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Peruvians were among the first Latinos to arrive in Paterson and other cities in New Jersey during the post-WW II period. Over successive generations, they established a prosperous ethnic enclave that contributed to Paterson’s socioeconomic renewal. Yet their migration experience has remained relatively unexamined by scholars. This book examines the role of entrepreneurship and informality in the emergence and evolution of the Peruvian community of Paterson. It highlights the historical significance of the establishment of small businesses and social organizations as important cultural elements that validated their physical presence in the area. By uncovering the diverse strategies that Peruvians utilized for building a community, Muschi contends that their culture of informality and resourcefulness paved the way for their economic advancement and the consolidation of the Peruvian community. This book also shows that the informal economic practices introduced by Peruvians altered the social and economic landscape of Paterson and contributed to the revitalization of the local economy. Through the examination of oral histories, archival material from local newspapers, and memoirs declassified by the Peruvian consulate, the author challenges the oversimplified portrayal of Latinos as blue- collar workers with few opportunities for socioeconomic advancement. Peruvians in Paterson demonstrates that Latino migrants achieve wealth and ethnic empowerment in the process of adjustment and community building, suggesting new lines for future research.

The global economic crisis has exposed the limits of neoliberalism and dramatically deepened social polarization. Yet, despite increasing social resistance and opposition, neoliberalism prevails globally.

Radical alternatives, moreover, are only rarely debated. And if they are, such alternatives are reduced to new Keynesian and new developmental agendas, which fail to address existing class divisions and imperialist relations of domination.

This collection of essays polarizes the debate between radical and reformist alternatives by exploring head-on the antagonistic structure of capitalist development. The contributors ground their proposals in an international, non-Eurocentric and Marxian inspired analysis of capitalism and its crises. From Latin America to Asia, Africa to the Middle East and Europe to the US, social and labour movements have emerged as the protagonists behind creating alternatives.

This book’s new generation of scholars has written accessible yet theoretically informed and empirically rich chapters elaborating radical worldwide strategies for moving beyond neoliberalism, and beyond capitalism. The intent is to provoke critical reflection and positive action towards substantive change.

How words waged war—and shaped the fate of a nation’s boldest social crusade.

In January 1964, in his first State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson announced a declaration of “unconditional war” on poverty. By the end of the year the Economic Opportunity Act became law.

War on Poverty illustrates the interweaving of rhetorical and historical forces in shaping public policy. Zarefsky suggests that an important problem lay in its discourse. He assumes that language plays a central role in the formulation of social policy by shaping the context within which people view the social world. By terming the anti-poverty effort a war, President Johnson imparted significant symbolism to the effort: it called for total victory and gave confidence that the “war” was winnable. It influenced the definition of the enemy as an intergenerational cycle of poverty, rather than the shortcomings of the individual; and it led to the choice of community action, manpower programs, and prudent management as weapons and tactics. Each of these implications involves a choice of language and symbols, a decision about how to characterize and discuss the world. Zarefsky contends that each of these rhetorical choices was helpful to the Johnson administration in obtaining passage of the Economic Opportunity Ac of 1964, but that each choice invited redefinition or reinterpretation of a symbol in a way that threatened the program.