By Clara Irazábal and John Foley The December 2007 referendum proposing constitutional reforms in Venezuela, discussed in the Fall 2007 issue of Progressive Planning Magazine, was defeated by less than 2 percent of the vote. Some of these reforms would have strengthened grassroots power and the role of neighborhood-based communal councils. The effect of this defeat […]

Note: With this profile of Jacqueline Leavitt, Progressive Planning Magazine starts what will be an ongoing series examining the work of progressive planners. Jacqueline Leavitt, a long-term Planners Network member, is professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Since 1999, she has also been director of the UCLA Community Scholars Program, co-sponsored […]

Por Alejandro Rofman Es bien conocida la trayectoria de la Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo en la Argentina. Actualicemos, brevemente, su historia. A mediados del año 1977–hace una década–en plena Dictadura Militar en la Argentina, un grupo de madres de jóvenes desaparecidos por los represores de dicha Dictadura, comenzaron a reclamar de viva voz […]

By Alejandro Rofman In 1977, in the midst of Argentina’s military dictatorship, a group of mothers of young people who were disappeared by the military began to raise their voices, demanding to know the whereabouts of their children and to reintegrate them into society. The children were political and social militants captured by the armed […]

By Jonathan Thompson In 1970, radical Chicano activists swept into office in Crystal City, Texas, taking control of almost all of the institutions of local government in the small South Texas town. Part of a sophisticated political project by Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) activists, including José Angel Gutiérrez and María Luz Gutiérrez, the Crystal City […]