The labor of fashion, transnational organizing, and the global COVID-19 pandemic

In this short piece, I seek to explore two main questions: 1) How can communities take control over local governance and shape local economic futures?and2) How can local communities effectively band together to support world-system transformation? I examine examples of transnational organizing around water and, specifically, the National Summit on the Human Right to Water held in Abuja, Nigeria in January 2019. A repeated theme at the Summit was the idea that privatization is a threat because the narrative of the profit-based solution of privatization is at odds with the idea that people—and their human right to basic needs like water—come before profit. Privatization is a threat to human rights everywhere,and as climate change progresses resources will become even more scarce, with more of a push from corporations seeking to control and commodify water. One of the most powerful short-term results of this summit, therefore, was how it served as a space forglobalsolidarity buildingaround the human right to water.

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Crafting connections: maya linkages between Guatemala’s Altiplano and El Norte

ESTUDIOS FRONTERIZOS ◽

10.21670/ref.2004.10.a04 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 5 (10) ◽

pp. 91-115 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Michelle J. Moran-Taylor

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Los Angeles ◽

Transnational Migration ◽

The United States ◽

Geographic Proximity ◽

Grass Roots ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

Transnational Organizing ◽

Transnational Connections ◽

Communication And Technology

International migration constitutes one of the most significant phenomena impacting Guatemala today. About a million and a half Guatemalans live and work in rural and urban cities and towns across the United States and Canada. Like many other migrant groups, most Guatemalans sustain strong transnational linkages between their homeland and el norte (the United States). In the Guatemalan example highlighted in this article, such bonds owe much to the long-standing Guatemalan-U.S. historical connections, to the geographic proximity of the country to the United States. Drawing on ethnographic material, this article examines the divergent kinds of transnational connections that Maya indigenous (K´iche´) migrants craft and keep alive between their home community and their two primary destination localities in the United States—Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California. The article shows the different means of communication and technology, as well as the varying types of transnational organizing —particularly grass-roots efforts— that help shape current linkages between those who go and those who stay. Keyword: Transnational migration, social ties, Guatemalan Maya migration, communications, grass-roots organizing.

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