:: Latin America

Worker self-management (WSM) has re-emerged as a major movement in Argentina, particularly this year with over 200 factories organized and controlled by their workers and a national co-coordinator of self-managed enterprises in the process of being organized.

Brazil is the ninth biggest economy in the world, geographically almost as large as the USA with nearly 200 million people and in the deepest economic crises in 70 years.

Throughout the early and mid-nineties, the international financial institutions (the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank), the regional financial institution (The Inter-American Development Bank) and the G-7 countries (North America and Western Europe) praised Argentina\’s liberalization program as an economic model for the Third World.

From 1992-1997, the World Bank Annual Report praised Argentina as the model country in the Third World. Washington and Brussels joined in the chorus of praise.

Evidence is piling up of the Bush administration\’s role in last month\’s coup attempt against Venezuela\’s President Hugo Chávez.

The Social Forum (SF) which took place in Porto Alegre between Feb. 1-5, 2002 attracted nearly 70,000 participants, including over 15,000 delegates from almost 5,000 organizations.

As far back as Gen. Juan Perón\’s 1946?1955 presidency, the northwestern Argentine province of Jujuy could rely on state-run companies and protected industries such as tobacco and sugar.

A month ago, Argentina was a symbol of the disaster of the free market. Years of recession had driven unemployment to nearly 20 percent and pushed one-third of the population into poverty.

The Argentinazo is the fourth and biggest popular uprising against authoritarian neo-liberal domination and political impunity.

Pablo and Diego were running down the avenue past the crowds rushing in and out of the supermarkets and electronic stores.

Colombia has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of trade union leaders and activists assassinated in the world (180 in the first 11 months of 2001).

This account is based on a variety of stories told to me by various friends and companeros who were active in the Argentinazo.

In the first setion of the paper we will discuss the relation between the peasantry and the state in Latin America, a relationship which has been complex and changing.

Plan Colombia, to be understood properly, should be located in a historical perspective both with relation to Colombia as well as in relation to the recent conflicts in Central America. Plan Colombia is both “new” policy and a continuation of past U.S. involvement in Colombia.

Over the past 30 years, Brazilian governments -both military and civilian- have proclaimed the need for \”agrarian reform\” but have resisted implementing an effective policy.

One of the most important contributions that the study abroad program makes is to allow students and professors to contrast official (government and mass media) versions of reality with their own observations and experiences.

On January 21 a popular rebellion, led by a coalition of Indians, peasants, and urban workers, supported by junior military officials occupied the Parliament, Judiciary, and surrounded the presidential palace.

I was invited to give one of the inaugural speeches at the Second Latin American Congress of Rural Organizations (Congreso Latinoamericano de Organizaciones del Campo, CLOC) that took place in Brazil November 3-7, 1997.

Mexican army invades communities, burns crops, ransacks houses, beats peasants, threatens community leaders, shouts obscenities to women, frightens children with overhead helicopters encircling villages.

The massacre of 45 Indians in Chiapas by government-sponsored paramilitary forces has to be viewed within the broader context of regimes\’ vigorous implementation of the socio-economic model and its growing political isolation within Mexican society.

The State Department\’s white paper entitled Communist Interference in El Salvador purports to provide evidence demonstrating: