We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

In Bolivia, Morales faces a challenge from below

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.

The author outlines the inherent contradictions behind the so-called "Andean and Amazonian capitalism" as played out in Bolivia. The pretense of socialism under the regimes in both Bolivia and Venezuela reflect a more nationalist oriented capitalist class willing to compromise with, and use, a more populist figure to hide behind. This draws on the historical phenomenon of caudillismo in South America.
...the increasingly confrontational stance of workers, lowlands peasants and other grassroots movements highlights the inherent contradiction of the state-power road pursued by the MAS [Morales’ ruling party, the Movimiento al Socialismo], where the latter increasingly finds itself reproducing the pattern of repressive, pro-capitalist policies that defined previous governments of the right.