Social movements and activism in Latin America and the Caribbean

The history of social and political struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean is broad, diverse, and complex, encompassing a vast spectrum of strategies, actors, and horizons. Collective action, as the driving force of social transformation, takes on diverse forms of organization, is sustained by different actors and subjects, and establishes distinct relationships with the State and political institutions. This platform aims to become a space for reflection and understanding of all these forms and their potential connections.

We seek convergence and collaboration among this diversity of movements and forms of collective action, aiming for a deeper understanding of their divergences and affinities, limitations and potential, always with the goal of fostering collaboration among them to strengthen anti-capitalist struggles against oppression and for freedom and justice. The focus is on understanding current movements and activism, their strategies, actors, potential, and threats, always considering them from a historical perspective and drawing on the memories of struggles that, although reinvented and reinterpreted, are rooted in long-standing practices and trajectories. In this sense, it is crucial to examine the power of collaboration among diverse forms of activism and movements, seeking to understand and confront the limits and difficulties of joint action, always from a historical perspective. For example, the collaboration between anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and anti-patriarchal struggles.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the relationship between activist groups and movements with the state is often conflictive, constituting a source of debate and even internal conflict within organizations. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the actual and/or potential relationship with the state as an important dimension to analyze, addressing elements such as authoritarian responses to struggles through repression, but also through strategies of tolerance and/or co-optation; the relationship with progressive governments; and the institutionalization of popular demands.

In conceptual terms, we propose a broad perspective that allows for the convergence of a multitude of practices, as well as the recognition and understanding of their diversity in relation to their characteristics, strategies, subjects, and objectives.

Our concern for the present leads us to focus on the social uprisings and popular revolts that have occurred in several countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. These are uprisings against the violence inherent in neoliberalism, demanding transformations of the model and resisting the profound inequalities it has imposed. In these contexts, other forms of activism and organization have developed that must be understood and recognized in their own terms. It is also important to consider the power, possibilities, and openings that arise, as well as the scope and limitations of these processes.