BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN CLASS AND SPACE - US WORKER SOLIDARITY WITH GUATEMALA

In recent decades organized labor in the United States has responded t o restructuring of the global economy by increasing its commitment to international solidarity, providing moral and material support for the organizing efforts of workers abroad. The international labor solidar ity strategy appears to be designed to lessen the competition among pl aces over investment, plant location, and jobs by uniting workers in d ifferent countries on the basis of their shared class interests. Yet i nternational solidarity programs may serve to benefit one geographical ly distinct group of workers over another without challenging capitali sm's allocative mechanisms. I develop criteria for differentiating bet ween the latter kind of solidarity campaigns, which I call accommodati onist, and transformatory solidarity, which attempts to prevent capita l from using space to weaken workers' organizations, thereby altering the labor-capital relationship in fundamental ways. I then examine the work of an organization of union members and workers in the United St ates committed to forming relationships of solidarity with workers in Guatemala. I look at the history, philosophy, and activities of the U. S./Guatemala Labor Education Project (US/GLEP), which provides an info rmative case study of the opportunities and dangers of international s olidarity. The limitations of international solidarity campaigns are i dentified, and I suggest ways to overcome these barriers.