¡Soy Mexicana y Tengo Derechos! Independent Labor Organizing on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Heather Frambach


DOI: 10.2190/WR.15.3-4.m

Abstract

This article begins by providing the historical context for the emergence of the Mexican maquiladora industry against a backdrop of ill-enforced labor laws and extensive corruption within official labor institutions. Following this, a case study of a women-centered group based in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, is presented. It highlights the forms and strategies of maquiladora workers organizing for their rights on the shop floor and within their communities. In addition, the case study examines the edges of Marxist ethnography and theory produced on the border, exposing the way in which the actual activities of women worker activists have broken the Marxist mold.

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