths.
Though signicant gains have been made under the governments of Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales (in terms of poverty reduction, access to health care, education, etc.), there remains a considerable gap ...between rhetorical claims of participatory democracy, socialism, and non-capitalist development, in contrast to the reality of policies and practices that undermine the autonomous political mobilization, and/or economic interests, of popular sectors. ...what is the relationship between the state and popular political and cultural mobilization and expression? Once in power, however, as Hylton points out, Morales pursued a strategy almost the opposite of Chavez. Because he feared that mobilizing his base even further would antagonize a debilitated, yet dangerous, right, Bolivia has seen popular social movements weaken, the right rebound, and the possibility of implementing a deeper revolution undermined.
El levantamiento laboral de 1928 en Colombia y la masacre subsecuente, mostró la primera de una larga lista de asaltos políticos en las plantaciones de propiedad extranjera, planteando el principio ...del fin de un sistema de producción organizado alrededor del enclave extranjero. La confrontación política popular creciente hacia las corporaciones extranjeras no sólo conducirían a las multinacionales hacia el Ecuador (donde se desarrollaría la industria bananera más grande del mundo en comienzos de los años 50), sino que también llevaría a las multinacionales a abandonar la producción directa y a desarrollar un sistema de producción por contrato, como la que define la industria contemporánea. La United Fruit se dirigió a Ecuador en los años 30 porque la tierra y el trabajo eran baratos, disponibles, y desorganizados. Como continúan siendo hasta estos días. El hecho que la mano de obra en la industria bananera más grande del mundo, sea esencialmente desorganizada es un problema enorme para los otros trabajadores bananeros de América latina. En una industria global, la organización de trabajo es tan fuerte como su eslabón más débil. En el caso de la industria del banano, el eslabón más débil (Ecuador) es también el más grande.
Before looking at a solidarity campaign that has emerged in response to the human & labor rights abuses within the multinational-dominated Colombian coal industry, the following briefly traces the ...history of Latin America solidarity movements within Latin America more broadly. What we suggest is that although the contemporary Colombia solidarity movement grows most immediately from the Central America solidarity movement of the 1980s, it also draws on a wide range of progressive forces that have emerged or reemerged in the 1990s, including a US labor movement that is moving beyond Cold War thinking; an environmental movement that is working from an increasingly global understanding of labor & human rights; a fair trade movement that offers alternative models of development; consumer activism that has begun to take social & environmental justice seriously; & an indigenous-ethnic movement that offers a variety of challenges to both northern activists & neoliberal capitalism. The multiplicity of progressive forces, each with their respective issues, offers a challenge & opportunity to North-South solidarity in general & to our campaign in particular. Adapted from the source document.
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