An autobiographical vision of different modes of activism in the

last half century

Pablo RegalskyCENDACochabamba

• Activism as a personal drama

• Activism is a personal option but

the enabling circumstances

the institutional framework

What are the lessons?

• The 1968 movement: The understanding of collective action vis a vis the nation state as a challenge to the fragmentation of the subject

• 1975-1984: global crisis, the workers defeat and the emergence of ethnic movements.

• Understanding ethnic/class movements

• The challenge to territorial authority

Institutional framework

• NGOs as bridges towards reconstruction of state authority via governmentality (developmentalism, green revolution)

• The possibility to take advantage of governmentality strategies (CENDA) in support of collective subject strategies

Action-Research and the Collective Subject

• Politicisation of cultural difference• The issue of indigenous knowledge• Different forms of governance• Territory as jurisdictional rights of access

to resources

• The attempt at extending the authority of the state via decentralisation (1994). The “Political Instrument”

• The water wars (2000)• The state crisis (2003) and fall of

neoliberal government. • The demand for a sovereign Constituent

Assembly (1989-2000-2007).

Situation of territorial demands in Bolivia

INDIGENOUS TERRITORIES,

OIL Companies, Forestry & Mining

Industry

Concesiones Mineras

11 %

Concesiones Forestales

6 %

Concesiones Petroleras

15 %

AA.PP. 18 %

demandas TCO´s

30,3 %

TCO tituladas

9.9%

Fuente:VMT CPTI CEDIB elab propia

• We don’t recognize the legitimacy of the nation-state, it is not the source of our identity, we are the owners of this place and so we don’t pay taxes.

• We pay taxes so we have citizenship rights, we need to have recognition from the state because we recognize the nation-state as the source of my identity

2005-2010

• The rebuilding of the nation-state authority?

• The decline of western civilization?