To Be a Worker: Identity and Politics in Peru (Latin America in Translation) - Softcover

Jorge Parodi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807848603 ISBN 13: 9780807848609

Publisher: University North Carolina Pr, 2000

Synopsis

A contemporary classic in Peru, where it was first published in 1986, this book explores changes in the political identity and economic strategies of the Peruvian working class in the 1970s and 1980s. Jorge Parodi uses a case study of Metal Empresa, a large factory in Lima, to trace the surge and decline of the labor movement in Peru--and in Latin America more generally--through the successes and frustrations of the members of a once-powerful union as they coped with the nation's deteriorating economic situation.
By the early 1970s, Metal Empresa was the site of one of the most radical and aggressive unions in Peruvian industry. But as the decade drew to a close, political and economic crises soured the environment for trade unionism and rendered unions less able to produce palpable benefits for their members. Through in-depth, often poignant interviews, including an extensive oral history of one of the workers, Jesus Zuniga, Parodi shows how workers desperate to support themselves and their families were increasingly forced to seek opportunities outside the industrial sector. In the process, he shows, they began to question their very identities as workers.

About this title

About the Author

Jorge Parodi is former director of the Centro de Estudios de Democracia y Sociedad. He now practices psychoanalysis in Lima, Peru.

From the Back Cover

A contemporary classic in Peru, this 1986 book is now available in English. It explores changes in the political identity and economic strategies of the Peruvian working class in the 1970s and 1980s. Jorge Parodi uses a case study of Metal Empresa, a large Lima factory, to trace the surge and decline of the labor movement in Peru--and in Latin America.

Edition details

• Publisher: University North Carolina Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807848603
• ISBN 13: 9780807848609
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200