Labour and sustainable development in Latin America: rebuilding alliances at a new crossroads

DOBRUSIN BRUNO

Gottingen

Conferencia; International Conference ?International Solidarity Reloaded. Trade unions and other social movements: between the challenges and opportunities of globalization?; 2014

Gottingen Graduate School of Social Sciences y Hans Boeckler Foundation,

The limits of a development model focused on economic growth and primary commodities? export are being increasingly present throughout the region, mainly in the face of ecological damage and the absence of an environmentally-sustainable economic strategy that can be maintained over time. These limits have placed trade unions also at a crossroads regarding their positions within the overall development strategy. Trade unions were allies in the development process of the post-neoliberal period?supporting nationalizations, greater State presence in the economy and the implementation of redistributional policies?but have increasingly began to challenge some pillars of this model. In doing so, trade unions are returning to a model of global solidarity with social movements and environmental organizations, using the past struggles against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) as a basis for constructing coalitions in the current context