Juggling multiple agendas: the struggle of trade unions against neoliberalism in Argentina

In the context of neoliberal globali­zation, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was the most ambitious international agreement introduced for the purpose of reducing or eliminating international trade barriers in the Americas. The expected con­sequences of the FTAA led to the mobilisa­tion of movements and unions across the continent. After a decade of resistance to the FTAA, movements and unions can –argu­ably– be considered partially responsible for its failure in 2005. The role of unions in their resistance to this agreement raises an interesting theoretical question about how the transnational participation of domestic organizations affects their activism on a national scale. This article analyses how from 2002 to 2010 an important union, the Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA), organizes its actions across multiple levels, and how these levels interrelate.

Key words: Argentina, trade unions, FTAA, transnational participation, scales of action

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