América Latina : entre impasse y nuevo conflicto social : notas para reabrir la discusión

We are not the only ones in the last ten years to consider Latin America a formidable political laboratory. Unlike Ocros, however, we have not been particularly interested in the rhetoric of 'socialism of the XXI century,' the return of populism or the celebration of 'nationalization'. What has driven our interest in Latin America, in the dense network of relationships we have established in this area of the world, has been from the point of view of the struggles and movements which accompany the neoliberal age (of 'Washington consensus ') - before decreeing its end. Among the great insurrection of the poor of Caracas (the 'Caracazo') and 'citizenship strike' in 2005 which overthrew the presidency of Gutierrez in Ecuador, an extraordinary cycle of clandestine struggles runs throughout Latin America. The role of indigenous peoples (symbolically promoted by the Zapatistas since 1994) opens a history of resistance to colonial conquest, whose continuity has played throughout the centuries. After the great transformation of agriculture caused by the advent of the 'green revolution' a new agrarian problem has emerged in which the 'landless' peasants have become mobilized by the right. The tumultuous conquest of the spaces of action and the language of the multitudes of poor people living in the city, places the exclusive codes of social and political systems back on the agenda. Labor struggles of a new type (for example in the ABC Paulista) are encounters of the occupation and business self-management and large mobilizations of the unemployed.