Latin America's Turbulent Transitions: the Future of Twenty-First Century Socialism PDF
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More praise for Latin America’s Turbulent Transitions ‘Burbach, Fox, and Fuentes have written a thoughtful account of the radical projects that have arisen in Latin America in the wake of the collapse of the “old” socialism and the simultaneous weakening of US hegemony in the region.’ Fred Rosen, editor of NACLA Report on the Americas ‘This is a vital guide for anyone seeking to understand where the left is headed in Latin America, as well as the vexing political and social challenges confronted by charismatic leaders and progressive forces on the ground.’ Nikolas Kozloff, author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left ‘In a continent of ferment and change like Latin America, where we often live through tumultuous moments, a serious, documented, and critical book like Latin America’s Turbulent Transitions is a valuable contribution to deepening our discus- sions and orienting us in the construction of a new world. Burbach, Fox, and Fuentes’ vast and comprehensive chapters tackle many of the current themes and conflicts and serve as small compasses to help us understand where we are and suggest possible paths forward. Raul Zibechi, Uruguayan journalist, author of Dispersing Powers: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces ‘Little by little, inch by inch, the thick, dark velvet curtain thrown over daily events in Latin America by uninterested editors and nervous journalists in the Western media is being tugged back. Roger Burbach, Michael Fox, and Federico Fuentes have produced a sparklingly up-to-date account of the “pink tide” of new thinking for the general reader. The lives and politics of the present-day political giants of the Western Hemi- sphere – Chávez, Lula, Correa, Raúl Castro, and many more – are set out with admirable clarity by three authors who know what they are talking about. No student of the New World should be without it.’ Hugh O’Shaughnessy, author of Priest of Paraguay ‘Latin America’s Turbulent Transitions makes sense of Latin America’s leftward turn, both in terms of its origins and what this turn means for some of the main countries involved. As such, it is an essential resource for the general reader and for students of the region. The case study of Venezuela is especially useful in helping us understand Hugo Chavez’s historic legacy and the advent of twenty-first-century socialism. Gregory Wilpert, author of Changing Venezuela by Taking Power ‘Anyone seeking to understand the complexities and tensions of the struggles to turn the radical social transformations in contemporary capitalist Latin America into a sustained socialist project needs to encounter this book’s rare combination of open-hearted commitment and hard-headed analysis.’ Steve Ludlam, University of Sheffield ‘A profoundly important book. Latin America is the last place in the world where a broad enlightened left not only survives but thrives, setting an idealistic agenda of solidarity, equality, and freedom – though often times rhetoric doesn’t match reality. Deploying a rigorous comparative framework, Latin America’s Turbulent Transitions takes an unflinching look at socialism in the region, both as it is and as it could be.’ Greg Grandin, New York University, author of Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City About the authors Roger Burbach is director of the Center for the Study of the Americas and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He has written extensively on Latin America and US foreign policy for over four decades. His first book, Agribusiness in the Americas (1980), co-authored with Patricia Flynn, is re- garded as a classic in the research of transnational agribusiness corporations and their exploitative role in Latin America. His most notable book is Fire in the Americas (1987), co-authored with Orlando Núñez, which is an informal manifesto of the Nicaraguan revolution during the 1980s. With the collapse of twentieth-century socialism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe he began to study the emergent system of globalization and to write about the new Latin American social movements and the renewed quest for socialism in the twenty-first century. Michael Fox is a former editor of NACLA Report on the Americas. He has worked for many years as a freelance journalist, radio reporter, and documentary film-maker covering Latin America. He is the co-author of Venezuela Speaks!: Voices from the Grass- roots (2010) and the co-director of the documentary films Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas and Crossing the American Crises: From Collapse to Action, both available through PM Press. He is on the board of Venezuelanalysis.com and his articles have been published in The Nation, Yes Magazine, Earth Island Journal, and more. His work can be found at blendingthelines.org. Federico Fuentes edits Bolivia Rising, is on the board of Venezuelanalysis.com, and is a regular contributor to the Australian-based newspaper Green Left Weekly, serving as part of its Caracas bureau from 2007 to 2010. During his time in Caracas he was based at the Fundación Centro Internacional Miranda as a resident researcher investigating twenty-first-century political instruments and popular participation in public management. He has co-authored three books with Marta Harnecker on the new left in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Paraguay. His articles have been published with ZNet, Counterpunch, MRZine, Venezuelanalysis. com, Aporrea, Rebelión, America XXI, Comuna, and other pub- lications and websites in both Spanish and English. Latin America’s turbulent transitions the future of twenty-first-century socialism RogeR BuRBach, Michael Fox, and FedeRico Fuentes Zed Books london | new yoRk Latin America’s turbulent transitions: the future of twenty-first-century socialism was first published in 2013 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jF, uk and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa www.zedbooks.co.uk Copyright © Roger Burbach, Michael Fox, and Federico Fuentes 2013 The rights of Roger Burbach, Michael Fox, and Federico Fuentes to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Set in OurType Arnhem and Monotype Futura by Ewan Smith, London Index: [email protected] Cover design: www.alice-marwick.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available isBn 978 1 84813 569 7 eb Contents Illustrations | viii Acknowledgments | ix Abbreviations | xii Map | xiv Introduction: turbulent transitions and the specter of socialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 Globalization, neoliberalism, and the rise of the social movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2 The pink tide and the challenge to US hegemony. . . . . . . .26 3 Between neo-extractivism and twenty-first-century socialism . . 38 4 Venezuela’s twenty-first-century socialism. . . . . . . . . . .48 5 Bolivia’s communitarian socialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 6 Ecuador’s buen vivir socialism (by Marc Becker) . . . . . . . .98 7 Brazil: between challenging hegemony and embracing it . . . 114 8 Cuba: ‘updating’ twentieth-century socialism?. . . . . . . . 142 Conclusion: socialism and the long Latin American spring . . 153 Appendix: nationwide elections in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Notes | 161 Bibliography | 183 Index | 201 Illustrations 1 Argentine piqueteros demonstrate in Buenos Aires during the 2001–2 financial crisis to protest neoliberal state policies and forced evictions of worker-led factory takeovers, and show solidarity with the worker occupation of the Zanon ceramic factory in southern Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2 The presidents of Saint Vincent and the Granadines, Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela embrace during a 2009 ALBA summit in Cumaná, Venezuela, where the organization ratified a new regional currency, known as the sucre. . . . . . . . . . . . .26 3 Bolivia begins testing to exploit the world’s largest reserve of lithium on the Uyuni salt flats in November 2009. . . . . . . . 38 4 Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez flood Bolívar avenue in Caracas for a campaign rally in support of Chávez’s 2006 re-election . . . . . . . . . .48 5 Thousands of Bolivian campesinos and indigenous farmers raise their hands during a people’s assembly in La Paz, Bolivia, in 2005, in support of making a recently passed hydrocarbons law even tougher on multinational companies . . . . . . . . .78 6 An indigenous Ecuadoran blows a conch shell at the opening march for the June 2010 Meeting of Original Peoples and Nations of Abya Yala in Quito, Ecuador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98 7 Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff attend a campaign rally in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, on the eve of the first round of the 2010 presidential elections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 8 Santiago de Cuba, 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 9 Seven hundred women from Vía Campesina and Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement march against a 44,000-acre eucalyptus plantation in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in early 2009 . . . . . 152 viii Acknowledgments This book is comprised of chapters that were initially drafted by one of the co-authors and then enriched by collective discus- sion. It is a multi-continental effort, receiving support and assistance from the Americas, Europe, and Australia. It is telling that in this globalized world, a book on Latin America must tap into a myriad of sources around the planet. The two most important contributors to the book were Marc Becker and Greg Wilpert. Marc wrote the chapter on Ecuador. Greg was critical in drafting the first three chapters with Roger, and had to withdraw from the project because of other com- mitments. Without his early work, this book may never have become a reality. The three co-authors have many people to thank. I, Roger, received support from my comrades at the Center for the Study of the Americas, namely Miguel Altieri, Cecile Earle, Patricia Flynn, and Peter Rosset. Early ideas about, and concepts of, the social movements came out of the course on social movements that I taught with Maria Elena Martinez at the University of Cali- fornia at Berkeley. Adam Sgrenci, our reader for the course, is a long-time collaborator who served as a sounding board for my thoughts on the new left in Latin America. Laura Enriquez was very helpful in taking me on as a visiting scholar in the sociology department of the university, giving me access to the library and its research facilities. David Parkhurst, as well as being a good friend, kept me electronically and digitally connected with the world during the writing of this book. On the east coast, Fred Rosen, Bob Armstrong, and Karen Judd were very helpful on my trips back there to work on the book. Tim Draimin of Toronto, Canada, also helped me in my travels. I was deeply dismayed and saddened by the death of Hank Frundt, a dear friend and brother for almost four decades. He counseled me on personal matters, and advised and assisted me on every book I have written, including this one. I am also indebted to medical doctors Michiyo Kawachi ix
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