From The Revolution To The Maquiladoras: Gender, Labor, And Globalization In Nicaragua (american Encounters/global Interactions)

asks How And Under What Circumstances Grassroots Organizations Tap Into Global Networks And How Gender Plays Into Transnational Political Practices, Addressing These Issues Through Extended Ethnographic Research Into A Nicaraguan Women's Organization. Annotation From the Revolution to the Maquiladoras is a major contribution to the study of globalization, labor, and womens movements. Jennifer Bickham Mendez presents a detailed ethnographic account of the Nicaraguan Working and Unemployed Womens Movement, Mara Elena Cuadra (mec), which emerged as an autonomous organization in 1994. Most of its efforts revolve around organizing women workers in Nicaraguas free trade zones and working to improve conditions in maquiladora factories. Mendez examines the structural and cultural elements of mec in order to demonstrate how globalization affects grassroots advocacy for social and economic justice. She argues that globalization has created opportunities for new forms of organizing among those local populations that suffer its effects and that mec, which has forged vital links with transnational feminist and labor groups, exemplifies the possibilitiesand pitfallsof this new type of organizing. Mendez draws on interviews with leaders and program participants, including maquiladora workers; her participant observation while she worked as a volunteer within the organization; and analysis of the public statements, speeches, and texts written by mec members. She provides a sense of the day-to-day operations of the group as well as its strategies. By exploring the tension between mec and transnational feminist, labor, and solidarity networks, she illustrates how mec womens outlooks are shaped by both their revolutionary roots within the Sandinista regime and their exposure to global discourses of human rights and citizenship. The complexities of the womens labor movement analyzed in From the Revolution to the Maquiladoras speak to social and economic justice movements in the many locales around the world. From the Revolution to the Maquiladoras is a major contribution to the study of globalization, labor, and women’s movements. Jennifer Bickham Mendez presents a detailed ethnographic account of the Nicaraguan Working and Unemployed Women’s Movement, “María Elena Cuadra” (mec), which emerged as an autonomous organization in 1994. Most of its efforts revolve around organizing women workers in Nicaragua’s free trade zones and working to improve conditions in maquiladora factories. Mendez examines the structural and cultural elements of mec in order to demonstrate how globalization affects grassroots advocacy for social and economic justice. She argues that globalization has created opportunities for new forms of organizing among those local populations that suffer its effects and that mec, which has forged vital links with transnational feminist and labor groups, exemplifies the possibilities—and pitfalls—of this new type of organizing. Mendez draws on interviews with leaders and program participants, including maquiladora workers; her participant observation while she worked as a volunteer within the organization; and analysis of the public statements, speeches, and texts written by mec members. She provides a sense of the day-to-day operations of the group as well as its strategies. By exploring the tension between mec and transnational feminist, labor, and solidarity networks, she illustrates how mec women’s outlooks are shaped by both their revolutionary roots within the Sandinista regime and their exposure to global discourses of human rights and citizenship. The complexities of the women’s labor movement analyzed in From the Revolution to the Maquiladoras speak to social and economic justice movements in the many locales around the world. Extrait de la couverture : " From the revolution to the maquiladoras is a major contribution to the study of globalisation, labor, and women's movement. Jennifer Bickham Méndez presents a detailed ethnographic account of the Nicaraguan Working and Unemployed Women's Movement, 'Maria Elena Cuarda' (MEC), which emerged as an autonomous organization in 1994. Most of its efforts revolve around organizing women workers in Nicaragua's free trade zones and working to improve conditions in maquiladoras factories. Méndez examines the structural and cultural elements of MED in order to demonstrate how globalization affects grassroots advocacy for economic and social opportunities for new forms of organizing among those local populations that suffer its effects and that MEC, which has forged vital links with transnational feminist and labor groups, exemplifies the possibilities - and pitfalls-of this new type of organizing." Jennifer Bickham Mendez looks at how grassroots organisations tap into global networks and how gender plays into transnational political practices, addressing these issues through extended ethnographic research, centred on Nicaragua