We are delighted to tell you that our new website has gone live this week. We have improved the way we present information to the world so that we can offer our readers, the possibility to provide, use and respond to information from Latin America and the Caribbean.
You can see the new site here at our usual web address (LAB website). In tribute to this new departure for LAB, and in the 35th year of our existence, we invited Professor Jenny Pearce, distinguished Latin America expert, a prolific LAB author and LAB full-time staff member from 1979 to 1990, to look back on LAB’s work. Read more.
The changes are not just cosmetic (though we hope you will also like the new look). Take a look at how articles are organised (see here). You can rapidly filter all LAB’s previously posted material by region, country and theme. Suppose, for instance, you are interested in mining conflicts in Peru. A couple of clicks at the head of the News page (see here) brings you the list of related articles.
We have also taken into account that users not only use social networks to stay abreast of new information but also different devices such as mobiles and tablets. The new site has been designed with this in mind to ensure that information is always clearly presented and accessible.
Many of the social movements in the region have their own websites, blogs, Facebook or Twitter feeds and we hope they will follow LAB, disseminate our material and use our website to bring their struggles to the attention of a wider audience in other countries of the region as well as those elsewhere in the world interested in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Our new website is much more interactive as a result, making it easier for you to send us your news, tell us about your activities and help us to spread the word. This will enable us to reflect views from the region more consistently.
Read for example how the Achuar people in PERU have successfully defended their traditional land against a foreign-owned mining giant. Read more.
In ARGENTINA, an important recent court case set a precedent in the region for claims against transnational companies over their use of chemical sprays in large-scale agriculture. Read more.
LAB also follows closely the attempts by Latin American trade unions and other grass-root organizations to improve conditions in agriculture and daily life. Read for example the efforts being made within the banana industry in GUATEMALA. Read more.
We continue to offer analysis from LAB writers and other experts of the latest significant political developments in the region, as in this article on the recent resumption of talks between the FARC guerrillas and the government in COLOMBIA. Read more. The International Crisis Group has issued a new report on the talks. Read more. Also, the author of a new book about the country takes a hard look at the relationship between peace talks and narcotráfico. Read more.
We will soon invite ‘Partners’ —NGOs, trade unions, women’s and student organisations, campaigners and local pressure groups in the region— to send us their details (complete a profile on the Partners page of our website), news, reports, interviews, photographs, videos and comments on issues and debates. The Partners page (see here) is still being developed and expanded to collect and display the new material and we will keep you updated on its progress.
We are also gradually developing an e-Library (see here) of useful web-links, reports and other material. And, of course, LAB’s own publications will continue to be listed (see here). We are exploring ways of moving to e-book publication, both for LAB’s back-catalogue and for future books and Special Reports. We hope to publish our first Special Report, on the Brazilian Truth Commission, before the end of 2012.
Meanwhile, we will continue to provide focus and analysis in our regular newsletters, and it will be much easier to find and read past newsletters (see here).
If you have any comments on the new site or come across any difficulties please help us to improve it by sending an email to info@lab.org.uk. And let us know what you think!