“Democracy or NeoLiberalism?”

Atilio Boron, writing in the mid-1990s:

Though it may seem paradoxical, slave-owning Brazil and colonial Mexico were far more socially integrated than their late twentieth century capitalist successors. In those pre-capitalist systems, class exploitation demanded forms of sociability, structural integration, and inter-class relationships that are largely absent in contemporary Brazil or Mexico. Though antagonistic, the fazendeiro and slave, like the landowner and indigenous peasant, belonged to the same society. Their conflicts developed within a single social and economic structure, unified by exploitative bonds of slavery and servitude and a host of other social relations. At the end of the twentieth century, Latin America is more profoundly divided. The “winners” in this game of capitalist restructuring seek refuge in exclusive residential districts, protected by sophisticated surveillance systems and small armies of security guards. Their children attend private schools and bi-lingual institutes, and then graduate to American colleges and universities. Their doctors live in Houston and Miami; their entertainers in New York, London, and Paris. Their wealth is highly diversified, global in scope: Physical contact with a member of the laboring masses is increasingly improbable. What economic and social relationship can exist between this fin de siecle bourgeoisie, and the “losers”-the “wretched of the earth,” the millions who sell candy, gum, and cigarettes in the busiest intersections of our decaying cities; the fire-eaters or ragged clowns in the downtown’s sidewalks; the windshield cleaners at congested intersections; the precarious and informal workers who live in tin and cardboard shacks, and have no skills, no formal education, no access to medical care? As Darcy Ribeiro once noted, marginal groups do not fight against capitalist exploitation but struggle to become an exploitable labor force. But even that fight is hard to win when neoliberal restructuring is destroying the state, dismantling public education and health services, and eliminating institutions that train people in the skills demanded in the labor market. For growing sections of Latin American societies, class exploitation is not the most immediate problem: Their problem is their inability to become an exploitable labor force.

And, footnote 24:

There are no terms in Spanish or Portuguese that correspond to either “responsiveness” or “accountability.” Our long-standing authoritarian political tradition succeeded in making those words unnecessary in everyday life.

(via Instapaper)