Until The Rulers Obey

This is the book we’ve been waiting for. Anyone interested in the explosion of social movements in Latin America – and the complex interplay between those forces and the “Pink Tide” governments – should inhale this book immediately. Until the Rulers Obey gives us country-specific context from a superb team of “introducers”, who then step aside so we can hear a chorus of voices from some of the most inspiring grassroots organizations on the continent. This is a people’s history in real time, bubbling up from below.

Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein

A new world is dawning in Latin America from the bottom up.  This book brings an all-star cast of scholar-activists together with social movement and community leaders from throughout the region.  The reader will hear the clarion call for social justice from those who are on the front lines of grassroots resistance and popular struggles in this age of globalization, crisis, and transformation.  These are the voices that too often are suppressed by the powerful and the means of communication they control. I cannot imagine a more important and timely volume for scholars and activists who wish to understand the transformations that are sweeping the sub-continent.

William I. Robinson Professor of Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies University of California at Santa Barbara Author of Latin America and Global Capitalism

Until the Rulers Obey is a profoundly necessary book. Little has been published about Latin America in the way of an overview from 1989 to the present, even less in the voices of the protagonists themselves. The great experiments of the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s failed, but new and in many cases less dogmatic approaches to social justice have taken root in a number of countries south of the border. This book explores those efforts, often in the words of the change-makers themselves. Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein have done us a great service. Read this book for access to what the U.S. corporate media still doesn’t want us to know.

Margaret Randallauthor of Sandino's Daughters Revisited, When I Look Into the Mirror and See you, and Che on My Mind

Latin America is the last region in the world that still has a vibrant Enlightenment left, which sets both the practical agenda in terms of policy and the horizon in terms of utopia.  This wonderful edited collection of analysis and first-person accounts by Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein, Until the Rulers Obey: Voices from Latin American Social Movements, shows why.  It assembles people who are both activists and analysts, who see no difference between interpreting and changing the world.  It deserves a wide audience.


Greg Grandinauthor of Empire's Workshop and Fordlandia

Until the Rulers Obey is the most exhaustive and comprehensive work of primary source material from social movements in Latin America to appear in English, presenting the testimony of the brave women and men who have challenged the old leaders, and are serving notice on the new aspirants to power that they can only rule legitimately if they listen to the voices and demands of the people. In addition to providing a report on the current state of popular struggles, this anthology compiled by Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein will also serve as a compendium for future writers and historians who want to understand the social movements that transformed Latin America during the early years of the new millennium.

Roger Burbachco-author of Latin America’s Turbulent Transitions: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Socialism with Michael Fox and Federico Fuentes