Transformative Possibilities in Latin America

Abstract

Latin America has been the cutting edge of struggles worldwide against neoliberalism. Several alternatives to the dominant model of global capitalism appear to be emerging in the region. A new model of revolutionary struggle and popular transformation from below for the 21st century may be emerging, based on the Venezuelan experience, but more broadly, on mass popular struggles in Ecuador, Bolivia, and elsewhere. Yet global capital has been able to blunt some of these struggles from above and a reformist bloc allied with global capital seems to be competing to shape a post-neoliberal era. Neoliberalism, we should recall, is but one model of global capitalism; resistance to this model is not necessarily resistance to global capitalism. Behind the so-called 'pink tide' that has swept the region are competing configurations of social and class forces, ideologies, programs and policies. The crossroad that Latin America has reached is not about 'reform versus revolution' as much as it is about what social and political forces will achieve hegemony over the anti-neoliberal struggle, and what kind of project will replace the orthodox programs that have ravaged the region over the past 25 years.