Latin America’s Left at the Crossroads

by William Robinson, Brave New World

Leftist governments in Latin America are facing resistance not only from the right, but from their own bases, as well.

The triumph of left-leaning former army officer Ollanta Humala in Peru’s presidential elections this past June has observers wondering if Peru could be the latest “Pink Tide” country in Latin America. The so-called Pink Tide refers to the ambiguous turn to the left in recent years in several Latin American countries. The neo-liberal model that has changed the face of the continent’s political economy and devastated the poor and working classes over the past two decades has come under challenge by these nominally left governments, whose populist and redistributional policies, however, may now be reaching a crossroads.

Articles, Speeches & Interviews by William Robinson

From William Robinson's website

For a half-hour extract of a workshop I gave in Spanish in Los Angeles in mid-2011 on 16 points of struggle against global capitalism, see (in three parts): Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

For an opinion piece I wrote in December 2011 titled "Global Rebellion: The Coming Chaos?", click here.

For a translation of that article into spanish, click here.

For a one-hour interview I did with Worldstreams radio station, click here.

Latin America and Global Capitalism

by William Robinson,  Johns Hopkins University, 2008.

This ambitious volume chronicles and analyzes from a critical globalization perspective the social, economic, and political changes sweeping across Latin America from the 1970s through the present day. Sociologist William I. Robinson summarizes his theory of globalization and discusses how Latin America's political economy has changed as the states integrate into the new global production and financial system, focusing specifically on the rise of nontraditional agricultural exports, the explosion of maquiladoras, transnational tourism, and the export of labor and the import of remittances. He follows with an overview of the clash among global capitalist forces, neoliberalism, and the new left in Latin America, looking closely at the challenges and dilemmas resistance movements face and their prospects for success.

Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony

"This book represents an original, compelling and critical rethinking of the nature and form of United States foreign policy in the Third World 1980s and 1990s. Robinson has developed his own theoretical framework and synthesis drawn from comparative political sociology, political economy and political theory, one that takes its global inspiration from both world-systems and neo-Gramscian approaches to international relations. Robinson's theoretical strengths are combined with excellent empirical research... In his meticulous and detailed exposition of the nature, limits and contradictions of these cases, Robinson makes a fundamental contribution to our possibilities of understanding the contours of crucial aspects of North-South relations in this and the next century." Stephen Gill, York University, Toronto