Comunalidad, Guendaliza'a and anti-mine mobilizations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

Alessandro Morosin

doi:10.2458/v27i1.23237

Abstract

How do grassroots strategies for the defense of territory inter-relate with the "politics of time" in the early phases of socio-environmental struggles? This article addresses this question via ethnographic research and in-depth interviews in Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Opponents of mines and a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in this region invoke comunalidad and Guendaliza'a— indigenous ways of life associated with mutual aid and territorial sovereignty. These values are enacted by networks of activists seeking to protect the land and livelihoods of future generations against global capitalism's drive for cheap raw materials. By rejecting dualist distinctions between Society and Nature, indigenous cosmovisions can help defensive movements forge alternatives to socio-environmental violence. Engaging with this case brings separate theoretical frameworks of defensive resistance, cheap nature, ecological-distribution conflicts, and indigenous cosmovisions into dialogue with one another.Key words: social movements, indigenous peoples, global capitalism, ethnography, anti-mining

Highlights

A global "race" for natural resources (Bunker and Ciccantell 2005) has been impinging upon the lives of many rural and Indigenous communities around the globe who reside near mines and other large scale infrastructure projects (Bárcenas and Galicia 2011; Bebbington et al 2008; Dunlap 2018b; Narchi 2014; Partridge 2017; Ramos 2012; Urkidi and Walter 2011; Veltmeyer and Bowles 2014; Veltmeyer and Petras 2014)
Over the past decade, owing largely to the prior liberalization of Mexico's mining sector and to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), mining and raw materials extraction have taken new leaps throughout Mexico (Heidrich 2016), as the sector has been penetrated by numerous Canadian mining firms
As part of the incipient movement against the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Mexican state of Oaxaca (2015-2017), activists from different tendencies and walks of life coalesced in collective action aimed at preventing the establishment of open-pit mines in agricultural and semi-rural areas of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region

Summary

Introduction

A global "race" for natural resources (Bunker and Ciccantell 2005) has been impinging upon the lives of many rural and Indigenous communities around the globe who reside near mines and other large scale infrastructure projects (Bárcenas and Galicia 2011; Bebbington et al 2008; Dunlap 2018b; Narchi 2014; Partridge 2017; Ramos 2012; Urkidi and Walter 2011; Veltmeyer and Bowles 2014; Veltmeyer and Petras 2014). As part of the incipient movement against the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Mexican state of Oaxaca (2015-2017), activists from different tendencies and walks of life coalesced in collective action aimed at preventing the establishment of open-pit mines in agricultural and semi-rural areas of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region ( known as el Istmo, Figure 1). Even though the term comunalidad originated not in the Isthmus but in the Sierra Juarez (Luna 2010), it is being adapted and applied by movement organizers to oppose the expansion of the mining frontier into other Indigenous territories Since these demands are difficult for the dominant economic and political system to accommodate, this ongoing case is likely to affect national politics in Mexico (Arce 2014, 2016). They insist upon social justice, cultural autonomy, and ecological preservation

Land tenure and socio-environmental conflicts in Mexico

Emergence of anti-mine mobilization in the Istmo

Data and methods

Findings

Conclusions