Latin America Bureau – förlag

Many aspects of life have changed little since colonial times in the cloudy, misted highlands of the southernmost state of Mexico. In Chiapas women still marry at 13, and are often sold for a few bottles of liquor or a cow. On New Year's Day 1994 Chiapas was brought to the attention of the world by a very modern insurrection by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Since the beginning women were integral to the rebellion and later the movement for social justice in Chiapas and Mexico. In this volume the women of Chiapas tell of their hopes and their struggles, and their fight for a more democratic and humane way of life in their state and their country. The account discusses the lives of indigenous women in the state. Personal and testimonial in style, the women interviewed recount their lives as women in their communities and also their part in the struggle to establish and defend the EZLN.

Almost 200 years ago, the Haitian people launched a revolution which ended slavery and established the world's first independent black republic. But it was a country 'born in ruins'. Once a source of plunder for the French colonial power, the national economy has since been a source of personal enrichment for a series of rapacious rulers. The most recent of these, 'Papa' and 'Baby Doc' Duvalier, have between them ruled Haiti for the last 30 years, turning the country into a virtual 'family business'. Repression, punctuated with occasional periods of liberalization, has sustained a social order in which an estimated 75 per cent of the rural population live on the edge of starvation. Haiti: Family Business traces the historical orgins of the 'Duvalier system' and shows how and why it has survived until now. It examines the modern Haitian economy, the country's social structure and the role of the United States, for most of this century a key actor n Haitian political life. The book also looks at the forces for change in a country which has in recent years undergone some economic modernization and assesses the future prospects of the 'Duvalier system'.

Guyana is on the verge of economic collapse and a profound social crisis. The socialist rhetoric of President Forbes Burnham's regime contrasts strikingly with the ugly details of his personalist and authoritarian rule. Burnham supports progressive third world views internationally, yet his party is responsible for the murder and harassment of its opponents at home. His policy to 'feed, clothe and house' the population has resulted in endemic food shortages, 40% unemployment and falling living standards for the great majority of people. Far from living up to the 'cooperative socialist' principles on which the PNC regime is supposedly based, Burnham's party has been responsible for massively rigging every election that has occured since the country gained independence. Guyana: Fraudulent Revolution analyses these contradictions in the context of the country's history from its days as a slave colony, through the violent era that preceeded independence in the 1960s, to the present situation of economic collapse and political repression. It tells the story of the racial manipulation, violence and political fraud that have become the hallmarks of the Burnham regime.

Soft Drink, Hard Labour outlines international campaign of protests and boycotts central to the struggle of the Coca-Cola workers, which forced concessions from one of the world's largest multinational food giants, and kept the Guatemalan trade union movement alive through the dark age of government repression.

The US invasion of Grenada in 1983 was seen as a victory for freedom. By the early 1990s, however, the story of post-invasion Grenada had become one of disillusionment and cynicism. This work reveals the extent of the US failure, economic and political, and its impact on the island's people.