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SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW AND THEORY OF SUBORDINATE INTEGRATION...
for the Americas Initiative” by all nations in the Americas. In Mexico,
government, trade unions, businessmen and citizens are greatly in favor
of integration with the U.S.A.
Certain industries and social sectors in the United States oppose and
would be negatively affected by NAFTA. These are textile, apparel, sugar
refining, fruit growers and electronic assembly industries. The AFL-CIO
trade union opposes NAFTA as well as U.S. auto workers, human rights
activists and environmentalists. Manufacturing that will be affected by
Mexico’s low cost production are: auto parts, electronics, plastics, glass,
furniture, chemicals, textiles and clothing. 45 All countries in the Caribbean,
as a result of Mexican lower production cost, shall face problems in these
economic sectors as well.
Due to it’s characteristics and inherent problems “Subordinate Integration”
probably is not a durable or permanent integration process; but rather
a method of resolving certain actual crises intrinsic to economic growth
in capitalist development.
10. CONCLUSIONS AND FINAL REMARKS REGARDING
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CRISIS AND
DETERIORATION IN THE CARIBBEAN-LATIN
AMERICAN REGION
The region has suffered at least one decade (and perhaps it shall be
two decades) of economic recession, and also has been greatly affected
by the 1982 debt crisis. Our present regional identity is characterized by
societies where living conditions are in constant decay. Informal and marginal
sectors are growing in urban areas, these social groups are related
to vast social sectors involved in crime, petty delinquency, drug traffic,
prostitution and growing contamination of the country-side, forests and
cities. Education and health care are in very poor shape. However, at
the same time, a social polarization is occurring due to integration and
it’s modernization of certain favored economic sectors. Mass media and
electoral democracies are successfully in control of mass public opinion.
Most citizens are fascinated by the prospects of integration. Nonetheless,
as a result of further economic deterioration and transformation of fundamental
economic sectors and resulting unemployment, we must expect
sporadic social violence, community protests, strikes, and looting of commerce
in the region, such as has occurred in Venezuela, Argentina, Los
Angeles and Chiapas-Mexico. In this scene, democratic civil liberties will
45
Orme Jr., William A., “The Sunbelt Moves South,” NACLA Report on the
Americas, Vol. XXIV, No. 6, New York, May, 1991, 10-19.
106
Vol. XX, Núm. x - xxxxx de 2005 • HOMINES •