As the global economic crisis expands, a rapidly increasing number of
people are seeking ways to combat unemployment, marginalization,
corruption, repression and other problems. Such challenges have faced
millions of Latin Americans for decades, and as a result, many
successful grassroots solutions to economic crisis have been
developed by people in communities across the continent. In this
essay, I propose that strategies from Latin American social movements
can be applied elsewhere in the world to build better societies.
Rather than continuing the flow of generally destructive policies,
tactics and advice from the north to the south - via entities such as
the IMF, World Bank, WTO, US embassies, corporate board rooms and so
on - I am suggesting that the flow of knowledge be reversed, from the
south to the north. This reversal should focus on liberating,
revolutionary strategies and tactics for social change, rather than
neoliberal policies focused on looting resources and repressing people.
I am not suggesting that these movements' strategies be copied and
applied directly to other communities and countries, or forced onto a
situation without considering the very specific conditions of each
community. I am suggesting that these strategies and experiences from
Latin America be considered and studied by activists elsewhere, as
these movements may shed light on new tactics and approaches, and
developed upon when moving ahead with community-specific work toward
building a new society. While it is important to share tactics and
experiences between various movements from around the globe, this
essay focuses specifically on Latin America in part because the
region has recently been home to some of the most powerful and
successful movements in the world.
<http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/22098>Link
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Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/07/common-ground-learning-from-latin.htm>monochrom
at 7/23/2009 10:00:00 PM
