Hegemony Struggles (1959–1976)

Abstract

Taking a historical long view, the period considered in this chapter could be said to be one characterized overall as a period of “Crisis”: an organic and not just a conjunctural crisis, to put it in Gramscian terms, which dominated events in a most dramatic manner. The dominant classes responded by seeking to establish a more decisive form of hegemony that would hitherto not need to compromise with social demands from below. It was also a period characterized by “Revolution” from the Cuban Revolution in 1959 onward through to the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979. Not only—or even mainly— guerrilla movements in the cities and in the hills, but a mobilized proletariat, active rural worker, and small-holder movements were abiding characteristics of this period. Perhaps inevitably, a period of counterrevolutionary dynamics ensued. To the political challenges faced by the dominant order we must add a consideration of this period as one of “Economic Transition” as the dominant accumulation model faced a crisis of perspectives. The apparent exhaustion of the old industrialization and national development model coincided with substantial changes in the global economy with the emergence of a clear-cut US hegemony. Foreign investment was on the rise as was the financial sector and thus a more clearly subordinated working class was required.