Political Economy of World-Systems 2002 Conference

Riverside, California

Abstract

"We the People Who are the Color of the Earth."
Hegemonic Decline and Indigenous Resistance to the Current Capitalist World System: A Perspective from the Mountains of Southern Mexico

Glen David Kuecker
Assistant Professor of Latin American History, Coordinator Conflict Studies
gkuecker@depauw.edu

    This paper uses the topic of indigenous resistance movements in Southern Mexico to explore the concept of hegemonic decline in the current world system. The paper argues that hegemonic decline is a signature of transitions in the capitalist world system, which some term globalization. Moments of transition constitute shifts in macro social, political, economic, and cultural structures which offer opportunities for pre-existing factors of resistance to converge in the formation of local, regional, and national anti-systemic movements. These convergences constitute the potential for counter-hegemonic moments which give evidence of hegemonic decline. The paper locates the convergence in the Zapatista concept of autonomy, and offers and analysis of how the autonomous movement represents an alternative to the current composition to the world capitalist system, as well as the decline of its hegemon, the United States. Finally, the paper projects these points of analysis into a discussion of indigenous resistance to Plan Puebla Panama and the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement.

27th Annual Conference of the Political Economy of World-Systems Spring

Hosted by the Institute for Research on World-Systems at the University of California, Riverside