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Allies Across the Border
Mexico's “Authentic Labor Front” and Global Solidarity
Dale Hathaway
Pages: 288ISBN: 0-89608-632-1
Format: paper
Release Date: 2000-01-01
This book is also available in cloth
While Wall Street pundits praise the global economy, workers find their jobs more pressured and precarious. Americans and Canadians are told that Mexicans are stealing their jobs, but workers in Mexico find themselves in dangerous plants where they are barely paid their daily bread. This first book on Mexico’s pioneer independent labor federation, the Authentic Labor Front (the FAT), shows how activists are gaining strength in coalition with their “allies across the border.”
It offers both activists and scholars an understanding of the last 40 years of Mexican history, explaining how globalizing the Mexican economy undermined workers' wages and the authoritaian structures that had bound them to the PRI, the ruling party that had dominated Mexico until 2000. It celebrates the organizing tactics both within plants and across borders that have given new hope to workers throughout the continent.
A case study of how democracy—in workplaces and international structures—is the greatest source of power on both sides of the US-Mexico border.
Reviews
Review by Dan La Botz
Dale Hathaway, a community activist and professor of political science at Butler University in Indianapolis, has written a readable, useful account of Mexico's most politically important independent labor union federation the Authentic Labor Front or FAT. Hathaway sets his history of the FAT in the context of the new movement's fight against corporate globalization, a movement in which the FAT has played an enormously important role. Based on interviews with FAT leaders and activists, original documents, and a wide-array of secondary sources, this is both a good read and a reliable historical account.
The book opens with the Battle of Seattle in November 1999 and closes with a discussion of the importance of international solidarity in the era of globalization. Using that as the framework, Hathaway not only tells the story of the union, but also places it in the context of the Mexican labor and political system, of economic globalization, and of the new movements for international labor solidarity. In doing so, he has written a book that is essential reading for Canadian and U.S. labor union activists, and for all of those interested in the Mexican labor union movement.
The FAT was founded in October of 1960 as a Christian labor union, inspired by Roman Catholic social teachings. The union established itself in Leon, Guanajuato, then Mexico's shoe manufacturing center an...
Dale Hathaway
Click here to view Dale Hathaway's full Author PageDale Hathaway (1951–2002) was a man of compassion and conviction. In his professional life, he was a dedicated teacher, scholar, and activist. He was equally committed to his roles as husband, father, mentor, and friend. While searching always for ways to hasten the arrival of justice and the betterment of the community, Dale also found beauty and meaning in song, sufi dancing, yoga, and the shared silence of the Quaker and Buddhist traditions.
Dale was born in Cincinnati, and he grew up in Minnesota and Ohio. He was a talented student, and he spent most of his summers working on his cousins’ and uncles’ farms in Beach and Bismarck, North Dakota. His inclinations toward political activism and scholarship emerged at an early age; in 1962, when he was just ten years old, Dale wrote a letter to President Kennedy that began, “DO NOT!! resume nuclear testing! I have quotes to back me in saying this.” From seventh through eleventh grade, he was the star of the football team, and even contemplated going pro. In the twelfth grade, however, a new coach established a harsh routine that included a congratulatory “blood bench” for players who drew blood from their teammates during practice. Repulsed by the violence, Dale left the team and gave up his career as a football player. He was valedictorian of his class, but, during his senior year, Dale managed to be suspended for his longer-than-allowed sideburns, and possibly also for his outspoken political views.
In accounting for his early worklife and professional development, Dale once wrote that “as a starving artist, I survived as a dishwasher, cab driver, apple picker, elder, carpenter and solar designer, before receiving a BA in Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1982 and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Cornell University in 1990.” After he completed his doctorate, Dale joined Butler’s Department of Political Science, offering courses in U.S. politics, including the presidency and congress, public policy, and campaigns and elections. He especially cherished teaching innovative courses such as Politics through Film, The Role of Protest in U.S. Politics, and his senior seminar, Democracy Among Giants (spring 2002). He was also devoted to Butler’s core course, Change and Tradition, for which he was faculty coordinator. He was leading a C&T faculty development travel seminar on modern Europe when he was stricken by a sudden illness in Florence, Italy.
Over the years, Dale mentored many students as they completed their internships and apprenticeships in Political Science. He was active in Amnesty International, and he helped to start the Gender Studies minor at Butler. In the aftermath of September 11, he organized and presided over a forum on “Understanding Islam,” and he helped to establish Butler for Peace. He provided leadership and a voice of reason to fellow members of the Butler Academic Grants committee and the Executive Committee of the Faculty Assembly, as well as to his colleagues in Political Science and Change and Tradition
Dale’s service to the University was complemented by his commitments in the larger community and world. He was often called to speak on topics ranging from electoral politics to workers’ rights in Mexico and the United States. His research focused on the possibilities for ordinary people to improve their lives through participation and organization. In his first book, Can Workers Have a Voice? The Politics of Deindustrialization in Pittsburgh (1993), Dale examined the potential for workers to collaborate with religious and political organizations to re-establish their rights. His second book, Allies Across the Border: Mexico’s Authentic Labor Front and Global Solidarity (2000) showed how workers could organize to secure their rights while maintaining and fostering human dignity. In both the United States and Mexico, Dale talked with, lived with and sometimes worked with the people he was writing about.
Even as he was teaching his classes and writing his books, Dale was a tireless activist for peace and social justice. With his wife, Dot, Dale served as a mediator for Reaching Common Ground and for the Marion County Superior Court, Juvenile Division. He was President and Board Member for the Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center. He served as Chair of the progressive third-party alternative, Our Party, which slated John Gibson for Mayor and candidates for the City-County Council in the 1999 elections. And, most recently, he was a leading voice in the Campaign for a Living Wage in Indianapolis.
Beyond his work as a professor and activist, Dale was devoted to his four children, Mehera, River, Dove and Forest. He and Dot were married in 1993, after they fell in love at a sufi dance. At a surprisingly early age, Dale had already become a doting grandfather to Jonah, Irie, Dante and Sebastian.
Dale was universally known for the kindness and fellowship that he showed to all, even in times of adversity. To those around him, Dale’s luminous smile and gentle personality seemed as constant and reliable as the sun rising each day. His departure is hard to fathom, but he has left us with a wealth of memories that sustain us in our hour of loss. Dale’s optimism and his unfailing confidence that he could make a difference must now become our optimism and our confidence.
Biography from http://www.butler.edu/polisci/hathawaypage.html