Mariátegui’s Thought and the Solidarity Economy: A Contemporary Dialogue?

• Author: Adriane Vieira Ferrarini,César Miguel Salinas Ramos
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Date: 01 July 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X221095807
• Subject Matter: Articles: Maríategui

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X221095807

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 245, Vol. 49 No. 4, July 2022, 110–125

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X221095807

© 2022 Latin American Perspectives

110

Mariátegui’s Thought and the Solidarity Economy

A Contemporary Dialogue?

by

Adriane Vieira Ferrarini and César Miguel Salinas Ramos

Translated by

Victoria Furio

A dialogue between Mariátegui’s thought and the solidarity economy, identifying con-

vergences and lessons, finds that the solidarity economy encounters Mariáteguist thought

in its critique of positivist modernity and dogmatic Marxism and its proposal of an eman-

cipating and decolonizing praxis as a heroic creation. The solidarity economy provides the

foundations for the material and spiritual reproduction of community and nature through

the political work forged in everyday associative and self-managed labor.

Un diálogo entre el pensamiento de Mariátegui y la economía solidaria, identificando

convergencias y lecciones, nos muestra que la economía solidaria va al encuentro del

pensamiento mariateguista en su crítica de la modernidad positivista y el marxismo dog-

mático, así como su propuesta de una praxis emancipadora y descolonizadora como cre-

ación heroica. La economía solidaria sienta las bases para la reproducción material y

espiritual de la comunidad y la naturaleza a través del trabajo político forjado en la labor

cotidiana asociativa y autogestionada.

Keywords: Mariátegui, Solidarity economy, Marxism, Sumak kawsay, Emancipation

The contemporary globalized world lives in an intense paradox: humanity

today possesses ample technical means to overcome the privations and barba-

rism typical of the Middle Ages, but there has never been so much inequality

or death from hunger and preventable diseases. This paradox is incomprehen-

sible but not surprising. According to the premises of the rationalists and the

atomists, the modern economy has become automated and formed the basis for

the globalized market society.

Resistance to reducing the human being to a social atom and the economy to

market principles, which have subjected workers to degrading and inhumane

Adriane Vieira Ferrarini is a professor and researcher in the postgraduate program in social sci-

ences at the Universidad do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Brazil, a researcher accredited by the Conselho

Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, and vice chair of the Solidarity and Cooperative

Economy research group at the Universidad do Vale do Rio dos Sinos and of Paideia, the

Laboratory of Integrative Methodologies for Education and Social Management, at the

Universidade Federal do Sul de Bahia. César Miguel Salinas Ramos is a Ph.D. student in the

postgraduate program in social sciences at the Universidad do Vale do Rio dos Sinos and a

researcher associated with the university’s Solidarity and Cooperative Economy research group.

Victoria Furio is a translator and conference interpreter located in Yonkers, NY.

1095807LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X221095807Ferrarini and Ramos/MARIÁTEGUI AND THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

research-article2022

Ferrarini and Ramos/MARIÁTEGUI AND THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY 111

conditions since the inception of capitalism (Brancaleone, 2019; Ferrarini,

Gaiger, and Schiochet, 2018), has not been limited to the realm of ideas. Along

with the consolidation of capitalism in the early nineteenth century, socialist

experiments emerged that opened the way for the more traditional forms of

European cooperativism. However, the reality in the South, specifically in Latin

America, remained invisible even to the European emancipatory socialist proj-

ect. While the inequalities between capital and labor seem to have been appar-

ent, the inequalities between the North and the South were not.

A century ago the Peruvian José Carlos Mariátegui pioneered the identifica-

tion of the dualisms in the modern socialist project, rejecting the “evolutionist,

historicist, rationalist philosophy” with its “superstitious cult of the idea of

progress.” Taking the historical and cultural issues seriously, he combined the

analyses of capitalism and colonialism and called into question the imposition

of orthodox socialism in Latin America. He suggested that in primarily agrar-

ian countries modern socialism is rooted in vernacular traditions, collective

campesino and popular memory, the social and cultural survival of precapital-

ist communal life, practices of mutual assistance and solidarity, and the collec-

tive property ownership of the rural community. At this stage of the review of

Mariátegui’s work, we cannot fail to observe the possibilities for a fruitful dia-

logue between his thought and the solidarity economy, which refers to a diverse

set of economic experiments based on the principles of associativism, self-man-

agement, and the collective ownership of the means of production (Razeto,

1990; Singer, 2000; Gaiger, 2009a).

Here we propose to establish such a dialogue, identifying points of conver-

gence and lessons that challenge and strengthen the Mariáteguist emancipa-

tory project and the solidarity economy. What does the solidarity economy

experience contribute to a current version of Mariátegui’s project? What does

Mariátegui’s thought contribute to a rethinking of the solidarity economy in

the face of the contemporary challenges as a possibility for Latin American

social emancipation? Our methodology consisted of a bibliographical review

of classic texts and qualified academic output. The text is divided into three

sections: (1) Mariátegui’s thought and practices in the South, (2) the solidarity

economy in its practices and legacy, and (3) and the convergences, lessons, and

inspirations of Mariátegui and the solidarity economy.

Mariátegui’s thought and Practices of the south

José Carlos Mariátegui La Chira was born in Moquegua in 1894 and died in

Lima in 1930. As a child of the twentieth century, he grew up in a tumultuous

setting involving enormous change, the multiplication of the global popula-

tion, and constant interaction among the various peoples of the world—a junc-

ture that demanded a way of relating different from the colonial imperialism

established by the Western tradition. After a difficult childhood and an accident

that would limit his health for life, Mariátegui worked early on at the newspa-

per La Prensa and became known as an art, culture, and national political critic;

he also worked for El Tiempo starting in 1916. The first phase of his journalistic

career was defined by a “predominance of the aesthetic and . . . a concern for