Benjamin Dangl

POLITICAL SCIENCE / LATIN AMERICA BENJAMIN “Ben Dangl breaks the sound barrier, exploding many myths about Latin America that are all-too-often amplified by the corporate media in the United States. Read this much-needed book.” —Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! “Dancing with Dynamite dares to navigate the cloudy waters of Latin American DANGL social movements in the wake of the neoliberal wave, something which increasingly fewer thinkers and activists dare to do, but which turns out to be urgent.” —Raúl Zibechi, Uruguayan journalist and author of Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces “Dangl brings complicated politics to life by infusing them with the magic, DANCING mystery, and unbridled joy that invigorate social movements and permeate Latin American life in general.” —Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover and What It Says About the Economic Crisis In the past decade, grassroots social movements played major roles in electing left-leaning governments throughout Latin America, but subsequent relations between the streets and the states remain uneasy. In Dancing with Dynamite, award- winning journalist Benjamin Dangl explores the complex ways these movements WITH have worked with, against, and independently of national governments. From dynamite-wielding miners in Bolivia to the struggles of landless farmers in Brazil and Paraguay, Dangl discusses the dance between movements and states in DYNAMITE seven different Latin American countries. Using original research, lively prose, and extensive interviews with workers, farmers, and politicians, he suggests how Latin American social movement strategies could be applied internationally to build a better world now. Benjamin Dangl has worked as a journalist throughout Latin America for the Guardian Unlimited, The Nation, and the NACLA Report on the Americas. He is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia, and the editor of TowardFreedom.com and UpsideDownWorld.org. $15.95 US | £12.00 UK www.akpress.org www.akuk.com Praise for Dancing with Dynamite “In Dancing with Dynamite, journalist Ben Dangl breaks the sound barrier, reporting on progressive changes that have swept South America in the past decade, exploding many myths about Latin America that are all-too-often amplified by the corporate media in the United States. Read this much- needed book.” —Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! “Dancing with Dynamite gives a strong sense of the vibrant social activism underway in many different countries of Latin America, as well as the complex relationship between social movements and the radical leaders that they have helped put into power. A recommended read for anyone interested in the possibilities of social change in Latin America today.” —Sujatha Fernandes, Graduate Center of the City University of New York “For more than a decade, social activists in North America and Europe have gained confidence that a new world is possible in light of the dynamic social movements in Latin America, particularly those of the Indigenous Peoples, but have not figured out how to apply the strategies of those movements to situations in the North. Dancing with Dynamite provides profound insights and a guide to how that might be done. Ben Dangl has earned a reputation as a tireless and reliable connection between two worlds, and this book is essential reading at the right moment.” —Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Roots of Resistance “Perhaps the most important book this year, Dancing with Dynamite is a road- map for social change from the bottom up. Backed by years of travel, extensive research, and powerful story-telling, Ben Dangl’s book carries us across the Americas, deep into the movements making waves in South America’s most radical countries. We are reminded that we in the United States have much to learn from our southern sisters and brothers.” —Michael Fox, co-director of Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas “Ben Dangl’s Dancing with Dynamite incisively focuses on the relationship between social movements and governments in South America, providing a vital contribution toward understanding the region’s current politics. While South American presidents receive much of the credit for the progressive changes taking place in the region, many of these changes occur largely through the heroic and courageous efforts of grassroots activists.... Dangl Dancing_IndexedFONT.indd 1 9/10/10 4:58 PM provides a valuable history and analysis of the largely ignored struggles of South American social movements in their fight for a better world.” —Greg Grandin, author of Empire’s Workshop. “The story of the dramatic turn to the left in Latin America over in the past decade is now well known, but an equally significant story of divisions between social movements and electoral politics remains largely untold. Combining a broad knowledge of Latin America with direct experiences on the ground, journalist Ben Dangl examines the tensions that grassroots activists have felt with the progressive governments they helped put into place. With compel- ling prose, Dancing with Dynamite takes us across South America, and then draws parallels between those movements and similar struggles in the United States. Along the way, Dangl provides an expert introduction to social movements in Latin America, as well as a probing political analysis of electoral paths to social justice.” —Marc Becker, Truman State University “Dangl brings complicated politics to life by infusing them with the magic, mystery and unbridled joy that invigorate social movements and permeate Latin American life in general. You hear the pounding drums and smell the sizzling llama meat at Carnival in Bolivia; you feel the steam rising off baking bricks at the worker-run ceramics plant in Argentina; you taste the yerba mate and quiver with the sense of possibility in a cluttered Frente Amplio meeting room in Uruguay. It all adds up to the wondrously explosive ‘dynamite’ of human passion and determination that has toppled repressive right-wing regimes and now swirls in the complicated dance Dangl so deftly describes.” —Kari Lyderson, author of Revolt on Goose Island “At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the panorama of Latin American social movements is very different from what we knew ten or twenty years ago. Now they navigate in much more tranquil waters than those agitated by the neoliberal wave. However, these seas are cloudier, less transparent, making understanding reality a much more complex task.… Dancing with Dynamite dares to navigate these cloudy waters, something which increasingly fewer thinkers and activists dare to do, but which turns out to be urgent.” —Rául Zibechi, author of Dispersing Power Dancing_IndexedFONT.indd 2 9/10/10 4:58 PM Dancing W I T H Dynamite Social Movements and States in Latin America Dancing_IndexedFONT.indd 3 9/10/10 4:58 PM Dancing_IndexedFONT.indd 4 9/10/10 4:58 PM Dancing W I T H Dynamite Social Movements and States in Latin America by Benjamin Dangl Dancing_IndexedFONT.indd 5 9/10/10 4:58 PM Dancing with Dynamite: States and Social Movements in Latin America © 2010 Benjamin Dangl This edition © 2010 AK Press (Oakland, Edinburgh, Baltimore) ISBN-13: 978-1-84935-015-0 | Ebook ISBN: 978-1-84935-046-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010925752 AK PRESS AK PRESS 674-A 23rd Street PO Box 12766 Oakland, CA 94612 Edinburgh, EH8 9YE USA Scotland www.akpress.org www.akuk.com [email protected] [email protected] The above addresses would be delighted to provide you with the latest AK Press distri- bution catalog, which features the several thousand books, pamphlets, zines, audio and video products, and stylish apparel published and/or distributed by AK Press. Alter- natively, visit our web site for the complete catalog, latest news, and secure ordering. Visit us at www.akpress.org and www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org. Printed in Canada on acid-free, recycled paper with union labor. Cover by John Yates (stealworks.com) Dancing_IndexedFONT.indd 6 9/10/10 4:58 PM Contents Introduction ....................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE Bolivia’s Dance with Evo Morales ...............................................13 CHAPTER TWO Ecuador: Indigenous Uprisings and Betrayals of the State .....................41 CHAPTER THREE Argentina: The Rebellion and the Ballot Box ...................................57 CHAPTER FOUR Turning Activists into Voters in Uruguay .......................................77 CHAPTER FIVE Venezuela: Uses of the Bolivarian Revolution ...................................91 CHAPTER SIX Brazil: Lula and the Landless ...................................................119 CHAPTER SEVEN Paraguay: Surviving Under the Red Bishop ....................................139 CHAPTER EIGHT South America and the United States: Finding Common Ground in Crisis ...161 Acknowledgments ...............................................177 Notes .........................................................179 Index ..........................................................201 Dancing_IndexedFONT.indd 7 9/10/10 4:58 PM Dancing_IndexedFONT.indd 8 9/10/10 4:58 PM Introduction he motorcycle thundered off the highway onto a jungle road of Tloose red dirt framed by trees, families lounging in front of their farmhouses, and small herds of disinterested cows. We pulled up to a dusty store to buy food for our stay in the rural community of Oñon- divepá, Paraguay, and asked the woman

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