Table of Contents

Acknowledgements XI

Introduction 1
I Utopia and the Dialectic as Contested Terrain 1
II The Present Moment 5
III Origins—Dunayevskaya and the Dialectic of Organization and
Philosophy 8
IV Structure of the Present Study 10

PART 1: PHILOSOPHIC FOUNDATIONS

1 The Meaning of Utopia in Latin America 15
I “The Right to One’s (Latin America’s) Own Utopia” 15
II “Utopia as Space (Place) of Social Resistance” 17
III Utopia and Latin American Thinkers 20

2 Dialectical Thought—from Hegel to Marx, from Lenin to Dunayevskaya. What is the Power of Negativity for Our Day? 25
I Moments in the Hegelian Dialectic 25
II Marx-Hegel—from “Critique of the Hegelian Dialectic” to Capital 33
III Lenin-Hegel—Philosophical Preparation for Revolution? 37
IV Dunayevskaya-Hegel—Reading Absolute Negativity “As New Beginning” 45

3 Are There Emancipatory Threads between Utopia and the Dialectic in Latin America? 57
I Preliminary Note: The Dialectic of Universal-Particular-Individual
Reaching toward Utopias-Projects-Masses 57
II The Challenge in Practice and in Theory: Will Latin America Arrive.
Only on the Threshold of a New Society, or Enter into the Realm of Absolute Liberation? 58
III How Do a Latin American Concept of Utopia and the Dialectic of Absolute Negativity Speak to Each Other? 63

PART 2: THE STATE AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA

4 Haiti, 1986–1993: The Uprooting (Dejoucki), the Flood (Lavalas) and the Repression 75
I Haiti was the First: A Brief Note on the Significance of the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804 75
II Haiti in Books and in Life 76
III Theology of Liberation in Concrete Practice: Aristide’s Sermons and Actions 83
IV Epilogue: Post-the Jan. 12, 2012 Earthquake 88

5 The Revolutionary Process in Venezuela—Advances, Contradictions, Questions 95
I The Passing of Hugo Chavez 95
II Preliminary Moments: The Oil Addiction; The First Period of the Chavez Government 96
III Under the Whip of the Counter-Revolution a Revolutionary Process Begins 98
IV Chavez’s Call to Build “21st Century Socialism”—What is Its Meaning?
How Can It Move “Beyond Capital”? Who are the Social Subjects of Revolutionary Change? What is the Role of the State? The Unions? The Party? 100
V The Venezuelan Debate on 21st Century Socialism: Relation of Party and Mass Movement; What Kind of Party? What Kind of Leadership?
The Role of the Intellectual: Excerpts from Forum on “Intellectuals, Socialism and Democracy” 112
VI Is There a Missing Ingredient in Venezuela Today? 116

6 Mexico’s Revolutionary Forms of Organization: The Zapatistas and the Indigenous Autonomous Communities in Resistance 119
I Indigenous and Zapatista Organizational Praxis—The Building of Autonomy in Rebel Lands 119
II Anti-Capitalist and from the Left: The 6th Declaration and La Otra Campaña 127
III Once Again, the Building of Autonomy in Rebel Lands: The Second Encuentro of the Zapatistas and the Peoples of the World—The Power of Indigenous Voices in Rebellion 132
IV The Zapatistas and Mexico’s Left Intellectuals 135
Appendix 1: Zapatista Document: Them and Us—Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos 140
Appendix 2: Zapatista Document: Them and Us—Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés 146

7 Bolivia: In Revolutionary Transformation, 2000–2005; The Pull of State-Capitalism, 2006–2013 152
I The Revolutionary Social Process, 2000–2005 153
II What Happens After? Social Movements under the Threat of State-ism and Neoliberalism in Unity, 2006–2013 161

PART 3: REVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES IN LATIN AMERICA: VOICES FROM BELOW

8 Social Movements in Argentina 171
Francisco T. Sobrino
I Background 171
II The Movement of the Unemployed 172
III The Movement of “Recovered Factories” 175
IV The Meaning of the Protests of December 2001 and the Mobilizations of 2002 178
V The Local Assemblies 179
VI Attempts by the New Government and the Dominant Classes to Resolve the Crisis 182
VII The Cooptation of Sectors of Intellectuals, Human Right Organizations and a Part of the Left 184
VIII Other Measures Used by the Ruling Classes in order to Solve the Crisis of Legitimacy 186
IX In a Way, a Provisional Conclusion 186
Appendix: Excerpts from an interview with Paula, an Argentine feminist and member of the Gay, Lesbian, Transvestite, Transgender, and Bisexual (glttb) Collective 188

9 Indigenous Struggles for Territory, Autonomy and Natural Resources 195
I The Meaning of Autonomy in Mexico: The Case of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Cópala 197
Brenda Porras Rodríguez and Fernando Alan López Bonifacio
II The Nasa: Subjects of Dignity 208
Appendix: Interview with Nasa Activists 225
III The Community Police in Guerrero
An Interview with Marciano, an Indigenous Mixtec, on His Work and Experience 228

10 Women as Force and Reason of Social Transformations 231
I Feminisms and Liberations in Our America [Nuestra América] 233
Francesca Gargallo
II The Role of Women in the Struggle for Autonomy in Mexico 260
Raquel Vázquez
Appendix 1: Women in the Montaña Region of Guerrero: The Other Arm of Community Justice 270
Appendix 2: Political Statement of the Xinka Communitarian Feminist Women: There is No Decolonialization without Depatriarchalization! 279

11 Youth, Popular Education, Teachers 281
I The tipnis March: New Horizons for Popular Education 283
Benito Fernandez
II On Urban Resistance and Processes of Formation of Subjects for Emancipatory Action: An Examination of the Cultural Breakthrough Brought about by the Medellin Youth Network, 1991–2011 302
Edison Villa Holguín
III The Battle for Oaxaca: Repression and Revolutionary Resistance 328
Eugene Gogol
Appendix 1: Yo Soy #132 338
Appendix 2: Chilean Student Protests 351
Camila Vallejo
Appendix 3: The Books of the Zapatista Little School
Zapatistas from the Indigenous Communities in Resistance 357

PART 4: BATTLE OF IDEAS AND PRACTICES; CONCLUSIONS

12 Horizontal-ism, State-ism, Marxism and the Indigenous Dimension—Raul Zibechi, Álvaro García Linera, Hugo Blanco 375
I Raul Zibechi, Chronicler of Latin America in Social Rebellion 375
II The Statist Marxism of Álvaro García Linera 380
III Hugo Blanco—Peruvian Revolutionary: From Trotskyism and the Peasantry to the Indigenous Movement for Land and Mother Earth 385
Appendix 1: The Organization and Building of Mass Power: Horizontalism and Verticalism, Utopia and Project 389
Rubén Dri
Appendix 2: The “Top-Down” State and the “Bottom-Up” State 399
Guillermo Almeyra

13 The Zapatistas and the Dialectic 402
I “The Time of the No and the Time of the Yes” 404
II The Zapatista Concept of Time 404
III The Rewinds: Our Dead, the Living, Biographies, Diversity, Stories, Our History, and Other Subjects 406

14 Marx, Hegel and Dunayevskaya—Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization in the Context of Latin American Liberation 414
I Marx and the Present Moment in Latin America 414
II Hegel’s Revolution in Philosophy—From Master Slave to Absolute Negativity 416
III Dunayevskaya’s Reading of the Dialectic in Marx—Its Significance for Today 419
IV Conclusion: Toward a Dialectic of Organization and Philosophy 424

Bibliography 431
Index 438

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About the Author

Eugene Gogol is a Marxist-Humanist activist and writer. He has written several books on Latin America, including Utopa y dialectica en la liberacin latinoamericana / Utopia and the Dialectic in Latin American Liberation (Juan Pablos Editor 2014), and El concepto del otro en la liberacin latinoamericana / The concept of the other in Latin American Liberation (Juan Pablos Editor 2004). His most recent book is Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization (Haymarket 2013).