WORKERS, STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT, AND CONCERTACION-SOCIAL IN LATIN-AMERICA

Workers in Latin America are today confronted by a process of structural adjustment that goes beyond the economic arena to affect the very fabric of social relations. In the "democratic decade' that began with the elections of 1982 in Argentina, there have been various attempts to develop a social pact (concertacion social) in the region. This article seeks to clarify the complex interplay between workers, structural adjustment, and the prospects for a social pact. The so-called new social movements are often seen as providing alternative strategies to the traditional corporatist orientations of labour organizations. The author argues against a simple "social movement unionism' alternative if it fails to confront the reality of structural adjustment and the objective need for the type of democratic compromise implicit in the incipient movement in some countries toward concertacion social. Practical examples are drawn from the Southern Cone. -from Author