Class Conflict in the Countryside: The Lessons of Chiapas

Abstract

There is a growing popular opposition to neoliberal politics throughout the world. In Latin America the guerrilla movement in Chiapas, the landless rural workers occupation of plantations in Brazil, the peasant-Indian mobilizations and strikes in Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, the urban uprising in Santiago del Estero in Argentina, form part of a global pattern. They are different expressions of mass resistance to the same liberal system. These extra-parliamentary activities are attacking electoral regimes which utilize authoritarian methods to impose liberal policies.