Documents menu

The Maquiladora Reader

Publication Announcement, 26 July 1999

THE MAQUILADORA READER is an important new book on grassroots labor activism in the global economic arena. Subtitled "Cross-Border Organizing Since NAFTA," this compilation documents how workers and their allies are reaching across the border to search for new answers to the challenges of globalization.

THE MAQUILADORA READER explores activism at the intersection of international labor organizing, womenÆs empowerment, environmental and occupational health, and cross-border solidarity. In the process, it reveals how the Mexico-U.S. border ù the only border in the world where the advanced industrial North directly meets the "underdeveloped" South ù functions as a unique "cutting edge" where new paradigms of activism are being forged.

Published by the American Friends Service Committee, this book reflects AFSC Æs involvement of more than 20 years in cross-border activism, which has centered on a partnership with the Comit‰ Fronterizo de Obreras (Border Committee of Women Workers), a worker-controlled grassroots organization on the Mexican side. Information is included about numerous organizations and initiatives, offering a comprehensive portrait of labor activism at the border in the NAFTA era. Individual chapters delve into such areas as women at the border, health and environmental issues, differing strategies for cross-border activism, and how the border fits into the larger panorama of free trade agreements.

Additional details, including ordering information, are available in our online brochure at http://www.afsc.org/maquiladora.htm.

Please help us get the word out about this new resource by reposting this announcement as widely as possible. If you have a website, we hope you consider adding a link to our brochure at the URL noted above. If you need additional information about this book, please contact Luis Perez (Lperez@afsc.org).