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Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces
“Zibechi goes to Bolivia to learn. Like us, he goes with questions, questions that stretch far beyond the borders of Bolivia. How do we change the world and create a different one? How do we get rid of capitalism? How do we create a society based on dignity? What is the role of the state and what are the possibilities of changing society through anti-state movements?... the most important practical and theoretical questions that have risen from the struggles in Latin America and the world in the last fifteen years or so.... The book is beautiful, exciting, stimulating.... Do read it and also give it your friends.”—John Holloway, from the Foreword
“Raúl Zibechi recounts in wonderful detail how dynamic and innovative Bolivian social movements succeeded in transforming the country. Even more inspiring than the practical exploits, though, are the theoretical innovations of the movements, which Zibechi highlights, giving us new understandings of community, political organization, institution, and a series of other concepts vital to contemporary political thought.”—Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire, Multitude, and Commonwealth
This, Raúl Zibechi's first book translated into English, is an historical analysis of social struggles in Bolivia and the forms of community power instituted by that country's indigenous Aymara. Dispersing Power, like the movements it describes, explores new ways of doing politics beyond the state, gracefully mapping the "how" of revolution, offering valuable lessons to activists and new theoretical frameworks for understanding how social movements can and do operate independently of state-centered models for social change.
“Raúl Zibechi recounts in wonderful detail how dynamic and innovative Bolivian social movements succeeded in transforming the country. Even more inspiring than the practical exploits, though, are the theoretical innovations of the movements, which Zibechi highlights, giving us new understandings of community, political organization, institution, and a series of other concepts vital to contemporary political thought.”—Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire, Multitude, and Commonwealth
This, Raúl Zibechi's first book translated into English, is an historical analysis of social struggles in Bolivia and the forms of community power instituted by that country's indigenous Aymara. Dispersing Power, like the movements it describes, explores new ways of doing politics beyond the state, gracefully mapping the "how" of revolution, offering valuable lessons to activists and new theoretical frameworks for understanding how social movements can and do operate independently of state-centered models for social change.
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Raul Zibechi
65 books27 followersRaúl Zibechi (nacido el 25 de enero de 1952 en Montevideo) es un escritor y pensador-activista uruguayo, dedicado al trabajo con movimientos sociales en América Latina.
Entre 1969 y 1973 fue militante del Frente Estudiantil Revolucionario (FER), agrupación estudiantil vinculada al Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Tupamaros. Bajo la dictadura militar, iniciada en 1973, fue activista en la resistencia al régimen hasta que en 1975 se trasladó a Buenos Aires (Argentina) para exiliarse en 1976, después del golpe militar en ese país, en Madrid, España, donde estuvo vinculado durante más de diez años al Movimiento Comunista en tareas de alfabetización de campesinos y en el movimiento antimilitarista contra la OTAN.
Hacia mediados de la década de 1980 comenzó a publicar artículos en revistas y periódicos de izquierda (Página Abierta, Egin, Liberación) y en medios latinoamericanos (Página /12, Argentina) y Mate amargo (Uruguay). Al regresar a Uruguay, publicó en el semanario Brecha, del cual se convirtió en editor de Internacionales y ganó el Premio José Martí de Periodismo por sus análisis del movimiento social argentino en el entorno de la insurrección del 19 y 20 de diciembre de 2001. También trabajó en la revista ecologista Tierra Amiga, entre 1994 y 1995.
Desde 1986, como periodista e investigador-militante ha recorrdio casi todos los países de América Latina, con especial énfasis en la región andina. Conoce buena parte de los movimientos de la región, y colabora en tareas de formación y difusión con movimientos urbanos argentinos, campesinos paraguayos, comunidades indígenas bolivianas, peruanas, mapuche y colombianas. Todo su trabajo teórico está destinado a comprender y defender los procesos organizativos de estos movimientos
Entre 1969 y 1973 fue militante del Frente Estudiantil Revolucionario (FER), agrupación estudiantil vinculada al Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Tupamaros. Bajo la dictadura militar, iniciada en 1973, fue activista en la resistencia al régimen hasta que en 1975 se trasladó a Buenos Aires (Argentina) para exiliarse en 1976, después del golpe militar en ese país, en Madrid, España, donde estuvo vinculado durante más de diez años al Movimiento Comunista en tareas de alfabetización de campesinos y en el movimiento antimilitarista contra la OTAN.
Hacia mediados de la década de 1980 comenzó a publicar artículos en revistas y periódicos de izquierda (Página Abierta, Egin, Liberación) y en medios latinoamericanos (Página /12, Argentina) y Mate amargo (Uruguay). Al regresar a Uruguay, publicó en el semanario Brecha, del cual se convirtió en editor de Internacionales y ganó el Premio José Martí de Periodismo por sus análisis del movimiento social argentino en el entorno de la insurrección del 19 y 20 de diciembre de 2001. También trabajó en la revista ecologista Tierra Amiga, entre 1994 y 1995.
Desde 1986, como periodista e investigador-militante ha recorrdio casi todos los países de América Latina, con especial énfasis en la región andina. Conoce buena parte de los movimientos de la región, y colabora en tareas de formación y difusión con movimientos urbanos argentinos, campesinos paraguayos, comunidades indígenas bolivianas, peruanas, mapuche y colombianas. Todo su trabajo teórico está destinado a comprender y defender los procesos organizativos de estos movimientos
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 17, 2021
Un análisis bastante interesante de los movimientos sociales, especialmente indígenas, en las revueltas de principios de siglo en Bolivia. El libro busca analizar, interpretar y valorizar estos movimientos de nuevo cuño, que no replican las lógicas clásicas de acción política ni conformación de la izquierda clásica. De forma expresa el autor toma partido por estas nuevas formas de organización y resistencia.
Es libro que trata varios temas contingentes, que probablemente ya no son muy relevantes, pero es interesante sus análisis sobre como supuestamente funciona las lógicas de los movimientos sociales. Cierto paralelo se podría hacer con lo ocurrido en la revuelta chilena, y en general, con la aparición de movimientos que buscan hacer cambios políticos radicales al sistema, pero no se identifican con la izquierda clásica.
Es libro que trata varios temas contingentes, que probablemente ya no son muy relevantes, pero es interesante sus análisis sobre como supuestamente funciona las lógicas de los movimientos sociales. Cierto paralelo se podría hacer con lo ocurrido en la revuelta chilena, y en general, con la aparición de movimientos que buscan hacer cambios políticos radicales al sistema, pero no se identifican con la izquierda clásica.
February 29, 2016
If you want a more practical, and actually easier to understand, approach to Deleuze & Guattari's concept of the war machine, this is the book. Possibly the most important study in the other wise strangely boring field of "social movement theory". Zibechi is not an outsider or overly worried about neutrality. This is about building power to overcome the state. One of the crucial points in the book is that every day life, the neighbourhood, the family, friendship relations, cooperatives, stores and community kitchens can all continue using their power in an insurrectionary moment, that these relations of every day life is actually the very fabric an insurrection is made of.
July 7, 2011
“Dispersion, itself, as that opposed to accumulation and concentration, but also dispersion of that which fixes and shapes it. Dispersion of power, war on state. Dispersion against centralization.” Rául Zibechi
I'm glad I took the time to read this. It pushed me to consider the role of the artist in community. The artist, whose condition(s) of privilege work both for and against their desire(s) to transform the inevitable and ineffable. Zibechi's story of the Bolivian struggle and fight had me contemplating a much more subtle plight here on US soil, in neighborhoods that are inhabited by and then displace artists. The narrative usually goes, "Oh this neighborhood was rough before the artists came in, now they can't afford to live here." (See Williamsburg, Fort Point, etc) Historically those artists displaced others, often immigrants, the working class and working poor, and then shield themselves in privilege's most complicated factor, guilt. And before the displaced were displaced, there were the indigenous communities in those same zones. All displacement is temporary, the land is always owned by its ancestors. Zibechi: "Community is a particular, historical configuration of the common. The common as a virtuality that pulsates a is made manifest in the community, but doesn’t live fulfilled within it." Dispersing Power pushes us to interact with being agitated in our melancholic world, with a story of the Aymara and El Alto people. This book engenders action. Since the majority of humans on this planet are either colonized or colonizers in some post-colonial/primordial combination, the Bolivian people offer social movements, conditions, and strategies of revolution, that up until now have been mostly buried to the broader public. But that's just me, maybe you will get something even greater from this incredible book.
I'm glad I took the time to read this. It pushed me to consider the role of the artist in community. The artist, whose condition(s) of privilege work both for and against their desire(s) to transform the inevitable and ineffable. Zibechi's story of the Bolivian struggle and fight had me contemplating a much more subtle plight here on US soil, in neighborhoods that are inhabited by and then displace artists. The narrative usually goes, "Oh this neighborhood was rough before the artists came in, now they can't afford to live here." (See Williamsburg, Fort Point, etc) Historically those artists displaced others, often immigrants, the working class and working poor, and then shield themselves in privilege's most complicated factor, guilt. And before the displaced were displaced, there were the indigenous communities in those same zones. All displacement is temporary, the land is always owned by its ancestors. Zibechi: "Community is a particular, historical configuration of the common. The common as a virtuality that pulsates a is made manifest in the community, but doesn’t live fulfilled within it." Dispersing Power pushes us to interact with being agitated in our melancholic world, with a story of the Aymara and El Alto people. This book engenders action. Since the majority of humans on this planet are either colonized or colonizers in some post-colonial/primordial combination, the Bolivian people offer social movements, conditions, and strategies of revolution, that up until now have been mostly buried to the broader public. But that's just me, maybe you will get something even greater from this incredible book.
February 14, 2013
A joy to translate. Excellent book.
January 30, 2010
This is an excellent translation of this important book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews