NAFTA From Below

NAFTA From Below

Workers in the United States have long understood that NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement – has been a disaster, with more than two million jobs leaving the country for lower-wage countries following the law’s passage in 1994. But relatively few Americans know what a nightmare NAFTA has been for Mexican workers – the people who, the agreement’s proponents argued, would be lifted from poverty and be turned into serious consumers of American goods.

In testimonies from scores of Mexicans across that country, this book details the terrible impact NAFTA has had south of the border. These first-hand accounts of workers organizing for their rights, of farmers and indigenous peoples fighting to preserve their land, and of efforts north and south to build alternatives, document the courage of ordinary people who dare to join together and fight for decent working conditions, just salaries, a clean environment and lives with dignity. Co-editor Martha A. Ojeda worked in the maquiladoras for 20 years and was the leader of a wildcat strike of Sony workers in Nuevo Laredo in 1994. 177 pages paperback