Post-Marxism, the Left and Democracy in Latin America

Abstract

Marxism today is in a period of crisis, provoking a rethinking of its premises and usefulness but also leading some left theorists to search for a new understanding as they move on to a ‘post-Marxist terrain’. The present chapter explores the implications of this crisis and the turning of some intellectuals away from Marxism in their retreat from analysis of class and class struggle in Latin America. The intent is not only to invite dialogue on this question, but to challenge the premises of the new thinking. One might begin by asking to what extent Latin American intellectuals exiled in Europe were associated with the thought of Gramsci, Poulantzas, Althusser and others. Did Eurocommunism of the late 1970s influence their thinking? What was the impact of dictatorship and repression upon the new thinking as discussion moved from rural and urban guerrilla warfare to issues of political culture, pluralist democracy and reformism? What was the significance of the split in the communist movement since the 1960s, especially among currents that sought collaborative political arrangements and alliances with social democratic and liberal currents? What has happened to the political parties as they came to dominate the democratic openings, thereby obscuring the mass popular movements that emerged to challenge the dictatorships? How does a class analysis relate to mass popular movements (feminist, ecological, grassroots and so on)? What is the