Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Blackwell Publishing and Society for Latin American Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Bulletin of Latin American Research.
http://www.jstor.org
Movements
Social
Agrarian
+ .00
()261-305()/89$3.00
Pressplc
Pergamon
Studies
SocietyforLatinAmerican
and
Forms
of
Consciousness
JOHN
Department
GLEDHILL
of Anthropology,
University
College,
London
of class
in 'social movements'
which are not simple expressions
in
For
is
new
Latin
America.
decades, anthropologists
opposition
nothing
to the study of rural 'millenarian'
and historians have dedicated themselves
and to urban phenomena
movements
ranging from syncretic religious move?
on specific
for urban
demands
ments to barrio organisations
focused
services. There have always, of course, been those who have argued that
in terms of class, and that move?
everything should ultimately be understood
ments which emphasise other identities and realities reflect problems of 'false
which are a legacy of the colonial era and the uneven nature
consciousness',
of capitalist development.
are in vogue
Today, however, 'social movements'
and it is generally argued that their Latin American manifesta?
everywhere
and European
are some?
tions, like their North American
manifestations,
'new'
thing
(Slater (ed.), 1985).
In this paper I combine discussion
of contemporary
with a
developments
of some
historical view in order to offer a critical examination
retrospective
of the theoretical and political tendencies
which are emerging from the 'New
literature. It is important to begin by recognising that part
Social Movements'
of the impetus
a 'social movements
towards what is rapidly becoming
industry' in academia has come from intellectual tendencies within advanced
of the
capitalist societies, despite the fact that one of the leading exponents
in Europe,
view of social movements
Ernesto
self-styled
'post-Marxist'
Laclau, happens to be of Latin American origin.
Interest
OLD WORLD
NEW SOCIAL
PERSPECTIVES
MOVEMENTS?
ON THE
258
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
a mechanical
collapse of capitalism under the weight of its own sociocontradictions
was already a minority view among the Left in
economic
took
Lenin's day. But the real break with traditional Marxist assumptions
place in the 1960s, which brought to prominence both the work of the Frankfurt School, in particular Marcuse, and various 'Third Worldist' positions
which posed the breaking of the imperialist chains of the capitalist world
for renewing the possibility of socialist
system as a necessary precondition
revolution in the metropolitan
countries. Many based their case on a theory
of global capitalism which asserted that sustaining capitalist accumulation
on the
and relatively high living standards in the 'core' was contingent
of
for
the
and
this
position are
exploitation
periphery. Arguments
against
now well rehearsed, but what is strikingly different about the 'new revisionists' of the 1980s is their general lack of interest in questions relating to the
political economy of capitalism (Gamble, 1987, pp. 114-115).
Some versions of the argument against a class based radical politics rest on
the assertion that capitalism has demonstrated
its ability to provide a relative
material prosperity for a majority of the working class (Kitching, 1983).
Others, including Laclau (1987), take the view that socialist parties and trade
unionism are in decline in the advanced capitalist countries because the
decline of manu?
'working class' is shrinking in line with the proportional
million
of
This
not
a
miles
as
a
source
is
away from the
employment.
facturing
'post-industrial
society' model of Daniel Bell (1973), and there are striking
echoes of the 1950s and 1960s 'plural societies' paradigm in 'post-Marxist'
analyses (Navarro, 1988, p. 431). There is no compelling reason to think that
and trade unionism were leading European societies in
Social Democracy
the direction of a socialist society in the Marxist sense (Przeworski,
1985;
and Sprague, 1986). But there are pitfalls in swallowing
the
Przeworski
notion of 'post-industrial
society' without troubling oneself with the issues
of capitalism on the
which lay at the heart of Marxian theory: the dependence
of
value
and
an
in
surplus
objective concept of 'exploitation'
production
are perfectly consistent with rising
which increasing rates of exploitation
in the
material consumption
standards and, for that matter, participation
ownership of capital. Marx sought to demonstrate that the whole of capitalist
of necessity':
become
the
the bourgeoisie,
'prisoners
society, including
are
alienation
and
of
naturalised
accumulation
through
placed
imperatives
this perspective may, interalia,
beyond normal consciousness.
Abandoning
close off certain obvious ways of criticising existing socialisms. It can also be
debated whether notions of class identity and class models of society are of
and American
workers
among modern European
declining significance
(Navarro, op. cit., p. 435).
The abandonment
of class models by the theorists of the New Social
Movements
is, however, premised on a significant theoretical claim: that
there is no theoretically
acceptable
way of moving from an 'objective'
of
of
with respect to capitalist relations of
the
social
place
agents
specification
on the one hand, to their
of accumulation,
and processes
production
ideological orientations and political behaviour, on the other. Even if it can
be demonstrated
through such 'objective' analysis that it is in the material
interests of particular social agents to overthrow capitalism, the political
AGRARIAN
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
259
of real people is, and always has been, shaped by identities and
consciousness
interests other than those of class. To a considerable
extent this position was
already anticipated in the work of theorists who continued to see themselves
as Marxists, in particular Nicos Poulantzas
1975; Cutler et al.,
(Poulantzas,
1977, pp. 189-206).
need 1980s
Classical
writers like Rosa Luxemburg
would scarcely
of the 'working class' constituted
a
theorists to tell them that fragmentation
problem. She was also well aware of the limitations of trade union organisa?
of social democratic political move?
tions and the problem of the cooptation
ments under capitalism. Luxemburg placed her faith in praxis: in particular,
of the
she argued that the 'mass strike' produced
a mutual reinforcement
workers' economic
and political struggles, through the 'mental sediment'
of action, producing
the 'intellectual,
which outlasted particular episodes
cultural growth of the proletariat' (Luxemburg,
1986, p. 38). As far as the
ofthe 1980s are concerned
this kind of process is historically
post-Marxists
on
of
the
Marxists
to argue that Marxism has
no
defence
It
is
part
exceptional.
of concrete
the need for specific historical investigations
always recognised
of the factors which determine
the growth of
reality, and the complexity
not to mention the need for political leadership
consciousness,
revolutionary
in shaping that consciousness.
The argument is that Marxism is theoretically
no acceptable
and has provided
incoherent
theory of the links between
and political
economic
class position,
consciousness
objective
ideology
because no such theory is possible.
To Latin Americans,
some of the considerations
advanced in the Euro?
from
irrelevant
to
the
'retreat
class'
seem
may
region's social realities,
pean
particularly in an era of crisis. If, as Connolly (1985) argues, the root of the
problems and essential unity of the 'formal' and 'informal' sectors lies in the
then a 'material
fact that peripheral
is a low wage capitalism,
capitalism
too readily. On the
cannot be dismissed
interest' argument for socialism
often shift from
other hand, as her own analysis demonstrates,
individuals
in the course of the family
to forms of 'self-employment'
wage-labour
will
cycle, whilst different working members of the household
development
be involved in different forms of work at any one moment of time: this could
of class identity is even more of a problem in
suggest that the fragmentation
Latin America, particularly for those who try to link the formation of class
to the socialising effects of the capitalist labour process. If we
consciousness
of problems raised by discussion of the
turn to the countryside,
anticipation
are readily apparent. Following
the lead of Roger
New Social Movements
in
De
has
classical
Leninist
fashion
that a substantial
Bartra,
Janvry
argued
proportion of a rural population being progressively
squeezed by 'functional
dualism' could ultimately be deflected from 'backward-looking'
attempts to
recover peasant status, towards alliance with the urban proletariat and an
correct' proletarian
'objectively
position (De Janvry, 1981, pp. 267-268).
But there have long been expressions
of dissent from this judgement
on
demands for land. Within the modern literature on Mexico, some
campesino
have emerged from 'circulationist'
Marxist perspectives,
others from a neo1984, pp. 154-160).
position
Chayanovian
Neo-Chayanovians
(Hewitt,
are moving towards
reject the idea that peasants and urban proletarians
260
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
MOVEMENTS
The 'post-Marxist'
critique of class-based models is particularly trenchantly
expressed in Ernesto Laclau's writing (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985; Laclau,
1985). Like all polemics, Laclau's discussion of 'classical' views sometimes
crosses the boundary between heroic simplification
and caricature. But the
issues it identifies with are, I believe, real ones.
The critique has three elements. Firstly, in both orthodox Marxism and,
one should stress, a great deal of non-Marxist social theory, the identity ofthe
agents participating in social conflicts is defined in terms of an 'empiricalreferential' group unity. That is, particular struggles are labelled in terms of
social structural categories?'peasant',
'bourgeois', 'proletarian' in the case of
Marxist theories (Laclau, 1985, p. 27). Secondly, the existence and outcome
of conflict is explained in terms of an underlying
historical-teleological
scheme: such as 'the transition from feudalism to capitalism'. This explana?
tory practice objectifies the 'meanings' of struggles: explaining them does not
the
depend in any way on the content of the actors' consciousness?what
meaning of their situations and actions is for them, or their subjective aims
and aspirations?what
they think they are doing and hope to achieve by doing
it. It also, Laclau argues, constitutes
a form of 'essentialist
reductionism'
universalism
based on a Eurocentric
(Laclau, op. cit., p. 30). Thirdly, this
a
model
of politics as the 'representation
of
produces
general perspective
interests'. In the last instance, the meaning of all political struggle is again
and this is how politics is ultimately
given in social structural categories
it
be
to
Whilst
hard
find many Latin American Marxists
explained.1
might
who would really debate an issue like: 'Was the revolution of such a year the
democratic
revolution?'
Marxist analyses
bourgeois
{ibid), sophisticated
of bourgeois
revolution in
like Enrique Semo's model of the 'long-cycle'
Mexico clearly do rest on the explanatory
Laclau
identifies
procedures
(Semo,1978).2
Laclau's alternative perspective firmly rejects such 'totalising' views of the
social. He argues that subjectivity
is based on autonomous
identifies:
'proletarian' identity is generally as multiple as that of any other stratum,
AGRARIAN
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
261
262
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
IN MICHOACAN
AGRARIAN
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
263
Morelos, the most Jacobin of 19th century liberals, Melchor Ocampo, and
Its
20th century radicals like Francisco
Miigica and Lazaro Cardenas.
has served as a centre for the diffusion of
university, a colonial foundation,
socially critical ideas throughout its long history. At the same time, parts of
Michoacan
are celebrated as the bastions of the most fanatical and conserva?
The state produced
for the
armed volunteers
tive Catholicism.
12,000
state in the period
rebellion of the Cristeros against the post-revolutionary
on in Michoa?
1926-1929
(Meyer, 1976, p. 85). The Cristiada smouldered
elsewhere
and many
can for some time after it had been extinguished
with
the cause
new
themselves
Cristero sympathisers,
recruits, aligned
plus
of sinarquism in the 1940s.
remains a relatively poor, predominantly
Today the state of Michoacan
have, as they put it, 'the
region, much of whose population
agricultural
custom of migrating to the United States'. It has experienced
significant agri?
and it does have one very significant urban industrial
business penetration
the steel works and deep water harbour of Ciudad Lazaro
development:
Created by the national state and foreign capital as a regional
Cardenas.
stimulus to the
'growth pole', Lazaro Cardenas has given little economic
in
it
as
a
for
has
acted
magnet
larger region
practice, although
migration from
of
the
urban
and
well
as
and
vast 'informal'
as
a
rural,
many parts
country,
Lazaro Cardenas
economy has emerged alongside the planned development.
has certainly served as an enclave of 'proletarian' politics, in the form of trade
union militancy of an anti-corporatist
kind (Bizberg and Barraza, 1980;
in
the
steel works were associated with a
and
Strikes
Zapata
Bizberg, 1984).
within
economic
situation
the
deteriorating
enterprise (and the presence of
young but qualified workers recruited from older urban centres). Economic
and the strikers received material
demands fused with 'political' orientations
mobilised around their own demands
support from the colonias populares,
for urban services (Nava, 1987, pp. 49-52).
from the perspective
Such situations
raise two fundamental
questions
offered by theorists of the New Social Movements.4
Firstly, to what extent is
of 'consciousness'
the kind of solidarity and development
displayed in such
of practical struggle by different 'social sectors' (which are not
contexts
necessarily constituted
by totally discrete sets of people) likely to lead to the
growth and diffusion of an over-riding
'proletarian' form of consciousness
of a classical kind? Secondly, to what extent
and social political orientation
in
can such coalitions evade the processes
of cooptation
and incorporation
which are themselves
the long term, processes
divisive? At one level, the
nature of the modern Mexican state places a premium on pursuit of objec?
and tends to promote the demands
tives through 'independent'
organisations
at another level, it favours the pursuit of
for 'democratisation'.
However,
concrete objectives through the channels of patronage within the structure of
the regime and turns 'autonomy' into a tactic of action, in so far as material
demands are to be satisfied through the action ofthe state itself. To the extent
that 'class politics' pursued through trade unionism is a demand for the state
to civilise capitalism (via the effective political representation
ofthe 'working
no
than
its
leads
further
social
op. cit.,
logic
democracy
class'),
(Gamble,
It may also lead, depending on circumstances,
to populism, or
pp 121-122).
264
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
AGRARIAN
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
265
266
A GAME
REMAIN
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
OF WINNERS
WHO LOSE AND
UNDEFE ATED
AMERICAN
LOSERS
RESEARCH
WHO
AGRARIAN
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
267
268
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
There were further outbreaks of violence and direct action, but the main
thrust of the community agrarian movement in the early phases of the revolu?
tion was to pursue the struggle through petitioning the central state. Many of
of the old Indian village elite,
the leaders in this phase were representatives
often highly educated people, whose social position was being eroded by the
political ascent of mestizo tradesmen and the creatures of Porfirian 'political
action was in no
chiefs' and landlords. Even such peaceful, constitutional
of
of assassination
sense a 'soft option', as evidenced
by the catalogue
agrarian leaders in this period.
In the 1920s and 1930s, a new type of regional agrarian movement
Francisco
emerged under the patronage of radical state governors?first
of
these
new
The
Cardenas.
then
Lazaro
and
agrarian programme
Mugica
to
land
went
communities,
'indigenous'
restoring
beyond
organisations
and
of land to mestizo peons on haciendas
favouring the redistribution
thereby implying the break-up of the system of great estates. The new
organisations also adopted the rhetoric ofthe international labour movement
of
with larger social issues?the
themselves
and preoccupied
position
women, and in particular, the promotion of 'rationalist' or 'socialist' educa?
the Liga de Comunidades
tion. The first such movement,
y Sindicatos
Primo Tapia (Friedrich,
led by the Naranjeiio
Agraristas de Michoacan,
1977), was already in some disarray, linked to internal divisions before Tapia
The divisions were partly related to Tapia's use of his
was assassinated.
were also
local
settle
to
scores, but both they and his assassination
position
related to his attempt to forge alliances with other regional movements
outside the framework of the 'official' system: Tapia was killed on the orders
of President Calles, not local landlord interests (Hernandez,
1982, p. 21;
Still more significant is the history of the
Garcia Mora, op. cit., pp. 66-67).
organisation Lazaro Cardenas patronised during his term as state governor
del
Michoacana
Revolucionaria
from 1928 to 1932, the Confederacion
Trabajo (CRMDT).
The CRMDT attempted to organise workers as well as peasants, but since
Michoacan
scarcely had an urban proletariat, workers were to be found
was
estates. Its leadership
primarily in the mines and on agricultural
middle class professionals,
dominated
tradesmen,
by urban intellectuals,
artisans and a few small landowners. The local Communists initially spurned
Peasants were distinctly under-represented
it, but subsequently
cooperated.
in the leadership (Hernandez,
op. cit., p. 36). The CRMDT faced a situation
in which the social power of the landlord class and the Church was still
through legal
largely intact. The actual reform process was conducted
as it then stood. But the only
channels, in accordance with the constitution
way to pursue this strategy was by capturing local and federal political offices
from agents of the local elite. The CRMDT therefore functioned primarily as
an instrument for consolidating
political power, by any means, including
violence. One of the necessary costs of achieving success was that Cardenas
case was
village bosses: a paradigmatic
ruthlessly self-serving
promoted
Ernesto Prado of the Canada de los Once Pueblos, whose agrarismo was
merely a pretext for achieving the material benefits of the status of a broker
AGRARIAN
between
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
269
270
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
land?here
it is!' (Craig, 1983, p. 73). On the other hand, the Cristero forces
also included a number of former agrarista leaders, whose attitude to social
reform was one of criticising its current practice?as
bossism and agrarismo
(Meyer, 1981, pp. 254-269).
Jean Meyer has interpreted the Cristiada as a reaction to the state forma?
tion process, a reaction to the creation of a Leviathan which imposed its alien
will on a recalcitrant civil society. I think that this is an element of an explana?
tion, despite the fact that the state against which the Cristeros fought was
of Mexico in the 1920s
certainly no Leviathan as yet. The 'government'
manifested
itself primarily as an agency of violent expropriation.
In the
of
armed
to
of
the
whole
communities
fled
the
hills
revolution,
period
refuge
when they saw troopers approaching.
Few rural Mexicans in this period
identified themselves with either 'the State' or 'the Nation' (De la Peiia, 1986,
by the Cristiada reflects three
p. 34). In my view, the reaction represented
basic factors: Mexican Liberalism's failure to subordinate
Church to State,
the reinforcing
effects of socio-economic,
and political
revolutionary
violence on the transcendant
of
as
a system of
ideological
power
religion
of the national state itself as an instrument of
meaning and the perception
alien social classes, a perception
which was not wholly 'incorrect'. The
Cristiada broke out when Calles decided to close the Churches, an action
relations, but one which
provoked by a conjunctural crisis in Church-State
was made almost inevitable by the fact that the State could not complete its
conquest of civil society whilst the Church presented itself as a rival social
and a virtual 'spiritual reconquest' of
power. As a result of deft manoeuvering
its mass base at the end of the 19th century, Mexican Catholicism
has
its
social
secular
cit.,
power against
preserved
ideologies
(Tapia, op.
The rapid capitalist expansion of the Porfirian era created a
pp. 137-140).
social crisis which benefited
the Church, in the context of the ensuing
violence in which none of the social issues were
sustained revolutionary
really being resolved.
It is important to note that, in addition to 'politicised' violence, Michoacan
also suffered a particular form of banditry on an endemic scale in the period
The bandit forces were recruited in just the same way as 'revolu?
1914-1926.
tionary' peasant movements: marginalised peasants from the hills joined the
group and then went back to their villages (Olivera de Bonfil, 1981, p. 106).
But if its organisational
quality was that of a 'social movement' rather than
'professional'
banditry, it had no political or social programme
beyond
violence, rape and robbery applied to the humble as well as the rich. This
phenomenon
might be seen as the product of social humiliation coupled with
frustration at the unbroken power of the old Porfirian elite of the region: in a
cruel and unjust world, where everything has become meaningless
and all
promises prove false, becoming the hombre valiente defiant of all morality is
one way of asserting a claim to being something. However, this was not the
mainstream,
long term reaction: for most, it was a matter of clinging to a
principle of order: in an increasingly shattered and inhuman world, religion
was strengthened
as the fulcrum of sustaining a social identity and as a prin?
of
order. This harmed the 'progressive'
transcendant
ciple
agrarian cause
because it was also, particularly in Michoacan,
a rigorously anti-clerical
AGRARIAN
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
271
in this
of the agrarian movement
cause. At the same time, the development
particular historical setting, created a degree of alienation through its ruthless
and essentially authoritarian
struggle for the levers of power.
Cardenista agrarian radicalism in Michoacan
was not based on an organic
link with the masses to whom it offered political representation:
its develop?
ment was strongly correlated with the wave of international
migration which
in the forcible repatriation
of millions of Mexicans
from the
culminated
north. The vast majority of Cardenista community
activists were nortenos.
of
Migration was a major stimulus to the adoption of new political ideologies
or socialist bent, and also of hostility to religion. It is
an anarcho-sindicalist
important to stress that the massive and 'authentic' peasant movement led by
Emiliano Zapata in the state of Morelos in an earlier phase of the revolution,
fought under the twin banners of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Benito Juarez,
of Morelos
had fought the Liberal
despite the fact that the communities
for the beginnings
of disentailment
of communal
responsible
governments
land and the final act in the history of their dispossession.
Both the apparent
with the Faith should be seen as
'political' affiliation and the identification
in terms of distinctive
of
freedom
and
fashioned
justice
peasant
images
in
of
the
'truth'
as
embodied
these
symbols, appropriated
understandings
their own symbols and not those of a national society. The same would be
true of the kinds of understandings
which motivated
the comuneros
of
Michoacan
to rise in revolt in the period of spontaneous
agrarian struggles.
The apparent continuity between the 1920s and 1930s, and earlier periods
of agrarian conflict is partly an illusion: the roots of many of the conflicts lay
took represented
deep in the past, but the forms which their politicisation
significant breaks, both with the past and with the forms of consciousness
of the 'mass base' being 'represented'
characteristic
politically by the leader?
ship.
In reality, neither appeals to universalising
class politics nor 'national'
buttered
sentiment
many parsnips among a majority of rural people in
before the period of the Cardenas presidency.
Michoacan
Lack of con?
fidence in the pretensions
of the national state and revolutionary
politicians
were reinforced by the actual experience of social reform to date. Even if one
was lucky enough to receive land, and was not being brutalised by a village
cacique, one was left to cultivate it without any practical help from one's
political patrons. The local economy had been devastated by the revolution
and the Cristiada, and these were times of enormous lack of confidence in the
future: this was one of the reasons for the mounting tide of emigration to the
USA, along with brute violence.
The Cardenas regime created a financial and technical infrastructure
for
the land reform sector. During his election campaign Cardenas travelled over
to penetrate
miles and was the first President
what upper class
16,000
Mexicans at that time called 'the hinterland' of rural communities
in search of
votes. He was, people tell me, generally accompanied
by a man with a satchel
full of billetes on these peregrinations,
but one should not under-estimate
the
impact his personal presence made, even on those who continued to reject
his ideas. Cardenas continued face-to-face
contact with the masses through?
out his presidency. Through his personal role and more importantly, through
272
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
A DECENTRED
CONQUEST
OF THE STATE?
Mexico today is very different to Mexico in 1950. The legitimacy of the ruling
party is at its lowest ebb for decades and the entire social system, which the
celebrated Mexican political 'system' was constructed to manage, is now very
On the other hand, the state's 'penetration1 of its
radically transformed.
society is vastly more profound now than in earlier periods. Mexican civil
AGRARIAN
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
273
and
segmental. The maintenance
society may, in reality, remain somewhat
of
and
economic
structures
of
centralised
national, political
development
which
and agencies of intermediation
power of necessity rests on processes
and
of
between
social
sectors
the
a
continuing process
negotiation
manage
state, and between local and central power (De la Pena, op. cit., pp. 47-48).
Intermediation
dilutes and segments conflict. The vast network of patronage
relations which ultimately cements the edifice together does not fragment
social power in a way that seems likely to further the possibility of 'radical
in the New Social Movements
sense: it fragments popular
democratisation'
power. There may be multiple loci of power and multiple points of resistance,
seems to be the other side of the
but, to date at any rate, their proliferation
coin to the growing power of centralised forces.
like 'commodification',
Despite its flirtations with apparent objectivities
the 'post-Marxist'
world of discourses seems to lead in the same direction as
earlier revisions of western Marxism, in particular Gramsci: towards volunmass
tarism. But it is no longer the voluntarism of the 'consciousness-raising'
of
but
the
decentred
social
movements
which
demand
party,
pluralism
'open?
view of society', which is the key to future
ness' and an 'indeterminate
progress (Laclau, 1985, p. 39). This in a world in which one of the main
of middle class participants
factors in the radicalisation
in the European
has been the discovery
Green and Anti-Nuclear
movements
of how reand
domain
of
the
of
the
are
structures
beyond
pressive,
public scrutiny,
in
in
social and governmental
this
a
world
which
are
states
power,
capitalist
in destroying
labour movements
so heavily
which, however
investing
bureaucratic
and ossified they have become, still serve as potential agencies
of popular power which might at least contest the terms of domination.
'Counter-discourses'
but so is repressive
may be proliferating,
power. A
movement like the UCEZ in Michoacan
has clearly learned lessons from the
past and is attempting to orientate itself towards a broad coalition which will
provide an effective base from which to contest the direction of Mexico's
It sees its role precisely
as one of 'articulating'
different
development.
discourses
and 'subject positions'.
of avoiding
all
There is no question
with politicians or the state: it is rather a matter of attempting
entanglements
to manage such relations
in a way which struggles
against cooptation.
and structural constraints to be overHowever, the objective contradictions
come in realising such a project remain formidable.
Some on the Left admire the alternative paradigm offered by the 'intransi?
movement
in Peru, whilst ignoring the
gence' of the Sendero Luminoso
essentially authoritarian nature of its practice: created by a group of provin?
faced with irreversible
loss of social position in the face of
cial intellectuals
of national economic
the penetration
and political agencies, the culture of
which constitutes
Sendero's
could be seen as a trans?
absolutes
ideology
formation of an essentially hierarchic provincial elite mentality (Degregori,
1985a, 1985b). The movement's
appeal to the young and to women, and
is another example
more transitory strengh in serrano peasant communities,
of discourses,
of the contingencies
involved in the articulation
although it
a logic which seems perfectly explicable
in terms of social facts.
possesses
But an example like Sendero?so
in many ways of Mexican
reminiscent
274
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
AGRARIAN
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
275
EVERS, T. (1985), 'Identity:the Hidden Side of New Social Movements in Latin America', in
D. Slater (ed.), New Social Movements and the State in Latin America, pp. 43-71, FORIS
Publications Holland (Dordrecht).
FOUCAULT, M. (1979), Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Peregrine Books
(Harmondsworth).
FRIEDRICH, P. (1977), Agrarian Revolt in a Mexican Village, 2nd Edition, The University of
Chicago Press (Chicago).
GAMBLE, A. (1987), 'Class Politics and Radical Democracy', New Left Review 164 (July/
August): 113-122.
GARCIA MORA, C. (1981), Tierra y movimiento agraristaen la sierra purepecha', Jornados
de Historia de Occidente: Movimientos populares en el occidente de Mexico, siglos XIXy
XX, pp. 47-101, Centro de Estudios de la Revolucion Mexicana 'Lazaro Cardenas', A.C.
(Jiquilpan de Juarez, Michoacan).
GERAS, N.(1987), 'Post-Marxism?', New Left Review 163 (May/June): 40-82.
GLEDHILL, J. (1987), 'State and Class Formation in Mexico, 16th to 19th Centuries: Frameworks for Comparative Analysis', in T. C. Patterson and C. W. Gailey (eds.), Power
Relations and State Formation, pp. 128-154, American Anthropological Association
(Washington D.C.).
HAMILTON, N. (1983), The Limits of State Autonomy: Post-RevolutionaryMexico, Princeton
University Press (Princeton, New Jersey).
HAMNETT, B. R. (1986), Roots of Insurgency: Mexican Regions, 1750-1824, Cambridge
University Press (Cambridge).
HERNANDEZ, M. D. (1982), La Confederacion Revolucionaria Michoacana del Trabajo,
Centro de Estudios de la Revolucion Mexicana 'Lazaro Cardenas', A.C. (Jiquilpan de
Juarez, Michoacan).
HEWITT DE ALCANTARA, C. (1984), Anthropological Perspectives on Rural Mexico,
Routledge and Kegan Paul (London).
KITCHING, G. (1983), Rethinking Socialism: a Theory for a Better Practice, Methuen
(London).
KNIGHT, A. (1986), The Mexican Revolution, Volume I: Porfirians, Liberals and Peasants,
Cambridge University Press (Cambridge).
KNIGHT, A. (1980), 'Peasant and Caudillo in Revolutionary Mexico', in D. A. Brading (ed.),
Caudillo and Peasant in the Mexican Revolution, pp. 17-58, Cambridge University Press
(Cambridge).
KOWARICK, L. (1985), 'The Pathways to Encounter: Reflections on the social struggles in Sao
Paulo', in D. Slater (ed.), New Social Movements and the State in Latin America, pp. 73-93,
FORIS Publications Holland (Dordrecht).
LACLAU, E. (1987), 'Class War and After', Marxism Today, (April): 30-33.
LACLAU, E. (198 5), 'New Social Movements and the Plurality of the Social', in D. Slater (ed.),
New Social Movements and the State in Latin America, pp. 27-42, FORIS Publications
Holland (Dordrecht).
LACLAU, E. and MOUFFE, C. (1985), Hegemony and Socialist Strategy:Towards a Radical
Democratic Politics, Verso (London).
LOCKHART, J. (1982), 'Views of Corporate Self and History in some Valley of Mexico Towns:
late 17th and 18th Centuries', in G. A. Collier, R. I. Rosaldo and J. D. Wirth (eds.), TheInca
and Aztec States, 1400-1800: Anthropology and History, pp. 367-396, Academic Press
(New York).
LUXEMBURG, R. (1986), The Mass Strike (Written 1906, original title The Mass Strike, the
Political Party and the Trade Unions), Bookmarks (London).
MEYER, J. (1976), The Cristero Rebellion: the Mexican People between Church and State,
1926-1929, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge).
MEYER, J. (1981), 'La segunda (cristiada) en Michoacan', in F. Miranda (ed.), La Cultura
Purhe, pp. 245-275, El Colegio de Michoacan/FONAPAS Michoacan (Zamora).
MOLYNEUX, M. (1985), 'Mobilization without Emancipation? Women's Interests, State and
Revolution in Nicaragua', in D. Slater (ed.), New Social Movements and the State in Latin
America, pp. 233-259, FORIS Publications Holland (Dordrecht).
NAVA HERNANDEZ, E. (1987), 'Cultura politica y politica popular en Michoacan. Notas
para su estudio', Relaciones (El Colegio de Michoacan, Zamora) VIII(31): 25-60.
276
BULLETIN
OF LATIN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH
NAVARRO, V. (1988), 'Social Movements and Class Politics in the USA', in R.Miliband,
L. Panitch and J. Saville (eds.), Socialist Register 1988, pp. 425-447, The Merlin Press
(London).
OLIVERA DE BONFIL, A. (1981), 'Jose Ines Chavez Garcia, "El Indio". ^Bandido,
revolucionario o guerrillero?', in Jornados de Historia de Occidente: Movimientos
populares en el occidente de Mexico, siglos XIXy XX, pp. 103-111, Centro de Estudios de
la Revolucion Mexicana 'Lazaro Cardenas',A.C. (Jiquilpande Juarez, Michoacan).
POULANTZAS, N. (1975), Classes in ContemporaryCapitalism, New Left Books (London).
PRZEWORSKI, A. (1985), Capitalism and Social Democracy, Cambridge University Press
(Cambridge).
PRZEWORSKI, A. and SPRAGUE, T. (1986), Paper Stones: a History ofElectoralSocialism,
The University of Chicago Press (Chicago).
RAMIREZ, L. A. (1986a), Chilchota: un pueblo alpie de la sierra, El Colegio de Michoacan/
Gobierno del Estado de Michoacan (Zamora).
RAMIREZ, L. A. (1986b), 'La Canada de los Once Pueblos', in C. Herrejon Peredo (ed.),
Estudios Michoacanos II, El Colegio de Michoacan/Gobiemo del Estado de Michoacan
(Zamora).
REDCLIFT, M. (1987), Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions, Methuen
(London).
SANCHEZ DIAZ, (1981), 'Movimientos campesinos en la Tierra Caliente de Michoacan,
1869-1900', in Jornados de Historia de Occidente:Movimientospopulares en el occidente
de Mexico, siglos XIX y XX, pp. 31-45, Centro de Estudios de la Revolucion Mexicana
'Lazaro Cardenas',A.C. (Jiquilpande Juarez, Michoacan).
SEMO, E. (1978), Historia Mexicana: Economia y Lucha de Clases, Ediciones Era, S.A.
(Mexico City).
SLATER, D. (ed.), New Social Movements and the State, CEDLA Latin American Studies 25,
FORIS Publications Holland pordrecht).
TAPIA SANTAMARIA, J. (1986), Campo Religioso y Evolucion Politica en el Bajio
Zamorano, El Colegio de Michoacan/Gobiemo de Estado de Michoacan (Zamora).
WARMAN, A. (1972), Los campesinos: Hijos predilectos del regimen, Editorial Nuestro
Tiempo (Mexico City).
WOOD, E. M. (1986), The Retreatfrom Class, Verso (London).
ZAPATA, F. and BIZBERG, I. (1984), 'Worker Consciousness and Union Orientation: the
Case of Mexican Steel Workers', Bull. Latin Am. Res. 3.
ZEPEDA PATTERSON, J. (1985), 'Los pasos de Cardenas:la Confederacion Revolucionaria
Michoacana del Trabajo', in 75 Anos de Sindicalismo Mexicano, Instituto Nacional de
Estudios Historicos de la Revolucion Mexicana (Mexico City).
ZEPEDA PATTERSON, J. (1987), 'Michoacan antes y durante la crisis o sobre los michoaca?
nos que no se fueron de braceros', Relaciones (Zamora) VIII: 5-24.