Peasant Farmers in the Global Economy: The State Coalition of Coffee Producers of Oaxaca
Author(s)
Bezaury, Josefina Aranda
Abstract
In the Mexican south-southeast, the product of coffee is the most important of any crop in social as well as economic terms. During its history, this region of the country and its residents have endured cycles of economic prosperity as well as crisis. These are rooted in the unique history of southern Mexico, where the wage laborers and peons from the coffee plantations became indigenous peasant coffee producers. The process of economic globalization and the neoliberal policies developed by recent Mexican governments have created a profound crisis in the Mexican coffee industry. Emerging from a first stage of crisis in the 1989, coffee-industry organizations have developed proposals to defend the coffee sector and promote a new model, not only for production but also for organization. Within a large national movement, the State Coalition of Coffee Producers of Oaxaca (CEPCO) has emerged as the largest and most developed statewide organization. CEPCO’s experiences highlights the difficulties and opportunities for small producers facing the vicissitudes of the international market.
