Indigenous Movements

This study deals with the tensions and contradictions between resource governance, welfare policies, and the constitutionally recognized rights of nature and the indigenous peoples in Bolivia and Ecuador. We have identified a certain reductionism in current debates on these issues and propose a more systematic analytical focus on class and the class-ethnicity duality, as expressed in historical and contemporary indigenous struggles, and also confirmed via our ethnographic material. Drawing on the double bind as expressed in Joseph Heller´s Catch-22 wherein the protagonists face situations in which they do not have any choice to achieve a net gain, this article centres on how national governments have to choose between the protections of rights – in this case ethnic and environmental rights-and welfare provision financed by extractive revenues. From the perspective of ecologically concerned indigenous actors, the Catch-22 is articulated in the choice or compromise between universal welfarism on the one hand, and ethno-environmental concerns on the other hand. The article draws primarily on ecosocialist arguments and on indigenous-culturalist perspectives on Good Life (Sumak Kawsay or Vivir Bien). A central finding is the existence of awareness among involved actors-oppositional movements and government authorities-that the Catch-22 quandary and joint class-ethnic concerns are unavoidable ingredients in their discourses, struggles, and understandings of Good Life.

This paper analyses the different indigenous movements that have been active in Southeast Asia over the past 30 years. For that purpose, the concept of " resonance " is used, due to its versatility as a perspective for the study of social movements. The analysis is descriptive and longitudinal given that the resonance of indigenous mobilization is analyzed in each one of the seven Southeast Asian territories, from 1980 until 2010. It is worth highlighting that the information used in the analysis comes mainly from in-depth interviews with members of organizations advocating the rights of indigenous peoples in the region. Consequently, this paper aims to offer considerable, new first-hand evidence about indigenous movements in Southeast Asia.

The Ministry of Movement Affairs and nadaproductions are happy to announce the presentation of the first publication of the project Endangered Human Movements with the Title Four remarks on the history of dance which will accompany the performance with the same name.

Endangered Human Movements is a multi-disciplinary project including visual arts, performance and a series of publications. Four Remarks on the History of Dance is a discursive and artistic journey through the disappearance of movement. The Four Remarks in this book are meant to be a collection of contributions towards the expansion of a narrative that has been historically ethnocentric, enriching that narrative with indigenous movements and perspectives, unknown, sidelined and exoticized for centuries. The texts on the movements of Water, Air, Fire and Earth are conceived as notes on the empty spaces of dance history (and perhaps history in general). They do not claim to be purely academic, but are first and foremost an imaginary journey that deals – by way of free associations – with a contemporary interpretation of dances found in ethnographic films, documentary film archives, YouTube videos, in first person accounts, oral tradition, rumours, and legends. The book contains contributions from a variety of academic fields highlighting especially the conditions of disappearance of cultural expression.

There is increasing recognition of the significance of how traditional knowledges (TKs) can inform our understanding of the impacts of climate change and strategies for adaptation and mitigation. And yet there are potential risks to indigenous peoples in sharing TKs in federal and other non-indigenous climate change initiatives. We intend the term indigenous peoples to designate the diverse populations in the U.S. who could interact with federal and non-indigenous climate change initiatives in ways that involve TKs, whether in the U.S. they are federally-recognized, state-recognized, or unrecognized. We refer to “indigenous peoples” and “tribes” interchangeably in this document, unless we are talking about a specific group or a specific status related to recognition. These guidelines are intended to examine the significance of TKs in relation to climate change and the potential risks to indigenous peoples in the U.S. for sharing TKs in federal and other non-indigenous climate change initiatives. Although it is common to refer to "traditional knowledge(s)" as individual pieces of information, this term also refers to traditional “knowledge systems" that are deeply embedded in indigenous ways of life. These guidelines use the phrase "traditional knowledges" deliberately in plural form because knowledges are emergent from the symbiotic relationship of indigenous peoples and places - a nature-culture nexus. Tribes and indigenous peoples use “knowledges” to emphasize that there are diverse forms of traditional knowledge and knowledge systems that must be recognized as unique to each tribe and knowledge holder. These guidelines should be used to inform the development of specific protocols in direct and close consultation with indigenous peoples. [http://climatetkw.wordpress.com/] Federal agencies and national climate change initiatives are recognizing the significance of TKs, and are proposing and funding collaborative efforts between indigenous communities and federal and non-indigenous climate change entities in ways that involve TKs. This interaction requires an understanding of how individual tribes and knowledge holders choose to share or not to share TKs.

Resumen: El presente estudio contrapesa la gran mayoría de las contribuciones sobre los movimientos sociales en Bolivia, realizados por hombres, con una perspectiva más femenina, incluso más feminista, que iba a centrarse, además, en el papel de las mujeres en este proceso de cambio social en el país, de 2000 a 2003. Una pregunta de fondo fue si realmente existe un discurso femenino en torno al estado o lo político en general, más allá del discurso sumamente masculino que llena los medios de comunicación. ¿Podría ser que las mujeres piensen del estado de otra forma y mediante otros medios de textualidad (textil, oral, corporal)? Aparte de investigar la participación de las mujeres en los movimientos sociales y políticos recientes, quisimos identificar hasta qué punto han sido incorporadas sus demandas en las agendas políticas, para luego ser reformuladas en el contexto del Referéndum sobre el Gas (2004) e, importantemente, en la Asamblea Constituyente (desde 2006 en adelante). Los movimientos sociales que más nos llamaron la atención fueron la Guerra del Agua (2000), la Guerra de la Coca, el Impuestazo (febrero de 2003) y, finalmente, la Guerra del Gas (octubre de 2003), además de algunos apuntes adicionales sobre el Movimiento Sin Tierra y las mujeres en las políticas municipales y sindicales.
Palabras clave: Movimientos Sociales / Políticas públicas y mujeres / Movimientos Indígenas / Políticas municipales / Políticas sindicales / Políticas de género

Abstract: The present study counterbalances the great majority of writings about social movements in Bolivia, done by men, with a female and more feminist perspective, centred in the role of women in the process of social change in the country, from 2000-2003. A key question was if there really exists a feminine discourse about the state or politics in general, over and above the highly masculine discourse of the communication media. Could it be that women think of the state in another way, and through other means: in textiles, orality, through their bodies? Apart from studying women’s participation in the recent social and political movements, we wanted to identify to what point their demands had been incorporated into political agendas, with a view to being reformulated in the context of the Referendum on Gas (2004) and most importantly the upcoming Constituent Assembly (from 2006 on). The social movements that interested us the most were the Water War (Guerra del Agua, 2000), the Coca War, the Tax War (or Impuestazo of February 2003), and finally the Gas War (Guerra del Gas, October 2003), with some additional points from the Landless Movement (Movimiento Sin Tierra) and on women’s achievements in municipal and union politics.
Key words: Social Movements, Public policies and women, Indigenous movements, Municipal politics, Union politics, Gender politics