Voices and Visions from the Streets: Gender Interests and Political Participation among Women Informal Traders in Latin America

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Hays-Mitchell

The extreme social and economic crisis affecting most Latin American countries has precipitated the expansion of a vast network of collective social movements as a means to cope with the increasing difficulty of life throughout the region. This paper is an examination of the collective struggle of women informal traders as they challenge, through workplace politics, the Peruvian state to address issues of family survival and social reproduction. Although the hierarchical and patriarchal structure of the street-trader union movement limits women's participation, a ‘critical consciousness’ has developed among women traders both in the rank-and-file and in low-level leadership positions which utilizes both direct and subtle strategies to influence the course of union politics. It is argued that the actions of these ‘grass-roots feminists’ to address their practical gender interests presupposes a commitment to strategic gender interests. Hence, their activism not only recasts Molyneux's gender-interest model but also transcends the artificial bifurcation that falsely characterizes the Latin American feminist movement. The experiences of women traders in Peru suggest that women's agency in social movements, such as informal sector trade unions, is introducing new ways of organizing social relations and political activity as it transforms entrenched and hegemonic meanings of politics, influence, and power.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 109-124
Author(s):  
Cecilia Anigstein ◽  
Gabriela Wyczykier

The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas is analytically interesting because international trade unions have promoted the framework of a “just transition” to protect workers’ rights during the shift to sustainable energy and the response to climate change and because the confederation has undertaken something of a “Latin-Americanization” of the just-transition notion that is nurtured by the environmental/territorial turn of social struggles on the continent. The current convergence between unions and social movements (peasant, feminist, environmentalist) has contributed to an important renewal of the union movement in Latin American environmental matters. La Confederación Sindical de las Américas reviste interés analítico porque las organizaciones sindicales internacionales promovieron una “transición justa” para resituar y visibilizar a los trabajadores en las negociaciones multilaterales del clima y procesos de transición energética y porque la confederación ha emprendido una “latinoamericanización” de la noción de la “transición justa” nutrida de un giro eco-territorial de las luchas sociales en el continente. El actual proceso de convergencia entre sindicatos y movimientos sociales (campesinos, feministas, ambientalistas) ha contribuido a una importante renovación de la narrativa del movimiento sindical en materia medioambiental en América Latina.



2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Marta Harnecker

The major element missing from Latin American politics in recent decades has been, with rare exceptions, the traditional workers' movement, beaten down by flexibilization, subcontracting, and other neoliberal measures.&hellip; The fall of the Berlin Wall and the defeat of Soviet socialism left the parties and social organizations of the left inspired by that model seriously weakened. At the same time, trade unions were hit hard by the weakening of the working class, part of the larger social fragmentation produced by neoliberalism. In that context, it was new social movements, and not the traditional parties and social organizations of the left, that rose to the forefront of the struggle against neoliberalism, in forms that varied widely from one country to another.&hellip; The situation in the 1980s and '90s in Latin America was comparable in some respects to the experience of pre-revolutionary Russia in the early twentieth century.&hellip; [M]any of the region's peoples said "enough" and started mobilizing, first in defensive resistance, then passing to the offensive. As a result, presidential candidates of the left or center-left began to triumph, only to face the following alternative: either embrace the neoliberal model, or advance an alternative project motivated by a logic of solidarity and human development.&hellip; [Consequently,] a major debate has emerged over the role that new social movements should adopt in relation to the progressive governments that have inspired hope in many Latin American nations.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-8" title="Vol. 67, No. 8: January 2016" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>



1973 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-431
Author(s):  
Charles McCarthy

A MAJOR CLAIM OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN THIS DIFFICULT time in Northern Ireland is that they have ‘prevented the spread of riot and disturbance into the workplace’. The claim has been consistently made and with growing emphasis since the troubles began, and Norman Kennedy at last year's annual conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions called it the one beacon of hope, this ‘maintaining unity of the workers, Catholic and Protestant, on the shop floor’ in what he described as largely a conflict of worker against worker, of a working-class community divided along sectarian lines. This is associated with a related claim that trade union recommendations on social and political change have a special legitimacy because the leadership is close to the people who are involved in the conflict. This political role, essentially non-party, is seen to be more significant and extensive than the traditional political activity of the trade union movement.



Author(s):  
Ann Brooks

This chapter addresses the significance of social movements in accelerating women into the public sphere as public intellectuals. Indeed, the role of social movements was important in defining women public intellectuals politically. The growth of social movements has to be set alongside the expansion of higher education for women, as well as the expansion of the print industry. This led to an expansion and broadening of the base of women's participation in political activity, particularly around specific campaigns and causes. Women were actively involved, individually and collectively, in a number of campaigns prior to the emergence of the suffrage movement. Ultimately, the intersection of gender and class was an important factor leading to the growth of both political activism and, more specifically, the emergence of the suffragettes and later women's liberation movement (WLM). Analysis shows that the motivation of most women was pragmatic and issue based as opposed to ideological. Issue-based politics covered all social classes and thus brought women together in social activism and within social movements.



2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Heywood

<p>The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has been recognised as one of the most effective social movements in post-apartheid South Africa. Among other things, it is responsible for the world’s largest programme to provide anti-retroviral treatment to people with HIV through the public health system. This article looks at the lessons TAC learned from the trade union movement as it sought to build a mass movement of the poor around the human right to access essential medicines for millions of people infected with HIV. It explores how TAC sought to build an alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and its affiliates, and the vital role that an independent COSATU played in supporting AIDS activism and using its social weight to support campaigns for AIDS treatment. Finally it looks at what trade unions can learn from social movements and explains why an effective alliance between unions and social movements is so essential for pro-poor reform in the twenty-first century.</p>



Caderno CRH ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 021008
Author(s):  
Marco Antonio Teixeira

<p>O artigo analisa a Marcha das Margaridas, uma mobilização feminista realizada no Brasil sob a liderança das mulheres do campo, da floresta e das águas, nos anos de 2015 e 2019, considerado o tempo de ascensão das novas direitas. A Marcha é organizada pelas mulheres do Movimento Sindical de Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais, em aliança com outros movimentos sociais, centrais sindicais e organizações internacionais. Adota-se uma abordagem teórica que considera a atuação dos movimentos sociais por meio dos conceitos de ações de reprodução social e formas de ação coletivas. Isso significa analisar a Marcha para além de suas expressões mais visíveis – uma grande marcha na cidade de Brasília e as negociações com agentes estatais (formas de ação coletiva). A mobilização envolve também um longo processo de organização, formação e<br />política de alianças com outros atores sociais (ações de reprodução social). Argumenta-se que analisá-las de maneira interdependente e vis-à-vis à estrutura de oportunidades políticas no tempo de ascensão das novas direitas aumenta a capacidade de compreensão de como movimentos sociais populares atuaram considerando o novo contexto.</p><p><strong>SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN TIMES OF THE RISE OF THE NEW RIGHT: the Marcha das Margaridas</strong><br /><br /></p><p>This article analyses the Marcha das Margaridas, a feminist mobilisation spearheaded by women from the Brazilian Union of Rural Workers in alliance with other social movements, trade unions, and international organisations in the years 2015 and 2019 – considered to be the time of the rise of the new right. From a theoretical approach that regard the performance of social movements based on the concepts of actions of social reproduction and forms of collective action, we analyse the Marcha beyond its most visible expression – that is, a large street protest in the city of Brasilia, and the negotiations with state agents (forms of collective action). Rather, we understand this movement as also involving a long process of organisation, mobilisation, political formation activities, and politics of alliances with other social actors (actions of social reproduction). By analysing them interdependently and vis-à-vis the political opportunity structures at the time of the rise of the new right, we will better understand how social movements acted considering the new context.</p><p>Keywords: Social Movements. New Rights. Collective Actions. Social Reproduction Actions. Marcha das Margaridas.</p><p><strong>LES MOUVEMENTS SOCIAUX POPULAIRES FACE A LA MONTEE DE LA NOUVELLE DROITE: la Marcha das Margaridas</strong><br /><br />L’article analyse la Marcha dasMargaridas, une mobilisation féministe qui a eu lieu au Brésil entre 2015 et 2019, période considéré comme celle de la montée de la nouvelle droite brésilienne. Dirigée par des femmes qui se réclament défenseuses de la campagne, des forêts et des eaux, la Marcha était organisée par des femmes du Mouvement Syndical des Travailleuses et Travailleurs Ruraux, en alliance avec d’autres mouvements sociaux, des centrales syndicales et des organisations internationales. L’approche théorique propose une analyse à partir du concept de “actions de reproduction sociale” et de “répertoires d’action collective”. Cela signifie qu’il faut analyser la Marcha au-delà de son expression la plus visible, à savoir, une grande marche à Brasília accompagnée des négociations avec les agents de l’État (répertoire d’action collective). La Marcha implique également un long processus d’organisation, de rassemblement, de formation et des politiques d’alliances avec d’autres acteurs sociaux (actions de reproduction sociale). Analyser ces éléments de manière interdépendante en fonction de la structure des opportunités politiques, et dans la période de montée de la nouvelle droite brésilienne, nous aide à mieux comprendre comment les mouvements sociaux populaires ont agi dans ce nouveau contexte. </p><p>Mots-clés: Mouvements Sociaux. Nouvelle Droite. Repertoires D’action  Collectives. Actions De Reproduction Sociale. Marcha Dasmargaridas.</p>



2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREAS BIELER

AbstractIn 2006, the European Union launched its new free trade strategy Global Europe with the explicit goal of increasing European competitiveness. This article explores the positions of trade unions and other social movements on Global Europe. Importantly, while Northern social movements and trade unions from the Global South reject Global Europe due to its impact of deindustrialisation on developing countries, European trade unions support it in so far as it opens up new markets for the export of European manufactured goods. It will be argued that this has to be understood against the background of the dynamics underlying the global economy and here in particular uneven and combined development. Due to the uneven integration of different parts of the world into the global economy, workers in developed countries may actually benefit from free trade, while workers in the Global South are more likely to lose out. It will, however, also be argued that while these different positions within the social relations of production are shaping the position of trade unions, they do not determine them. Over time, through direct engagement, trade unions in the North and South may be able to establish relations of transnational solidarity.



Author(s):  
Nikolai Huke ◽  
Olaf Tietje

The Eurozone crisis has deepened the structural and organisational weaknesses of the Spanish trade union movement. At the same time, unions were challenged by new social movements in a cycle of protests following the indignados of 15M. In consequence, a hesitant strategic reorientation and regeneration of the trade unions took place as they struggled to include social forms applied by the new movements such as grassroots democracy and civil disobedience into their strategic repertoire.



2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-161
Author(s):  
Liz Mason-Deese ◽  
Victoria Habermehl ◽  
Nick Clare

Abstract. In this paper we analyze the territorial organizing of two dissimilar social movements across Greater Buenos Aires, showing how urban struggles produce territory as a key element of their political practice. Through their relational, contested character, these Latin American territories foreground an alternative to state-centric, Anglo-American models of territorial politics. First, the unemployed workers' movements in the urban periphery show how the territorial organization of production and reproduction creates new social relations, and second, an assembly-organized market emphasizes the relationality of territory in constructing solidarity economies. This paper contributes to debates on urban social movements by showing that these movements use practices of territorial organizing to produce urban territory in distinct ways, and that territorial organizing is relational, contested, and central to movements' praxis.



Author(s):  
Federico M. Rossi

The history of Latin America cannot be understood without analyzing the role played by labor movements in organizing formal and informal workers across urban and rural contexts.This chapter analyzes the history of labor movements in Latin America from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. After debating the distinction between “working class” and “popular sectors,” the chapter proposes that labor movements encompass more than trade unions. The history of labor movements is analyzed through the dynamics of globalization, incorporation waves, revolutions, authoritarian breakdowns, and democratization. Taking a relational approach, these macro-dynamics are studied in connection with the main revolutionary and reformist strategic disputes of the Latin American labor movements.



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