A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

We have observed, in the positions of the indigenous defenders of
sumak kawsay, as in certain non-indigenous interpretations, a strong
lack of confidence towards socialism. They criticize the ‘materialism’ of
socialism, which conceives nature for its use and exchange value (Eduardo
Gudynas, 2011,9): in sum, they accuse it of having the same rationality
of modernity as capitalism and proposing only ‘alternative
developments’ and not ‘alternatives to development’ (ibid., 3). Simón
Yampara of Bolivia goes even further, affirming that the “Aymara [man]
is neither socialist nor capitalist” (Eduardo Gudynas, 2011, 9) and David
Choquehuanca adds that he has taken his distance from socialism “because
[this system] seeks to satisfy the needs of men (in David Cortez
and Heike Wagner, 2011, 9) and he refers to its lack of consideration for
nature.
This is why David Cortez and Keike Wagner wonder whether buen vivir
finally implies a utopian-liberating perspective of a socialist kind (2011,
2). They do however affirm that it is a ‘decolonizing’ project (ibid., 7).
Luis Macas, cited by the same authors, stated in 2005 that it was “an
alternative project for a new society and a new development” (ibid., 8).
There is no doubt that the concept of buen vivir has genuine affinity with
the ‘Ecosocialist Manifesto’ of Joel Kovel and Michael Löwy, quoted by
the same source (ibid., 13) and it would be close to the content of ‘Socialism
of the XXI Century’. The Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de
Souza Santos, affirms the need of a civilizational change and talks of the
‘socialism of buen vivir’; this could well represent the contemporary version
of the concept.
Obviously, when there is a reference to ‘real socialism’ such as it developed
in Europe or in the current Chinese and Vietnamese models, it is
understandable that the above authors would have their reservations.
But it is necessary to overcome this vision of present socialism which
is too simplistic. Marx wrote, in the 1844 manuscripts, that “man is first
and indissolubly part of nature and this primitive metabolism is redoubled
in the process of preserving his being: the constant relationship of
man with nature is nothing but the relationship with himself” (Karl Marx,
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