Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2022
A major question confronting analysts of Latin American labor concerns the relationships among unions, the state, and foreign powers. Some social scientists have argued that the relative autonomy of unions affects the strength of democracy in a given country (see Weffort 1978; Hall and Garcia 1989; Epstein 1989; Cohen 1989; Collier and Collier 1991). They have also asserted that Latin America's ability to control its own destiny has been shaped in part by the influence of foreign powers (particularly the United States) over social institutions like unions (Bergquist 1986; Buchanan 1991; Spalding 1992–1993). An evolving branch of labor studies that now offers a unifying perspective for examining this complex set of relationships is the perspective of labor internationalism.
Research for this paper was funded in part by grants from the University of Maryland and Grand Valley State University. I also thank Winthrop Wright, Ira Berlin, and Richard Price for their guidance and support, Vilma Welch for her research assistance, and Anthony Pereira, Hobart Spalding, Stanley Gacek, and the anonymous LARR reviewers for their constructive comments.