A Alca e as novas alianças sindicais Norte-Sul

Apoiado em entrevista com dirigente sindical e em artigos publicados em jornais de Washington (EUA), além de outras fontes bibliográficas, o texto examina os rumos que as organizações da sociedade civil das Américas, em particular as centrais sindicais, vêm trilhando nos últimos anos. Segundo enfoca, para defender os trabalhadores de seu país das ameaças ao trabalho advindas com a globalização, o regionalismo econômico - em especial a Alca - e o avanço tecnológico, a central norte-americana American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations mudou radicalmente suas estratégias. Ela agora, em vez de tentar barrar os acordos de livre comércio, tem procurado limitar a autonomia governamental na negociação dos mesmos. Ao mesmo tempo, vem buscando uma maior articulação com as centrais da América Latina. Essa aproximação, ao que parece, está dando origem a um novo e promissor "internacionalismo sindical".

The formative platform of the Congress of Panama (1810-1826): the Pan-American conjecture revisited

This article examines the formative platform of the Congress of Panama of 1826. It seeks to support the hypothesis that the nature and scope of the first test of integration in the Western Hemisphere depended critically on the platform created by Simón Bolívar and other Latin American Independence heroes from the Declaration of Independence of Venezuela in 1810 until the last bilateral agreement of 1826. In that respect, it corroborates the Latin American Identity of the initiative.

Assessing environmental impacts using a comparative LCA of industrial and artisanal production processes: "Minas Cheese" case

This study uses the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts caused by both the artisanal and the industrial manufacturing processes of "Minas cheese". This is a traditional cheese produced in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil), and it is considered a "cultural patrimony" in the country. The high participation of artisanal producers in the market justifies this research, and this analysis can help the identification of opportunities to improve the environmental performance of several stages of the production system. The environmental impacts caused were also assessed and compared. The functional unit adopted was 1 kilogram (Kg) of cheese. The system boundaries considered were the production process, conservation of product (before sale), and transport to consumer market. The milk production process was considered similar in both cases, and therefore it was not included in the assessment. The data were collected through interviews with the producers, observation, and a literature review; they were ordered and processed using the SimaPro 7 LCA software. According to the impact categories analyzed, the artisanal production exerted lower environmental impacts. This can be justified mainly because the industrial process includes the pasteurization stage, which uses dry wood as an energy source and refrigeration.