Reviews

...In the process of tracing this sea change in the revolution's middle ranks, Fitzgerald ends up discussing competing theories of socialist development, and the economic strategies that Castro threw his weight behind at different moments...

...In the period between the end of the 1940s and the military takeover of 1964, the authors argue, a policy of "urban laissez-faire" reigned, in which people were allowed to settle and build housing with little state interference-or support...

...In interwoven chapters, he connects to the uprising NAFTA, the U.S...

...At first, party militants with good political but poor educational credentials-the so-called "old cadres"-filled the administrative ranks...

...Box 308, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0308, 1994, 18 mins., $14.95 plus $2.00 s+h...

...Though not a scholar, Ross provides a much fuller context for the uprising than one typically finds in the mainstream media...

...He is particularly concerned with the democratic dimension of these rival economic models...

...support for death-squad activity, leaving the impression that crafty Latin thugs are simply very good at bilking the long-suffering U.S...

...What is the Sup's sexuality...

...There are certainly more sophisticated and historically compelling analyses of the recent events in Chiapas, but this is a book which, if assigned to students, is certain to be read cover to cover...

...It is an excellent introduction for those who have only a passing acquaintance with the history of the Cuban revolution, and a thoughtful resource for anyone concerned with the construction of socialism in the Third World...

...What is the nature of his appeal-and why have the sales of ski masks gone up...

...This brief video chronicles the atrocities committed by graduates of the U.S...

...The title of this book is somewhat misleading...

...Produced as part of the lobbying effort in support of the persistent attempts of liberal Congressional Democrats to shut the school down by cutting off funding, the video raises issues that can be used as talking points in classrooms and community discussion groups...

...Army's School of the Americas (SOA), especially in El Salvador during the 1980s...

...Box 702, Monroe, ME 04951, 1995, 424 pp., $14.95 (paper...

...In the logic of the capitalist city, Kowarick argues, systems of capital accumulation function to wrest the most labor power from workers while spending the least amount possible on urban services to reproduce the labor force...

...He also takes a hard look at bureaucratization-a problem with which the revolution has struggled from the beginning...

...And in a greater omission, the video fails to address the motivation behind U.S...

...Because Kowarick has written or co-authored four of the book's nine chapters, the book is more cohesive than most edited volumes...

...Under the dictatorship, even these shreds of state accountability were lost...

...Union and urban movements have, therefore, been adept at mutually supporting one another's struggles...

...Does his prominence perpetuate the myth that "the Indians can't have a revolution unless the white guys bring the flashlights...

...The video's politics seem deliberately crafted to help the lobbying effort, but Congressional action on the SOA is now probably less likely than ever...

...Kowarick intersperses overview pieces that provide context with narrow case studies...

...What does the Sup really look like...

...State Department, indigenous Mexico and Central America, the ruling PRI, the Chiapas ruling class, liberation theology and Mexico's tumultuous events of 1994...

...It reports the National Security Archive's chilling discovery of a cable from U.S...

...Ambassador to El Salvador, Dean Hinton, which confirmed that the Embassy knew in advance of death-squad leader (and SOA graduate) Roberto D'Aubisson's plan to murder the Archbishop...

...It recounts events leading up to, surrounding and flowing from the rebellion...

...The book's contributors-all Brazilian academics-take on such topics as the post-World War II housing crisis, the pivotal 1978 metalworkers' strike, and the PT's governance of the city from 1989 to 1991...

...Perhaps most fascinating is Ross' speculation about the identity and political/iconographic meaning of Marcos (who is known to his "fans" as the Sup...

...Fitzgerald does not concentrate on the post-1989 "special period," nor does he take a particularly negative, fatalistic view of the revolution's future...

...NACTA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS age-a consequence of both the poor educational base of the pre1959 population and the early exodus of a small but significant segment of the middle class...

...The Cuban Revolution in Crisis: From Managing Socialism to Managing Survival by Frank T. Fitzgerald, Monthly Review Press, 1994, 239 pp., $34 (cloth), $16 (paper...

...Unfortunately, the video merely hints at the current activities of SOA graduates in places like Colombia and Peru...

...Urban policy served only the interests of big business, real-estate agents and the upper class...

...The most effective sections of the book detail the uprising itself, get inside the Zapatista organization, and examine the peace negotiations, focusing on the interaction among government negotiator Manuel Camacho, the Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos, and the mediator Bishop Samuel Rufz-who Ross delights in calling, quite approvingly, "the Red Bishop...

...Ross brings an irreverent style, developed over years of writing for the alternative press, to this rapidly put-together book...

...Sidestepping the considerable minefields that anyone writing about Cuba faces today, Fitzgerald has produced a remarkably evenhanded, non-polemical book...

...nuns, the peasants at El Mozote, and the six Jesuits and their housekeeper...

...Given that actual decisions have always been made by the leaders, he examines the degree to which workers and mid-level functionaries have been able to participate in formulating, evaluating and implementing policy at different conjunctures...

...taxpayer...

...School of Assassins a video narrated by Susan Sarandon, produced and distributed by Mary- knoll World Productions, P.O...

...Real-estate agents made a killing as the expansion of the city into the periphery raised land prices...

...In Sdo Paulo, Latin America's secondlargest city and among its most unequal, the connection between exploitation in the workplace and misery in the community is sharply etched...

...As the literacy campaigns and educational reforms began to pay dividends over the years, the old cadres have been gradually replaced-though not without a struggle-by newly trained professionals...

...To address this question, the author focuses on the revolution's middle ranks-those between the leadership cupola and the rankand-file workers...

...The departure point for the essays in this book is the link between workplace demands and community demands for urban improvement...

...The chapter concludes with a look at the modest gains recently made by the city's organized social movements-often in partnership with the Workers Party (PT...

...Instead, Fitzgerald's primary concern is how the revolution has dealt with the country's skill shortUnless otherwise noted, all reviews are written by NACIA...

...The video covers well-trod territory-the murders of Archbishop Romero, the four U.S...

...The State made only the most modest of concessions to the poor, such as the provision of public transportation to the outlying areas so workers could get to their jobs in the city center...

...In one of the book's most cogent essays, L6cio Kowarick and Nabil G. Bonduki analyze Sdo Paulo's urban development over the past 50 years, with particular emphasis on state-civil society relations...

...This is a breezy but compelling account of last year's Zapatista uprising in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas...

...Rebellion from the Roots: Indian Uprising in Chiapas by John Ross, Common Courage Press, P.O...

...Long-term organizing-which needs a clearer focus than this video provides-has never been more important...