Solidarity: Organizing Opposition to U.S. Intervention in Latin America:

In the 1980s, hundreds of committees throughout the United States organized opposition to the U.S. government's support of the contra war against the Sandinista regime. Likewise, dozens of Salvadoran immigrant groups joined forces with North American activists to denounce Washington's backing of right-wing governments in El Salvador and demand the end to military aid to that country. The conjuncture of Latin American activists fleeing repressive regimes and the broad-based coalition of Church, left, human rights, and Latin Americanists offered the opportunity for the development of significant solidarity with the progressive and revolutionary social movements that challenged both U.S. hegemony and the ruling elites in Central America.

In the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, the United States government poured millions of dollars into programs in Latin America such as Aid for International Development, the Alliance for Progress, and the Peace Corp while simultaneously expanding federal funding for Latin American Studies in the United States in order to promote an anti-communist alternative to Latin American revolutionary movements. Yet in the 1960s hundreds of returned volunteers, former missionaries, and scholars of Latin America developed critical assessments of U.S. foreign policy initiatives and became the backbone of solidarity groups and research collectives that opposed the United States government's involvement in Latin America.

This issue of Latin American Perspectives will examine the history of solidarity with social struggles in Latin America from the diffused voices opposing Washington's involvement in the 1954 military coup d'etat in Guatemala during the height of the Cold War to the mass-based Central American solidarity movement of the 1980s. Articles might focus on activities in solidarity with a specific country, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, etc., transnational aspects of political organizing, or other case study examples of solidarity.

Among the many questions that might be addressed in an article are:

In what ways did these movements build from previous experiences and how did they develop creative new ways to question U.S. foreign policy?
How did the U.S. government and pro-interventionist forces respond to these movements?
What role did Latin Americanists and other intellectuals play in criticizing Washington's Latin American policies?
What was the discourse of opposition to U.S. intervention that was employed by solidarity movements?
What kinds of political coalitions were built?
How did groups work with Latin American exiles?
How did the tension between the denunciation of human rights abuses of right-wing governments and military dictatorships and the active support for the agents of change in Latin America play out in developing tactics and strategies to build broad-based coalitions?
What is the impact of recent international geopolitical developments on carrying out solidarity activities with popular movements in Latin America?
What was the impact of Latin American popular cultural diffusion on the international solidarity movement?
How has transnational labor organizing played a role in Latin American solidarity activities?
In what ways have U.S.-Mexican solidarities activities been different from those related to other countries?

This issue is being coordinated by James N. Green and Julie Charlip. For more information about the issue contact:
James N. Green: jgreen@csulb.edu or Julie A. Charlip: charlija@whitman.edu

Manuscripts should be no longer than 25 pages of double-spaced text in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. If possible, submit two copies along with a cover sheet and basic biographical information. With these items, we also require that the manuscript be sent on a CD-R, by e-mail, or on a floppy disk if the other formats are not available. The LAP style guide is available on request or online.

Please send any manuscript submissions to:
Managing Editor, Latin American Perspectives¸ P.O. Box 5703, Riverside, California 92517-5703