Lessons from Praxis: Autonomy and Spatiality in Contemporary Latin American Social Movements

Abstract

In the course of the 20th century, left-libertarian thought and praxis never ceased to be present in Latin America, even during the most difficult years of competition with Marxism-Leninism and of military repression. But it was above all from the 1990s onwards that particularly original kinds of libertarian thought and praxis began to flourish there. Alongside more or less renewed versions of classical anarchism, new forms of praxis and analysis emerged at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century; from Mexican neo-Zapatism to a part of Argentina's piqueteros to some expressions of Brazil's sem-teto movement, many new movements and ideas have developed in the last two decades. These new movements are at the same time remarkably libertarian and by no means reducible to the very honourable but somewhat too restrictive label "anarchism". In fact, many of them are clearly "hybrid", in the sense that they are products of both leftlibertarian and Marxist influences. Typically, these Latin American movements share a commitment to principles such as horizontality, self-management and decentralism (which have never been part of Marxism's typical repertoire of practices and principles); moreover, autonomy is a key notion for most of them. Furthermore, spatial practices, territorialisation among them, are proving decisive for many movements and protest actions. The concept of territory is one of those "geographical" concepts that have been intensely subjected, in recent decades, to strong attempts of redefinition and debugging. In this paper, the territory is fundamentally seen (as a first approximation) as a space defined and delimited by and through power relations, and it is important to see that power (both heteronomous and autonomous power) is exerted only with reference to a territory and, very often, by means of a territory. The kind of power exerted by emancipatory social movements does not constitute an exception to this rule. Resumo: No decorrer do século XX, o pensamento e a práxis da esquerda libertária nunca deixaram de estar presentes na América Latina, mesmo durante os anos mais difíceis da competição com o marxismo-leninismo e da repressão durante os regimes militares. Porém, foi sobretudo a partir da década de 1990 que alguns tipos particularmente originais de pensamento e práxis libertários começaram a florescer naquele continente. Juntamente com as versões mais ou menos renovadas do anarquismo clássico (como o assim chamado "anarquismo especifista"), novas formas de práxis e análise libertárias mas não propriamente anarquistas surgiram no final do século XX e início do século XXI: dos neozapatistas mexicanos a uma parte dos piqueteros na Argentina e a algumas expressões de movimento dos sem-teto no Brasil, muitos novos movimentos e ideias têm se desenvolvido nas últimas duas décadas. Esses novos movimentos são, ao mesmo tempo, notavelmente libertários e não redutíveis ao (muito honrado, certamente, mas demasiado restritivo) rótulo de "anarquismo". Na verdade, muitos deles são, inclusive, clar...

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