Progressive Politics Live on in the Streets in Uruguay

With the electoral Left sidelined until at least 2024, grassroots organizing stands as the key line of defense against the government’s vigorous neoliberal reforms.

NACLA remains one of my ‘must read’ publications on Latin America. Founded in 1966, it has consistently published important historic and current analytical pieces on the region. So, as you can imagine, I was thrilled when I was approached late last year to write a piece for an issue on Latin America’s New Left Surge. Back in 2014, I wrote two pieces for their online publication (on their affirmative action law and a referendum campaign about lowering the age of criminal responsibility). When they contacted me to write for this upcoming issue, the editor (the amazing Heather Gies) mentioned that NACLA hadn’t had much recently about Uruguay, and asked whether I would write about where the country fit into the seemingly leftist turn in the region. The result is this article (Link should be good for the first fifty clicks, please let me know if you need a PDF), which tries to grapple with the place of Uruguay’s center-right government at this current political moment.

Thanks for reading, and make sure to check out the other fantastic pieces in this issue also.