BUILDING HEMISPHERIC ALLIANCES
Thrasher, Sue
Building Hemispheric Alliances BY SUE THRASHER I am deeply afraid, as we enter the last decade of the century, that racial and ethnic divisions will continue to escalate globally, that the move...
...Sue Thrasher has worked with the Institute for Policy Studies, the Institute for Southern Studies, Southern Exposure magazine, and the Highlander Research and Education Center...
...On the international front, progressives must pay attention to our own hemisphere...
...Some of the most successful organizing efforts in the 1980s came from the solidarity movements...
...Progressive movements in the 1990s must go beyond their surface assimilation of "women's issues" and incorporate a more encompassing gender perspective that takes into account the impact of all policies on women, and appreciates and values the experiences of women...
...Because it does affect us all, globally, it offers opportunities to build alliances that address environmental concerns while also addressing issues of race, class, and gender...
...She is working on a doctorate at the Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts...
...Building Hemispheric Alliances BY SUE THRASHER I am deeply afraid, as we enter the last decade of the century, that racial and ethnic divisions will continue to escalate globally, that the move toward gender equality will be both subtly and overtly undermined, that the environment will increasingly be an arena for action, and that the poor and disempowered will become even more marginalized and desperate...
...foreign policy in Latin America has wasted billions of dollars and colluded in the killings and disappearances of countless numbers of people, particularly among indigenous populations...
...Some of the most exciting, holistic approaches to development are coming from feminist organizations in the Third World...
...The biggest challenge for the progressive movement of the 1990s will be to build strong local movements that are democratic and participatory in nature and can forge links with other movements around the world...
...It is important to carry that base into the 1990s, maintaining the people-to-people nature of that movement, but going beyond the non-interventionist strategies of the 1980s to build hemispheric alliances linking a multiplicity of issues...
...While policymakers and funders have attempted to "mainstream" feminism, it persists as an independent movement focusing on issues ranging from income generation in rural villages to the prevention of violence against women everywhere in the world...
...Gender issues, both nationally and internationally, should help shape and focus the progressive movement...
...Moving to redress these wrongs and re-establishing an aggressive civil-rights agenda are essential for the progressive movement of the 1990s...
...The Reagan-Bush Administrations launched a two-pronged attack on people of color: direct assault on the legal protections of their civil rights, coupled with outright neglect and dismissal of the economic devastation visited on them by its policies...
...Allies and active support will be needed from a broad spectrum of issue-based movements...
...Cutting across all of these issues and continuing to invade all of our lives will be the matter of the environment...
...Central America remains volatile...
Vol. 54 • November 1990 • No. 11
