Constructing Worlds Otherwise: Societies in Movement and Anticolonial Paths in Latin America

by Raul Zibechi

A new collection from one of Latin America's most dynamic radical thinkers—in the tradition of Frantz Fanon and Eduardo Galeano.
Constructing Worlds Otherwise sets itself against the recolonization of Latin America by one-dimensional, ethnocentric perspectives that permeate the North American left and block fundamental social change in the Global South. In a provocative mix of polemic and on-the-ground analysis, Raúl Zibechi argues that it is time for radicals in the Global North to learn from the people their governments have colonized and oppressed for centuries. Through a survey of the most marginalized voices across the Latin America—feminists, the Indigenous, people of African descent, and inhabitants of urban favelas and shantytowns—he introduces the Anglo world to a range of critical perspectives and new forms of struggle.  For Zibechi, real change comes from “societies in movement,” the people already fighting for their survival using egalitarian and traditional models of world-building, without the state, without official representatives, and without vanguards of political experts. His book contributes to global geographies of autonomous and anti-state thinking, with Zibechi placing his work in conversation with the ideological theorist of Kurdish resistance, Abdullah Öcalan, for a rich and dynamic survey of global movements of decolonization. Now more urgent than ever, this translation by George Ygarza Quispe comes at a time when the global left—struggling to expand it's vision in a time of climate chaos and rising authoritarianism—finds itself at an impasse, desperate to animate and renew its critical imaginary.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Indigenous

184 pages, Paperback

Published April 16, 2024

About the author

Raúl Zibechi (nacido el 25 de enero de 1952 en Montevideo) es un escritor y pensador-activista uruguayo, dedicado al trabajo con movimientos sociales en América Latina.

Entre 1969 y 1973 fue militante del Frente Estudiantil Revolucionario (FER), agrupación estudiantil vinculada al Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Tupamaros. Bajo la dictadura militar, iniciada en 1973, fue activista en la resistencia al régimen hasta que en 1975 se trasladó a Buenos Aires (Argentina) para exiliarse en 1976, después del golpe militar en ese país, en Madrid, España, donde estuvo vinculado durante más de diez años al Movimiento Comunista en tareas de alfabetización de campesinos y en el movimiento antimilitarista contra la OTAN.

Hacia mediados de la década de 1980 comenzó a publicar artículos en revistas y periódicos de izquierda (Página Abierta, Egin, Liberación) y en medios latinoamericanos (Página /12, Argentina) y Mate amargo (Uruguay). Al regresar a Uruguay, publicó en el semanario Brecha, del cual se convirtió en editor de Internacionales y ganó el Premio José Martí de Periodismo por sus análisis del movimiento social argentino en el entorno de la insurrección del 19 y 20 de diciembre de 2001. También trabajó en la revista ecologista Tierra Amiga, entre 1994 y 1995.

Desde 1986, como periodista e investigador-militante ha recorrdio casi todos los países de América Latina, con especial énfasis en la región andina. Conoce buena parte de los movimientos de la región, y colabora en tareas de formación y difusión con movimientos urbanos argentinos, campesinos paraguayos, comunidades indígenas bolivianas, peruanas, mapuche y colombianas. Todo su trabajo teórico está destinado a comprender y defender los procesos organizativos de estos movimientos

Reviews

[Corvus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Constructing Worlds Otherwise: Societies in Movement and Anticolonial Paths in Latin America, written by Raúl Zibechi and translated by George Ygarza Quispe is a welcome window into the worlds of many radical movements and autonomous communities of resistance in Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia, as well as some non-latin America locations. Zibechi places much of his focus on movements that center indigenous resistance, womens liberation, Black liberation, and other such struggles. While he does also include the words and experiences of bigger name revolutionaries whose groups may have been more patriarchal in nature, he makes sure to discuss and include why the centering of women, Black, and/or indigenous people is not only ethically critical, but is strategically so as well.

Let me first say that the translation by Quispe is quite good. I have not read the original as my Spanish is quite limited by what I have learned alone from duolingo and online classes, but I have read many translated texts from all over the world. One can often tell when a translation is dry, inaccurate, or simply a word for word reproduction that doesn't quite make sense to the new audience. Translation is an art form in both words and culture and I believe the passion of Zibechi was conveyed very well in this book. The book grips you from the start.

I also like to inform the reader of my very unofficial assessment of the text's difficulty in terms of academia. On a 1 to 5 scale where 1 is "8th grade reading level" and 5 is "inexcusable big word crotch measuring contest," I would nestle this book somewhere around a fair 2.5. There are some words or referenced movements that a complete beginner may be unfamiliar with, but it is navigable with attention and effort.

I really enjoyed learning so much non-eurocentric history. As a USAmerican, even one who would like to know more about the world, we still tend to get buried by our country's false idea that we are the center of it and that there are a few other homogeneous continents. The variety of movements from different countries and cultures of Latin America as well as Rojava and Kurdish resistance are critical in understanding and thinking about how to build new worlds without capitalism and the state. I enjoyed learning a lot more about the Zapatistas, which I always knew I should know more about as well. It was also interesting to read more indepth about how critical women have been in these movements despite the universal assumption of maleness often hiding their efforts.

Zibechi is the kind of theorist that seeks out real life structures and analyzes them in order to ask new questions, rather than relying on idealist hypotheticals. While I am regularly accused of being an idealist, I also see how many of us can be naive when it comes to implementation of sustainable, long term, anti-authoritarian and autonomous communities. He discusses ways of resisting neoliberalism while avoiding stepping into the shoes of the oppressor (such as is the case with authoritarian communisms.) What stuck out to me in these ethnographies was how words and structures I often associate with authoritarians took on different meaning. There is discussion of the holding of territories and keeping them independent from paramilitary, authoritarian, and abusive structures. There is discussion of several different kinds of organized guards of communities that protect them without turning into cops. While I would like to read a larger book about the specifics of how these structures keep from turning authoritarian, we do get an idea of many of the ways that they both protect autonomous communities and resolve conflicts in ways that are needed. There is acknowledgement that even if we were to dismantle all oppression, people will still be human- flawed and conflicted at times - in need of guidance and occasionally ostracism or defense.

The way Zibechi discusses nonhuman animals could have been better. There are sections where other animals are discussed solely as items of trade as if they are the same as inanimate objects. In another section, he mentions the importance of relationships with the nonhuman world, but I did not see this described much in practice. I do also think he falls a little bit into the infallible indigenous people trope, even though he is able to fairly critique the ways in which other movements may have issues with patriarchy for instance. He does acknowledge that indigenous people are highly variable, but seems to default to them having it "correct" so to speak. Being that things such as extinction of hunted species, various versions of strict gender roles, and other issues have followed humans everywhere they have migrated since leaving Africa, I would have liked more in depth analysis of those things in his discussion of indigenous communities. That said, this is a 200 page book and in that space, he can only cover so much.

Constructing Worlds Otherwise is an great look into the way new things can be created from the ashes of the old or simply outside of them. It is passionately written, well researched, and translated with great skill. I learned a lot and definitely recommend it to anyone seeking ways of being outside of oppressive systems of control and exploitation.

This was also posted to my blog and storygraph.

[Aidan Giordano · Rating 3 out of 5]

That rocked and changed my worldview but was also under explained or I’m dumb. Like the terminology I was like what is that. Also the first part was pretentiously written like he’d be like “engendered a kind of vertigo” instead of being like “it was confusing” or obscure I forget the context. Anyways, I still liked and want to read more about the Zapatistas.

[Nannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5)
Oh whoops, I forgot to review this one! Which is strange, because I loved it so much. Raúl Zibechi is obviously a very intelligent man, and I love his references to and his respect for Abdullah Öcalan, the ideological leader of the Kurdish resistance movement.

Content warnings:
- racism
- genocide

In Constructing Worlds Otherwise, Zibechi makes the compelling argument that it's time for us radical leftists in the Global North to start learning from the peoples that we are and have been oppressing for centuries. He takes us across Latin America to be introduced to the change that's coming from "societies in movement": "the people already fighting for their survival using egalitarian and traditional models of world-building, without the state, without official representatives, and without vanguards of political experts" (from the goodreads summary).

Just the introduction of this book impressed me so much that I wanted to show it to everyone I knew (unfortunately, it was already a few days overdue at the library…). But I think I honestly had taken pictures of three-fourths of that intro to make notes in all caps. I need to look up what else by Zibechi has been translated.

In the introduction, the translator talks about the concept of totality, and how it "works to presume that the only modes of resistance in the US are centered on civil rights, appeals to the State, and in its most radical instance, the acquisition of power itself." He then introduces pueblos, or societies in movement, a concept that Zibechi is known for, which disrupts the influence that totality has on our ideas of resistance and change.

He talks about how leftists and communists in the Global North are stuck in the theoretical or are too attached to the idea of revolution being the capture of state power—of creating parties and organizations with similar hierarchies as the state. Of the priority given to ends over means, "fetishizing public action over internal growth."

And all of this is just in the intro! The rest of the book provides other, less common examples of resistance using Latin American pueblos (and showing how they relate to other societies in movement around the world, particularly the Kurdish resistance). An amazing thinker, and a great book.

[Sarah Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dense, often difficult, but EXCELLENT book. I wish somehow everyone could read this, or at least a summary.

One of the most paralyzingly aspects of wishing to change the status quo is the black box of what could possibly be an alternative? And defenders of the status quo, well aware of that, will leverage it to dissuade any meaningful steps in a new direction. The spectre of communism, with its scary red visage, or the assurance of messy and violent anarchy, is trotted out as a reason to just give up and live with the system we currently have, imperfect though it may be.
Constructing Worlds highlights a few communities that have taken the leap into that space of what else might be possible. It shows in cursory detail people who are exploring and living what might be possible for when people decide to organize themselves around something other than money. It’s not intended to be a revolutionary blueprint, as the authors state over and over, bc what works in one place with one set of problems and resources and shared history might not work when other different conditions are present. Rather, the authors are showing THAT something else is possible and I do believe trying to embolden people all over the world to be courageous and humble about being open to trying new ways of organizing.

[Micah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When the feminisms from below and the movements of Indigenous communities come together, as is currently happening through the whirlwind of this civilizational crisis, everything is possible."

Benjamin said progress was a train wreck and revolutionaries should look to the trials of the past instead of marching towards a triumphal future. This resonates with the cosmovision of various Indigenous worlds in resistance against Eurocentric thought and colonialist practice. In my view every anti-capitalist should read this very important book, where Zibechi starts from concrete resistance by Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities, women and youth, in Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Chiapas, Rojava, and shows how it is based on radically other values of care and solidarity, a different experience of nature and time, and a rejection of universal totality. It's crucial that we find inspiration and guidance here.

[clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

zibechi emphasizes the need for pueblos en movimiento, especially collective, grassroots organizing when we imagine radical futures. this take really hits at the importance of local self-governance instead of pushing ideologies that trust in systems of governance rooted in capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism. zibechi does a great job of both acknowledging the strengths of marxism and its failings, especially in regions like latin america that are built on indigenous histories that are more omnipresent than in most of the world. really loved this book because it helped me wrap my head around latine politics! thank you for the book hannah. <3

[sanne s · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! It starts by exploring how the collective identity of Latin American movements contributes to their strength and success, then goes into detailed presentations of present-day examples, and ends with a brief comparison to the Rojava movement.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved reading about all the "archipelagos of noncapitalist social practices" contained in this book.