Kirsten Sehnbruch uses the case study of Chile to show the failures and inner-working of neo-liberal labour policy. She shows in detail what the real policy issue should be, namely the creation of proper institutions and of a corps of competent professionals with relevant skills and powers to operate them.

During the first quarter of the twentieth century, there originated in Chile a labor movement which was to prove both important and unique. Peter Deshazo sets out here to furnish a detailed case study of that movement. By challenging previously held and often politically motivated conceptions of the Chilean unions, and by examining such hitherto unexplored sources as government documents and labor newspapers, he is able to illuminate the origins and development of an often successful and surprisingly autonomous labor campaign. Students and scholars of Latin America, labor history, comparative social movements, and political science will find the resultant pathbreaking study of the Chilean working class and its progressive mobilization valuable reading.

Study of political aspects of the labour movement in Chile - comments on the historical traditions of Chilean trade unions (incl. Membership, leadership and structure), labour relations, the labour code and its effects on unions, the role of unions as economic agents, unionisation of rural workers, activities of the various political partys (incl. Socialist, communist, radical and Christian democrats), government policy, nonmanual workers, political doctrines, foreign influence, etc. Bibliography pp. 273 to 277 and references.