Introduction, Open Veins Revisited: The New Extractivism in Latin America, Part 2

:::::: Introduction ::::::

Open Veins Revisited: The New Extractivism in Latin America, Part 2

by Linda Farthing and Nicole Fabricant

This second issue on the current boom in extractivism reverberating throughout Latin America expands the discussion of the economic, social, and political impacts of expanded extractivism and the perpetuation of Latin America’s status as a source of raw materials for industries located elsewhere that was developed in the first collection of articles on this topic (LAP 45 [5]) . Reflecting the wide range of topics related to extractivism, certain themes from the first issue find a home here, ranging from national policy making to indigenous and women’s rights and environmental justice.

CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave

SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave

Political Report # 1386 Women-Led Radio Station Amplifies Voices of Indigenous Communities in Argentina

By Daniel Gutman Toward Freedom

(IPS) - The seed was planted more than 20 years ago by a group of indigenous women who began to gather to try to recover memories from their people. Today, women are also the main protagonists of La Voz Indígena (The Indigenous Voice), a unique radio station in northern Argentina that broadcasts every day in seven languages. “At first the leaders asked us why we didn’t stay at home, taking care of the children and grandchildren. Today these men come to take refuge under the roof of these women,” Felisa Mendoza, a Guaraní woman, told IPS in one of the radio station’s large, colorful rooms, decorated with murals painted by indigenous artists. The two-story building is just a few meters from the bus terminal in Tartagal, a city of some 80,000 inhabitants in the province of Salta, just 50 kilometers from the Bolivian border. On the western edge of the Gran Chaco lowland plain, at the foothills of the mountain ranges that announce that the Andes are not far away, Tartagal was founded less than 100 years ago in a hot land, both in terms of climate and social situation. The discovery of oil and gas deposits marked the boom and decline of this city and the neighboring city of General Mosconi, whose names are associated in Argentina with the violent social conflict of the 1990s, triggered by massive layoffs at the national oil company YPF, as part of the neoliberal policies of then president Carlos Menem (1989-1999). Seven indigenous peoples live in this area: Guaraní, Wichí, Chané, Toba, Chulupi, Tapiete and Chorote. While for decades indigenous peoples were displaced from their territories by oil, forestry, cattle ranching and urban expansion, in the last 20 years the trigger has been the expansion of the agricultural frontier. The daily struggle for land is reflected by the T-shirt worn by Aída Valdez, a member of the women’s commission that runs the station, which reads: “No to the evictions of indigenous communities.”

Political Report # 1356 Occupying against the patriarchy

by Giulia Dessi, New Internationalist

Female students in Chile have had enough and have occupied their universities. Giulia Dessi reports on the unprecedented wave of feminist civil disobedience sweeping the country The classroom floor is covered with duvets and mattresses. Ten women students from the Metropolitan University of Technology in Santiago are waking up, and begin to prepare for another day of debates, workshops and meetings. Outside, hanging chairs protrude through the university gates and a banner says toma feminista, feminist occupation. Dozens of university faculties and high schools across Chile are in occupation or on strike, demanding an end to the abusive patriarchal culture inside Chilean classrooms. Tens of thousands of students are taking part, and two months on from the first occupation, the movement is persisting. Chile has a long history of student protests, normally mobilizing against the privatized education system put in place by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. What's happening today emerges from that experience, but with feminism at its core. It started at the Universidad Austral in Valdivia, in southern Chile. On 17 April 2018, a group of students occupied the building of Philosophy and Humanities as a reaction to a mismanaged disciplinary case against a professor found guilty of sexual harassment. The Faculty of Law of Universidad de Chile in Santiago came next, ten days later, igniting the movement in one of the country's most prestigious institutions. The last straw was a case of sexual harassment involving Professor Carlos Carmona, former president of the Constitutional Court. It took the university eight months to process the case, at the end of which Carmona was suspended for three months for 'lack of integrity'. The outcome prompted an emergency student assembly that decided to occupy the Law Faculty building. In a matter of days, dozens of faculties and schools across the country followed.

Political Report #1103, Latin America: The Aborted Neo-Liberal Offensive By James Petras, LAP Editor

Introduction 

Pundits and commentators on the Left and Right are pronouncing 'the end of the progressive cycle in Latin America'.  They cite the recent presidential elections:

1.      Argentina, where hard-right Mauricio Macri was elected;

2.      Brazil, where President Dilma Rousseff has appointed a neo-liberal 'Chicago Boy' economist, Joaquin Levy, as Finance Minister and launched an IMF-style regressive structural adjustment policy designed to reduce social expenditures and attract financial speculators; and

3.      Venezuela, where Washington channeled millions of dollars to far-right parties, as well as violent extra-parliamentary and paramilitary groups, to destabilize the center-left Maduro government; right-wing Democratic Unity Coalition  (MUD) won the legislative elections in December 2015 with more than 2:1 margin over the Chavista Venezuelan United Socialist Party (PSUV).