Indigenous Revolution in Ecuador and Bolivia, 1990–2005

Abstract

Sociologist Jeffery M. Paige is the author of two important comparative works on revolution in the latter part of the twentieth century. The first examined cases of agrarian revolution in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, while the second focused on Central America. More than two decades later, he has produced a new comparative study that takes a surprising tack. Whereas in the past Paige deployed a structural economic and political framework for analyzing revolution, he now adopts a primarily cultural one. The cases that he takes up are “indigenous revolutions” at the turn of the twenty-first century in the Ecuadorian and Bolivian Andes, a region rarely considered in the global geography of revolution.Paige's concept of revolution in the new book emphasizes subjective consciousness, as seen in the political actors' utopian imagination. The aspiration to “turn the world upside down” is indeed a classic feature of revolutions, but less often a feature of classic social science definitions of them. Paige here moves away from Theda Skocpol and toward Pierre Bourdieu, who stressed the symbolic transformations that underlie political revolution. In the Andean case, Paige argues, Indigenous discourse provided a new way to think and talk about overturning the existing order, a pachakuti in native parlance. The communalist social organization and ethos in Andean and Amazonian society also provided a foundation for an ideology of “indigenous socialism” that inspired mass mobilizations. Paige goes on to highlight one other unusual factor in Ecuador and Bolivia. While symbolic transformation and mass uprising are common elements of revolutions, what stands out in the Andean cases is that social movements ultimately achieved a share of state power through electoral democracy rather than armed struggle.Here the two cases diverge, however. Whereas the Indigenous movement in Ecuador was unable to retain power in the center-left government of Rafael Correa (2007–17), it had more success in Bolivia under the Movement Toward Socialism government of Evo Morales (2006–19). Paige argues that the difference lay in the more heterogeneous and inclusive notion of Indigenous identity in Bolivia. He observes that the coca growers' movement, which combined peasant trade unionism, ancestral ethnic affiliation, and an anti-imperialist stance against the United States, played a key part in constituting a durable symbolic and political unity.To discern the symbolic and utopian dimension of the movements, Paige conducted 45 interviews, primarily with Indigenous intellectuals and political leaders in 2008, 2009, and 2011. They represent a gamut of influential organizations and constituencies in the two countries. In Ecuador, the interviewees come from the lowland and highland regional associations that are part of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador as well as from the Pachakutik political party. In Bolivia, we hear from intellectuals and activists from the radical indianista-katarista, coca-growing, and peasant trade union movements as well as from non-Indigenous Left intellectuals. The extensive testimonial accounts are an unusual feature of the book and are framed by coherent and accessible interpretations by the author.A panoply of key themes emerge from the interviews and form the basis for what Paige conceives of as the revolutionary vision in the Andes. A number of interviewees address the philosophy of “living well” (suma qamaña in Aymara, or sumak kawsay in Quechua), an approach to natural resources, territory, and development that would overcome historical patterns of extractivism and capitalist development. They consider the meaning of decolonization, whether in spheres of Indigenous autonomy, intercultural relations, or plurinational state formation. They also reflect on the relationships between social movements and state power, direct and representative democracy, mass mobilization and armed struggle, and Indigenous ideology and Marxism.One difficulty is that the book ostensibly focuses on the phase of powerful Indigenous and popular insurrections in the two countries between 1990 and 2005, while the interviews were conducted subsequently. Therefore we get the perspectives of the actors only in the aftermath of the events, when a series of new issues presented themselves. Chief among these were the tensions between some of the Indigenous intellectuals and activists and the Pink Tide governments of Correa and Morales. Nonetheless, these later conflicts are of significance in themselves, and the interviews do indeed provide ample evidence of the radical critiques of society and the utopian aspirations that animated the mass mobilizations at the turn of the century.Whether or not one accepts Paige's concept of revolution, his compelling cultural approach and the rich testimony that he supplies will be of great value to general students and specialists interested in revolution, Indigenous social movements, and the Andean region.