Transnational labor action in Latin America: from the struggle against the Free Trade Area of the Americas to the return of labor relations

Abstract

Neoliberalism was the hegemonic political and economic model in Latin America during the 1990s. The promotion of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was a fundamental policy to extend neoliberal policies and foreign influence throughout the region. In a momentum built throughout that decade and into the 2000s, the trade union movement joined forces with social movements to create a counterhegemonic force using traditional and novel power resources. This alliance managed to defeat the FTAA and was a central force in supporting new center-left administrations throughout the region. The developments since that historic event have shown the relevance of political contexts and strategic outlooks for the long-term success in maintaining, or failing to maintain, such kinds of alliances.

Keywords::

• labor
• Latin America
• transnational
• solidarity

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the Transnational Labour Group at Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo for organizing the workshop on “Labour and transnational action in times of crisis” at which a first draft of this paper was presented. I also thank the anonymous reviewers and Catherine O'Dea for their suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1.Collier and Collier, Shaping the Political Arena.

^2.Tattersall, “Labor–Community Coalitions”; Tattersall, Power in Coalition and Celis Ospina, Sindicatos y territorios.

^3.Voss and Williams, “The Local in the Global,” 353.

^4.Silver, Forces of Labor.

^5.Wright, “Working-Class Power.”

^6.Erne, European Unions.

^7.Levesque and Murray, “Local Versus Global.”

^8.Erne, European Unions, 29–32.

^9. See note 7 above.

^10. See note 6 above.

^11.Boron, “Strategy and Tactics in Popular Struggles.”

^12.Mazur, “Labor's New Internationalism”; Ghigliani, “International Trade Unionism”; Webster et al., Grounding Globalization and Waterman, “A Trade Union Internationalism.”

^13.Ghigliani, “International Trade Unionism,” 361.

^14.Tattersall, “Labor–Community Coalitions.”

^15.Bourdieu and Wacquant, Una invitación a la sociología.

^16.De la Garza Toledo, Los sindicatos frente a los procesos de transición, 14–15.

^17. The situation of employment and labor markets changed significantly in favor of the service sector, within which the working conditions were considerably worse than those in manufacturing jobs, especially in the main industrial countries – Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. For a detailed analysis, see Weller, “Employment Trends.” The situation began to change from the mid-2000s onwards, with the process of economic growth, as shown in a recent ECLAC report, Compacts for Equality.

^18.Anner, Solidarity Transformed.

^19.De la Garza Toledo, Los sindicatos frente a los procesos de transición, 16.

^20.Murillo, Sindicatos, coaliciones partidarias y reformas.

^21.De la Garza Toledo, Los sindicatos frente a los procesos de transición, 15.

^22.De Gennaro, “Transiciones políticas,” 48.

^23.Etchemendy, “Old Actors in New Markets” and Etchemendy, Models of Economic Liberalization.

^24.Etchemendy, “Old Actors in New Markets,” 64.

^25. Ibid., 75–7.

^26.Bensusan, “Reformas laborales.”

^27.De Gennaro, “Transiciones políticas.”

^28.Novick, “Nuevas reglas del juego en Argentina.”

^29. Ibid., 31–4.

^30. The corporatist model of trade unionism in Latin America has been widely discussed (see Collier and Collier, Shaping the Political Arena; Murillo, Sindicatos, coalitions partidarias y reformas; Etchemendy, Models of Economic Liberalization). It is here understood as a system in which unions access policy-making and systems of representation through alliances with the ruling party, and in some cases with sectors of the business community.

^31.De la Garza Toledo, “Del concepto ampliado del trabajo,” 15–16.

^32.Garcia Linera, La potencia plebeya, 294.

^33. Alvaro Garcia Linera is a Bolivian intellectual, currently the Vice President of Bolivia. His most relevant works refer to the collective struggles against neoliberalism, state repressions, and indigenous emancipation (see Garcia Linera, Críticas de la nación, Las armas de la utopía, Sociología de los movimientos sociales).

^34.Celis Ospina, Sindicatos y territorios, 16.

^35. Ibid., 71.

^36.Galvao et al., “Brasil: O movimiento popular e Sindical.”

^37.Rossel, Te amo, te odio.

^38.Celis Ospina, Sindicatos y territorios.

^39.Garcia Linera, La potencia plebeya.

^40. Regarding the Evo Morales government, see Garcia Linera, Las tensiones creativas and La potencia plebeya.

^41. See note 32 above.

^42. Ibid., 300.

^43.Hardt and Negri, Empire.

^44. See note 32 above.

^45. Ibid.

^46.De la Garza Toledo, “Del concepto ampliado del trabajo,” 17.

^47.Saguier, Transnational Labour Mobilisation, 252.

^48.Von Bulow, “Networks of Trade Protest.”

^49. Ibid.

^50.Von Bulow, Building Transnational Networks.

^51.Tarrow, Power in Movement.

^52.Saguier, Transnational Labour Mobilisation, 255.

^53. Ibid., 256.

^54.Saguier, Transnational Labour Mobilisation and Von Bulow, “Networks of Trade Protest.”

^55. See note 7 above.

^56.Jakobsen, “Rethinking the International Confederation.”

^57.Saguier, Transnational Labour Mobilisation and Von Bulow, “Networks of Trade Protest.”

^58.Ghiotto, “El ALCA.”

^59.Dufour-Poirier and Lévesque, “Building North–South Transnational.”

^60. See note 7 above.

^61.Garcia Linera, La potencia plebeya.

^62.Hyman, “How Can Trade Unions Act Strategically,” 197.

^63.Berron and Freire, “Los movimientos sociales del Cono Sur.”

^64.Chavez and Torres, La reinvención del Estado.

^65.Aranda, Argentina originaria and Zibechi, América Latina.

^66. See note 50 above.

^67.Levitsky and Roberts, The Resurgence of the Latin and Natanson, La nueva izquierda.

^68.Saguier, Transnational Labour Mobilisation.

^69.Prevost, “Contesting Free Trade,” 386.

^70. Author's interview with CTA organizer Andrés Larisgoitia, 29 December 2011 (own translation).

^71.Modonesi, Subalternidad, antagonismo, autonomía, 103–105.

^72. For details on social movement unionism see Scipes, “Understanding the New Labor Movements”; Seidman, Manufacturing Militance and Lambert and Webster, “Southern Unionism.”

^73. As with most free trade agreements, all the parties have to agree to it in order to apply the agreement. This made it especially challenging for FTAA and its main backers after the early 2000s when governments of a different political orientation were elected to office.

^74. See note 50 above.

^75. Ibid., 129.

^76.Dangl, Dancing with Dynamite.

^77.Dobrusin, “Argentina's Labour Movement.”

^78.Lenguita and Montes Cato, “La Argentina y Brasil.”

^79.McGuire and Scherrer, Developing a Labour Voice.

^80.Etchemendy and Collier, “Down But Not Out.”

^81. See note 78 above.

^82. Expressed during a 2014 South American trade unions coordinating meeting by a representative in conversation with the author.

^83. See note 77 above.

^84.Botto, “Los movimientos sociales,” 206–208.

^85. Ibid.

^86.Von Bulow, “Networks of Trade Protest,” 8.

^87.Scipes, “Understanding the New Labor Movements”; Seidman, Manufacturing Militance and Lambert and Webster, “Southern Unionism.”

^88.Seidman, “Social Movement Unionism”; Sluyter-Beltrao, Rise and Decline; Serdar, “Strategies for Revitalizing Labour” and Rossi, “Juggling Multiple Agendas.”

^89.Rossi, “Juggling Multiple Agendas.”

^90. See note 58 above.

^91. Interview with Adolfo Aguirre, 15 December 2011 (own translation).

^92.Saguier, “Socio-Environmental Regionalism.”

^93.Slipak, “América Latina y China.”

^94. Ibid.

^95.Silver, Forces of Labor.

^96. Ibid., 5–6.

^97. See note 7 above.

^98. See note 6 above.

^99. Ibid., 32.

^100. Boron, “Strategy and Tactics in Popular Struggles,” 246.

^101. Ibid., 247.

^102. See note 76 above.

^103.Garcia Linera, Las tensiones creativas.

^104.Polanyi, The Great Transformation.

^105.Webster et al., Grounding Globalization.

^106. Ibid., 5–7.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bruno Dobrusin

Bruno Dobrusin is a doctoral scholar at the Argentine Council for Science and Technical Research (CONICET), based at the Centre for Labor Research (CEIL) in Buenos Aires. He is also an advisor in international relations at the Argentine Workers' Confederation (CTA).