Making the Rulers Obey
Book Review

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4251
Date Written:  2014-09-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2014
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20818

A book review of "Until the Rulers Obey: Voices from Latin American Social Movements" edited by Clinton Ross and Marcy Rein.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

UNTIL THE RULERS Obey: Voices from Latin American Social Movements, edited by Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein, is a collection of interviews of social movement participants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. While Marcy Rein has a labor and community organizing background, Ross is a filmmaker and writer with experience in Latin America.

Contributors such as Marc Becker and Mario Murillo provide introductions to each country. More importantly, the book highlights the political visions and critiques of organizers active within feminist, labor, environmental, indigenous, student and popular education struggles, to name a few. Interviews with leftist party members and public intellectuals are also included.

Despite differences in national contexts, all movements live under the shadow of neoliberalism. Implemented since the 1970s, neoliberal policies have deregulated markets, privatized social services, and expanded militarization and corporate access to labor and natural resources.

Interviewees raise several important questions and tensions: How should social movements engage with neoliberal states and center-left governments? How can anti-neoliberal governments utilize resource wealth to improve social welfare while also meeting demands for environmental sustainability and indigenous sovereignty?