Neoliberalism and class conflict in Latin America

In Latin America the 1980s opened with a crisis in the capacity of governments in the region to make interest payments on their accumulated external debts. Under conditions of this crisis the region experienced a drastic reduction in the rate of capital accumulation, a veritable haemorrhage of resources (a new outflow of over 60 billion dollars), and a drastic deterioration in the standard of living of the population, a large part of which was pushed into poverty. The decade also saw the implementation of a sweeping programme of economic reforms, either imposed as a condition for securing new loans or to embrace the neoliberal doctrine of structural adjustment, the ideology of a newly formed transnational capitalist class. However, this programme also generated widespread resistance, especially from within the popular sector. This book analyses both the politics of the adjustment process and the political dynamics of this resistance in Latin America.