Transnational Actors and NAFTA: the Search for Coalitions on Labor and the Environment

Abstract

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has encouraged the activity of new transnational actors while old ones have remained in the field. Among the most active, indeed, are many of the social and civil organizations that formed part of the transnational coalitions that opposed NAFTA or fought for the introduction of commitments regarding labor and environmental protection within the latter. How successful have these actors been in forming transnational coalitions after the passage of NAFTA? What have been the opportunities for — or dilemmas of — cooperation? Have foundations been laid for even more powerful coalitions and transnational activity, or are we still at a stage of, at best, “strategic alliances” between organizations whose interests are only sporadically convergent?