Popular water movements were a crucial part of the rise of left social forces and governments in Latin America, and in Uruguay, Bolivia, and Ecuador, in particular, they set new agendas. An examination of the relation between social movements and left governments in the search for post-neoliberal pathways in the water sector reveals political experimentation with contradictory results. Structural dependencies and the failure to develop, through the politics of the left turn, state-society relations conducive to sector transformation limit the scope of maneuver for alternatives. A radical politics of mass mobilization has been indispensable in water reforms. Likewise, effective implementation of alternatives to neoliberalism requires, even at the risk of ongoing conflict, interaction between movements and governments that respects the autonomy of the people, reduces predominant capitalist dependencies, and transforms the state.Los movimientos populares por el agua constituyeron una parte crucial del auge de gobiernos y fuerzas sociales de izquierda en América Latina, y en Uruguay, Bolivia y Ecuador, en particular, fijaron nuevas agendas. Un examen de la relación entre movimientos sociales y gobiernos de izquierda en la búsqueda de caminos post-neoliberales en el sector del agua revela experimentación política con resultados contradictorios. Las dependencias estructurales e incapacidad de desarrollar, a través de las políticas del giro a la izquierda, relaciones estado-sociedad que conducían a transformaciones sectoriales limitan el campo de maniobra para alternativas. Una política radical de movilización masiva ha sido indispensable en las reformas del agua. Asimismo, una implementación efectiva de alternativas al neoliberalismo requiere interacción, aun a riesgo de conflicto continuo, entre movimientos y gobiernos que respeta la autonomía del pueblo, reduce dependencias capitalistas predominantes, y transforma el estado.
This article explores understandings of the commons by showing its changing definition and application in daily life. The Bolivian experience both over the centuries and since the Water War of 2000 illustrates the malleability of the term. The commons operate according to who uses it (uses) and how it has been used (customs). The 2000 Cochabamba Water War provides the historical background and context for a perceived victory for the commons over privatization, followed by the Morales government's use of a 'public ownership' campaign to usurp the power of commons from the people. The government's use of a 'public rights' framework removes the power from the people and concentrates power in the state. Confronted by successful community organizing to 'El Agua Carajo' (image by Alexander Dwinell, source photographs by Tom Kruse) 1 'El Agua es Nuestra Carajo' (The Water is Ours Damn It!) was the slogan that mobilized people in Cochabamba during the Water War.
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