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Post-Capitalist Struggles in 21St Century Latin America: Cooperation, Democracy and State Power

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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by YorkSpace POST-CAPITALIST STRUGGLES IN 21ST CENTURY LATIN AMERICA: COOPERATION, DEMOCRACY AND STATE POWER MANUEL LARRABURE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2016 © Manuel Larrabure 2016 Abstract This dissertation develops the concept of ‘post-capitalist struggles’. This concept highlights how a post-capitalist future is a recurring moment within the capitalist present and can be developed through struggles that express the latent powers found within what Marx called ‘the collective worker’. Using a comparative and historical framework, I examine four case studies in Latin America: Venezuela’s socialist enterprises, Argentina’s recuperated factories, the Chilean student movement and the Brazilian transit movement. In expressing new values and practices, such as collective management, solidarity and participatory democracy, and their ability to develop the political capacities to formulate clear demands and strategies through the state, these four cases can indeed be considered examples of post-capitalist struggles. However, as mere glimpses of the future, these struggles display number of contradictions and ambiguities, particularly in relation to democratic practice and political organization. This is most marked in struggles that originate in the sphere of capitalist reproduction. A comparative analysis of the four cases also reveals the possibilities and limits of Latin America’s ‘pink tide’. These are found in what I call the ‘neostructuralist bargain’. Through this bargain, vulnerable sectors of the population become the target of small economic reforms that evidence a departure from the neoliberal orthodoxy of previous decades. However, in exchange, horizons beyond liberal democracy are temporarily closed off and the institutions of liberal democracy acquire a renewed legitimacy. The exception to this is the case of Venezuela, whose Chavista government goes beyond the boundaries of neostructuralism. This is evident in the Venezuelan government’s support of new institutions that express the values of participatory ii democracy. However, in all cases new political challenges come to the surface, particularly with the rise of the region’s right wing. iii Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank Katie Daly for her unending support and sacrifice in the last six years. This would have been impossible without you! I would also like to thank my committee: Greg Albo, David McNally and Viviana Patroni. Your thoughtful comments and suggestions dramatically improved my work. A special thanks to Greg Albo for helping me meet incredibly tight deadlines! Big thanks also to my friends and family for all those days and nights babysitting and your constant encouragement. Special thanks to Carlos Torchia for teaching me so much about Chile. Our discussions and debates contributed greatly to this work! Thank you also to all my new friends in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. I can’t wait to see you all very soon! Finally, thank you Paulito for being the inspiration behind everything I do. iv Table of Contents Abstract.......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ iv List of Acronyms......................................................................................................................... vii Introduction................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter Outline.......................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 1: Post-capitalist Struggles and Human Development............................................. 18 The Past in the Present: Primitive Accumulation ...................................................................... 24 The Future in the Present: The Collective Worker.................................................................... 30 Cracks, Value Struggles and Real Utopias ................................................................................ 42 New Democratic Road to Socialism? ........................................................................................ 51 Analytical Propositions.............................................................................................................. 54 Chapter 2: Latin American Development and Post-capitalism: From ISI to Neostructuralism............................................................................................................. 57 Import Substitution Industrialization......................................................................................... 57 Transition to Neoliberalism ....................................................................................................... 61 Neostructuralism and the Pink Tide........................................................................................... 66 Case Studies in Historical and Comparative Perspective .......................................................... 73 Chapter 3: Argentina's Worker Recuperated Enterprises: Redefining the Peronist Class Bargain............................................................................................................................. 82 The Peronist Class Bargain........................................................................................................ 86 Redefining the Peronist Class Bargain from Below .................................................................. 91 Challenging Union Bureaucracy................................................................................... 92 Workplace Democracy ................................................................................................. 95 Learning New Values and Capacities........................................................................... 98 Inclusivity ................................................................................................................... 103 The State ..................................................................................................................... 107 Political Organization and State Transformations................................................................... 110 Chapter 4: Human Development and Class Struggle in Venezuela’s Popular Economy: The Paradox of ‘21st Century Socialism’........................................................................... 114 From Cooperatives To Socialist Production Units .................................................................. 118 Socialist Production Units: Institutional Features ................................................................... 121 Human Development at Socialist Production Units ................................................................ 123 Worker and Community Needs .................................................................................. 124 Collective Management and Organisation.................................................................. 126 Active Participation, ‘Protagonism’ ........................................................................... 128 Class Struggle at Socialist Production Units ........................................................................... 131 The Popular Economy and the Bolivarian State...................................................................... 140 Chapter 5: The 2011 Chilean Student Movement and the Struggle for a New Left .......... 143 The Neoliberal Education System in Chile.............................................................................. 147 Students Fight Back................................................................................................................. 150 v More Than a Student Movement ............................................................................................. 154 The Struggle for a New Left.................................................................................................... 157 The Nueva Mayoría and Beyond............................................................................................. 165 Chapter 6: The 2013 Brazilian Free Transit Movement....................................................... 171 The PT, Neoliberal Continuities and Growing Frustrations.................................................... 174 The June Revolt: Between Negation and Affirmation............................................................. 182 The Struggle for the Future...................................................................................................... 188 Beyond the PT?........................................................................................................................ 199 Chapter 7: Post-capitalist Struggles, the Neostructuralist Bargin and the Emerging Right: Possibilities and Challenges ......................................................................................... 205 The Neostructuralist Bargain................................................................................................... 210 Beyond Neostructuralism: Venezuela and 21st
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