Articulating Sovereignties: Struggles for Subaltern Hegemony in Ecuador and Bolivia

Abstract

This article examines the cycles of articulation and disarticulation between working-class and indigenous-campesino movements in Ecuador and Bolivia. While the former advances national-popular sovereignty, aiming to strengthen the state against imperialism, the latter defends community-territorial sovereignty against internal colonialism. Bridging Gramscian geography, political ecology and Latin American debates on plurinationality, we argue that building subaltern hegemony requires transcending dichotomous analyses that pit these visions of sovereignty against each other. Tracing three decades of struggles, we illustrate how the articulation between these two historical actors catalysed progressive governments that fostered radical constituent processes towards a plurinational-popular horizon. Yet, the subsequent disarticulation, precipitated by conflicts over extractivism and exacerbated by polarising narratives, opened the door to the return of authoritarian neoliberalism. We call on radical scholars to forge analytical frameworks that help build articulations, rather than deepen divisions, among subaltern struggles against imperialism and for overcoming extractivism.