Marc Becker

Harry E. Vanden

Richard Stahler-Sholk

This groundbreaking text explores the dramatic evolution in Latin American social movements over the past fifteen years. Assessing both the continuities in social movement dynamics and important new tendencies, this book will be essential reading for all students of Latin American politics and society.

Radical Action from Below

Rethinking Latin American Social Movements

Marc Becker Becker

José Carlos Mariátegui

José Carlos Mariátegui is one of Latin America’s most profound but overlooked thinkers. A self-taught journalist, social scientist, and activist from Peru, he was the first to emphasize that those fighting for the revolutionary transformation of society must adapt classical Marxist theory to the particular conditions of Latin American. He also stressed that indigenous peoples must take an active, if not leading, role in any revolutionary struggle. Today Latin America is the scene of great social upheaval. More progressive governments are in power than ever before, and grassroots movements of indigenous peoples, workers, and peasants are increasingly shaping the political landscape. The time is perfect for a rediscovery of Mariátegui, who is considered an intellectual precursor of today’s struggles in Latin America but virtually unknown in the English-speaking world. This volume collects his essential writings, including many that have never been translated and some that have never been published. The scope of this collection, masterful translation, and thoughtful commentary make it an essential book for scholars of Latin America and all of those fighting for a new world, waiting to be born.

An Anthology

Jos Carlos Maritegui

Glen David Kuecker

When elected civilians replaced military authoritarian regimes in Latin America in the 1980s, democracy seemed at hand. Yet those nominally democratic regimes implemented widely unpopular neoliberal policies, opening the economies to global market forces with devastating impact on the poor. This clearly written and comprehensive text examines the uprising of politically and economically marginalized groups in Latin American societies. Specialists in a broad range of disciplines interpret the new wave of social movements, including movements in Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina, the Vía Campesina global peasant network, and Mesoamerican coalitions against regional free trade agreements. This volume assembles original research from a variety of case studies in a student-friendly format. Section introductions help students contextualize the essays, highlighting social movement origins, strategies, and outcomes. Thematic sections address historical context, political economy, community-building and consciousness, ethnicity and race, gender, movement strategies, and transnational organizing, making this book useful to anyone studying the wide range of social movements in Latin America. Contributions by: Isabella Alcañiz, Marc Becker, Kwame Dixon, Judith Adler Hellman, Daniela Issa, Glen David Kuecker, María Elena Martínez-Torres, Mariana Mora, Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, Peter M. Rosset, Melissa Scheier, Verónica Schild, David Slater, Rose J. Spalding, Susan Spronk, Richard Stahler-Sholk, Joanna Swanger, Alicia C. S. Swords, Harry E. Vanden, Roberta Villalón, and Jeffery R. Webber

Resistance, Power, and Democracy

Latin American Social Movements in the Twenty-first Century

Gary Prevost

Peter N. Funke

Over the past decade, there has been an unprecedented mobilization of street protests worldwide, from the demonstrations that helped bring progressive governments to power in Latin America, to the Arab Spring, to Occupy movements in the United States and Europe, to democracy protests in China. This edited volume investigates the current status, nature and dynamics of the new politics that characterizes social movements from around the world that are part of this revolutionary wave. Spanning case studies from Latin America, North and South Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and North America, this volume examines the varied manifestations of the current cycle of protest, which emerged from the Global South and spread to the North and highlights their interconnections – the globalized nature of these social movements. Analytically converging around Sidney Tarrow’s emphasis on protest cycles, political opportunity structures and identity, the individual chapters investigate processes such as global framing, internationalization, diffusion, scale shifts, externalizations and transnational coalition building to provide an analytic cartography of the current state of social movements as they are simultaneously globalizing while still being embedded in their respective localities. Looking at new ways of thinking and new forms of challenging power, this comprehensive volume will be of great interest to graduates and scholars in the fields of globalization, social movements and international politics.

Global Social Movements in the Twenty-First Century

The New Global Politics

José Carlos Mariátegui's Thought and Politics

National Marxism in Latin America

Harry E. Vanden

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