This month marks five years since the publication of the book Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America. The dance with dynamite between social movements and states in Latin America that the book followed in 2010 continues today, but in a transformed political landscape.
The trial of Mapuche woman Relmu Ñamku began a few days ago in Argentina. She could be sentenced to 15 years in prison for defending her territory against fossil fuel extraction activities. Her case highlights a trend: while fossil fuel corporations go to extremes in search of new fuel sources, political actions are also going to extremes to repress communities and organizations that oppose extractivism. […]
Polinizaciones started simply in 2007, as an initiative of an autonomous pollinator of the Beehive Collective to distribute Plan Colombia posters to communities engaged in land defense and directly impacted by the USA´s military intervention in the region as part of the “War on Drugs.” Since then, Polinizaciones has evolved and metamorphosed into a grassroots network of cultural workers and communicators that use Beehive Collective graphics, street theater, photo & video, murals, social cartography and other arts-based strategies in the promoting a culture of resistance.
The history of Oaxaca has been interwoven with principles and values that display its deeply rooted comunalidad. For the Oaxacan people across many centuries, this has meant integrating a process of cultural, economic, and political resistance of great importance. In Oaxaca, the vitality of comunalidad as it presents itself witnesses the integration of four basic elements: territory, governance, labor, and enjoyment (fiesta). The principles and values that articulate these elements are respect and reciprocity.
US activists have launched a parody website, Ourbrandiscrisis.org, as George Clooney’s new film, Our Brand is Crisis, opens throughout the US (Oct. 30). Modeled on the official website, the parody website tells the little-known story of the deadly consequences and grave injustice that resulted from the 2002 Bolivian elections covered in the film.
The Workers Party (PT) has not proven its ability – and in many cases not even shown a desire – to respond to the demands of social movements and diverse groups. They have not made any clear effort to enact agrarian reform, protect indigenous lands or impose stricter norms on sectors such as agribusiness or the communication oligopoly. Yet once more, the orthodox core of the Workers Party is singing the same song: “Support us unconditionally, for we are the only alternative to the threat posed by the right.”
The residents of Santa Fe Ocaña, and the other Kaqchikel communities of San Juan Sacatepéquez have lived under a semi-permanent state of exception since September 2014. The order was reportedly lifted on October 31, but the police and military remained, forming permanent encampments in the towns of Pajoques and Santa Fe Ocaña.
The annual governors’ meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank opened on October 5 in Peru’s capital city. In the meeting, an estimated 800 representatives from 188 countries were negotiating the shape of the world’s soon-to-be renovated finance infrastructure. […]
If we look past the rhetoric, it becomes clear that both countries have the same goal: exploiting foreign workers as source of cheap labor without having to invest in their health and welfare.
Forty-seven years after the Tlatelolco student massacre, a new generation of students marched to demand an end to impunity and repression in Mexico.
Copyright 2003-2018 Upside Down World