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charles@cmmstudio.com

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So far charles@cmmstudio.com has created 228 blog entries.

Abstract, Puerto Rico’s Summer 2019 Uprising and the Crisis of Colonialism

:::::: Abstract :::::: by Pedro Cabán July 22, 2019, was a watershed moment in Puerto Rico’s history. On that day Puerto Ricans by the hundreds of thousands marched and demanded the resignation of Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, the colony’s inept and ethically bankrupt governor. On August 2 the pro-statehood governor became the first elected governor of Puerto Rico to resign his office. CONTINUE READING FULL ARTICLE HERE CONTINUE READING HERE > > > Posted by Latin American Perspectives at 2:19 PM No comments:   Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: Colonialism, May 2020 issue, Puerto Rico, Social Movements, Verano Boricua

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Political Report # 1445 Leading by Example: Cuba in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Leading by Example: Cuba in the Covid-19 Pandemic by Helen Yaffe, CounterPunch The response of socialist Cuba to the global SARS-CoV2 pandemic has been outstanding both domestically and for its international contribution. That a small island nation, subjected to hundreds of years of colonialism and imperialism and, since the Revolution of 1959, six decades of the criminal United States blockade, can play such an exemplary role is due to Cuba’s socialist system. The central plan directs national resources according to a development strategy which prioritises human welfare and community participation, not private profit. Cuban authorities reacted quickly to Chinese information about SARS-CoV2 at the start of the year. In January, authorities established a National Intersectoral Commission for COVID-19, updated their National Action Plan for Epidemics, initiated surveillance at ports, airports and marines, gave COVID-19 response training for border and immigration officials and drafted a ‘prevention and control’ plan. Cuban specialists travelled to China to learn about the new coronavirus’ behaviour and commissions of the government’s Scientific Council began to work on combating the coronavirus. Throughout February, medical facilities were reorganised, and staff trained to control the spread of the virus domestically. In early March a science and biotechnology [...]

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Abstract, The Self-Inflicted Dimensions of Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Crisis

by Argeo T. Quiñones-Pérez and Ian J. Seda-Irizarry The fiscal crisis in Puerto Rico, which constrains the ways in which the government can try to tackle the economic depression, is in important ways self-inflicted—the product of economic policies undertaken at the local level. When the crisis is approached in this way, the resolution of the island’s colonial situation can be seen as a necessary but not sufficient condition for solving the problems of the depression’s victims. CONTINUE READING FULL ARTICLE HERE CONTINUE READING HERE > > > Posted by Latin American Perspectives at 2:00 PM No comments:   Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: Economic Crisis, May 2020 issue, Puerto Rico

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Political Report # 1444 Cuaderno de Coyuntura

Cuaderno de Coyuntura Cuadernos de Trabajo, CLACSO, RMALC, INAH La crisis de sanidad por la Pandemia del COVID-19 ha venido a profundizar la crisis económica global y la legitimidad de los Estados que se generó en 2008, lo que nos lleva a redoblar esfuerzos para analizar la realidad producida por el capitalismo global y su crisis actual y a crear y recrear estrategias para avanzar en la transformación de esta realidad. Es por ello, que los miembros del Seminario Permanente de Estudios Chicanos y de Fronteras (DEAS-INAH), del Grupo de Trabajo “Fronteras, regionalización y globalización” del Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO) y de la Red Mexicana de Acción frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC), unimos esfuerzos para esta tarea. Consideramos que la propuesta de producir Cuadernos de Trabajo donde se plasmen ideas, análisis, reflexiones colectivas, planes de trabajo y de acción, es parte de nuestra contribución a continuar una tarea en la que hemos estado inmersos por mucho tiempo. El primer número de estos Cuadernos de Trabajo contiene una notas para un análisis de coyuntura sobre la crisis económica y las medidas gubernamentales de contingencia frente al COVID-19 en México, las cuales esperamos que puedan ser enriquecidas con [...]

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Calles de la Resistencia: Pathways to Empowerment in Puerto Rico

May 2020 Issue Editor: Jean Hostetler-Díaz Calles de Resistencia: Pathways to Empowerment in Puerto Rico reveals a level of consciousness, experience, and resoluteness that is the result of  an historic and protracted struggle to attain a liberated nation.  This outstanding collection of well-developed economic analyses, policy proposals, political, perspectives and analyses of last summer’s remarkable mobilization, plus photo documentation, provides valuable insights about the historical and contemporary conditions that define the Puerto Rican experience.   TABLE OF CONTENTS | PURCHASE THIS ISSUE

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Employers’ Organizations and Quarantine Policies in Ibero-America: A Brief Reflection on the Chilean and Spanish Case

May 20, 2020 | By Alejandro Osorio Rauld and José Reig Cuañes The Covid-19 pandemic has tested the strength, logistics, and leadership of states around the world. In order to face the health emergency, the governments have had to implement several degrees of confinement and “social distancing” that, lately, have saved millions of lives, albeit at a very high cost in terms of economic activity The debate on the appropriate harmony between health protection and economic safeguard allows us to analyze an interesting aspect of political systems: the relationship between business elites and State power. Most of the policies that the pandemic has faced have been legitimized by the intervention of validated actors such as experts, technicians, advisers and also politicians of different persuasions. Their advice has contributed to protect citizens from what in biopolitical terms we could call a “letting die”, which was the dominant choice at first in several of the countries with leaders fit in with the commonly named “conservative populism” (USA, Brazil, UK). However, other social groups attempt to influence State decisions: this is the case of business elites and their organizations, acting as “pressure groups” that mobilize powerful resources in favor of their interests. Indeed, although the [...]

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COVID-Related Strikes Hit Washington’s Apple Sheds

May 20, 2020 | Demands for safer working conditions and extra hourly hazard pay during the pandemic are powering a strike wave in the Yakima Valley. By David Bacon, Originally published by Capital & Main This week the COVID-related strike in Washington state’s Yakima Valley quadrupled in size, as workers walked out at three more apple packinghouses. More than a hundred stopped work on May 7 at Allan Brothers Fruit, a large apple growing, packing and shipping company in Naches, in Central Washington. On May 12 they were joined by 200 more workers, who walked off the job at the Jack Frost Fruit Co. in Yakima, and at the Matson Fruit Co. in Selah. The next day another 100 workers walked out at the Monson Fruit packing shed, also in Selah. At the center of the stoppages are two main demands for those who decide to continue working during the pandemic: safer working conditions and an extra $2 an hour in hazard pay. Apple sheds line the industrial streets of Yakima Valley’s small towns. Inside these huge concrete buildings, hundreds of people labor shoulder-to-shoulder, sorting and packing fruit.  If someone gets sick, it can potentially spread through the workers on the lines, and [...]

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Will a Failed Plot in Venezuela Strengthen Maduro?

May 19, 2020 | by Steve Ellner Originally published in Latin America Advisor of the Inter-American Dialogue Every aspect of the recent attempt to topple the Maduro government points to Juan Guaidó's lack of leadership capacity. The incident cuts into his support among both the radical opposition that supports the use of force and the majority of Venezuelans, who, according to polls, favor concrete proposals to solve pressing immediate problems over regime-change strategies. In the first place, Guaidó's signature on the contract with the Florida-based Silvercorp USA disregards the history of operations of this sort in which planners go to length to ensure the credibility of a Plan B consisting of denial of involvement in case of failure. In the second place, Guaidó s commitment of 213 million dollars to Silvercorp raises questions about the origins of such a large sum of money. In the third place, even those favoring a military solution are criticizing the use of foreign mercenaries. In the fourth place, the plan envisioned one of two scenarios, one naive and the other questionable on ethical grounds. The choice of Macuto, with a strong navy presence nearby, for landing implied that the Venezuelan armed forces would spontaneously [...]

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Austeridad Republicana and Contradictions in Mexico’s Response to COVID-19

May 18, 2020 | By Andrew R. Smolski, Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University and member of the Latin American Perspectives editorial collective.  — May 18, 2020   On May 3rd, 2020, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) published “Algunas lecciones de la pandemia COVID-19”. In this brief document, the President of Mexico makes clear that neoliberal policies, such as privatization and austerity for public universities, have led to a crisis in public health exacerbated by the pandemic. AMLO has consistently pointed to four decades of neoliberalization as creating many of the ills Mexico confronts, from a majority of the population employed in the informal sector to almost a majority of the country living in poverty. And he is not wrong. For instance, in public health neoliberalization has had a major negative impact. Since the late 1990s, Mexican public health institutions, like the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), have seen market reforms that reduced the amount and quality of care. This is the case, even while healthcare expenditures increased in Mexico since 2000. So, you have reductions in care with increasing costs and poorer outcomes. In 2006, a year before the drug war [...]

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Latin American Perspectives, founded in 1974, is a theoretical and scholarly journal for discussion and debate on the political economy of capitalism, imperialism, and socialism in the Americas. Most issues focus on a single problem, nation, or region, providing an in-depth look from participants and scholars throughout the Americas.

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