The Maquiladora Reader/New Organizing Book Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - Rachael Kamel June 3, 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 Mexico-U.S. border to search for new answers to the challenges of globalization. THE MAQUILADORA READER explores activism at the intersection of international labor organizing, women=92s empowerment, environmental and occupational health, and cross-border solidarity. In the process, it reveals how the Mexico-U.S. border =97the only border in the world where the advanced industrial North directly meets the "underdeveloped" South =97 functions as a unique "cutting edge" where new paradigms of activism are being forged. This publication will be a valuable resource for educators and activists seeking practical tips on coming to grips with the global economy, as well as undergraduate and graduate classes in labor studies, women=92s studies, ethnic studies, and global economics. I am including below a publication announcement for this title. Additional details, including ordering information, are available in our online brochure at http://www.afsc.org/maquiladora.htm. We hope you will consider this title for review in your publication; I would be very pleased to send you a review copy at your request. If you have a website, we also hope you would add a link to our brochure at the URL noted above. If you would like a review copy, please contact Bertha Mwantembe via e-mail (Bmwantembe@afsc.org) or snail mail (AFSC, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102). Tear sheets may be sent to my attention at the same address. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like any additional information about this title. Thank you for your consideration. * * * PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT Title: THE MAQUILADORA READER Subtitle: Cross-Border Organizing Since NAFTA Editors: Rachael Kamel and Anya Hoffman ISBN: 0-910082-35-9 Includes: vii + 131 pages; resource directory; bibliography Publication date: August 1, 1999 Format: 8-1/2 by 11, perfect bound, soft cover Cover price: $14.95 Publisher: American Friends Service Committee Distributor: American Friends Service Committee Order from: Literature Resources Unit, AFSC, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102. Tel. 215/241-7059 or toll-free orderline 1-888-588-2372. Bulk and trade discounts available. DESCRIPTION: "Globalization" is one of the most talked-about phenomena of the 1990s, but little information is available on how those who are most involved -- the communities and working people affected by globe-trotting corporations -- are responding to the new challenges and new opportunities it brings. THE MAQUILADORA READER offers a comprehensive overview of one of the most important economic trends of our times: the proliferation of maquiladoras, the foreign- (mostly U.S.-) owned assembly plants along the Mexico-U.S. border. Since NAFTA went into effect, these "global sweatshops" have mushroomed, with more than a million workers laboring in more than 3,000 plants. With more than two dozen readings culled from a variety of sources, The Maquiladora Reader reveals the determination and creativity of maquiladora workers as they seek to improve their wages and working conditions, as well as to protect their communities from health and environmental hazards. A major focus of maquiladora activism has been on developing "foreign policy from below," by building people-to-people relationships across the border, with unions, religious groups, community organizations, and others. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE MAQUILADORA READER Leading academics and policy analysts have been unanimous in their praise for this important new publication: This extraordinary book tells the little-known but heroic story of how workers in the maquiladoras have organized themselves to change conditions in their workplaces and communities -- and how they have forged alliances on both sides of the border. Their grassroots yet transnational movement teaches the lessons we need to study in order to start taking on the destructive aspects of globalization everywhere. -- Jeremy Brecher, author, Global Village or Global Pillage: Economic Reconstruction from the Bottom Up The Maquiladora Reader brings us all up to speed on the complex realities of life on the Mexico-U.S. border, never reducing women workers to mere victims, revealing them to be analyzing, strategizing agents, whose actions will play a major part in determining the future direction of globalization.-- Cynthia Enloe, author, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics In 1990 AFSC gave us The Global Factory, a ground-breaking book explaining the new dynamics of globalized production. Now we have The Maquiladora Reader, an impressive collection of voices from the grassroots not heard elsewhere. Intelligently arranged and framed, this new book is a major contribution to our understanding of the new dynamics of cross-border activism. Highly recommended for organizers, advocates, and analysts concerned about economic globalization.-- Tom Barry, co-director, Foreign Policy in Focus Project, Interhemispheric Resource Center Focusing on living and working conditions in the cities and industries that have mushroomed during the last two-three decades, the articles in this collection tell moving stories of survival, labor struggles, and cross-border organizing. Written in a journalistic style, this reader is very useful for anyone interested in the maquiladora industry and in looking for solutions to the many problems associated with this type of development. -- Lourdes Bener=EDa, Cornell University The Maquiladora Reader is a must read for those concerned with the fate of working people on both sides of the border. It provides a valuable update and overview of the maquila industry and of the cross-border organizing that is the hope for the future for of everyone living under NAFTA. -- Kim Moody, director, Labor Notes; author, Workers in a Lean World ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-06.04.99-01:10:15-30749