Sustaining the Borderlands in the Age of NAFTA: Development, Politics, and Participation on the US-Mexico Border

6. Transnational Networks and Grassroots Splintering

150 Chapter 6 Transnational Networks and Grassroots Splintering This chapter discusses the effects that non-local environmental and labor organizations from the United States had on the Matamoros-based Spektra workers’ organizing efforts and Las Caracaras. In particular, it describes the ways in which these emergent movements became painfully fractured once the possibility of transnational resources presented itself. In both cases, allegations of corruption and opportunism became rampant. Also in both cases, fairly cohesive and well-organized grassroots groups (based on consensus, transparency, and shared objectives) at the local level tipped over into fractious and politicized relations as latent hostili­ ties and ancient rivalries came to the surface. Eclipsing the seemingly smooth forward movement of local organizing, once transnationalized , these same groups’ meetings, plans, and organizational hierarchies became murky and rumor-laden. Since some had higher class status and greater access to communication technologies like phone and the Internet, there were increasing suspicions and accusations of deliberate opacity in these members’ communications with powerful US-based NGOs. The relative local level transparency, in short, was eclipsed by experiences of opacity and allegations that some members were being less than forthcoming in their dealings with nonlocal actors. These are common themes and experiences for each of the movements ’ experiences with non-local actors, even as the details are specific to each case. In the case of the Spektra workers’ movement, for example, the CFO and workers within the plant had been working diligently for several months to collect information that might demonstrate possible violations of health and safety regulations within the Spektra plant. Transnational Networks and Grassroots Splintering  151 These investigations were inspired by a temporary spike in the numbers of anencephalic births and spontaneous abortions, as well as the chronic problem of workers suffering repeated arm, wrist, and shoulder injuries due to the strenuous repetitive motion work. When the US-based Justice for Border Workers became involved, it aspired to use the information already gathered and collect additional data, in order to file a petition under the labor side accord of NAFTA. Once filed, and with no subsequent corrective or punitive action taken vis-à-vis Spektra plant, workers began to feel as though their compromised bodies had been doubly bartered : first, by Spektra plant; and second, by the NGO that organized the petition in an effort to “test” the side accord dispute resolution process. The case of Las Caracaras was different, but equally laden with a sense of opacity, corruption, and opportunism that eventually seeped into the roots and relations within the organization itself. Once the possibility of Sierra Club funding became real—evident in the organization ’s winning seed grant money twice—the organization splintered completely along pre-existing (if somewhat latent) lines of class, ethnicity , gender, and political party affiliations that had existed all along. While the organization had been able to withstand and absorb these frictions up to that time, incoming resources—welcome as they should have been—brought these tensions to the surface in a way that the organization could no longer absorb. The cross-border coalition efforts instantiated in the cases of both the Spektra workers and Las Caracaras are examples of the transnational advocacy that has become so ubiquitous in a globalized world. As Robinson notes, “[T]he emergence of a global economy provides the material basis for a global civil society. For many analysts of globalization, the civil socie­ ties of each country are becoming transnationalized through integration into associational networks that span numerous countries” (2003, 223). It has been widely noted that such networks, including NGOs, INGOs, ENGOs, and grassroots groups, form a critical component of transna­ tional advocacy and global civil society.” Transnational advocacy, and the coalitions that emerge from them have a global spread that is believed by many to counteract, combat, ameliorate, or even civilize deepening global capitalism. Transnational advocacy networks, similar to new social movements (Escobar and Alvarez 1992; Slater 1995), tackle a range of issues: human, gender, and labor rights; environmental destruction and ecological preservation; an end to child soldiering; the rights of the poor to housing and health opportunities; and so forth. 152   Sustaining the Borderlands in the Age of NAFTA Transnational advocacy has clearly grown worldwide in recent years. This growth has special relevance for cross-border organizing between Mexico and the United States. It is indicative of a general global trend, but on the border, it also stemmed directly from NAFTA negotiations...