New Challenges for Radical Social Movements
Zibechi, Raúl
"THERE WERE NO SOCIAL CLASSES THAT day," says Jorge Jara, recounting the protests of December 20, 2001 "You'd look, and we were all equals. 'Let's gol' someone would say And we'd all start...
...5 The Aymaras are forging a strategy that differs markedly from the one adopted by Mexico's Zapatistas, who have chosen to build autonomy within the existing framework of the Mexican nation-state {See "Resistance An Aymara jilikata (native authority) during a confrontation with police, in September 2OO+ in the highland town of Viacha...
...They have even established reciprocal exchanges with other groups beyond the formal marketplace.2 Recovered factories and neighborhood assemblies have also made tangible links with piquetero groups, particularly in the distribution and commercialization of products...
...According to the group's Web site, this part of the country "constitutes 'the other vision' of Bolivia and this movement aspires to achieve the radical autonomy of this oppressed nation...
...They have even established reciprocal exchanges with other groups beyond the formal marketplace...
...It also differs from the demands of Ecuador's indigenous movement for plurinationality The Aymaras do not talk in terms of a single "state" but rather a nation...
...2 Recovered factories and neighborhood assemblies have also made tangible links with piquetero groups, particularly in the distribution and commercialization of products...
...As the landed elite and captains of industry, neoliberalism continues to serve them particularly well...
...9. Pablo Davalos, "Movimiento indIgena, democracia, Estado y pluririacionalidad en Ecuador...
...During the October 2003 so-called "gas war," the Youth Brigade in Santa Cruz along with another militant separatist youth group violently repelled an approaching march of mostly indigenous protestors from entering the city...
...The division between these sectors came to a head over the July 18, 2004, nationwide referendum on the future of the country's vast natural gas deposits...
...Harry E. Vanden is a professor of political science and international studies at the University of South Florida, Tampa...
...Moreover, it has the experience of leaving government and returning to the opposition and militancy in the streets...
...These definitions of difference would be the basis for the new principles of the state...
...Economically, the altipiano is geared towards domestic markets, yet the resourcerich media luna is export-oriented...
...conservative movement, these groups, for the most part, wage their battles with culture rather than economics, because the latter would alienate their less-affluent base.U 17 MARCH APRIL 2005 REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS movement...
...Right-wing civic and business groups from the media luna region, which is the crescent or "half-moon" shaped region comprising the northern, eastern and southern lowlands of the country,are at the forefront of this drive to challenge the indigenous movements' supremacy as the nation's most influential political force...
...La constituciOn de un actor politico," Cuestiones de America, No...
...Let's gol' someone would say And we'd all start moving...
...How can they move between mobilization and some form of action not based on confrontation...
...This was a task that implied debating "the epistemological contents of difference, mainly in the construction of new subjects like the communal subject, and of new institutions, such as the administration of indigenous justice, communal economic institutions, etc...
...On August 2 1-23, 2004, the Amazonian Parliament of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadoran Amazon (CONFENIAE) devoted sessions to analyzCONAIE ing the current delicate moment...
...Echoing the rallying cry of many of his constituents, the Aymara leader has called for the building of an "Aymara nation...
...In Ecuador the government succeeded in co-opting important sectors and leaders, producing a deep division through the heart of the social movement united by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE...
...The movement's most combative arm is its Youth Brigade...
...The long-standing tension between the two forces based in two separate regions ignited over last year's referendum on the fate of the nation's gas reserves...
...In Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador new governments have caused new divisions in social movements and co-opted some popular sectors by integrat- ing them into government...
...Although the organization describes itself as nonviolent, the orientation of some of its subgroups leads many observers to doubt its nonviolent underpinnings...
...The groups with vertical and caudillista structures are much more prone to government alignment, not only because they need the resources to feed clientelistic practices, but also because maintaining caudillos in positions of power can be an expensive enterprise...
...The division between these sectors came to a head over the July 18, 2004, nationwide referendum on the future of the country's vast natural gas deposits...
...Brazil's Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) is a notable exception...
...During the October 2003 so-called "gas war," the Youth Brigade in Santa Cruz along with another militant separatist youth group violently repelled an approaching march of mostly indigenous protestors from entering the city...
...The groups with vertical and caudillista structures are much more prone to government alignment, not only because they need the resources to feed clientelistic practices, but also because maintaining caudillos in positions of power can be an expensive enterprise...
...The vote led to a confrontation between a boycott of the vote championed by Aymara leader Felipe Quispe, who considered the referendum a trap, and Morales' institution18 al strategy for political victory at the ballot box...
...groups among others-with varied constituencies under a banner of solidarity and common solutions...
...Significantly, activists involved in some sectors of the piqueteros and other Argentine movements namely, the neighborhood assemblies, occupied factories and campesino collectives are working to build new social relations from below against the logic of the state...
...One of its leaders at historical leaders, Antonio Vargas, is now the head of minister of Social Well-Being in the neolibera June al government of Gutierrez...
...When those sons of bitches would shoot, they wouldn't ask your class...
...Echoing the rallying cry of many of his constituents, the Aymara leader has called for the building of an "Aymara nation...
...But at the same time, these governments confront the grassroots movements with new challenges for which they are ill-prepared...
...But the fallout from the gas war along with other recent and similar upheavals has forced a nationwide evaluation of the gamut of neoliberal policies imposed in recent decades...
...CONA1E became an alternative power...
...In Ecuador the government succeeded in co-opting important sectors and leaders, producing a deep division through the heart of the social movement united by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE...
...He has published some thirty scholarly articles and six books, including Politics of Latin America: the Power Game (Oxford University Press, 2002...
...We see this in the cases of the piquetero movement in Argentina, Bolivia's popular and indigenous The existence of "progressive" governments, today the majority in South America, was made possible by social struggles that debilitated the neoliberal model...
...MOnica Chuji Gualinga, "Asamblea Extraordinaria de a Confeniae...
...CAINCO enjoys generous funding from local and international organizations...
...In the process, they have lost much of their autonomy in formulating proposals and actions...
...N 17REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS lives based on criteria of solidarity and personal initiative...
...In Argentina and Brazil, Nestor Kirchner and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were elected in the wake of vast social movements that weakened or caused crises in the prevailing neoliberal model...
...The socalled "Bolivarian Revolution" headed by Hugo Chavez would never have gained its current momentum without the Caracazo, which marked the beginning of a deep crisis in the Venezuelan party system...
...If he fails and doesn't channel popular discontent by stabilizing the country, then the poles will amass power," says Garcia...
...Since Venezuela's street protests of 1989 (dubbed the "Caracazo"), Latin America's popular protests have managed to topple governments, derail privatizations and have, above all, made those at the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder the excluded and the marginalized into the central protagonists of social struggles...
...These encounters bring with police, nomenon...
...The ways the different piquetero sectors organize themselves provide some clues that help explain the political paths chosen by each sector...
...government under the Freedom of Information Act by investigative journalist Jeremy Bigwood, CAINCO receives funds from the congressionalof their food in community gardens, have built health clinics and have begun opening schools...
...Right-wing civic and business groups from the media luna region, which is the crescent or "half-moon" shaped region comprising the northern, eastern and southern lowlands of the country,are at the forefront of this drive to challenge the indigenous movements' supremacy as the nation's most influential political force...
...The stated purpose of the grant is to research and advocate for the modification of the federal law on "Contracts of Goods, Labor, General Services and Consulting," which sets the rules for purchases, bids and contracts-gas exploration and exportation contracts, for instance...
...In recent months, an important reconfiguration of the movements has been gaining momentum, creating new horizontal spaces between groups...
...When social justice movements develop the ability to mobilize large numbers of people and gain influence in the political arena, they 0 I ocreate a new scenario that frequently turns against them...
...This is a much more radical project than the ones promoted in Chiapas or Ecuador, albeit obviously much more difficult to implement...
...Nacion Camba consistently vilifies the federal government, arguing that federal institutions are overly beholden to altiplano indigenous groups...
...In some cases, movements have even managed to strengthen themselves among new social sectors...
...Although the organization describes itself as nonviolent, the orientation of some of its subgroups leads many observers to doubt its nonviolent underpinnings...
...Should they participate in government or remain in the opposition...
...They are not only concerned by what they do, but more importantly, how they do it...
...Economically, the altipiano is geared towards domestic markets, yet the resourcerich media luna is export-oriented...
...At the other end of the spectrum are the so-called autOnomos groups that most forcefully protect their autonomy and have the most horizontality in their structures and practices...
...It has generally maintained its dynamism by asserting its autonomy from the government and is currently creating spaces to re-launch mass mobilizations...
...At the other extreme, groups linked to leftist political parties Communists, Trotskyists, Maoists and Guevarists have committed themselves to continued street mobilizations as a way of facing a political conjuncture marked by a "generous" government attitude toward the poor...
...An MST protest in Brazirs Amazon region...
...He describes how in a matter of seconds, the small group made the decision to take cover while still holding its ground against the approaching police...
...The new president argued against tactics that reproduce the same strategy of "Latin America's soNACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS "The strategic error of the indigenous movement," says Divalos, "was to underestimate the political system and to think that the Pachakutik political movement was by itself sufficient to confront and resolve disputes with the political system...
...These well-heeled civic and business groups use a racist and regionally chauvinistic discourse, saying the future of the gas reserves should not be held hostage by what they see as extremist and obstructionist indigenous movements...
...The altiplano is primarily indigenous-Aymara and Quechua-while the media luna has a much larger mestizo population...
...According to sociologist Pablo Ddvalos, "The plurinational state is the axis of a theoretical and political hinge that allows the Indians of Ecuador to make the transition from a social movement to a political entity...
...This constitutes an incipient form of self-government that is moving toward "making our own laws, exchanging the political constitution of the state with our own constitution, replacing the capitalist system with a communal one and changing the tn- 8 colored flag [of Bolivia] for our seven-colored flag...
...At the other end of the spectrum are the so-called autonomos-groups that most forcefully protect their autonomy and have the most horizontality in their structures and practices...
...Groups like CAINCO and Nacion Camba along with its offshoots have recently gained prominence because they are directly contesting this blatant rejection...
...Only a few groups have managed to escape the two extremes of co-optation and endless, exhausting and generally unfruitful mobilizations...
...Indigenous groups from the altiplano (highlands) continue to demand the unequivocal nationalization of the reserves, while media luna groups believe they stand to benefit from the continued exportation of gas by a handful of multinational corporations...
...In other words, the existence of "progressive" governments, today the majority in South America, was made possible by social struggles that debilitated the neoliberal model and brought a degree of crisis to both political representation and the nation-state itself...
...Much like other periods of uncertainty and confusion, it is often from the bases that feasible and sustainable responses emerge to rebuild and create more solid foundations...
...But these dilemmas have raised some hard questions for social movements...
...The most public face of the regional autonomy movement is the +O,00 member-strong Movimiento Naci6n Camba de Liberaci6n (Movement for the Liberation of the Camba Nation...
...The majority of groups in the altiplano, the region most devastated by these policies, wholly reject the neoliberal model...
...According to documents obtained from the U.S...
...Argentina's piquetero movement has suffered serious fragmentation since the inauguration of the Kirchner Administration...
...The group's name is derived from the proposed breakaway country that would potentially encompass more than two-thirds of the national territory...
...By doing so, the organization assured itself a permanent flow of resources but consequently lost its credibility as an ethical and political role model within the larger piquetero movement...
...In none of the countries mentioned above, though, have these new difficulties put an end to social mobilization...
...The most public face of the regional autonomy movement is the 1+0,000 member-strong Moulmienfo Nacion Camba de Liberacian (Movement for the Liberation of the Camba Nation...
...Indigenous groups from the alfiplano (highlands) continue to demand the unequivocal nationalization of the reserves, while media luna groups believe they stand to benefit from the continued exportation of gas by a handful of multinational corporations...
...The foundation of its political proposals was the demand for "plurinationality" a demand that implied the reconstitution of the Ecuadoran state...
...Argentina: una sociedad en rnovimiento (La Plata: Letra Libre, 2003...
...7 Pressure from grassroots movements in 1998 resulted in the convocation of a Constituent Assembly to define the characteristics of a new state...
...The Ecuadoran case provides many insights into both the possibilities and the pitfalls of social movements' involvement in government, and it represents a unique case in movement-government relations in Latin America...
...The Buenos Aires events do not stand alone in recent Latin American history For example, a series of protests in El Alto, Bolivia led to the resignation of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada on October 17, 2003...
...Hold Their Ground byHarryE.Vanden O VER THE PAST FEW DECADES, THERE have been various forms of popular protest in Latin America against the austerity measures and conservative economic policies that have come to be called "neoliberalism...
...These well-heeled civic and business groups use a racist and regionally chauvinistic discourse, saying the future of the gas reserves should not be held hostage by what they see as extremist and obstructionist indigenous movements...
...8 But the political class resisted and diverted the aspirations of the movement...
...And we'd all start moving...
...Worse yet, many popular demands were formally accepted by the elite but with no practical consequences...
...That divisive session of the new indigenous parliament left a bitter memory with many participants, who viewed it as a betrayal of the movement's principles...
...19 "rfMM nitiecREPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS "The strategic error of the indigenous movement," says Davalos, "was to underestimate the political system and to think that the Pachakutik political movement was by itself sufficient to confront and resolve disputes with the political system...
...The vote led to a confrontation between a boycott of the vote championed by Aymara leader Felipe Quispe, who con- sidered the referendum a trap, and Morales' institution18 al strategy for political victory at the ballot box...
...He proposed a return to "collective leadership" and reminded the audience that power is "built from below...
...The NED grant, among other things, is therefore helping CAINCO pave the way for private companies to obtain favorable government contracts and invest in the exploration and exportation of the region's natural gas...
...On the other hand, the cocalero (coca growers) movement, led by Evo Morales along with the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, took a more conciliatory approach, and for several months acted as important bases of support for the Mesa government...
...And this would open the possibility of a civil war to mediate the clash between the poles...
...Characterizing the growing rift among the movements, Raquel Gutierrez, a long-time observer of Bolivia, wrote, "If in 2003, the confluence of social energies was dedicated to a common objective that trounced sector-specific demands the recovery of the nation's gas reserves then in 2004, the popular and indigenous movement has not been able to present a coherent autonomous narrative for its actions...
...The groups co-opted by the government probably constitute a little over a third of the entire piquetero U I. I 1 U. Teo Balive is a NACL4 editor and a contributing news editor for the Resource Center of the Aniericas <http://www.americas.org...
...The movement's most combative arm is its Youth Brigade...
...In sum, they are creating community, producing and providing for their own ly funded U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED...
...On August 21-23, 2004, the Amazonian Parliament of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadoran Amazon (CONFENIAE) devoted sessions to analyzCONAIE ing the current delicate moment...
...In other words, the authoritarian mechanisms of traditional power still held force at the time of the election...
...In doing so, it adopted the logic of the state...
...Both admin15REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS istrations have successfully exploited these internal fissures to their advantage...
...These encounters bring together diverse groups piqueteros, human rights groups, indigenous organizations, and labor and student ________ groups among others with varied constituencies under a banner of solidarity and common solutions.3 IN BOLIVIA, THE POWERFUL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THAT converged to overthrow the neoliberal government of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada split in two when Carlos Mesa assumed the presidency On the one hand, the Bolivian Workers' Central (COB), the landless groups, the Confederation of Campesino Workers (CSUTCB), the Coordinator in Defense of Gas and the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of El Alto (FEJUVE) that constituted the core of the October 2003 insurrection and that maintain the struggle to nationalize gas have clearly established a place for themselves on the political scene...
...On the other hand, the cocalero (coca growers) movement, led by Evo Morales along with the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, took a more conciliatory approach, and for several months acted as important bases of support for the Mesa government...
...Me," he adds, "an unemployed worker, and right next to me a guy In a suit and tie...
...The reactions in Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina and Bolivia have been strong and significant and, in varying ways, make one wonder if the dominant political project is working for common people...
...As a minority elite, these groups have manipulated and exploited prevalent threads of racism and regional divisions that have long-plagued Bolivian society...
...These definitions of difference would be the basis for the new principles of the state...
...CAINCO represents about 1,500 companies operating in the region, and according to its mission statement, it "serves to protect and defend the interest of its member companies," among them, international oil companies...
...They don't seek to occupy or seize the existing Bolivian state...
...Popular movements typically respond to the priorities of their own communities, but increasingly they must also respond to the timing dictated by institutional politics and state power...
...By formulating the rules for the election of representatives for the Constituent Assembly, the political elite favored established political parties, thereby placing the delegates of the popular and indigenous movements at a distinct disadvantage...
...No certain solutions exist, but the safeguarding of autonomy seems necessary if the social movements are to fend off situations that can potentially, and perhaps irreparably, damage them...
...The indigenous parliament became sharply divided and confusion reigned...
...Popular urban sectors throughout the continent are creating initiatives that indicate a shift from providing services to becoming producers...
...This panorama of Latin American social movements confirms there are no sure-fire models or recipes...
...Worse yet, many popular demands were formally accepted by the elite but with no practical consequences...
...In Argentina and Brazil, Nestor Kirchner and Luiz Inicio Lula da Silva were elected in the wake of vast social movements that weakened or caused crises in the prevailing neoliberal model...
...Alvaro Garcia Linera, a prominent Bolivian university professor, tells me President Carlos Mesa is trying to defuse the situation by building support for a more moderate position between the two poles...
...In 1996, CONAIE along with some other movements, created Pachakutik, an electoral-political entity designed to make it a powerful actor in formal politics...
...In a speech delivered to the Congress Macas harshly criticized Pachakutik and the institutional strategy it represents...
...How, for example, should they relate to electoral forces with which they share common features...
...The cultural identity and ethnic makeup of the regions differ dramatically...
...This division in the popular sector has allowed President Mesa to continue his plan to keep the country's natural resources in private hands...
...MARCH APRIL 2005 REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS create a new scenario that frequently turns against them...
...As time passes, the movements discover they have helped install governments that seek to strengthen the state--an apparatus routinely undermined by neoliberal policies...
...The ongoing controversy has radical groups from the resource-rich media luna calling for the creation of a nation independent from the impoverished western highlands...
...Characterizing the growing rift among the movements, Raquel Gutierrez, a long-time observer of Bolivia, wrote, "If in 2003, the confluence of social energies was dedicated to a common objective that trounced sector-specific demands-the recovery of the nation's gas reserves-then in 2004, the popular and indigenous movement has not been able to present a coherent autonomous narrative for its actions...
...Because Nacion Camba's proposed separation from Bolivia is presented as a vehicle for greater economic independence and prosperity, the group has found a powerful ally in the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CAINCO...
...0 As a result, by 2000 the political space that the grassroots indigenous movement had been successfully reclaiming since 1990 was suddenly closed off...
...Colonel Lucio Gutierrez rose to the presidency of Ecuador largely due to the support of a powerful indigenous movement...
...6. Pablo Davalos, "Movimiento indigena, democracia, Estado y plurinacionalidad en Ecuador," Revista Venezolana de Economla y Ciencias Sociales, Vol...
...that decrees a system of state-centralized colonialism, which exploits its 'internal colonies,' appropriating our ecoNACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS istrations have successfully exploited these internal fissures to their advantage...
...This panorama of Latin American social movements confirms there are no sure-fire models or recipes...
...These opportunities arise, however, as long as the movements in some form accept being embedded into state institutions, which weakens their ability to inspire social mobilization...
...One of its largest and most influential groups, the Federation of Land and Housing, directed by Luis D'Elia, opted to become the piquetero arm of the Kirchner government...
...The statement is representative of a growing social movement with interests that are diametrically opposed to those of the powerful indigenous-based popular movements...
...Over the past year, the political rhythms were established by the state...
...This is the essential paradox and challenge of popular struggle...
...They are two national projects," says Garcia, "and this is what's defining Bolivia's political trajectory at the moment...
...Today, the indigenous Ecuadoran movement is trying to heal the wounds it suffered from its failed participation in government...
...Once the movement adopted this political strategy, it became imprisoned in a logic that inevitably led to its self-destruction...
...These encounters bring in September together diverse groups-piqueteros, 2004 in the human rights groups, indigenous highland town organizations, and labor and student of Viacha...
...conservative movement, these groups, for the most part, wage their battles with culture rather than economics, because the latter would alienate their less-affluent base...
...At the other extreme, groups linked to leftist political parties-Communists, Trotskyists, Maoists and Guevarists-have committed themselves to continued street mobilizations as a way of facing a political conjuncture marked by a "generous" government attitude BOLIVIA'S SEPARATIST MOVEMENT "44 w hat we should do is simply and smoothly separate V ourselves [from Bolivia...
...The cleavage between the two regions runs deeper than the gas controversy...
...9 In 1999 CONAIE led two uprisings in reaction to the growing paralysis and decomposition of the state...
...How can they continue building their own movements when the government seeks to divide and co-opt their leaders...
...In this critical context, however, the indigenous movement took an unprecedented turn...
...Not only do they grow food, but in many cases produce clothing, shoes and other products...
...The municipal elections were largely seen as a launching pad to the presidency for Morales in 2007...
...If he fails and doesn't channel popular discontent by stabilizing the country, then the poles will amass power," says Garcia...
...The altiplano is primarily indigenous Aymara and Quechua while the media luna has a much larger mestizo population...
...In Argentina and Bolivia the situation is more complex...
...In 1996, CONAIE along with some other movements, created Pachakutik, an electoral-political entity designed to make it a powerful actor in formal politics...
...Its first ever NED grant, totaling S128,285, came almost three months before the July 18, 200, gas referendum...
...Amid the internal divisions of the social movements, the presidents of both countries have managed to build bridges and develop policies partly reflecting differing social groups' demands...
...Clearly, the gas issue has become one of the most contentious issues facing Bolivia...
...For starters, the social movements and the new governments usually differ in their sense of priorities and timing...
...Should they participate in government or remain in the opposition...
...As Davalos points out, through their proposals the indigenous movement sought a new prescription for The Aymaras plan to replace the sharply polarized Bolivian state with a nation self-governed by nmmminitipe the state...
...This division in the popular sector has allowed President Mesa to continue his plan to keep the country's natural resources in private hands...
...It seems that each person's know-how quickly multiplied into collective, non-hierarchical, horizontal knowledge...
...16 BOLIVIA'S SEPARATIST MOVEMENT hat we should do is simply and smoothly separate ourselves [from Bolivia...
...MARCH APRIL 2005 REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS and Autonomy...
...It was CAINCO president Zvonko Matkovic who proposed "simply and smoothly" seceding from the nation...
...In Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador new governments have caused new divisions in social movements and co-opted some popular sectors by integrating them into government...
...4. Raquel Gutierrez, "Bolivia: El temblor viene de abajo, carajo," Ojarasca, supplement to La Jornada, November 8, 2004...
...Too often, their success weakens and even divides them, thereby leading to a period of withdrawal and demobilization...
...from the communities...
...CAINCO represents about 1,500 companies operating in the region, and according to its mission statement, it "serves to protect and defend the interest of its member companies," among them, international oil companies...
...One might assume these words were spoken by a radical Aymara indigenista, but they were actually uttered by the powerful right-wing leader of a business association in the eastern city of Santa Cruz...
...Although one can question the sincerity and motives of these new governments, one thing is cetain: their existence has produced a radical change in power relations...
...jungle if they agreed to sign a deal between the CONFENIAE and the Minister's office...
...Alvaro Garcia Linera, a prominent Bolivian university professor, tells me President Carlos Mesa is trying to defuse the situation by building support for a more moderate position between the two poles...
...That divisive session of the new indigenous parliament left a bitter memory with many participants, who viewed it as a betrayal of the movement's principles...
...On the other hand, progressive governments allow popular movements wider spaces and opportunities...
...None of it mattered...
...The Ecuadoran indigenous movement is hotly debating how to proceed...
...To do so, they work to co-opt and divide the movements along with their most capable leaders, because active and mobilized movements necessarily undermine a government's capacity to govern...
...government under the Freedom of Information Act by investigative journalist Jeremy Bigwood, CAINCO receives funds from the congressionally funded U.S-based National Endowment for Democracy (N ED...
...In this critical context, however, the indigenous movement took an unprecedented turn...
...But fewer and fewer members heed their calls to action, and their protests have less and less public resonance...
...toward the poor...
...According to documents obtained from the U.S...
...For that reason, the relationship of the Aymaras to the Bolivian state is rife with conflict and without any apparent solution that would not lead to some form of social civil war-which, in fact, they have already declared...
...As for the aut6nomos, they are the most creative and seem to be the wing of the movement actually seeking new social relations...
...The long-standing tension between the two forces-based in two separate regions-ignited over last year's referendum on the fate of the nation's gas reserves...
...This led many observers to suspect that the MAS and Morales were positioning themselves for the December 2004 municipal elections in which the MAS turned out to be the most voted-for party...
...Since the Inti Raymi uprising in June 1990, CONAIE has managed to unite the indigenous communities of the highlands, the coast and the Amazon region while at the same time developing a potent form of social action that has led to several militant uprisings...
...p. 34...
...It calls the national police, for example, an "army of occupation," because its recruits have an "ethno-cultural affinity to the Aymara masses...
...CONAIE has exercised almost every political option available to movements: popular insurrections, construction of broad political alliances with a diversity of sectors, creation of a political-electoral front, direct participation in elections, taking power nationally for several hours and integration into government...
...In other words, the existence of "progressive" governments, today the majority in South America, was made possible by social struggles that debilitated the neoliberal model and brought a degree of crisis to both political representation and the nation-state itself...
...One of its leaders at historical leaders, Antonio Vargas, is now the head of minister of Social Well-Being in the neolibera June al government of Gutierrez...
...A passerby chimes in: "It's that our struggle erases differences," he says...
...But their power to reach new constituencies has been weakened by a government that makes selective concessions and seeks to isolate them...
...It calls the national police, for example, an "army of occupation," because its recruits have an "ethno-cultural affinity to the Aymara masses...
...In doing so, it adopted the logic of the state...
...But fewer and fewer members heed their calls to action, and their protests have less and less public resonance...
...Another member of the MTD tells me that on the 20th he saw a student and two young piqueteros gathered on a street corner speaking with nearby residents and motoqueros (motorcycle delivery drivers who that day served as the lines of communication between groups...
...7 Pressure from grassroots movements in 1998 resulted in the convocation of a Constituent Assembly to define the characteristics of a new state...
...The Ecuadoran indigenous movement is hotly debating how to proceed...
...Much like the U.S...
...He proposed a return to "collective leadership" and reminded the audience that power is "built from below...
...In taking that step, it risked a lesson learned over more than a decade of accumulated political and organizational experience: in Davalos' words, "to assume the logic of power can mean destroying the experience gained as a counter-power...
...Its leaders separated from the bases and adopted a tactic of conquering state power, which had little to do with the original project of building a plurinational state...
...This is a much more radical project than the ones promoted in Chiapas or Ecuador, albeit obviously much more difficult to implement...
...THIs INSTABILITY OF THE INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT," commented Kichwa parliamentarian MOnica Chuji, "can be traced back to the alliance made by the Pachakutic movement that directly involved the CONAIE with the Gutierrez Administration without consulting the rank and file of the organization and without any discussion or programmatic agreement...
...Tabare Vasquez recently won the presidency in Uruguay on a wave of fierce resistance by the labor movement against the privatization of key public services and other neoliberal policies...
...Amid the internal divisions of the social movements, the presidents of both countries have managed to build bridges and develop policies partly reflecting differing social groups' demands...
...4 Indeed, over the last year, all the social movements have had to respond in successive rear-guard actions to policies from the political establishment...
...Over the past year, the political rhythms were established by the state...
...jungle if they agreed to sign a deal between the CONFENIAE and the Minister's office...
...Colonel Lucio Gutierrez rose to the presidency of Ecuador largely due to the support of a powerful indigenous movement...
...In some ways, they have lost much of their dynamism by dangerously relegating their initiatives to a state composed of politicians who intermittently use the language of the movements, wave similar banners and claim to defend identical objectives...
...10, No...
...And this would open the possibility of a civil war to mediate the clash between the poles...
...It has generally maintained its dynamism by asserting its autonomy from the govern- ment and is currently creating spaces to re-launch mass mobilizations...
...This often creates tension between movement leaders and the rank and file...
...These opportunities arise, however, as long as the movements in some form accept being embedded into state institutions, which weakens their ability to inspire social mobilization...
...In taking that step, it risked a lesson learned over more than a decade of accumulated political and organizational experience: in Dvalos' words, "to assume the logic of power can mean destroying the experience gained as a counter-power...
...Me," he adds, "an unemployed worker, and right next to me a guy in a suit and tie...
...For that reason, the relationship of the Aymaras to the Bolivian state is rife with conflict and without any apparent solution that would not lead to some form of social civil war which, in fact, they have already declared...
...How can they move between mobilization and some form of action not based on confrontation...
...Another member of the MTD tells me that on the 20th he saw a student and two young piqueteros gathered on a street corner speaking with nearby residents and motoqueros (motorcycle delivery drivers who that day served as the lines of communication between groups...
...In Peru, Alejandro Toledo gained office thanks to a broadbased movement that ousted Alberto Fujimori...
...The election of Luis Macas, a movement stalwart, as CONAIE's president signals a return to the basics for the organization...
...This constitutes an incipient form of self-government that is moving toward "making our own laws, exchanging the political constitution of the state with our own constitution, replacing the capitalist system with a communal one and changing the tricolored flag [of Bolivia] for our seven-colored flag...
...9 Such movements are also a recent and vociferous manifestation of the specter of mass popular mobilization against the governing elite that has haunted Latin America since colonial times...
...Only the Achuar, Shuar and Kichwas of Pastaza rejected the majority position to accept the government aid...
...As for the autOnomos, they are the most creative and seem to be the wing of the movement actually seeking new social relations...
...3 IN BOLIVIA, THE POWERFUL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THAT converged to overthrow the neoliberal government of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada split in two when Carlos Mesa assumed the presidency...
...Translated by NACLA and the International Relations Center 14 by Raiil Zibechi HERE WERE NO SOCIAL CLASSES THAT day," says Jorge Jara, recounting the "T.protests of December 20, 2001...
...They are two national projects," says Garcia, "and this is what's defining Bolivia's political trajectory at the moment...
...The group's name is derived from the proposed breakaway country that would potentially encompass more than two-thirds of the national territory...
...In the end, the decision to withdraw from the government was the only way to avoid its complete dissolution...
...This is especially true when these movements find themselves caught up in the institutional agenda of state power and, in the process, abandon the priorities of their own constituencies...
...Recent events show that changes in government leadership provoke readjustments within social movements...
...In other words, the authoritarian mechanisms of traditional power still held force at the time of the election...
...In Argentina and Bolivia the situation is more complex...
...How, for example, should they relate to electoral forces with which they share common features...
...When those sons of bitches would shoot, they wouldn't ask your class...
...Since Venezuela's street protests of 1989 (dubbed the "Caracazo"), Latin America's popular protests have managed to topple governments, derail privatizations and have, above all, made those at the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder-the excluded and the marginalized-into the central protagonists of social struggles...
...Although one can question the sincerity and motives of these new governments, one thing is cetain: their existence has produced a radical change in power relations...
...No certain solutions exist, but the safeguarding of autonomy seems necessary if the social movements are to fend off situations that can potentially, and perhaps irreparably, damage them...
...It has been one of the broadest, most powerful and mature movements in the region...
...THIS INSTABILITY OF THE INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT," commented Kichwa parliamentarian Monica Chuji, "can be traced back to the alliance made by the Pachakutic movement that directly involved the CONAIE with the Gutierrez Administration without consulting the rank and file of the organization and without any discussion or programmatic agreement...
...3. Indymedia Argentina, "Encuentro por Ia Resistencia desde Ia Diversidad", October 3, 2004...
...Certainly, the more progressive a government is, the Brazil's Landless REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS more possibilities will be open to movements...
...Its leaders separated from the bases and adopted a tactic of conquering state power, which had little to do with the original project of building a plurinational state...
...Too often, their success weakens and even divides them, thereby leading to a period of withdrawal and demobilization...
...Both admin15 MARCH APRIL 2005 REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS The existence of "progressive" governments, today the majority in South America, was made possible by social struggles that debilitated the neoliberal model...
...The CONAIE then supported the presidential candidacy of Lucio Gutierrez and for six months formed part of his administration...
...Much like the U.S...
...2. MID de Solano y Colectivo Situaciones, La hipotesis 891 Mas al/a de los piquetes (Buenos Aires: De Mane en Mano, 2002...
...How can they continue building their own movements when the government seeks to divide and co-opt their leaders...
...Because Naci6n Camba's proposed separation from Bolivia is presented as a vehicle for greater economic independence and prosperity, the group has found a powerful ally in the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CAINCO...
...When social justice movements develop the ability to mobilize large numbers of people and gain influence in the political arena, they (I> 0 (I) 0 I NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS New Challenges for Radical Social Movements Motoqueros (motorcycle delivery drivers) played a prominent role in the December 20, 2001, protests in Buenos Aires...
...It seems that each person's know-how quickly multiplied into collective, non-hierarchical, horizontal knowledge...
...The new president argued against tactics that reproduce the same strategy of "Latin America's so0 o, z o r9MARCH APRTh 2005 called democracies..., which like a fishing hook, only bring up the mere few they dredge from the bottom...
...It is also quite possible that it is the democratization and celebration of civil society that allow some would say encourage the political mobilization that is manifest in the widespread emergence of forceful mass-based social and political movements...
...Instead, the Aymaras plan to replace the sharply polarized Bolivian state with a nation self-governed by communities...
...According to Quispe, however, "A strategy is emerging that seeks to replace all state authorities with our own traditional authorities" in the provinces near La Paz...
...much like the political practice of the colonial era when the motto for colonizers was "accept but don't comply" 19 MARCH APRIL 2005 REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS The Aymaras plan to replace the sharply polarized Bolivian state with a nation self-governed by communities...
...Today, the indigenous Ecuadoran movement is trying to heal the wounds it suffered from its failed participation in government...
...Only the Achuar, Shuar and Kichwas of Pastaza rejected the majority position to accept the government aid...
...THE ECUADORAN CONTEXT PROVIDES AN INTERESTING contrast to the Bolivian case of the Aymara nation...
...Non-institutional fora established for An Aymara jilikata (native movements to share experiences, authority) engage in open debates and exchange duringa strategies or ideas are a growing phe- confrontation nomenon...
...Practically speaking, says Macas, this would "permit indigenous communities [or 'nations'] the legal administration of their internal affairs under the rubric of a plurinational state...
...This mobilization not only modified the national political agenda, but also succeeded in toppling two presidents: Abdala Bucaram in 1997 and Jamil Mahuad in 2000...
...Radical Social Movements 1. Raul Zibechi, Genealogla de ia revue/ta...
...The Ecuadoran case provides many insights into both the possibilities and the pitfalls of social movements' involvement in government, and it represents a unique case in movement-government relations in Latin America...
...These questions have no simple answers, and they represent both the opportunities and the dangers for existing movements as well as those yet to come...
...It describes Bolivia as "a miserable and backwards country...
...As proposed by Chuji and Macas, the recovery of the movement will most likely be carried out at the comL munity level...
...8. Pablo Davalos, "Movimiento indigena, democracia, Estado y plurinacionalidad en Ecuador...
...They are not only concerned by what they do, but more importantly, how they do it...
...Brazil's Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) is a notable exception...
...In the face of danger, and perhaps even death, the different backgrounds gave strength to the fight...
...The Aymaras do not talk in terms of a single "state" but rather a nation...
...The blame for attempting to destroy, divide and subdue the movement cannot 20 be laid exclusively on the Gutierrez government, since the movement itself had already made decisions that allowed the government to weaken it...
...On the one hand, the Bolivian Workers' Central (COB), the landless groups, the Confederation of Campesino Workers (CSUTCB), the Coordinator in Defense of Gas and the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of El Alto (FEJUVE) that constituted the core of the October 2003 insurrection and that maintain the struggle to nationalize gas have clearly established a place for themselves on the political scene...
...6 Luis Macas, a founder of CONAIE, explains that plurinationality implies a profound reform of the first article of the Constitution in order to recognize that Ecuador is made up of several "nations...
...But their power to reach new constituencies has been weakened by a government that makes selective concessions and seeks to isolate them...
...Non-institutional fora established for movements to share experiences, engage in open debates and exchange strategies or ideas are a growing phe- nomenon...
...Since 1990, the Ecuadoran indigenous movement has been the chief social and political actor in its own country and an obligatory point of reference for social movements throughout Latin America...
...The cultural identity and ethnic makeup of the regions differ dramatically...
...The stated purpose of the grant is to research and advocate for the modification of the federal law on "Contracts of Goods, Labor, General Services and Consulting," which sets the rules for purchases, bids and contracts gas exploration and exportation contracts, for instance...
...It has been one of the broadest, most powerful and mature movements in the region...
...CONAIE became an alternative power...
...Latin America has seen an astonishing rise of centerleft governments, or at least governments that promised an anti-neoliberal program before assuming power...
...None of it mattered...
...And indigenous uprisings in Ecuador, campesino land seizures in Paraguay, anti-privatization rebellions in Peru and scores of other rural and urban social actions throughout the hemisphere can be understood in the same light...
...In a speech delivered to the Congress Macas harshly criticized Pachakutik and the institutional strategy it represents...
...The Buenos Aires events do not stand alone in recent Latin American history For example, a series of protests in El Alto, Bolivia led to the resignation of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada on October 17, 2003...
...This is the essential paradox and challenge of popular struggle...
...Certainly, the more progressive a government is, the more possibilities will be open to movements...
...The MTD piqueteros in Solano, for example, grow a portion REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS of their food in community gardens, have built health clinics and have begun opening schools...
...It describes Bolivia as "a miserable and backwards country...
...As proposed by Chuji and Macas, the recovery of the movement will most likely be carried out at the community level...
...Popular movements typically respond to the priorities of their own communities, but increasingly they must also respond to the timing dictated by institutional politics and state power...
...7. Luis Macas y Pablo Davalos "Base ideologica del Movimiento de Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutik," Nuevo Pals, July 2001...
...9 In 1999 CONAIE led two uprisings in reaction to the growing paralysis and decomposition of the state...
...Naci6n Camba consistently vilifies the federal government, arguing that federal institutions are overly beholden to altiplano indigenous groups...
...The cleavage between the two regions runs deeper than the gas controversy...
...In recent months, an important reconfiguration of the movements has been gaining momentum, creating new horizontal spaces between groups...
...2 The outcome of the Second CONAIE Congress held at the end of 2004 seems to have injected new life into the movement and provided a much-needed opportunity for self-critique...
...Practically speaking, says Macas, this would "permit indigenous communities [or 'nations'] the legal administration of their internal affairs under the rubric of a plurinational state...
...21 MARCH APRIL 2005 REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS called democracies..., which like a fishing hook, only bring up the mere few they dredge from the bottom...
...In some ways, they have lost much of their dynamism by dangerously relegating their initiatives to a state composed of politicians who intermittently use the language of the movements, wave similar banners and claim to defend identical objectives...
...These governments are now devoting themselves to providing renewed legitimacy to the state...
...The election of Luis Macas, a movement stalwart, as CONAIE's president signals a return to the basics for the organization...
...Bolivia's Carlos Mesa assumed the presidency following popular insurrections throughout 2003...
...By formulating the rules for the election of representatives for the Constituent Assembly, the political elite favored established political parties, thereby placing the delegates of the popular and indigenous movements at a distinct disadvantage...
...that decrees a system of state-centralized colonialism, which exploits its 'internal colonies,' appropriating our eco16 Teo Ballve is a NACLA editor and a contributing news editor for the Resource Center of the Americas <http://www.americas.org>.MARCH APRR 2005 movement...
...According to Quispe, however, "A strategy is emerg- ing that seeks to replace all state authorities with our own traditional authorities" in the provinces near La Paz...
...The indigenous parliament became sharply divided and confusion reigned...
...Since the Inti Raymi uprising in June 1990, CONAIE has managed to unite the indigenous communities of the highlands, the coast and the Amazon region while at the same time developing a potent form of social action that has led to several militant uprisings...
...The ongoing controversy has radical groups from the resource-rich media iuna calling for the creation of a nation independent from the impoverished western highlands...
...As time passes, the movements discover they have helped install governments that seek to strengthen the state an apparatus routinely undermined by neoliberal policies...
...As a minority elite, these groups have manipulated and exploited prevalent threads of racism and regional divisions that have long-plagued Bolivian society...
...Chuji reiterated the importance of undertaking a profound self-critique and going back to the grassroots to "start to solidly rebuild the road we lost during the last period of representational participation in the so-called political democracy of the established power...
...But these dilemmas have raised some hard questions for social movements...
...Not only do they grow food, but in many cases produce clothing, shoes and other products...
...Jorge is speaking with his friend Orlando as they sit in the community center of the Unemployed Workers' Movement (MTD), a piquetero group, in Solano on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, reminiscing about how they had spent that day downtown...
...CONAIE went from being an alternative social movement that pressured for major reforms to becoming a political actor that competed for room in the existing institutional political arena...
...In Peru, Alejandro Toledo gained office thanks to a broadbased movement that ousted Alberto Fujimori...
...Only a few groups have managed to escape the two extremes of co-optation and endless, exhausting and generally unfruitful mobilizations...
...According to the group's Web site, this part of the country "constitutes 'the other vision' of Bolivia and this movement aspires to achieve the radical autonomy of this oppressed nation...
...And Raul Zibechi, Genealogla de Ia revue/ta...
...from the communities...
...In sum, they are creating community, producing and providing for their own nomic resources...
...The NED grant, among other things, is therefore helping CAINCO pave the way for private companies to obtain favorable government contracts and invest in the exploration and exportation of the region's natural gas...
...Those protests brought down the ineffective Argentine President Fernando de la Ruia, albeit at the cost of dozens of lives...
...To do so, they work to co-opt and divide the movements along with their most capable leaders, because active and mobilized movements necessarily undermine a government's capacity to govern...
...This mobilization not only modified the national political agenda, but also succeeded in toppling two presidents: Abdala Bucaram in 1997 and Jamil Mahuad in 2000...
...For starters, the social movements and the new governments usually differ in their sense of priorities and timing...
...CONAIE went from being an alternative social movement that pressured for major reforms to becoming a political actor that competed for room in the existing institutional political arena...
...Recent events show that changes in government leadership provoke readjustments within social movements...
...The CONAIE then supported the presidential candidacy of Lucio Gutierrez and for six months formed part of his administration...
...In the assembly, st Vargas announced he would soon deliver march In S300,000 to the different nationalities of the Quito...
...These protests have taken diverse forms: the Zapatista rebellion in Mexico, the neopopulist Fifth Republic Movement led by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the national indigenous movement led by the National Indigenous Confederation of Ecuador (CONAIE), the regime-changing popular mobilizations in Argentina and Bolivia, and the Landless Rural Workers' Movement in Brazil (Movimento dos Trabaihadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST), which is the subject of this article...
...The groups co-opted by the government probably constitute a little over a third of the entire piquetero by Teo Ballv6 Some analysts now openly discuss the possibility of a twostate solution or, worse yet, a civil war...
...The socalled "Bolivarian Revolution" headed by Hugo Chavez would never have gained its current momentum without the Caracazo, which marked the beginning of a deep crisis in the Venezuelan party system...
...Its first ever NED grant, totaling S128,285, came almost three months before the July 18, 200+, gas referendum...
...5. Ximena OrtUzar, "Entrevista a Felipe Quispe," La Jornada, October 26, 2003...
...This was a task that implied debating "the epistemological contents of difference, mainly in the construction of new subjects like the communal subject, and of new institutions, such as the administration of indigenous justice, communal economic institutions, etc...
...Since 1990, the Ecuadoran indigenous movement has been the chief social and political actor in its own country and an obligatory point of reference for social movements throughout Latin America...
...Pablo Davalos, "Movimiento indigena ecuatoriano...
...One of its largest and most influential groups, the Federation of Land and Housing, directed by Luis D'Elfa, opted to become the piquetero arm of the Kirchner government...
...In the process, they have lost much of their autonomy in formulating proposals and actions...
...As the landed elite and captains of industry, neoliberalism continues to serve them particularly well...
...The majority of groups in the altiplano, the region most devastated by these policies, wholly reject the neoliberal model...
...Moreover, they have taken to providing various necessities of their daily lives that were once within the realm of state provision: health and education being the most noteworthy...
...Significantly, activists involved in some sectors of the piqueteros and other Argentine movements-namely, the neighborhood assemblies, occupied factories and campesino collectives-are working to build new social relations from below against the logic of the state...
...Although the electoral process occurred within the framework of a significant social mobilization, including popular assemblies and the election of a People's Constituent Assembly, popular demands were sidelined...
...those with ties to leftist parties represent another third and the aut6nomos the rest.1 The partyaffiliated piquetero groups are the most active on the streets, reproducing the forms of struggle used as the broader movement was growing-primarily, road blockades...
...This led many observers to suspect that the MAS and Morales were positioning themselves for the December 2004 municipal elections in which the MAS turned out to be the most voted-for party The municipal elections were largely seen as a launching pad to the presidency for Morales in 2007...
...This is especially true when these movements find themselves caught up in the institutional agenda of state power and, in the process, abandon the priorities of their own constituencies...
...by leo Bailve Some analysts now openly discuss the possibility of a twostate solution or, worse yet, a civil war...
...This often creates tension between movement leaders and the rank and file...
...much like the political practice of the colonial era when the motto for colonizers was "accept but don't comply...
...4 Indeed, over the last year, all the social movements have had to respond in successive rear-guard actions to policies from the political establishment...
...12 The outcome of the Second CONAIE Congress held at the end of 2004 seems to have injected new life into the movement and provided a much-needed opportunity for self-critique...
...The rise of these governments has ushered in a new phase for popular movements...
...A passerby chimes in: "It's that our struggle erases differences," he says...
...One might assume these words were spoken by a radical Aymara indigenista, but they were actually uttered by the powerful right-wing leader of a business association in the eastern city of Santa Cruz...
...Let's go!' someone would say...
...In none of the countries mentioned above, though, have these new difficulties put an end to social mobilization...
...Groups like CAINCO and Naci6n Camba-along with its offshoots-have recently gained prominence because they are directly contesting this blatant rejection...
...As Davalos points out, through their proposals the indigenous movement sought a new prescription for the state...
...In some cases, movements have even managed to strengthen themselves among new social sectors...
...The blame for attempting to destroy, divide and subdue the movement cannot 20 be laid exclusively on the Gutierrez government, since the movement itself had already made decisions that allowed the government to weaken it...
...But at the same time, these governments confront the grassroots movements with new challenges for which they are ill-prepared...
...Once the movement adopted this political strategy, it became imprisoned in a logic that inevitably led to its self-destruction...
...Jorge is speaking with his friend Orlando as they sit in the community center of the Unemployed Workers' Movement (MTD), a piquetero group, in Solano on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, reminiscing about how they had spent that day downtown...
...In the assembly, rotest Vargas announced he would soon deliver march in S300,000 to the different nationalities of the Quito...
...1 January-April 2004...
...Those protests brought down the ineffective Argentine President Fernando de Ia Rua, albeit at the cost of dozens of lives...
...We see this in the cases of the piquetero movement in Argentina, Bolivia's popular and indigenous movement and the Ecuadoran indigenous movement...
...By doing so, the organization assured itself a permanent flow of resources but consequently lost its credibility as an ethical and political role model within the larger piquetero movement...
...Many of these grassroots movements, however, often become prisoners of their own success...
...Moreover, it has the experience of leaving government and returning to the opposition and militancy in the streets...
...Monica Chuji Gualinga, "Asamblea Extraordinaria de Ia Confeniae," <http://wwalainet.org...
...The MTD piqueteros in Solano, for example, grow a portion nomic resources...
...The foundation of its political proposals was the demand for "plurinationality"-a demand that implied the reconstitution of the Ecuadoran state...
...5 The Aymaras are forging a strategy that differs markedly from the one adopted by Mexico's Zapatistas, who have chosen to build autonomy within the existing framework of the Mexican nation-state [See "Resistance zand Autonomy p. 34...
...These governments are now devoting themselves to providing renewed legitimacy to the state...
...But the fallout from the gas war along with other recent and similar upheavals has forced a nationwide evaluation of the gamut of neoliberal policies imposed in recent decades...
...The ways the different piquetero sectors organize themselves provide some clues that help explain the political paths chosen by each sector...
...According to sociologist Pablo Davalos, "The plurinational state is the axis of a theoretical and political hinge that allows the Indians of Ecuador to make the transition from a social movement to a political entity"6 Luis Macas, a founder of CONAIE, explains that plurinationality implies a pro- found reform of the first article of the Constitution in order to recognize that Ecuador is made up of several "nations...
...those with ties to leftist parties represent another third and the autonomos the rest.1 The partyaffiliated piquetero groups are the most active on the streets, reproducing the forms of struggle used as the broader movement was growing primarily, road blockades...
...At present, a great many people especially the poor seem to feel that the much-touted return to democracy, the celebration of civil society and the incorporation of Latin America into the globalization process has left them marginalized both economically and politically...
...Bolivia's Carlos Mesa assumed the presidency following popular insurrections throughout 2003...
...On the other hand, progressive governments allow popular movements wider spaces and opportunities...
...They constructed impromptu road blockades against police and carried messages between groups...
...CAINCO enjoys generous funding from local and international organizations...
...Instead, the Ayrnaras plan to replace the sharply polarized Bolivian state with a nation self-governed by communities...
...It was CAINCO president Zvonko Matkovic who proposed "simply and smoothly" seceding from the nation...
...And indigenous uprisings in Ecuador, campesino land seizures in Paraguay, anti-privatization rebellions in Peru and scores of other rural and urban social actions throughout the hemisphere can be understood in the same light...
...Many of these grassroots movements, however, often become prisoners of their own success...
...Moreover, they have taken to providing various necessities of their daily lives that were once within the realm of state provision: health and education being the most noteworthy...
...These questions have no simple answers, and they represent both the opportunities and the dangers for existing movements as well as those yet to come...
...As a result, by 2000 the political space that the grassroots indigenous movement had been successfully reclaiming since 1990 was suddenly closed off...
...movement and the Ecuadoran indigenous movement...
...In the face of danger, and perhaps even death, the different backgrounds gave strength to the fight...
...Popular urban sectors throughout the continent are creating initiatives that indicate a shift from providing services to becoming producers...
...It also differs from the demands of Ecuador's indigenous movement for plurinationality...
...11 Chuji reiterated the importance of undertaking a profound self-critique and going back to the grassroots to "start to solidly rebuild the road we lost during the last period of representational participation in the so-called political democracy of the established power...
...7, November 2001...
...Although the electoral process occurred within the framework of a significant social mobilization, including popular assemblies and the election of a People's Constituent Assembly, popular demands were sidelined...
...In the end, the decision to withdraw from the government was the only way to avoid its complete dissolution...
...Latin America has seen an astonishing rise of centerleft governments, or at least governments that promised an anti-neoliberal program before assuming power...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS lives based on criteria of solidarity and personal initiative...
...8 But the political class resisted and diverted the aspirations of the movement...
...The statement is representative of a growing social movement with interests that are diametrically opposed to those of the powerful indigenous-based popular movements...
...The rise of these governments has ushered in a new phase for popular movements...
...Clearly, the gas issue has become one of the most contentious issues facing Bolivia...
...10...
...CONAIE has exercised almost every political option available to movements: popular insurrections, construction of broad political alliances with a diversity of sectors, creation of a political-electoral front, direct participation in elections, taking power nationally for several hours and integration into government...
...THE ECUADORAN CONTEXT PROVIDES AN INTERESTING contrast to the Bolivian case of the Aymara nation...
...Argentina's piquetero movement has suffered serious fragmentation since the inauguration of the Kirchner Administration...
...Tabare Vasquez recently won the presidency in Uruguay on a wave of fierce resistance by the labor movement against the privatization of key public services and other neoliberal policies...
...They don't seek to occupy or seize the existing Bolivian state...
...He describes how in a matter of seconds, the small group made the decision to take cover while still holding its ground against the approaching police...
...Much like other periods of uncertainty and confusion, it is often from the bases that feasible and sustainable responses emerge to rebuild and create more solid foundations...
...Raul Zibechi is a member of the editorial staff of the Montevideo-based weekly Brecha, a teacher and researcher on social movements at Multiversidad Franciscana de America Latina and an adviser to several social groups...
Vol. 38 • March 2005 • No. 5
