A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

Clearly, the logic of the capitalist economic system that transforms
everything into merchandise (Eduardo Gudynas, 2011, 114) is the most
visible expression of this kind of modernity. Capitalism, in this sense, is
much more than a simple economic reality. It brings with it a certain
‘cosmovision’ and a social organization. In fact, “the accumulation of
capital is not just a collection of assets, but a social relationship mediated
by power” (Diana Quirola, 2009, 106). In the case of the indigenous peoples,
capitalism was seen as colonization, with all its physical and cultural
consequences. Nowadays, the system is exercising strong pressure on
ancestral lands, through extractive activities and the grabbing of agricultural
land for industrial purposes. For this reason, the indigenous peoples
who started to claim their cultural identity in the World Social Forums,
ended by radically condemning the capitalist system, as the primary
cause of its current suffering (Belém 2009 and Dakar 2011). Efforts to
soften the system, humanize it and paint it green are illusory. As Eduardo
Gudynas writes, “ ‘Benevolent capitalism’ is incompatible with buen
vivir” (2011, 239). It is necessary to undergo a genuine philosophical
change and to acknowledge, as Norma Aguilar Alvarado says, that the
original peoples and those of African descent can be “inspirers of values,
knowledge and theories and philosophies that are alternative and politically
respectable” (http://servindi.org/actualidad/opinion/22327).
Nevertheless, in various Latin American countries, part of the indigenous
movements have adopted political positions of a social-democrat nature.
Some indigenous community leaders are involved in commercial activities
and their stance is clearly neoliberal. In no country are the indigenous
people a homogeneous block. While all claim for their own cultural
and material existence to be recognized, not all have adopted the same
interpretation of reality, or a unanimous political position. The autochthonous
peoples of the continent do not live in a separate world: they are
part of history. Their level of awareness is conditioned by their surrounding
situation. It would be a serious mistake to consider them as ‘sociocultural
islands’ within contemporary societies. Hence the diverse
interpretations of buen vivir, which range from ‘fundamentalist’ tendencies
to ‘revolutionary’ ones.
215