Wednesday Classwork

From 1990-2006 much of the political struggles centered around economic problems. Often this was caused by populist policies meeting economic reality.

Imperial Globalization and Social Movements in Latin America

by Prof. James Petras and Prof. Henry Veltmeyer

Between 1980 – 1990, Latin America experienced a period of moderate growth and stable world prices for its commodities. This was a period of major dismantling of state regulations of the economy and weakening of the social safety net. Yet there were not major social uprisings nor mass social movements, except in Chile between 1985 – 1986, which ended with a US backed political pact between the Pinochet dictatorships and the Socialist-Christian Democratic parties and their subsequent ascent to government in 1990.

During the first half of the 1990’s world commodity prices declined to historic lows, the social safety net continued to deteriorate; capitalist profits soared in an orgy of privatizations and foreign takeovers, while overall growth stagnated. Social movements grew, mass mobilization, extended from the countryside to the cities but few popular rebellions occurred.

Look at the following situations. For each one, a starting point is made where you can learn some information about the situation. Search the Internet for additional information to answer the questions at the end of this assignment.

1) Argentina Economic/Political Crisis 1999-2002

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,189393,00.html

2) Ecuador's Sucre Crisis 1999-2002

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/1629

Questions:

For each country, what were the political forces which made the economic problems difficult to solve?

To what extent are these situations similar to Ecuador's curent economic difficulties?

.