The end of the progressive cycle implies the dissolution of hegemonies and the beginning of a period of dominations, of greater repression against the organized popular sectors. Until now we have been commenting on the causes of the end of the cycle; now it’s necessary to start to comprehend the consequences, tremendous, unattractive, demolishing in many cases.
Activists from the Black Women’s Movement in Brazil and a wide array of social organizations marched on Wednesday, November 18th 2015 to commemorate the first National Black Women’s March Against Racism, Violence and for Well Being. Over 10,000 activists from all over Brazil marched through the country’s capital city, Brasilia, demanding visibility of the challenges faced by Afro-Brazilian women and that these issues be acknowledged by the government through policies that promote race and gender equality.
The history of the Peace Community in San Jose de Apartado, Colombia illustrates the awareness for the need of food sovereignty that farmers have strengthened through the armed conflict. They progressively realized that independence from the armed actors also meant the independence of their food supply.
Brazil is a major world power – in terms of size, population, and influence. Yet in many ways it is a combination of so many different and contradictory faces that it is hard for anyone, including Brazilians themselves, to know how to define Brazil’s characteristics as a nation and as a force in the world-system.
The election of Mauricio Macri in Argentina’s presidential race comes as a welcome victory to the country’s business elite and right-wing parties across Latin America, but the president-elect has some dubious ties that could signal a lasting legacy in the new head of state of darker times in Argentina.
The Ixil communities’ victory against the expansion of hydro in their territory comes after a campaign by the communities to protect their rights as indigenous peoples to prior consultation in Guatemala’s courts. Furthermore, this victory, as well as other victories, sets a precedent that companies must consult communities, and receive the community’s consensus prior to any project.
Last month, Rogelio Velásquez and Saúl Méndez, active members and leaders of the defense of territory in northern Huehuetenango, were acquitted of charges of femicide. Their community of Santa Cruz Barillas has been in resistance to the Santa Cruz hydroelectric project under construction by the Spanish firm Ecoener Hydro Energy. They argue that the dam will greatly affect their land and water. The case against Velásquez and Méndez reflect the use of laws, such as Guatemala’s 2008 Law on Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women to criminalize the leaders of the social movements challenging the construction of mega-projects by transnational companies.
The mothers of Mexico’s disappeared have become experts in their own right—many have searched for their children on their own and have become the fiercest activists and critics of government impunity and state violence in Mexico.They have become the leaders of grassroots organization against a criminal state responsible for the disappearances of their children and thousands of others.
With the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics came the pretext for companies, in complicity with all three levels of government, to begin looking at the Aldea Marakaná with new eyes. Despite a growing number of violent evictions, home demolitions, sustained process of gentrification and extensive real estate speculation the Aldea Marakaná and its neighbors continue to be a symbol of resistance.
Movements in Latin America, rather than looking towards the state, are looking across, horizontally, at how a new society can be built from the ground. Movements from below are continuing to envision and create alternatives to the structural systems of exploitation, dispersing power in the process.
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