The New War on the Poor

While governments and the media present the often violent, repressive actions of governments as something wholly distinct from—and certainly better than—the actions of criminals, to those who suffer the consequences of the contemporary public security state, the difference isn’t always so clear. In The New War on the Poor, John Gledhill presents that perspective, linking the experiences of labor migrants crossing Latin America’s international borders; indigenous Mexicans defending their territories against capitalist mega-projects, drug wars, and paramilitary violence; Afro-Brazilians living on the urban periphery of Salvador; and farmers and business people tired of paying protection to criminal gangs. Through these close-up accounts of life lived on the margins, Gledhil reveals the too-close relationship between public power and private interest, and the unintended consequences and resistance that such repressive actions are beginning to generate.