The first of these two books takes a leftist approach to the history of trade union movements up to 1982 in Pern, Paraguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia—certainly an odd order. The book could be used as a companion to Latin American Labor Organizations, edited by Gerald Michael Greenfield and Sheldon L. Maram (1987). The contributors to each volume, surprisingly, do not utilize the same sources.
The first chapter of The State, Industrial Relations, and the Labor Movement states, “social scientists (after World War II) accepted without question that for Latin America, the future would be an inexorable process of proletarianization along Western lines,” but it does not cite the names of those social scientists. The authors also state that manufacturing “has ceased to be a plausible source of future wage jobs for a growing population,” adding that “modern styles of export sector production, whether in agriculture or in mining, have become more capital intensive and less labor-absorbing as the century has worn on” (pp. 1-2). They note the importance of the “informal sector” but do not mention that this sector could also involve manufacturing or industrial employment. They discuss this topic, moreover, on the basis of data from the period 1950-1980. Each of the chapters shows that the general strikes, mass demonstrations, and riots that preceded the labor codes of the 1930s, as well as the subsequent collective bargaining, continued under both civilian and military rule until at least the early 1980s, when the contributors ended their research.
The lack of post-1982 material, and possible editorial changes, may account for—but not excuse—the absence from Jacqueline Roddick and Nico van Niekerk’s chapter on Bolivia of the first names of Colonels David Toro and German Busch (who was not a general), Major Gualberto Villarroel, and President Victor Paz Estenssoro; or the omission of the Razón de Patria (RADEPA), the secret military lodge formed by veterans of the Chaco War that contributed to a shortlived military reform as well as to the rise of the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR). It is annoying to see the name of one of Colombia’s major cities consistently misspelled Barranguilla.
Gustavo Garza’s book examines Mexico’s efforts to decentralize the industrialization and urbanization that led to the growth of Mexico City’s population from 1.6 million in 1940 to 12.8 million in 1980. The failure of these efforts, in a nation that also has 95,000 towns of fewer than 2,500 inhabitants, is indicated by the evidence that industrial production in this central region rose from 32.2 percent in 1940 to 48.6 percent in 1980 (p. 7).
Garza discusses a variety of strategies followed by the Mexican government and private enterprise, aimed at creating jobs and reducing regional inequalities. One important scheme was that of the “industrial parks” and “industrial cities” that began with the construction in 1953 of Ciudad Sahagún, which was modeled after similar efforts in the 1930s near Cambridge, England, as well as projects in Italy, the Soviet Union, and other countries in the early twentieth century. Thirty years after it was built, Ciudad Sahagún had only a few more industrial enterprises than when it started. None of the other industrial cities has succeeded, either. At current rates of growth, Garza says, it would take more than 110 years for all the spaces and buildings to fill up (p. 87).
Garza provides tables, maps, and analyses of the impact of different factors of production on the 133 industrial parks and cities built under various programs. Overall, these data indicate that urban regional planning has led to results contrary to the original goals of most programs. Industrial development, he concludes, has been the real priority, and the goals of elimination of regional inequalities and decentralization have not been realized; ultimately they are not really important (p. 25). We might hope that this book will be translated into English, not only for its data on Mexico but for Garza’s comparative discussion of new towns and technology parks in other parts of the world.
