As the Left in power returns, the lessons of the Pink Tide have become increasingly relevant. Recognizing governments’ well-conceived policies as well as their errors is key to understanding the comeback.
Political theorist Mabel Thwaites Rey discusses the rise and decline of progressive governments in Latin America, dynamics that spurred the “end of the cycle,” and characteristics of the new Right.
In Catalyst, René Rojas provides an impressive structural analysis of the Pink Tide’s rise and fall. But to explain and confront a resurgent Right across the region, our understandings of the Left turn’s shortcomings must go further.
Part 1 in our two-part discussion on the state of the Left in Latin America, originally presented at Left Forum in a panel sponsored by NACLA and Jacobin Magazine in New York City on June 2, 2017.
President Dilma Rousseff appears to have weathered calls for her impeachment, but the ruling Workers’ Party is in tatters, and a resurgent right is threatening the social progress of the last 12 years. Yet despite recent setbacks the left is showing signs of regeneration.
With a narrow focus on the left’s recent experiences, these collected essays successfully contextualize the issues confronting the movements, parties, and governments of Latin America’s radical left.