Extractivism, Transnational Capital, and Subaltern Struggles in Latin America

• Date: 01 September 2015
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X14549538
• Author: Francisco Vértiz,Emiliano López
• Subject Matter: Other Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 204, Vol. 42 No. 5, September 2015, 152–168

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X14549538

© 2014 Latin American Perspectives

152

Extractivism, Transnational Capital, and

Subaltern Struggles in Latin America

by

Emiliano López and Francisco Vértiz

Translated by Margot Olavarria

Development projects at the national level in Latin American countries are linked with

the needs of global transnational extractive-rentier capital accumulation. The concept of

unequal geographic development is useful for understanding the articulation between the

strategies of transnational capital in the extraction of minerals, hydrocarbons, and agri-

foods and the national-scale development projects expressed in the political and economic

configurations of the states of the region. This articulation must be approached in terms

of the conflictive relations between dominant and subaltern actors and the way in which

they are expressed in the structure of the state. Analysis of three concrete cases of subaltern

struggles against the strategies of extractive-rentier transnational capital (Peru, Ecuador,

and Argentina) reveal the limits and possibilities of transcending local-level disputes to

produce a development project that is an alternative to extractivism on the national and

continental levels.

Los proyectos de desarrollo a escala nacional de los países de América Latina están

vinculados con las necesidades de la acumulación global del capital transnacional extrac-

tivo-rentista. El concepto de desarrollos geográficos desiguales ayuda a comprender la

articulación existente entre las estrategias del capital transnacional que se ubica en la

extracción de minerales, hidrocarburos y agro-alimentos y los proyectos de desarrollo a

escala nacional que se expresan en las configuraciones políticas y económicas de los estados

de la región. Dicha articulación entre escalas debe abordarse a partir de las relaciones

conflictivas entre actores dominantes y subalternos y la forma concreta en que estas rela-

ciones se expresan en la estructura estatal. Un análisis de tres casos concretos de luchas

subalternas de oposición a las estrategias del capital transnacional extractivo-rentista

(Perú, Ecuador y Argentina) revela los límites y las posibilidades de traspasar las disputas

en el plano local para posicionar un proyecto de desarrollo alternativo al extractivismo en

escala nacional y continental.

Keywords: Transnational capital, National development projects, Extractivism,

Commodities, Subaltern struggles

A series of profound changes began to appear in the 1970s in the global

dynamic of capital accumulation and its dominant political, cultural, and

Emiliano López and Francisco Vértiz are professors at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata,

Argentina. Emiliano López is a member of the Centro de Investigaciones Geográficas of the

Universidad de La Plata, and Francisco Vértiz is a member of the Instituto de Cultura Jurídica of

that university’s Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales. Margot Olavarria is a political scientist

and translator living in New York City.

549538LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X14549538Latin American PerspectivesLópez and Vértiz / Transnational Capital And Subaltern Struggles In Latin America

research-article2014

López and Vértiz / TRANSNATIONAL CAPITAL AND SUBALTERN STRUGGLES 153

aesthetic forms.The resolution of the crisis of post–World War II development

projects in the countries of the capitalist West came about through a spatial-

temporal displacement of the contradictions that provoked it. Among the salient

aspects of the restructuring, which has been termed the “neoliberal turn”

(Duménil and Lévy, 2004; Harvey, 2007), is a new form of subordination—eco-

nomic, political, and cultural—of the nation to the dynamic of transnational

capital.

These global changes were particularly far-reaching in Latin America

(Pradilla, 1995). The national developmental models that had been hegemonic

south of the Río Bravo since the 1940s—both those in the liberal tradition and

those that were national-populist—met the same fate as those in other regions

of the world (Svampa, 2008). However, the “success” of neoliberal globaliza-

tion in Latin America was not devoid of contradictions, and at the end of the

1990s neoliberalism entered a phase of profound crisis in the majority of coun-

tries in the region. This crisis began a new stage in mode of development that,

not without a certain ambiguity, has come to be called “post-neoliberal” (Sader,

2009). Despite the substantial differences among countries, there is broad con-

sensus that development projects have significantly changed.

This article is situated in the historical context of Latin American post-neo-

liberalism, and it intends to contribute to the understanding of the articulation

between national-level development projects and the needs of global accumu-

lation of extractive-rentier transnational capital. This articulation must be

approached in terms of the conflictive relations between dominant and subal-

tern actors and the way in which they are expressed in the structure of the state.

The study was carried out through complementary quantitative and qualita-

tive methods, based on secondary sources, that allowed us to account for the

strategies of both dominant and subaltern actors.

The text is structured as follows: First, we lay out a conceptual framework

for problematizing the differential impact of neoliberal globalization as a proj-

ect of the dominant classes at different levels in terms of the concept of unequal

geographic development. Secondly, we characterize the strategies of extractive-

rentier capital in three countries of the region (Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina)

that show substantial differences in terms of the national development projects

undertaken during the period. Third, we analyze three concrete conflicts in

these countries to illustrate the different dynamics of the relations between

dominant and subaltern actors and state power with regard to extractive logic.

These cases allow us to examine the limits and possibilities of transcending the

local level to construct a development project alternative to extractive develop-

ment. Lastly, we present some final reflections.

NEOLIBERAL GLOBALIZATION AS A POLITICAL PROJECT

AND THE THEORY OF UNEQUAL GEOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT

While it should be acknowledged that neoliberal globalization universalized

a variety of aspects of life, the effects of these changes—which were due to the

translation in time and space of the contradictions of postwar capitalist

development—on different countries and local areas were not identical.