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Papers by Maria Cook
[Excerpt] This essay examines the continuing struggle of rank-and-file teachers to democratize th... more [Excerpt] This essay examines the continuing struggle of rank-and-file teachers to democratize the SNTE, a union of between 800,000 and one million members linked to the PRI. In particular, the essay analyzes the dissident movement's strategy of organizing to hold and win elections in union locals, and assesses the advantages and limitations of this strategy over a ten-year period (1979-1989). What were the implications of organizing within an official union for the movement's internal organization, demands, strategies, and ability to achieve its goals? This essay is divided into three parts. The first looks at the official union as an institution that structured the protest movement within it. The laws, procedures, organizational structure, and leadership of the union set boundaries for the movement's actions, shaping, though not fully determining, its demands, strategies, organization, and what it was able to achieve. The second part examines how the movement overcame some of these constraints in pursuing a legal or institutional strategy to democratize the union. This part also analyzes the gains and limitations of the movement's legal strategy as experienced by those sections of the movement that obtained legal recognition. The last part looks at how changes in the movement's political environment affected the ability to achieve its goals. This section focuses on the Oaxacan case and argues that the relations between government and union officials were crucial to understanding the movement's important breakthroughs, as well as the limits to organizing within official unions.
Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2018
Most countries in Europe have seen the rise of anti-immigrant political parties in recent years a... more Most countries in Europe have seen the rise of anti-immigrant political parties in recent years and many have implemented more restrictive immigration measures. Portugal has moved in the opposite direction, seeking to produce some of the best practices and laws on immigration and immigrant integration. Traditional theories of immigration policy fail to account for the Portuguese case, and regional models of immigration overlook ways in which Portugal diverges. Instead, Portuguese policies are best understood as the product of (1) a political consensus on immigration that derives in part from Portugal's social-revolutionary democratic transition; (2) innovative institutions that enjoy both autonomy and political support, enable a Bwhole-of-government^approach, and mediate social pressures created by immigration; and (3) leadership choices made by politicians, bureaucrats, and civil society groups to forge consensus and seek inclusion. The Portuguese case signals the importance of adopting other lenses for the comparative study of immigration policies that go beyond regional models and highlight policy similarities among countries from distinct regions.
Studies in Social Justice, 2010
This article identifies and explores the dilemma of migrant advocacy in advanced industrial democ... more This article identifies and explores the dilemma of migrant advocacy in advanced industrial democracies, focusing specifically on the contemporary United States. On the one hand, universal norms such as human rights, which are theoretically well suited to advancing migrants' claims, may have little resonance within national settings. On the other hand, the debates around which immigration arguments typically turn, and the terrain on which advocates must fight, derive their values and assumptions from a nation-state framework that is self-limiting. The article analyzes the limits of human rights arguments, discusses the pitfalls of engaging in national policy debates, and details the challenges for advocates of advancing the cause of policy reform and shifting the frame for thinking about migration over the long term.
In the 2000s an unprecedented wave of left-party victories in presidential elections swept across... more In the 2000s an unprecedented wave of left-party victories in presidential elections swept across Latin America. Although scholars have studied variation among left regimes and how these regimes differ from neoliberal-era predecessors, few have addressed the role of labour unions and labour policy under the Left. We argue that 'bringing unions back in' to the analysis of left governments' performance sharpens distinctions with neoliberal governments and unsettles existing typologies. We review the labour policies of left governments in four countries-Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina-to show how a labour lens enriches our understanding of left governments in the region.
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Movimientos obreros y por los derechos humanos en América Latina: convergencia, divergencia y consecuencias para la promoción de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales [Labor Movements and Human Rights in Latin America: Convergence, Divergence, and the Implications for the Promotion of Ec...
![Research paper thumbnail of Relaciones Industriales en America del Norte: Sindicalismo y Sector Automotriz en los Estados Unidos [Industrial Relations in North America: Unions and the Auto Sector in the United States]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/93538388/thumbnails/1.jpg)
]([Excerpt] Este trabajo empieza por describir algunas de las tendencias generates de cambio que se... more [Excerpt] Este trabajo empieza por describir algunas de las tendencias generates de cambio que se han generado en los mercados de trabajo y en las relaciones industriales a nivel nacional en los Estados Unidos a raiz de los procesos de globalizacion en los ultimos anos, tomando como ejemplo el caso del sector automotriz. Tambien se consideran algunas de las respuestas y estrategias de los sindicatos norteamericanos frente a estos cambios: las de la AFL-CIO a nivel central, y las del sindicato del sector automotriz, el United Automobile Workers, o UAW. Los cambios que se han generado en los ultimos anos se deben a un complejo de factores, entre ellos los que derivan de una mayor competencia global, pero no precisamente del Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC). Es dificil separar los efectos del Tratado de otros factores aun poco estudiados. Aunque el TLC es indudablemente un elemento importante en los procesos que se estan desarrollando'en la region, este trabajo se referira al contexto mas amplio de la globalizacion, en el que se encuentran encuadrados los tratados de libre comercio tal como el TLCAN.
[Excerpt] This essay will look at the evolution of Mexican trade unions' strategies in response t... more [Excerpt] This essay will look at the evolution of Mexican trade unions' strategies in response to changes in their political-economic environment over a period of nearly twenty-five years. The purpose of the essay is to determine which factors proved most important in shaping trade union responses to environmental changes over time, and to note how the recent economic opening and regional integration represented by NAFTA have thus far affected and are likely to affect in the future labor unions' capacity to respond to such challenges. The Mexican case is of special importance in the Latin American context due to the implementation of NAFTA, the rapid and extensive recent opening of the Mexican economy, and the likelihood that Mexico's relationship with the U.S. will sharpen the effects of free trade for Mexico relative to other countries in the hemisphere that engage in regional free trade agreements. For these reasons, what happens to Mexican trade unions under NAFTA will be closely watched by labor movements in the rest of the hemisphere. This essay will disaggregate trade union strategies in Mexico in the recognition that multiple strategic currents have emerged over time and have often conflicted and competed with each other. Understanding what gives rise to these different currents, and why they succeed or fail under different economic and political environments, helps us to understand better both how strategic options emerge and what determines trade unions' capacity to choose among these options. These issues in turn can give us a better sense of what strategic choices trade unions may have available to them in a global environment which is largely recognized as hostile to labor unions.
Espiral Estudios Sobre Estado Y Sociedad, 1994
[Excerpt] This paper argues that while the internationalization of the economy has tended to weak... more [Excerpt] This paper argues that while the internationalization of the economy has tended to weaken national labor movements, the internationalization of domestic politics may expand the traditional arenas for strategic action for labor unions. In particular, the North American Free Trade Agreement has been portrayed by some of its many critics as representing the consolidation of a neoconservative or neoliberal project that will not only shape the future economic development of the region, but also constrain its social policies and limit its political options (Grinspun and Cameron 1993: Chapter 1). However, these same critics have also noted that the debate surrounding NAFTA in Mexico, Canada, and the United States has led to a broad range of contacts and cooperative efforts among labor, environmental, women's, religious, and educators' groups in the three countries. This process is not only itself an expression of the search for new strategies in the context of regional integration, it has also altered the traditional ways in which U.S.-Mexican relations have been carried out and shaped the political process within Mexico. While the constraints to transnational labor collaboration remain strong, these new dimensions of the international and political environments nonetheless potentially offer new opportunities to weakened labor movements in all three countries. This paper will begin with a discussion of the contours of this new international political environment-in particular, the internationalization of domestic politics-and how this environment differs from traditional, nationally bounded notions of domestic politics and state action. I then discuss how both the transnationalization of politics and regional economic integration change the arena for strategic action by labor groups, how this new environment affects the labor movement in Mexico, and the kinds of strategies Mexican and U.S. labor unions have begun to pursue in this context. Finally, I consider whether the side agreement on labor standards that was developed as a complement to the NAFTA represents an example of institutionalization of this political internationalization, thus potentially facilitating further transnational collaboration among unions, or whether, alternatively, the side accord buttresses national institutions and state autonomy in ways that could constrain labor's strategic use of the international arena.
Outsiders No More?, 2013
In 2010 there were approximately 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Of th... more In 2010 there were approximately 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Of these, nearly 8 million adults were in the labor force (Passel and Cohn 2011). About 9.5 million people in the United States lived in mixedstatus households that include unauthorized immigrants and US citizens (Preston 2011a). In Europe there were an estimated 2 million to 4 million "irregular" migrants in 2008 (Morehouse and Blomfield 2011). Worldwide, the number of unauthorized migrants has grown in recent years (IOM 2010). 1 Clearly, nonstatus migrants are important by virtue of their sheer numbers. 2 Even where this population is proportionately small, unauthorized immigrants capture the attention of policy makers and the public. Immigration and border policies are crafted with these migrants in mind, and public debates in advanced liberal democracies have increasingly come to center on keeping such migrants out, eliminating incentives for migration, and creating harsh conditions for those without legal status. Can we then talk about "incorporation" for nonstatus migrants, much less about their political incorporation? "Incorporation" has been traditionally employed in the immigration literature to mean integration in the host society, either as legal immigrants or naturalized citizens. 3 Incorporation suggests the invisibility, liminality, and deportability to describe their conditions (Coutin 2005; Menjivar 2006; De Genova 2002). Nonstatus immigrants are uniquely vulnerable because they are subject to arrest and deportation at any moment, leading to their physical exclusion from the nation (Nyers 2010; De Genova 2002). The centrality of exclusion to immigrant lives makes the concepts of inclusion/exclusion especially appropriate ones to use. Any discussion of nonstatus immigrant inclusion would need to account for the contingency of this inclusion. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge the contingency of status for legal immigrants (Ngai 2003). Many legal immigrants have been unauthorized at some point. 5 Legal immigrants may also fall out of legal status because of immigration laws and bureaucratic requirements (Jasso et al. 2008; Menjivar 2006). 6 This case is clearest where immigrants enter a country legally, under either a temporary worker program or a student or tourist visa, and then overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their authorized stay (e.g., by working). Yet in the United States even legal permanent residents may be subject to deportation for relatively minor offenses, due to 1996 legislation that broadened the grounds for deportation. 7 In Spain, too, the laws make legal status possible, yet they also make it temporary and contingent, thus ensuring the "economic vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, both illegal and legal" (Calavita 2005, 100). The large number of mixed-status households in the United States also suggests that the exclusions and inclusions that unauthorized members of the household experience are likely to have an impact on the rest of the group, whether they are legal immigrants or citizens (Sudrez-Orozco et al. 2011).
Political Transition and Labor Revitalization in Mexico
Labor Revitalization: Global Perspectives and New Initiatives, 2003
Page 1. POLITICAL TRANSITION AND LABOR REVITALIZATION IN MEXICO Graciela Bensusán and Maria Loren... more Page 1. POLITICAL TRANSITION AND LABOR REVITALIZATION IN MEXICO Graciela Bensusán and Maria Lorena Cook INTRODUCTION The July 2, 2000, electoral victory of Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party ...
“Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime”: Humanitarianism and Illegality in Migrant Advocacy
I analyze the case of humanitarian pro-migrant activists in southern Arizona between 2000 and 201... more I analyze the case of humanitarian pro-migrant activists in southern Arizona between 2000 and 2010 to explore how contending groups wield law and legality claims in a dynamic policy environment. Humanitarian activists both evade and engage the law. They appeal to a higher law to elude charges that they are acting illegally, while seeking assurances that their actions are within the law. Law enforcement agents rely on the authority and technical neutrality of the law in redefining humanitarian aid as illegal, while expanding their own claims to carry out humanitarian work. This case study of advocacy on behalf of “illegal” migrants highlights how both activists and those who enforce the law redefine legality in strategic ways.
The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America, 1997
Explores a novel and unexpected by‐product of the process of negotiating the North American Free ... more Explores a novel and unexpected by‐product of the process of negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement—a network of North American labour, environmental, human rights, and other citizens’ organizations using international alliances to modify the agreement and to contest what was widely viewed as an anti‐popular and exclusionary process. While economic integration between the US and Mexico had been taking place for some time, the author argues that it was the formal recognition of this process through the NAFTA agreement that facilitated transnational political action by non‐state actors. Even though economic globalization and neo‐liberalism may be considered by some to undermine popular organizations, formal recognition of North American economic integration paradoxically produced a ‘transnational political arena’ linking the US, Mexico, and Canada. Well beyond the period and issues of the formal debate about the treaty itself, this transnational arena has expanded the res...
Organizing Opposition in the Teachers' Movement in Oaxaca
Popular movements and political change in Mexico, 1990
... the Teachers' Movement in Oaxaca MARIA LORENA COOK What was won must be judged by wh... more ... the Teachers' Movement in Oaxaca MARIA LORENA COOK What was won must be judged by what was possible. In the second half of the 1970s, dissident unionists in Mexico directed their efforts to organizing within official labor unions and confederations (San Juan 1984: 120 ...
Bringing the Worker Back in
Work and Occupations, 2012
This collection of “new studies of work” from Mexico represents one of several directions in rese... more This collection of “new studies of work” from Mexico represents one of several directions in research on labor and work in Latin America in recent years. Although firm-level, national, and transnational studies remain important, this research stream centers on individual workers, their web of relationships, and the reconfiguration of spaces of work, identities, and processes.
Proceedings of the... …, 1997
[Excerpt] The IRRA-NAFTA Committee was first appointed in 1995 by then president, Walter Gershenf... more [Excerpt] The IRRA-NAFTA Committee was first appointed in 1995 by then president, Walter Gershenfeld, to make a report to the membership on the industrial relations implications of NAFTA and other traderelated developments. The Committee's mandate was renewed in 1996 by president Hoyt Wheeler. In this year's report the committee focused on some of the attempts that are underway to improve protection of labor interests under free trade conditions. This is a summary of the longer full report available upon request from the IRRA National Office.
The abstract, table of contents, and first twenty-five pages are published with permission from t... more The abstract, table of contents, and first twenty-five pages are published with permission from the Cornell University Press. For ordering information, please visit the Cornell University Press at http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/.[Excerpt] Democratization in the developing and post-communist world has yielded limited gains for labor. Explanations for this phenomenon have focused on the effect of economic crisis and globalization on the capacities of unions to become influential political actors and to secure policies that benefit their members. In contrast, the contributors to Working through the Past highlight the critical role that authoritarian legacies play in shaping labor politics in new democracies, providing the first cross-regional analysis of the impact of authoritarianism on labor, focusing on East and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Legacies from the predemocratic era shape labor’s present in ways that both limit and enhance organized labor’s power...
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Movimientos obreros y por los derechos humanos en América Latina: convergencia, divergencia y consecuencias para la promoción de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales [Labor Movements and Human Rights in Latin America: Convergence, Divergence, and the Implications for the Promotion of Ec...
[Excerpt] Los derechos propios del trabajo forman parte de los derechos humanos hace mucho tiempo... more [Excerpt] Los derechos propios del trabajo forman parte de los derechos humanos hace mucho tiempo y gozan del reconocimiento de pactos internacionales. La Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos, adoptada por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas, en 1948, enumera los derechos a condiciones de trabajo justas y favorables; a igual remuneración por trabajo de igual valor; a una remuneración equitativa y favorable, y a formar sindicatos y afiliarse a ellos. El Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos (PIDCP) incluye los derechos a la libertad de asociación y a formar sindicatos y afiliarse a ellos. El Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (PIDESC), conforme a la Carta de las Naciones Unidas, hace referencia a los derechos individuales y colectivos del trabajo en los artículos 6, 7 y 8. La Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) ha preservado un conjunto de convenciones “centrales” de derechos humanos. En 1998, la OIT adoptó la Declaración de los Principios y Derechos Fundamentales en el Trabajo, que enumera cuatro derechos centrales relacionados con el trabajo, mismos que los países miembros se comprometen a respetar, sin perjuicio de que hayan ratificado las convenciones correspondientes de la OIT. Sin embargo la protección de los derechos laborales es una promesa no cumplida en América Latina. Si bien actualmente casi nadie niega que la libertad de asociación y los derechos a organizarse y a negociar acuerdos colectivamente son derechos humanos básicos y esenciales para permitir al trabajador gozar de otros derechos y normas, con frecuencia esos derechos han enfrentado restricciones en la legislación nacional y en la práctica. Los sindicatos han luchado para promover y defender los derechos laborales y civiles, pero han encontrado el obstáculo de las dictaduras y las crisis económicas. Los estados han tenido una participación débil en el reconocimiento de los dere chos laborales como derechos humanos y la colaboración entre los movimientos obreros y los movimientos por los derechos humanos no ha sido suficiente, en parte debido a distintos predominios: la mayoría de los sindicatos defiende los derechos colectivos y las organizaciones de derechos humanos se han centrado principalmente en los derechos individuales. Sin embargo, hechos internacionales recientes, alimentados en parte por la globalización y cambios en los contextos políticos nacionales, pueden aportar más posibilidades de colaboración para promover los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales en la región.Cook16_Los_Derechos_Economicos_Sociales_Y_Culturales_En_America_Latina005.pdf: 5814 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020
Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico by Richard Snyder:Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico
American Journal of Sociology, 2002
Richard Snyder's well-crafted study substantiates what most political scientists suspecte... more Richard Snyder's well-crafted study substantiates what most political scientists suspected all along: that neoliberal reforms lead to new institutions of market governance, rather than to unregulated markets. Snyder sheds light on this understudied topic by examining the reregulation of the coffee sector by four state governments after the Mexican government dismantled the Instituto Mexicano del Café (INMECAFE), the state-owned enterprise that dominated the coffee industry during the 1970s and 1980s. By the late 1980s, when deregulation began, INMECAFE was providing production supports, price controls, and government-managed marketing channels for nearly 200 thousand small coffee producers. Most of these producers were located among the poorest states in southern Mexico.
Zusammenfassung: Die Pandemie hat alle Länder rund um den Erdball erfasst, aber ihre gesellschaft... more Zusammenfassung: Die Pandemie hat alle Länder rund um den Erdball erfasst, aber ihre gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen sind noch nicht genau erkennbar. Wir befinden uns inmitten eines tiefen historischen Bruchs und sind mit dramatischen ökonomischen, politischen und alltagspraktisch-kulturellen Veränderungen sowie neuartigen gesellschaftlichen Kämpfen konfrontiert. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist es geboten, ein Forschungspro-gramm für die globalen Arbeitsstudien auszuarbeiten, das dem gegenwärtigen Moment gerecht wird. In unserem Text stellen wir acht Themenkomplexe zur Diskussion, deren Analyse unserer Auffassung nach an der Tagesordnung ist. Dabei präsentieren wir jeweils eine Leitfrage und mehrere Unterfragen. Es geht um die Verschiebungen zwischen nationaler und globaler Ebene, die Unterscheidung zwischen formellem und informellem Sektor, Ungleichheiten und Klassenspaltungen, politische Umwälzungen, die Auswirkun-gen der Digitalisierung auf den Arbeitsprozess, die ökologische Krise und Arbeit im Hochschulbereich.
[Excerpt] This essay examines the continuing struggle of rank-and-file teachers to democratize th... more [Excerpt] This essay examines the continuing struggle of rank-and-file teachers to democratize the SNTE, a union of between 800,000 and one million members linked to the PRI. In particular, the essay analyzes the dissident movement's strategy of organizing to hold and win elections in union locals, and assesses the advantages and limitations of this strategy over a ten-year period (1979-1989). What were the implications of organizing within an official union for the movement's internal organization, demands, strategies, and ability to achieve its goals? This essay is divided into three parts. The first looks at the official union as an institution that structured the protest movement within it. The laws, procedures, organizational structure, and leadership of the union set boundaries for the movement's actions, shaping, though not fully determining, its demands, strategies, organization, and what it was able to achieve. The second part examines how the movement overcame some of these constraints in pursuing a legal or institutional strategy to democratize the union. This part also analyzes the gains and limitations of the movement's legal strategy as experienced by those sections of the movement that obtained legal recognition. The last part looks at how changes in the movement's political environment affected the ability to achieve its goals. This section focuses on the Oaxacan case and argues that the relations between government and union officials were crucial to understanding the movement's important breakthroughs, as well as the limits to organizing within official unions.
Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2018
Most countries in Europe have seen the rise of anti-immigrant political parties in recent years a... more Most countries in Europe have seen the rise of anti-immigrant political parties in recent years and many have implemented more restrictive immigration measures. Portugal has moved in the opposite direction, seeking to produce some of the best practices and laws on immigration and immigrant integration. Traditional theories of immigration policy fail to account for the Portuguese case, and regional models of immigration overlook ways in which Portugal diverges. Instead, Portuguese policies are best understood as the product of (1) a political consensus on immigration that derives in part from Portugal's social-revolutionary democratic transition; (2) innovative institutions that enjoy both autonomy and political support, enable a Bwhole-of-government^approach, and mediate social pressures created by immigration; and (3) leadership choices made by politicians, bureaucrats, and civil society groups to forge consensus and seek inclusion. The Portuguese case signals the importance of adopting other lenses for the comparative study of immigration policies that go beyond regional models and highlight policy similarities among countries from distinct regions.
Studies in Social Justice, 2010
This article identifies and explores the dilemma of migrant advocacy in advanced industrial democ... more This article identifies and explores the dilemma of migrant advocacy in advanced industrial democracies, focusing specifically on the contemporary United States. On the one hand, universal norms such as human rights, which are theoretically well suited to advancing migrants' claims, may have little resonance within national settings. On the other hand, the debates around which immigration arguments typically turn, and the terrain on which advocates must fight, derive their values and assumptions from a nation-state framework that is self-limiting. The article analyzes the limits of human rights arguments, discusses the pitfalls of engaging in national policy debates, and details the challenges for advocates of advancing the cause of policy reform and shifting the frame for thinking about migration over the long term.
In the 2000s an unprecedented wave of left-party victories in presidential elections swept across... more In the 2000s an unprecedented wave of left-party victories in presidential elections swept across Latin America. Although scholars have studied variation among left regimes and how these regimes differ from neoliberal-era predecessors, few have addressed the role of labour unions and labour policy under the Left. We argue that 'bringing unions back in' to the analysis of left governments' performance sharpens distinctions with neoliberal governments and unsettles existing typologies. We review the labour policies of left governments in four countries-Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina-to show how a labour lens enriches our understanding of left governments in the region.
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Movimientos obreros y por los derechos humanos en América Latina: convergencia, divergencia y consecuencias para la promoción de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales [Labor Movements and Human Rights in Latin America: Convergence, Divergence, and the Implications for the Promotion of Ec...
[Excerpt] Este trabajo empieza por describir algunas de las tendencias generates de cambio que se... more [Excerpt] Este trabajo empieza por describir algunas de las tendencias generates de cambio que se han generado en los mercados de trabajo y en las relaciones industriales a nivel nacional en los Estados Unidos a raiz de los procesos de globalizacion en los ultimos anos, tomando como ejemplo el caso del sector automotriz. Tambien se consideran algunas de las respuestas y estrategias de los sindicatos norteamericanos frente a estos cambios: las de la AFL-CIO a nivel central, y las del sindicato del sector automotriz, el United Automobile Workers, o UAW. Los cambios que se han generado en los ultimos anos se deben a un complejo de factores, entre ellos los que derivan de una mayor competencia global, pero no precisamente del Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC). Es dificil separar los efectos del Tratado de otros factores aun poco estudiados. Aunque el TLC es indudablemente un elemento importante en los procesos que se estan desarrollando'en la region, este trabajo se referira al contexto mas amplio de la globalizacion, en el que se encuentran encuadrados los tratados de libre comercio tal como el TLCAN.
[Excerpt] This essay will look at the evolution of Mexican trade unions' strategies in response t... more [Excerpt] This essay will look at the evolution of Mexican trade unions' strategies in response to changes in their political-economic environment over a period of nearly twenty-five years. The purpose of the essay is to determine which factors proved most important in shaping trade union responses to environmental changes over time, and to note how the recent economic opening and regional integration represented by NAFTA have thus far affected and are likely to affect in the future labor unions' capacity to respond to such challenges. The Mexican case is of special importance in the Latin American context due to the implementation of NAFTA, the rapid and extensive recent opening of the Mexican economy, and the likelihood that Mexico's relationship with the U.S. will sharpen the effects of free trade for Mexico relative to other countries in the hemisphere that engage in regional free trade agreements. For these reasons, what happens to Mexican trade unions under NAFTA will be closely watched by labor movements in the rest of the hemisphere. This essay will disaggregate trade union strategies in Mexico in the recognition that multiple strategic currents have emerged over time and have often conflicted and competed with each other. Understanding what gives rise to these different currents, and why they succeed or fail under different economic and political environments, helps us to understand better both how strategic options emerge and what determines trade unions' capacity to choose among these options. These issues in turn can give us a better sense of what strategic choices trade unions may have available to them in a global environment which is largely recognized as hostile to labor unions.
Espiral Estudios Sobre Estado Y Sociedad, 1994
[Excerpt] This paper argues that while the internationalization of the economy has tended to weak... more [Excerpt] This paper argues that while the internationalization of the economy has tended to weaken national labor movements, the internationalization of domestic politics may expand the traditional arenas for strategic action for labor unions. In particular, the North American Free Trade Agreement has been portrayed by some of its many critics as representing the consolidation of a neoconservative or neoliberal project that will not only shape the future economic development of the region, but also constrain its social policies and limit its political options (Grinspun and Cameron 1993: Chapter 1). However, these same critics have also noted that the debate surrounding NAFTA in Mexico, Canada, and the United States has led to a broad range of contacts and cooperative efforts among labor, environmental, women's, religious, and educators' groups in the three countries. This process is not only itself an expression of the search for new strategies in the context of regional integration, it has also altered the traditional ways in which U.S.-Mexican relations have been carried out and shaped the political process within Mexico. While the constraints to transnational labor collaboration remain strong, these new dimensions of the international and political environments nonetheless potentially offer new opportunities to weakened labor movements in all three countries. This paper will begin with a discussion of the contours of this new international political environment-in particular, the internationalization of domestic politics-and how this environment differs from traditional, nationally bounded notions of domestic politics and state action. I then discuss how both the transnationalization of politics and regional economic integration change the arena for strategic action by labor groups, how this new environment affects the labor movement in Mexico, and the kinds of strategies Mexican and U.S. labor unions have begun to pursue in this context. Finally, I consider whether the side agreement on labor standards that was developed as a complement to the NAFTA represents an example of institutionalization of this political internationalization, thus potentially facilitating further transnational collaboration among unions, or whether, alternatively, the side accord buttresses national institutions and state autonomy in ways that could constrain labor's strategic use of the international arena.
Outsiders No More?, 2013
In 2010 there were approximately 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Of th... more In 2010 there were approximately 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Of these, nearly 8 million adults were in the labor force (Passel and Cohn 2011). About 9.5 million people in the United States lived in mixedstatus households that include unauthorized immigrants and US citizens (Preston 2011a). In Europe there were an estimated 2 million to 4 million "irregular" migrants in 2008 (Morehouse and Blomfield 2011). Worldwide, the number of unauthorized migrants has grown in recent years (IOM 2010). 1 Clearly, nonstatus migrants are important by virtue of their sheer numbers. 2 Even where this population is proportionately small, unauthorized immigrants capture the attention of policy makers and the public. Immigration and border policies are crafted with these migrants in mind, and public debates in advanced liberal democracies have increasingly come to center on keeping such migrants out, eliminating incentives for migration, and creating harsh conditions for those without legal status. Can we then talk about "incorporation" for nonstatus migrants, much less about their political incorporation? "Incorporation" has been traditionally employed in the immigration literature to mean integration in the host society, either as legal immigrants or naturalized citizens. 3 Incorporation suggests the invisibility, liminality, and deportability to describe their conditions (Coutin 2005; Menjivar 2006; De Genova 2002). Nonstatus immigrants are uniquely vulnerable because they are subject to arrest and deportation at any moment, leading to their physical exclusion from the nation (Nyers 2010; De Genova 2002). The centrality of exclusion to immigrant lives makes the concepts of inclusion/exclusion especially appropriate ones to use. Any discussion of nonstatus immigrant inclusion would need to account for the contingency of this inclusion. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge the contingency of status for legal immigrants (Ngai 2003). Many legal immigrants have been unauthorized at some point. 5 Legal immigrants may also fall out of legal status because of immigration laws and bureaucratic requirements (Jasso et al. 2008; Menjivar 2006). 6 This case is clearest where immigrants enter a country legally, under either a temporary worker program or a student or tourist visa, and then overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their authorized stay (e.g., by working). Yet in the United States even legal permanent residents may be subject to deportation for relatively minor offenses, due to 1996 legislation that broadened the grounds for deportation. 7 In Spain, too, the laws make legal status possible, yet they also make it temporary and contingent, thus ensuring the "economic vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, both illegal and legal" (Calavita 2005, 100). The large number of mixed-status households in the United States also suggests that the exclusions and inclusions that unauthorized members of the household experience are likely to have an impact on the rest of the group, whether they are legal immigrants or citizens (Sudrez-Orozco et al. 2011).
Political Transition and Labor Revitalization in Mexico
Labor Revitalization: Global Perspectives and New Initiatives, 2003
Page 1. POLITICAL TRANSITION AND LABOR REVITALIZATION IN MEXICO Graciela Bensusán and Maria Loren... more Page 1. POLITICAL TRANSITION AND LABOR REVITALIZATION IN MEXICO Graciela Bensusán and Maria Lorena Cook INTRODUCTION The July 2, 2000, electoral victory of Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party ...
“Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime”: Humanitarianism and Illegality in Migrant Advocacy
I analyze the case of humanitarian pro-migrant activists in southern Arizona between 2000 and 201... more I analyze the case of humanitarian pro-migrant activists in southern Arizona between 2000 and 2010 to explore how contending groups wield law and legality claims in a dynamic policy environment. Humanitarian activists both evade and engage the law. They appeal to a higher law to elude charges that they are acting illegally, while seeking assurances that their actions are within the law. Law enforcement agents rely on the authority and technical neutrality of the law in redefining humanitarian aid as illegal, while expanding their own claims to carry out humanitarian work. This case study of advocacy on behalf of “illegal” migrants highlights how both activists and those who enforce the law redefine legality in strategic ways.
The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America, 1997
Explores a novel and unexpected by‐product of the process of negotiating the North American Free ... more Explores a novel and unexpected by‐product of the process of negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement—a network of North American labour, environmental, human rights, and other citizens’ organizations using international alliances to modify the agreement and to contest what was widely viewed as an anti‐popular and exclusionary process. While economic integration between the US and Mexico had been taking place for some time, the author argues that it was the formal recognition of this process through the NAFTA agreement that facilitated transnational political action by non‐state actors. Even though economic globalization and neo‐liberalism may be considered by some to undermine popular organizations, formal recognition of North American economic integration paradoxically produced a ‘transnational political arena’ linking the US, Mexico, and Canada. Well beyond the period and issues of the formal debate about the treaty itself, this transnational arena has expanded the res...
Organizing Opposition in the Teachers' Movement in Oaxaca
Popular movements and political change in Mexico, 1990
... the Teachers' Movement in Oaxaca MARIA LORENA COOK What was won must be judged by wh... more ... the Teachers' Movement in Oaxaca MARIA LORENA COOK What was won must be judged by what was possible. In the second half of the 1970s, dissident unionists in Mexico directed their efforts to organizing within official labor unions and confederations (San Juan 1984: 120 ...
Bringing the Worker Back in
Work and Occupations, 2012
This collection of “new studies of work” from Mexico represents one of several directions in rese... more This collection of “new studies of work” from Mexico represents one of several directions in research on labor and work in Latin America in recent years. Although firm-level, national, and transnational studies remain important, this research stream centers on individual workers, their web of relationships, and the reconfiguration of spaces of work, identities, and processes.
Proceedings of the... …, 1997
[Excerpt] The IRRA-NAFTA Committee was first appointed in 1995 by then president, Walter Gershenf... more [Excerpt] The IRRA-NAFTA Committee was first appointed in 1995 by then president, Walter Gershenfeld, to make a report to the membership on the industrial relations implications of NAFTA and other traderelated developments. The Committee's mandate was renewed in 1996 by president Hoyt Wheeler. In this year's report the committee focused on some of the attempts that are underway to improve protection of labor interests under free trade conditions. This is a summary of the longer full report available upon request from the IRRA National Office.
The abstract, table of contents, and first twenty-five pages are published with permission from t... more The abstract, table of contents, and first twenty-five pages are published with permission from the Cornell University Press. For ordering information, please visit the Cornell University Press at http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/.[Excerpt] Democratization in the developing and post-communist world has yielded limited gains for labor. Explanations for this phenomenon have focused on the effect of economic crisis and globalization on the capacities of unions to become influential political actors and to secure policies that benefit their members. In contrast, the contributors to Working through the Past highlight the critical role that authoritarian legacies play in shaping labor politics in new democracies, providing the first cross-regional analysis of the impact of authoritarianism on labor, focusing on East and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Legacies from the predemocratic era shape labor’s present in ways that both limit and enhance organized labor’s power...
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Movimientos obreros y por los derechos humanos en América Latina: convergencia, divergencia y consecuencias para la promoción de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales [Labor Movements and Human Rights in Latin America: Convergence, Divergence, and the Implications for the Promotion of Ec...
[Excerpt] Los derechos propios del trabajo forman parte de los derechos humanos hace mucho tiempo... more [Excerpt] Los derechos propios del trabajo forman parte de los derechos humanos hace mucho tiempo y gozan del reconocimiento de pactos internacionales. La Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos, adoptada por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas, en 1948, enumera los derechos a condiciones de trabajo justas y favorables; a igual remuneración por trabajo de igual valor; a una remuneración equitativa y favorable, y a formar sindicatos y afiliarse a ellos. El Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos (PIDCP) incluye los derechos a la libertad de asociación y a formar sindicatos y afiliarse a ellos. El Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (PIDESC), conforme a la Carta de las Naciones Unidas, hace referencia a los derechos individuales y colectivos del trabajo en los artículos 6, 7 y 8. La Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) ha preservado un conjunto de convenciones “centrales” de derechos humanos. En 1998, la OIT adoptó la Declaración de los Principios y Derechos Fundamentales en el Trabajo, que enumera cuatro derechos centrales relacionados con el trabajo, mismos que los países miembros se comprometen a respetar, sin perjuicio de que hayan ratificado las convenciones correspondientes de la OIT. Sin embargo la protección de los derechos laborales es una promesa no cumplida en América Latina. Si bien actualmente casi nadie niega que la libertad de asociación y los derechos a organizarse y a negociar acuerdos colectivamente son derechos humanos básicos y esenciales para permitir al trabajador gozar de otros derechos y normas, con frecuencia esos derechos han enfrentado restricciones en la legislación nacional y en la práctica. Los sindicatos han luchado para promover y defender los derechos laborales y civiles, pero han encontrado el obstáculo de las dictaduras y las crisis económicas. Los estados han tenido una participación débil en el reconocimiento de los dere chos laborales como derechos humanos y la colaboración entre los movimientos obreros y los movimientos por los derechos humanos no ha sido suficiente, en parte debido a distintos predominios: la mayoría de los sindicatos defiende los derechos colectivos y las organizaciones de derechos humanos se han centrado principalmente en los derechos individuales. Sin embargo, hechos internacionales recientes, alimentados en parte por la globalización y cambios en los contextos políticos nacionales, pueden aportar más posibilidades de colaboración para promover los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales en la región.Cook16_Los_Derechos_Economicos_Sociales_Y_Culturales_En_America_Latina005.pdf: 5814 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020
Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico by Richard Snyder:Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico
American Journal of Sociology, 2002
Richard Snyder's well-crafted study substantiates what most political scientists suspecte... more Richard Snyder's well-crafted study substantiates what most political scientists suspected all along: that neoliberal reforms lead to new institutions of market governance, rather than to unregulated markets. Snyder sheds light on this understudied topic by examining the reregulation of the coffee sector by four state governments after the Mexican government dismantled the Instituto Mexicano del Café (INMECAFE), the state-owned enterprise that dominated the coffee industry during the 1970s and 1980s. By the late 1980s, when deregulation began, INMECAFE was providing production supports, price controls, and government-managed marketing channels for nearly 200 thousand small coffee producers. Most of these producers were located among the poorest states in southern Mexico.
Zusammenfassung: Die Pandemie hat alle Länder rund um den Erdball erfasst, aber ihre gesellschaft... more Zusammenfassung: Die Pandemie hat alle Länder rund um den Erdball erfasst, aber ihre gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen sind noch nicht genau erkennbar. Wir befinden uns inmitten eines tiefen historischen Bruchs und sind mit dramatischen ökonomischen, politischen und alltagspraktisch-kulturellen Veränderungen sowie neuartigen gesellschaftlichen Kämpfen konfrontiert. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist es geboten, ein Forschungspro-gramm für die globalen Arbeitsstudien auszuarbeiten, das dem gegenwärtigen Moment gerecht wird. In unserem Text stellen wir acht Themenkomplexe zur Diskussion, deren Analyse unserer Auffassung nach an der Tagesordnung ist. Dabei präsentieren wir jeweils eine Leitfrage und mehrere Unterfragen. Es geht um die Verschiebungen zwischen nationaler und globaler Ebene, die Unterscheidung zwischen formellem und informellem Sektor, Ungleichheiten und Klassenspaltungen, politische Umwälzungen, die Auswirkun-gen der Digitalisierung auf den Arbeitsprozess, die ökologische Krise und Arbeit im Hochschulbereich.