TEASER: A New Pink Tide? (w/ Thea Riofrancos & David Adler)
Sam discusses the return of the Latin American left with political scientist Thea Riofrancos and David Adler, the General Coordinator of the Progressive International.
Duration
1m
Broadcast on
15 May 2022
Audio Format
other
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Hope for the American left is at a fairly low ebb, at the moment, but our counterparts in Latin America are on the march and succeeding at beating back repressive right wing governments across the region. What can we learn from them? And given extremely volatile global conditions — and the continued role of the US in defending the interests of capital in the region — what can these new left-wing governments hope to accomplish?
Sam is joined by political scientist Thea Riofrancos and David Adler, the General Coordinator of the Progressive International, to discuss left populism in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, and elsewhere.
I would say that a big difference between what Latin American left us and movements, what the kind of breadth of their imagination is compared to in the US, even the US left, is that like the idea that you would just rewrite a constitution is like at people's fingertips. It doesn't even take a lot of thinking like, okay, we live in these really, you know, these societies that were settler colonial societies, then they were like sort of elite democracies. They were dictatorships. I mean, obviously, like whatever is on the books is like was literally put there to prevent democracy. So I think that there is just a facility of thinking about deep institutional change. In the US in contrast, like I would say even the left is caught in this kind of constitutional fetish and this idea that like the constitution can't be changed. And you know, you can work around the edges or pack in the court as like as far as we can think, right? You know, what would it be like to have a movement throughout the constitution in the US? I mean, it seems like almost just ludicrous to say it, but I think even that fact is tells you a lot about the difference on, you know, north and south across the hemisphere. [Music]
Sam discusses the return of the Latin American left with political scientist Thea Riofrancos and David Adler, the General Coordinator of the Progressive International.
