This is a fascinating volume that has captured the newest and perhaps one of the few effective ways that progressive forces in Central America can now work to transform the structures that have long oppressed them. As pointed out in the editor’s introduction, this anthology narrates the stories of popular movements in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. In the process, it supplies fascinating details and descriptions about specific popular movements. In their individual essays, the nine contributors examine why people participate in popular movements. Each chapter traces the development of particular movements and analyzes how they played a key role in building political alternatives to the dominant power structures in their respective countries. Much new information not generally available in English is included.

Revolutionary movements have come and gone in Central America, but the need felt by the masses for greater empowerment has remained constant. The works collected in New Politics of Survival show how different groups in Central America can work to exercise political power once they have gained an awareness of their own abilities to act politically. In her foreword, June Nash suggests that this volume is “a timely manual for the acts of survival gained in almost two decades of warfare in Central America,” and shows how these social movements and older forms of social organization are waging a struggle for dignity and a decent life. Indeed, if the popular sectors and the movements that empower them are to survive at all in the postrevolutionary neoliberal age, it may well be only through such grassroots organizations as are described by Sinclair and the other authors: indigenous movements in Guatemala; peasant and agrarian organizations in Nicaragua; popular and community organizations in El Salvador; and the labor and women’s movement in Nicaragua. As Mario Lungo Uclés suggests in his chapter on “Building an Alternative,” new social groupings are constantly being incorporated into an increasing number of new organizations. Such forms of popular organization, he states, “[will] define the possibilities for the construction and implementation of an alternative and democratic popular project which could replace the exclusionary neoliberal model currently being implemented” (p. 176). And for such movements to succeed they must be premised on strong democracy from below and generate a political culture that will help to condition future political activities in a democratic way. The chapter by Trish O’Kane shows how Sandinista labor unions and other FSLN-affiliated organizations in Nicaragua failed to do this.

A generally well-written volume with a good introduction and excellent case studies, New Politics of Survival makes a significant contribution to the literature on the subject available in English. It is a must read for those interested in popular movements in Central America and throughout Latin America and would be suitable for both graduate and advanced undergraduate classes.