The story is very similar to that of Brukman.* A factory of suits and coats owes large amounts of back pay to its workers. After several attempts at negotiation the seamstresses decide to take the factory. They occupy it once, and are thrown out. They return to enter, this time with tactics straight out of a movie, and they are tossed into the street again. The third time is victory. Now they produce 2,500 garments a month.
Win the elections and arrive at a Constitutional Assembly that changes the roots of the power structure in Bolivia: such is the proposal of Oscar Olivera, a leader of the country’s social struggles in recent […]
On June 6th 2005, after months of steady road blockades and protests demanding the nationalization of the country’s natural gas reserves, President Carlos Mesa offered his resignation to congress, explaining he was incapable of presiding […]
Over three weeks of grueling social conflict in La Paz, the extension of road blockades and strikes throughout the nation provoked increasing criticism of the executive’s incapacity to meet growing, and at times conflicting demands […]
Bolivia is again in turmoil. For the past two weeks, powerful social movements, from teachers to campesinos have taken to the streets, blockading roads throughout the country and, on more than one occasion, paralyzing La […]
On May 6, President Carlos Mesa caught Bolivia off-guard. He announced that as a result of continual protests and growing blockades, he was no longer willing to, "govern based on the crazy things different sectors […]
Haitian Justice Minister Bernard Gousse’s resignation could lead to a purge of the rest of the hapless Latortue government, including the interim prime minister himself. Escalating violence on the island still makes casting […]
Clinging to a rickety, brightly-colored jeep as it blindly rounds a dusty mountain road, I am reminded of the many times I was persuaded by other travelers into going to Colombia. As the dense vegetation […]
Samba, reggae and drum music pounded at the air above a sea of nylon tents. Earnest discussions sizzled in the steaming heat; people mopped sweat off their foreheads as sporadic protests clamored past. In the […]
Click here for coverage of this same story en espanol I first saw the deserts of the Argentine west while crammed in the backseat of a pickup with three other people. Two of those people […]
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