Popular power in Latin America -- Inventing in order to not make errors

[Joanne98]

July 12th 2009, by Marta Harnecker

I. Introduction

1. Eighteen years have passed since April 1991, when I had the privilege of being invited to the VIII Gallega Week of Philosophy , organised every year by the Aula Castelao de Filosofía. It was a difficult time for left forces inLatin America and the world. It was less than two years after the Berlin Wll had collapsed-which meant the beginning of the disintegration of socialism in Eastern Europe-and the Soviet Union was falling into the abyss, which ended with its disappearance at the end of that year. Deprived of its necessary rearguard, the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua was defeated in the February 1990 elections, and the guerrilla movements of Central Americawere forced to demobilise.

2. It was a difficult situation for the Latin American left-which had learnt much during the previous decade. If anyone of you had listened to my speech back then, you will remember that I referred to the errors of the left in the 1960s and 1970s, and the lessons learnt during the 1980s.

3. I want to mention here only two factors which enormously influenced the maturation of the left: the pedagogical vision of Brazilian Paulo Freire, who gave impetus to a significant movement of popular education in a number of our countries, that clashed with the classical concept of the left parties of that era who tended to consider themselves the bearers of the truth; and feminist ideas that placed an emphasis on respect for differences and rejection of authoritarianism.

4. Today the situation is very different, and that's what I want to refer to in this talk.

II. Latin America today
Latin America -- pioneer in the rejection of neoliberalism
5. Latin America was the first region where neoliberal policies were imposed. Chile, my country, served as a testing ground before the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher applied them in the United Kingdom. But it was also the first region in the world where a process of rejection of these policies emerged; a rejection of policies which had only served to increase poverty, deepen social inequalities, destroy the environment and weaken the working class and popular movements in general.

6. It was here that the first revolutionary wave occurred after the fall of socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. After more than two decades of suffering, a new hope began to emerge.

The emergence of left governments
7. We saw the emergence of left governments, more or less committed to the struggle of the people. Let's recall that in 1998, when Chavez triumphed in Venezuela, this country was a solitary island in the middle of a sea of neoliberalism across the whole continent. But, soon after, in 2000, Ricardo Lagos triumphed in Chile; in 2002, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil; in 2003, Nestor Kirchner in Argentina; in 2005, Tabare Vazquez in Uruguay; in 2006, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Cristina Fernandez in Argentina; in 2008, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay; and recently, in March 2009, Mauricio Funes in El Salvador.

Candidates from left parties
8. For the first time in the history of Latin America-and with the crisis of the neoliberal model as a backdrop - candidates from left parties were able to win elections by raising the anti-neoliberal flag in the greater part of the countries of the region.

Popular movements: the great protagonists
Emerge out of the crisis of the legitimacy of neoliberalism
9. It wasn't the political parties that were in the vanguard of the fight against neoliberalism, but on the contrary, it was the popular movements. These movements emerged out of the framework of the crisis of legitimacy of the neoliberal model and its political institutions, and originated from the dynamics present in their community or local organisation.

10. They were very pluralistic movements, where components of liberation theology, revolutionary nationalism, Marxism, indigenism and anarchism coexisted.

Old and new social movements
11. In this resistance struggle, together with the old movements, especially the peasants and indigenous movements, new social movements arose, such as those in Bolivia fighting against the privatisation of water (the water war) and for the recuperation of control over gas (the gas war); the piqueteros in Argentina, made up of small business owners, workers, unemployed, professionals, pensioners, etc.; indebted Mexican farmers; Chilean high-school students, referred to as "the penguins"; ecological movements; the movement of impoverished workers; the movements against neoliberal globalisation. The middle classes also appeared on the political scene: health workers in El Salvador, the caceroleros (saucepan protesters) in Argentina, among others.

12. The traditional workers' movement, hit hard by the application of neoliberal economic measures, didn't appear, except in rare exceptions, on the front line of the political scene.

From mere resistance to questioning power
13. These movements initially rejected politics and politicians, but as they advanced in the process of struggle, they shifted from an apolitical approach of mere resistance to neoliberalism, to an increasing political approach of questioning the established power, reaching the point, in cases such as those of the MAS (Movimiento Al Socialismo) in Bolivia and Pachakutic in Ecuador, of building their own political instruments.

Neoliberalism consolidated and neoliberalism on the path to consolidation
14. With the exception of Chile, where the neoliberal counterrevolution triumphed completely, installing legal reforms in the country that justified neoliberal politics, and where the privatisation drive destroyed a large part of the industrial sector that had been previously nationalised by Allende, in all the other countries, this system was unable to fully consolidate itself, thanks to the resistance of the people.

Two paths: refoundation of neoliberalism or advance towards an alternative project
15. Faced with this crisis of the neoliberal model, today sharpened by the world capitalist economic crisis, there are only two paths: or the refoundation of neoliberalism or the advancement towards an alternative project, based not on the logic of profit but on a humanist and solidarity-based logic that enables a process of economic development in our region that favours the great national majorities, and not the elites.

Correlation of forces in Latin America
16. Latin America is going through a new phase; a new correlation of forces. The situation that existed in 1998, when Chavez won, has radically changed.

It is possible to limit foreign interference
17. A new factor of the last ten years (1998-2008) is the formation of a correlation of forces in Latin America, that -as Valter Pomar<1> says-allows limits to be placed on foreign interference, helps avoid coup d'etats (against Chavez and Evo Morales, for example) and foreign invasions and makes policies of economic blockade unviable, such as those that played an important role in the right-wing strategy against the government of Allende in Chile, and which continue to affect Cuba.

US cannot achieve its objectives
18. Although the correlation of forces continue to be immensely favourable to the imperialist project, there exist other signs that the US government does not have absolute domination over the region, such as the overwhelming failure of the war in Iraq and its incapacity to impose the Free Trade Agreement in Latin America (FTAA). We also know that it has had to limit itself to bilateral trade agreements with only some countries. Moreover, despite its immense control over the media, left candidates willing to oppose US policy have triumphed throughout the entire region.

Continued>>>
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4619