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Rebel Currents

Emily Achtenberg

South America has been transformed over the past decade by combative social movements and a new generation of left-leaning governments. This blog explores the challenges facing these governments and movements today, and the sometimes fraught and contradictory relations between them. It looks at major conflict arenas in countries such as Bolivia, where popular organizations are now confronting the government they brought to power, as well as local stories of communities in resistance throughout the region.

El Salvador: Funes Opposes Mining, But Legal Ban Uncertain
July 08, 2011

President Mauricio Funes reaffirmed last week that no mining projects will be permitted in El Salvador during his presidency, and condemned the recent murders of anti-mining activists.  But anti-mining organizations want a permanent legal ban on mining activity, and are critical of the government’s ongoing study to evaluate the costs and benefits of mining. At a recent meeting with international solidarity activists, Environmental Minister Herman Rosa Chávez offered insight into the government’s position.

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In Bolivia, Social Protest Is a Way of Life
June 17, 2011

Over the past 40 years, Bolivia has experienced an average of one “social conflict” per day, according to a recent report that measures episodes of conflict reported in the press. Underlying these statistics is the defining role played by Bolivia’s social movements—arguably the most powerful and combative in the hemisphere—in the country’s political history.

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Brazil Without Poverty? Dilma’s Double Discourse
June 09, 2011

Last week Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff launched an ambitious program to eradicate extreme poverty by 2014. Under the “Brazil Without Poverty” initiative, the government will spend $12.5 billion a year to expand cash transfers and health, education, and job training services for some 16 million people (8.5% of Brazil’s population) with incomes of up to $44 per month, who have failed to benefit from Brazil’s rapidly expanding economy.

The announcement comes as Rousseff continues to be challenged, in the international spotlight, by conflicts that expose the high cost of economic progress borne by Brazil’s most impoverished and indigenous communities.

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Peru: Anti-Mining Blockades Suspended For Elections
June 03, 2011
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Bolivia: Communities Pioneer Sustainable Development
May 27, 2011

In remote corners of Bolivia, local communities are pioneering sustainable mining and forestry strategies that could provide useful models in the global struggle against climate change.

 

Cotapata Mining Cooperative

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Bolivia: The COB vs. the GOB
May 20, 2011
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También La Lluvia: Postscript
May 13, 2011

The feature film “También La Lluvia” (“Even the Rain”) has been giving U.S. movie audiences a taste of the popular struggle against water privatization that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia in April 2000.   

Drawing parallels between the exploitation of indigenous people—and their organized resistance—in colonial, neoliberal, and contemporary times, the film was shot on location in Cochabamba and features 3,000 extras drawn from the city’s poor southern hillside neighborhoods who were actual protagonists in the Water War. The main indigenous character (played by an actor/ filmmaker from El Alto) is partially modeled on Oscar Olivera, a leader of the water revolt.

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