Lucha Indígena

By Ana Isla

Abstract

Since the 1992 Earth Summit, there has been a growing recognition of the global ecological crisis that threatens the future of life on the planet. Ecofeminists maintain the view that there is a direct link between the exploitation of women (women’s liberation) and the exploitation of nature (ecological justice). In fact, a cornerstone of ecofeminist thought holds that women’s and nature’s liberation are a joint project. At the center of this ecofeminist analysis is the knowledge that capitalist patriarchy creates an intersecting domination against “all unwaged” in its exploitation of women, peasants, indigenous people,and nature.

The author calls the ongoing struggle in Peru an eco-class-race struggle because it involves the indigenous peoples? ecological consciousness of nature’s destruction, labor exploitation, and institutional racism. The actors engaged in this struggle include indigenous people and bosquecinos (this term includes ribereños, or those living on the river banks), international oil corporations (Occidental, Pluspetrol), the national oil corporation (Petro-Peru), forest corporations (Bozovich and Schipper), and government institutions. The geographical scope of this paper is the Peruvian Amazon basin, which covers 78,282,060 hectares, representing some 61 percent of the country.

For full article visit: http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/10455750903215720.  Your university or local library might have access to Informaworld journals.

Isla, Ana. “The Eco-Class-Race Struggles in the Peruvian Amazon Basin: An Ecofeminist Perspective” Capitalism Nature Socialism 20.3 (2009). 05 Dec. 2009