Robert J. Alexander - Böcker

Venezuela's most important political figure of the twentieth century, and probably its most important since Simon Bolivar, is the subject of this volume of interviews and letters. Romulo Betancourt helped to form Venezuela's historic Accion Democratica group, twice served as his country's president, and in his many years in exile worked to inform the world about the political crises and dictatorships that plagued Venezuela. The material in this book covers more than three decades of exchanges between Betancourt and Robert Alexander, presenting details of Betancourt's career and the evolution of his thinking.The material begins with Alexander's first meeting with Betancourt, in 1948, and continues up until the political leader's death forty years later. The interviews and personal exchanges, which Alexander transcribed from notes immediately following each meeting, focus largely on issues and events contemporary to the time of the conversations. In later years, however, when Alexander was compiling a biography of Betancourt, the conversations are directed toward the leader's earlier career, and provide an overview of the events and ideas that shaped Venezuela's political destiny. The letters from Betancourt are reproduced in full, and follow the same pattern of addressing contemporary and, later, biographical issues. This collection will serve as a complementary volume to Robert Alexander's two previous works on Romulo Betancourt, and will be an important resource for courses on the history, politics, and economic development of Latin America and Venezuela. Both public and academic libraries will also find it to be a valuable addition to their collections.

Robert Alexander, a long-time observer of Latin American politics and economics, has been an active correspondent with the key figures of the region for decades. In this volume, he provides interview transcripts and letters from nearly a score of the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. With some of the correspondence and interviews spread over a considerable length of time, the shifting views and attitudes as well as the comments on other key players makes for fascinating insights into the politics of change in Latin America.Beginning with an introduction placing the various presidents in the context of their roles in the history of their respective countries, Alexander then presents materials dealing with and by the presidents of Argentina, then Brazil, and finally Chile. A selected bibliography provides guidance on the major writings on the figures covered, and a general subject index helps to point readers to the numerous interconnections contacted in the volume. Essential reading for students of 20th-century Latin American affairs, political, social, and economic.

Alexander is among the most experienced observers of Latin American politics and has been an active correspondent with major figures of the region for decades. In this volume, he provides interview transcripts and letters from most of the recent presidents of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. With some of the correspondence and interviews extending over a considerable period of time, the shifting views and attitudes as well as the comments on other key players makes for fascinating insights into the politics of Latin America.This volume is a continuation of Alexander's earlier The ABC Presidents (Praeger, 1992). This material is of considerable importance to political scientists and other Latin American Studies researchers.

This book consists of notes of conversations by one of America's leading Latin Americanists, as well as his correspondence with more than two dozen presidents of the Central American republics, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In some cases, there are numerous conversations and letters with individual chief executives; in other instances, there are only individual conversations or notes on talks which the author heard.Each entry reflects the thinking of the person involved at the time of the interview or letter and many shed light on the activities of the individual presidents. Before the items dealing with each particular country, Alexander provides introductory notes, giving information on the individuals dealt with in that country as well as the circumstances of the letters and conversations. These materials, together with those contained in earlier volumes dealing with South America, provide students of 20th-century Latin America unique insight into its political leadership and its history from the 1940s onward.

With this volume, the eminent Latin Americanist Professor Robert J. Alexander concludes a five-volume collection of personal documents and conversations with the leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean. Compiled over a fifty year period, the volumes show major leaders as they envision strategies and future policies, explain their actions, and assess their contemporaries. These formal and informal statements provide insights into the workings of Latin American and Caribbean political parties and governments, and the views of their leaders.Alexander provides firsthand material on many of the most significant political leaders of the Caribbean since World War II, among them Norman and Michael Manley, Errol Barrow, Eric Williams, Cheddi Jagan, and Luis Munoz Marin. No student or researcher of the region should be without access to this and the earlier volumes in the series.

Alexander surveys the most important dissident movement within International Communism in the developed world since World War II. He traces its origins, the issues that differentiated the movement from Moscow-oriented communism, and shows why the movement had an attraction for both traditional communists and others of the left.Examining the movement by region and then by country, he describes the appearance and evolution of the Maoist Communist parties throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Ociania. An important resource for all scholars and researchers involved with the history of communism.

The Maoist movement was the most important dissident force within International Communism in the period following World War II. Based on first-hand observation as well as the scattered research on the Maoist movements, Alexander examines the circumstances that attracted people to the movement in each country and the evolution of the movement. Scholars and researchers interested in Marxism in the developing world will be able to trace the origins and fate of Maoist groups in Latin America, Albania, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Robert J. Alexander traces organized labor from its origins in colonial Cuba, examining its evolution under the Republic, noting the successive political forces within it and the development of collective bargaining, culminating after 1959 in its transformation into a Stalin-model labor movement. In Castro's Cuba, organized labor has been subordinate to the Party and government and has been converted into a movement to control the workers and stimulate production and productivity instead of being a movement to defend the interests and desires of the workers.Starting with the organization of tobacco workers and a few other groups in the last years of Spanish colonial rule, Robert J. Alexander traces the growth of the labor movement during the early decades of the republic, noting particularly the influence of three political tendencies: anarchosyndicalists, Marxists, and independents. He examines the generally unfavorable attitudes of early republican governments to the labor movement, and he discusses the first central labor body, the CNOC, which was at first under anarchist influence, and soon captured by the Communists. The role of the CNOC vis-á-vis the Machado dictatorship, including the deal with Machado in 1933 is also discussed. Alexander then looks at the unions during the short Grau San Martine nationalist regime of 1933 and the near-destruction of organized labor by the Batista dictatorship of 1934-1937; the revival of the labor movement after the 1937 deal of the Communists with Batista and the establishment of the Confederacion de Trabajadores de Cuba, as well as the struggles for power within it, resulting in a split in the CTC in 1947, with the dominance of the Autentico-party controlled group. During this period regular collective bargaining became more or less the rule. He then describes the deterioration of the Confederacion of Trabajadores de Cuba under the Batista dictatorship of 1952-1959. Alexander ends with a description of organized labor during the Castro regime: the early attempt of revolutionary trade unionists to establish an independent labor movement, followed by the Castro government's seizure of control of the CTC and its unions, and the conversion of the Cuban labor movement into one patterned after the Stalinist model of a movement designed to stimulate production and productivity—under government control—instead of defending the rights and interests of the unions' members.Based on an extensive review of Cuban materials as well as Alexander's numerous interviews, correspondence, and conversations with key figures from the late 1940s onward, this is the most comprehensive English-language examination of organized labor in Cuba ever written. Essential reading for all scholars and students of Cuban and Latin American labor and economic affairs as well as important to political scientists and historians of the region.

Alexander examines the history of the labor movement in Brazil during its two key phases. First, he looks at the origins and early development of the movement from the last decades of the 19th century until the Revolution of 1930. Then he analyzes the impact of the corporate state structure that President Getulio Vargas imposed on labor during his first tenure in power, and the continuation of that structure during most of the remainder of the century.Until 1930, the trajectory of the labor movement in Brazil was quite similar to what was happening in most of the rest of Latin America. Most of the early labor organizations were mutual-benefit societies rather than trade unions. This began to change in the early 1900s. From the onset, organized labor in Brazil was involved with politics, and organized labor had to deal not only with the opposition of employers, but also with that of successive conservative governments. All this changed with the ascent of Vargas to power in 1930. He sought to win the support of the urban working class, and with the coming of the New State in 1937, the government was deeply involved in the direction of union activities. After 1945, Brazilian labor was once more influenced by a variety of different political currents, and by the 1960s the labor movement began to extend into the rural sector of the economy. The Constitution of 1988 allowed workers to organize without government control and they won the right to strike. By 1990 the Brazilian labor movement had attained the structure and characteristics it would retain into the new century. A major resource for scholars, students, and other researchers involved with Brazilian labor, economic, and political affairs.

The first scholarly work to focus exclusively on the roles of pan-regional and worldwide labor organizations in the labor movements across the nations of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.With a career that covers over a half century, Robert J. Alexander is perhaps our foremost authority on Latin American history and politics. In International Labor Organizations and Organized Labor in Latin America and the Caribbean: A History, Alexander explores one of the most fascinating and often overlooked aspects of the Latin American labor scene he has so meticulously chronicled: the relationships between labor unions within specific nations, region wide organizations, and organized labor around the world.Alexander has written many of the cornerstone works on labor movements within the nations of Latin America, and this is his first volume to focus on the impact of international unions on Latin American labor issues. Coverage includes the AFL-offshoot Pan American Federation of Labor and the CIA-backed AIFLD; the role of the Russian Union, Profintern; European-based unions like the anti-Communist/anti-Fascist Postal Telegraph and Telephone International; and intraregional organizations like the Confederacion de Trabajadores de America Latina (CTAL)—the first attempt to form a multinational labor organization exclusively for the region.Numerous original documents from the various organizations covered in the bookWide-ranging bibliographic materials, including original interviews by the author with numerous people who participated in the various institutions that are written about in this volume

This volume is a pioneering study of the history of organized labor in the Central American republics. It traces the history in the various countries from the early nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. It also discusses why they appeared, what organizational and ideological tendencies characterized the movement in these countries, the role of collective bargaining, the economic influence of organized labor, as well as the relations of the movement in the individual countries with one another and with the broader labor movement outside of the countries involved in this volume.

This volume traces the history of organized labor in Peru and Ecuador from its first appearance in the late nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century. It discusses the relations of trade unionism with economic development and politics, particularly the political tendencies within organized labor. It also discusses the negative impact on the trade union movement of the free enterprise-free trade policies of the last decades of the twentieth century.

In this the third of a series of studies of the history of organized labor in Latin America and the Caribean, Alexander explores the history of the Argentine labor movement from the mid-19th century onward.Throughout most of the 20th century, Argentina had one of the largest, strongest, and most militant organized labor movements in the Western Hemisphere. While the roots of the labor movement can be traced to colonial times and the craft guilds of that era, European immigrants, particularly from Italy and Spain, who were political refugees from the unrest of the mid-19th century were key to the development of the Argentine labor movement. During much of the late 19th century, the labor movement was predominantly under anarchist influence, although during and after World War I, syndicalists, Socialists, and Communists emerged as the predominant political influences in the trade union movement. The military coup d'etat of 1943 drastically altered the nature and size of Argentina's organized labor as Juan Peron sought to utilize labor as a principal support—along with the armed forces—for the regime. During the nearly 18 years following the overthrow of Peron in 1955, the organized workers remained loyal to the fallen dictator. Peron returned to power in 1973 with the overwhelming support of the Argentine working class. After his death, the Peronista regime was again overthrown early in 1976 and a brutal seven-year military dictatorship sought to undermine organized labor. By and large successive governments have followed a similar strategy. The privatization of much of the state-owned sector of the economy and opening up Argentina's economy to foreign competition have greatly weakened the country's labor movement.Utilizing his personal contacts as well as extensive written materials, Alexander has produced a study that will be of great use to scholars, students, and researchers involved with the history and current state of labor in Argentina and the Latin American world in general.

This volume deals with the history of organized labor in all of the countries of the English-speaking West Indies. It is the fourth in a series of histories of the organized labor movement in Latin America and the Caribbean. Alexander traces the countries' origins, early struggles, experiences with collective bargaining, and the key roles in the politics of their respective countries, particularly their participation in the struggle for self-government and independence. He also examines the international organizations of trade unions in the West Indian area, and their association with the hemisphere and worldwide labor groups.This work is based on the author's personal contacts with these labor movements and their leaders, as well as on printed material, including collective contracts, histories of some of the labor groups and other similar sources. Scholars and students of labor relations, economic and social development, and those interested in the history of the West Indies and Latin America will enjoy this book.

Bolivia was the center stage for one of the most important Latin American social revolutions of the twentieth century, one that occurred amid a sea of tremendous political instability. The expansion of organized labor that occurred during the 1920s was met with multiple government reprisals and was largely curbed by the Chaco War with Paraguay of 1932-1935. Nevertheless, despite being compelled to operate illegally, the labor movement found support in several political parties, the most successful of which was the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, a powerhouse in the miners' federation. Conscious of the remarkable upheavals which punctuated Bolivian history during the twentieth century, Alexander traces the relative successes of Bolivia's labor unions, contextualizing their triumphs and disappointments within the captivating history of Bolivia's tumultuous political scene.Bolivia was the center stage for one of the most important Latin American social revolutions of the twentieth century, one that occurred amid a sea of tremendous political instability. The expansion of organized labor that occurred during the 1920s was met with numerous government reprisals and was largely curbed by the Chaco War with Paraguay of 1932-1935. Nevertheless, despite being compelled to operate illegally, the labor movement found support in several political parties, the most successful of which was the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, a powerhouse in the miners' federation. Conscious of the remarkable upheavals which punctuated Bolivian history during the twentieth century, Alexander traces the relative successes of Bolivia's labor unions, contextualizing their triumphs and disappointments within the captivating history of Bolivia's tumultuous political scene.Alexander explains how the labor movement evolved in the framework of several political changes, including: the brief presidency of Major Gualberto Villarroel which began in December 1943 and lasted only two and a half years; the Bolivian National Revolution which began on April 9, 1952;the onset of agrarian reform in 1952;the overthrow of the revolutionary regime in November 1964

In this volume, Alexander sketches the history of organized labor in the countries of Uruguay and Paraguay. He covers such topics as the role of organized labor in the economics and politics of these two countries and their relations with the international labor movement. It is based on extensive personal contacts of the author with the labor movements over almost half a century. It may seem unusual at first to have both of these countries in one volume because there does not exist anywhere else in Latin America such historical political disparity between neighboring countries as that between Uruguay and Paraguay. However in spite of the political contrasts, there are certain similarities in the history of the labor movements of these two republics.In both Uruguay and Paraguay, the earliest organizations to be founded by the workers were mutual benefit societies, rather than trade unions. But in both countries, trade unions which sought to protect their members against employers began to appear. By the early years of the 20th century, these unions began to demand that employers negotiate with them, and there were an increasing number of strikes, attempting to make these demands effective. There were soon efforts to bring together the various trade unions into broader local, national, and international labor organizations.

Well-known Latin Americanist Alexander and his colleagues (some with reputations equal to that of their editor) provide information about Latin American and Caribbean leaders over the past two centuries. ChoiceThis is a compiliation of biographical sketches of the most important political figures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Each entry describes the subject's political significance as well as their career, family background, education, and relevant nonpolitical activities. Appendixes list the leaders according to country or territory, and provide a chronology of major events in the region from Haitian independence in 1804 to the present day. A general subject index completes the volume.

This book presents a tentative assessment of the Argentine leader, Juan Domingo Peron's overall importance in his own country and in the American Hemisphere. It is based largely on the observations of the author on the evolution of Argentina over almost a third of a century.

This book presents a tentative assessment of the Argentine leader, Juan Domingo Peron's overall importance in his own country and in the American Hemisphere. It is based largely on the observations of the author on the evolution of Argentina over almost a third of a century.