Social Movements Across Latin America 1
1Social Movements Across LatinAmericaPaul Almeida and Allen Cordero UlateThe past 25 years in Latin America have witnessed a renewed upswing in popular mobilization. The ending of the violent conflicts and military governments in the 1980s gave way to newstruggles and a relatively more democratic climate. From northern Mexico to southern Argentina, social movements in the 1990s, and especially in the 2000s, have reached new heights ofpopular participation. These claims are confirmedby the multitudinous street marches in CostaRica against the Central American Free TradeAgreement (CAFTA) in 2007, the white marchesin El Salvador against health care privatization,and the black marches in Panama against pensionsystem reform, along with the massive indigenous mobilizations in Bolivia, Ecuador, andPeru. In addition, the southern cone countries ofArgentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay experiencedwidespread mobilization against economic liberalization policies throughout the early 2000s.New social actors and social organizations haveentered the political scene such as social movements with environmental, feminist, gay/lesbian,and consumer identities (Alvarez et al. 1998). Inaddition, “traditional” social movements suchas labor unions continue to play a major role inthe social movement sector in campaigns againstP. Almeida ( )University of California, Merced, CA, USAe-mail: palmeida@ucmerced.eduA. Cordero UlateFLACSO-Costa Rica, San José, Costa Ricae-mail: acordero@flacso.or.crausterity, adjustment, privatization, and free trade(Almeida 2007). The rural sectors also persist bylaunching struggles over working conditions orpast exploitation (Enríquez 2010; Cordero 2009).Indigenous communities continue to be key players as well in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Peru. The massmobilizations are also directly linked to the riseof several left-leaning governments in the regionby converting street politics into successful electoral outcomes (Roberts 2014; Stahler-Sholket al. 2014).The Threats of GlobalizationEconomic globalization processes driven by neoliberal measures create new threats that mobilizemassive numbers of people (Almeida 2014). Twomajor threats connected to globalization includeenvironmental threats and economic threats. Environmental threats are driven by mobilization inresponse to declining ecological conditions (Arce2014; Johnson and Frickel 2011). Chapters 17and 18 in this volume show such environmentalthreats motivating mass mobilization from mining to deforestation in Costa Rica and El Salvador, respectively. Economic threats relate to theloss of social safety nets and subsidies put intoplace during the period of state led development(Simmons 2014). Between the 1950s and 1970s,even military regimes in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama providedbasic price controls and implemented social se-P. Almeida, A. Cordero Ulate (eds.), Handbook of Social Movements across Latin America,Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research, DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-9912-6 1, Springer Science Business Media Dordrecht 20153
4curity systems. Since the 1980s, this social safetynet has come under attack with the debt crisis(Walton and Seddon 1994). In the late 1990s andearly 2000s, these threats reached a thresholdwhereby they began to spark major campaignsof resistance throughout the Americas. Perhaps,the opening bell was the 1994 Chiapas uprisingthat occurred symbolically the day the NorthAmerican Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) wentinto effect. The Chiapas rebellion proved to bea hybrid of the region’s past with its future (seeChap. 11 in this volume). The Chiapas rebelsbegan their struggle as a classic Latin AmericanGuerrilla movement, as a rag tag army poorlyarmed facing the Goliath of the Mexican militaryand local landlords. Quickly, however, the struggle changed to a strategy of largely nonviolenceand a strong critique of neoliberalism mixed withindigenous rights. These kinds of claims wouldbecome common throughout Latin America inthe proceeding decades.Other subsequent campaigns in the regionlargely maintained a nonviolent path against perceived threatening neoliberal economic policies.Major struggles were launched against privatization in each country of the region and closelyrelated austerity measures. As the Sandinistaslost power in early 1990, its base of supporterslaunched several campaigns against austerity,massive layoffs, and privatization (see Chap. 21in this volume). One of the larger campaigns inNicaragua in the 1990s was against budget cutsto higher education following pressure fromthe International Monetary Fund (IMF) and theWorld Bank debt reduction decrees. In Honduras,public school teachers, university students, andpublic sector workers fought several campaignsagainst economic austerity and privatization andunited these efforts in the multisectoral organization, the Bloque Popular. These organizationswould move on to constitute the resistance to the2009 military coup—the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) (see Chap. 22 in thisvolume). Costa Rica has fought several antineoliberal campaigns since 1995, which oftenpeaked with street marches of 100,000–200,000people—the largest marches in Costa Rican history. El Salvador also held its largest mobiliza-P. Almeida and A. Cordero Ulatetions since 1980 when the government moved totry and privatize the Salvadoran Social SecurityInstitute. Panama also witnessed major campaignbetween 1995 and 2014 against labor flexibilitylaws, telecommunications privatization, the restructuring of the pension and social security system, and mining (see Chap. 12 in this volume).These struggles are all unified by the threat thatthe economic policies will make groups worseoff if implemented (Goldstone and Tilly 2001).Opportunities of GlobalizationThe economic side of globalization may createnew threats to induce mobilization, but the political and organizational dynamics of globalization also drive new opportunities and spaces formobilization (Meyer 2004). In several countries,demonstrators worry less about state violencethan in the past. While fear and intimidation arestill part of the state’s repertoire of tactics theypale in comparison to the extreme forms of stateviolence employed in the 1970s and 1980s (seeChap. 4 in this volume; Viterna 2013). A veritable wave of democracy engulfed the developingworld in the 1980s, which also included severalLatin American states (Markoff 1996). The emergence of democracy in the region since the 1980semboldens more groups to seek redress for grievances (Arce and Bellinger 2007).This democratic transition has shifted thestrategies of the social movement sector in LatinAmerica. Campaigns of opposition no longersearch to remove authoritarian regimes (withthe exception of the anti-coup resistance in Honduras); rather they focus on specific policies ofthe state. The struggles are largely nonviolentat times blending forms of disruptive protestssuch as roadblockades (Silva 2009). Many of thetactics also demonstrate novelty and creativitysuch as the use of the heart in the NO campaignagainst CAFTA in Costa Rica (Raventos 2013).In short, the new democratic terrain has shiftedthe strategies of social movements as state institutions are relatively more open to popular demands and the government must tolerate certainlevels of dissent to retain political legitimacy and
1Social Movements Across Latin Americamaintain electoral competitiveness in future electoral rounds.An additional opportunity brought about byglobalization is the transnationalization of thesocial movement sector (McCarthy 1997; Smith2008). Movements are beginning to coordinateactivities across borders through internationalnongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and international conferences (Von Bulow 2011). International labor organizations such as the ServiceEmployees International Union provide workshops to dozens of public sector labor associations about the potential negative consequencesof privatization in Latin America. Several USbased labor solidarity associations have assistedmaquiladora workers throughout the region incampaigns for union rights and collective contracts (Armbruster-Sandoval 2005).For example, SAPRI and Jubilee 2000 arevery active in Latin America providing trainingand information about structural adjustment policies and demanding they become more transparent to the public. In El Salvador, INGOs helpsponsor the Campaña Democracia Azul againstwater privatization. Perhaps the transnationalforce with the greatest influence involves environmental organizations. These internationalgroups have played a major role in several campaigns since the 1980s, and ever more frequently,in struggles over hydro-electric dams, strip mining, deforestation, and species conservation (seeChaps. 17 and 18 in this volume). At the sametime, NGOs should not be classified as a homogeneous group sponsoring mass mobilization(Spronk and Terhorst 2012). Often NGOs serveto demobilize communities acting as agents ofdomestic and international elite interests.Beyond the growing influence of transnationaladvocacy organization, we find increasing communication across countries via Latin Americanassociations of universities, labor associations,and a variety of civil society organizations. Oneimportant forum is the annual Foro Mesoamericano, where NGOs and social movements fromthroughout Central America congregate for aweek and exchange past struggles while strategizing future ones. The Foro has met seven timesin each country in the region. After the July 20025Foro held in Managua, activists planned and coordinated a day of Central American wide protests from Chiapas to Panama against free tradeand the Plan Pueblo a Panama (PPP). Simultaneous protests and roadblocks were carried out onOctober 12, 2002 (Día de la Raza) throughout theisthmus. It marks the largest coordinated actionin the region and demonstrates the growing possibilities of transnational collective action with theadvance of globalization. An even larger coordinating body across Latin America is the WorldSocial Forum (WSF), first founded in Brazil in2001 (see Chap. 7). Since this time, the WSF hasheld several multinational forums across LatinAmerica including in Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Venezuela, linking activists, NGOs,and labor unions across the hemisphere. Nonetheless, most anti-neoliberal mobilizations maintain a national focus through the second decadeof the twenty-first century.Movements in Opposition toNeoliberal Forms of GlobalizationA variety of groups now engage in the campaigns against globalization in the region. Thesegroups can be partitioned into three categories:(1) labor movements, students, and the informal sector; (2) new social movements; and (3)rural and indigenous groups. These three groupings form the basis to resistance to globalizationthroughout the region. In this section, we linkthe grievances and the capacity to mobilize ofeach of these social sectors to the broader processes of globalization.Labor, Students, and the Informal Sector Laboris threatened by economic crisis, privatization,and labor flexibility. Public sector labor unionshave been the most influential because of maquilazation of the region, with the exception ofCONUSI in Panama and relatively strong laborconfederations in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, andUruguay (Anner 2011). Workers show up in protest more than any other social group in CentralAmerica (Mora 2004), as well Latin Americanwide studies (Almeida 2007).
6In general, students and the university community have been at the core of the largest struggles in Latin America over the past 20 years. Thepublic universities, in particular, have played acritical role. The student federations in El Salvador (AGEUS) and more radical organizationssuch as Frente Roque Dalton, Bloque PopularJuvenil (BPJ), and UERS-30, participate in anti-austerity struggles. The Panamanian university system participated in the struggles againstpension system reform, water privatization, andlabor flexibility laws. The Guatemalan studentfederations were key actors against the signingof the CAFTA between February and March of2005. In Costa Rica, the university community(students and staff) was integral in the struggleagainst telecommunications and electricity privatization in 2000 as well as forming a universityfront against CAFTA between 2004 and 2007.The largest social movement in Chile, since therestoration of democracy in 1989, has been themass organization of high school and universitystudents over the privatization of public education (see Chap. 13 in this volume).The informal sector, despite a difficult uphillstruggle, has also participated in several campaigns against the social and economic consequences of globalization. In El Salvador, streetvendors of pirated DVDs formed a national coordinating organization to fight the implementationof CAFTA and police raids on their kiosks. Otherinformal sector workers addressing grievancesrelated to the globalization of sex tourism havealso demanded more protection from the state. InUruguay, the urban squatter movement has contributed to the electoral success of the left-leaning Frente Amplio party in the 1990s and 2000s(see Chap. 15).New Social Movements Newer less traditionalsocial movements have emerged on the politicalscene throughout Latin America. They includefeminist groups, ecologically based civic organizations, gay and lesbian collectivities, and consumer advocacy groups. The key defining component of social movements is that they cannotbe reduced to only social class cleavages. Theyrepresent other social conflicts over lifestyles,P. Almeida and A. Cordero Ulateidentities, and solidarity for other causes (Larañaet al. 1994). Many of these new social movements have played a major part or in coalitionagainst the process of neoliberal globalization.In El Salvador, the environmental group Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña (UNES), has used itslimited resources to participate in several antineoliberal campaigns, including anti-health careprivatization, CAFTA, mining, and geothermalenergy exploration. In Costa Rica, the FederaciónEcologista Nacional (FECON) groups dozens oflocal and national environmental groups to battleenergy privatization, CAFTA, and several localbattles over a variety of environmental threats bytransnational mining, energy, and tourist companies. In some cases, environmental groups havecreated broad alliances with civil society sustaining campaigns over a long period of time (seeChap. 18 in this volume).The women’s movement and feminist groupshave also participated in organizing tasks withincivil society against globalization (see Chap. 6 inthis volume). Mujeres contra el TLC held severalmajor events in 2006 and 2007 against CAFTAin Costa Rica. In El Salvador, women’s organizations such as las DIGNAS and MAM were on thefrontlines against health care privatization. Femaleleaders from key NGOs such as CRIPDES and theAlianza Ciudadana contra la Privatización, alsohave served in key leadership positions in anti-neoliberal campaigns (Almeida and Delgado 2008).Rural/Indigenous Groups Indigenous and ruralgroups also join in opposition to the latest roundof Latin America’s integration into the capitalist world economy (Robinson 2008). In Guatemala, Mayan peasant associations were integralin the opposition to the TLC between 2004 and2006 (see Chap. 23 in this volume). They alsoparticipated in major campaigns against an IMFimposed sales tax hike in 2001 and 2004, as wellas electricity price hikes in the 2010s. In Panama,the Kuna and Ngobe people have fought severalbattles against transnational tourism companiesto protect their native lands (Maney 2001; Horton2007) as well as major campaigns against mining and mega projects such as dams. ThroughoutCentral America, banana plantation workers have
1Social Movements Across Latin Americalaunched campaigns against the transnationalchemical corporations that dispensed Nemagonand poisoned thousands of workers (Cordero2009). Rural peasant associations in Hondurashave also fought CAFTA and other privatizationmeasures.Organization of the VolumeThe following chapters capture many of themajor movements, groups, and issues mobilizing Latin America over the past two decades. Wehave drawn from a community of Latin American social science experts, many of whom wereborn or currently reside in the region. The volume provides a platform and resource for a newgeneration of scholars to analyze the complexityand consequences of this unprecedented wave ofmobilization across the hemisphere.Based on the earlier discussion, we organizethe handbook along the following structure:(1) Conceptual and Theoretical Advances inLatin American Social Movements; (2) CriticalThemes in Contemporary Popular Mobilization;(3) Indigenous-Based Struggles across the Continent; (4) Urban-Based Movements in SouthAmerica; (5) Environmental Conflicts; and (6)Country Case Studies. Our conceptual chaptersorganize the broad parameters of competingschools of thought on the core causal conditions driving social movement participation andmovement emergence in Latin America. Thesetheoretical approaches include Chase-Dunn etal.’s macro-level chapter that argues for a worldsystem perspective in order to contextualize national level collective resistance in Latin America. Another structural approach is presented byWickham-Crowley and Eckstein which prioritizes political and economic conditions in orderto comprehend the shape of popular contentionin the Americas that is largely rooted in workingclass and excluded communities. A more specifictheoretical contribution comes from Chap. 4 onthe ways various forms of state repression eitherescalate or defuse social movement activity ina variety of countries and historical contexts. Arefreshing counter balance to the structural per-7spectives is offered by Chap. 5 with a detailedfocus on how cultural interpretations are fundamental in fomenting and sustaining collectiveaction campaigns in contemporary Mexico. Thecultural and political practices of social movements are critical in understanding how collective identities develop and convert into episodesof popular contention (Escobar 2008). A purelystructural approach cannot account for the cognitive processes of grievance formation and interpretation of events as they unfold in particularcultural milieus.Part II is structured around Critical Themes inContemporary Popular Mobilization. This section incorporates essays and original researchon major issues cutting across the region in relation to social movements, including women’smovements, the WSF, Liberation Theology, andclientelism. Horton’s contribution examines keyforces mobilizing women and feminist organizations throughout the Americas. As noted earlierand in several chapters in this volume, women’sassociations in gender-specific struggles andin coalitions with larger multisectoral movements have acted in pivotal roles in nearly everymajor social movement campaign over the past30 years. The chapter on the WSF highlights itsevolution over the past 12 years of its existence,from Porto Alegre, Brazil, to the various regionalWSF summits in other parts of Latin America.The WSF is arguably the most consequentialtransnational social movement left in the worldtoday, and its origins reside in South Americansocial movements (Smith et al. 2014). Mackin’scomprehensive review of the rise and fall ofliberation theology brings readers up to date oncurrent scholarship on a religious movement thatengulfed much of the continent by the late 1960s.He walks us through several regions and explainshow changes in Catholic Church social doctrinebecame a rich resource for social justice movements in country after country. Of special importance is how liberation theology, once implanted,had such differing outcomes in local contextswith varying regime types. In some cases, liberation theology supporte
3 Social Movements Across Latin 1 America Paul Almeida and Allen Cordero Ulate P. Almeida, A. Cordero Ulate (eds.), Handbook of Social Movements across Latin America, Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research, DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-9912-6_1,
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