Solidarity: Latin America, Human Rights, Labor and the American Left(Wildcat)

Solidarity offers the first history of US-Latin American solidarity from the Haitian Revolution to the present day. Steve Striffler traces the history of internationalism through the Cold War, exploring the rise of human rights as the dominant current of international solidarity, before turning to the period after 1990 when the focus of solidarity shifted from human rights/peace to labour-related issues. In a broad-ranging landscape defined by case studies, the book asks: how and why has solidarity changed over time? Why have particular strategies, tactics, and strands of internationalism emerged or re-emerged at particular moments? And how has solidarity shaped the history of the US left in particular? Striffler argues that although a reorientation of solidarity occurred as the US labour movement began to embrace a progressive brand of internationalism, it has produced modest results, as it largely retained an organisational infrastructure inherited from the human rights movement. Additionally, very little of this solidarity has been channelled towards the most powerful response to neoliberalism in the Americas: the Latin American left. Solidarity has largely been explored in an ahistorical context, and therefore this book provides a distinctive intervention in the history of progressive politics in both the US and Latin America, the past and present of US imperialism and anti-imperialism, and the history of human rights and labour internationalism.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. US Empire, Anti-Imperialism, and Revolution 2. The Caribbean under U.S. Occupation 3. The Cuban Revolution and the Cold War 4. South American Dictatorships and the Rise of Human Rights 5. Central American Solidarity in Reagan’s America 6. NAFTA, Fair Trade, and Globalization 7. Zapatistas and Global Justice 8. Corporate Campaigns and Sweatshop Activism Conclusion Notes Index

About the Author :
Steve Striffler is the Doris Zemurray Stone Chair in Latin American Studies and Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Orleans. He is the author of In the Shadows of State and Capital (Duke, 2002), and Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favourite Food (Yale, 2002). Additionally, he has edited a number of books such as The Ecuador Reader: History, Nation, Politics (Duke, 2009), and Working in the Big Easy: The History and Politics of Labor in New Orleans (University of Louisiana Press, 2014).

Review :
'A masterful account of US and Latin American solidarity. Exploring multiple strands of 20th century internationalism and incisive in its argumentation, 'Solidarity' pushes us to think about what a radical, left internationalism might look like today' 'An indispensable guide for how to be in a world dominated by a form of capitalism that is fast making its peace with fascism' 'A brilliant introduction to the history of Latin American solidarity movement building ... a jargon-free study of the struggle to build solidarity across borders in the Americas' 'An extraordinarily important book. I know no one better equipped or positioned to examine this important stream of US politics'