1. The growth of Latin America’s “Pink Tide.” Continuing the wave of
progressive wins in 2021, Latin America saw two new critical electoral
victories: Gustavo Petro in Colombia and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil.
When President Biden’s June Summit of the Americas excluded Cuba, Nicaragua
and Venezuela, several Latin American leaders declined to attend, while others
used the opportunity to push the United States to respect the sovereignty of
the countries in the region. (Stay tuned for CODEPINK’s spring forum “In
Search of a New U.S. Policy for a New Latin America.”)
2. The U.S. labor movement caught fire. In 2022 we witnessed the brilliant
organizing of Chris Smalls and the Amazon workers, Starbucks reached nearly
7,000 unionized workers and close to 300 unionized stores. Requests to the
National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections were up 58% in the
first eight months of 2022. Labor is back and fighting the good fight.
