Beyond the Green New Deal? Dependency, racial capitalism and struggles for a radical ecological transition in Argentina and Latin America

Abstract

In recent years, discussions on the need for a transition to stop climate change have multiplied. In the global North, several alternatives have appeared, ranging from green capitalism proposals to several versions of Green New Deals. In Latin America, particularly in Argentina, several initiatives are being posed by governments, academics and social movements. In this article, we concentrate on critically discussing the main alternatives: the Green Developmentalist initiative of the Argentine government and the Social, Ecological, Economic and Intercultural Pact fostered by several academics and social movements across the region. We present our analytical framework, providing a succint discussion on marxian dependency and racial capitalism as key elements of our analysis. Then we engage in a critical disection of the green developmentalist initiatives to tackle climate change from Argentina. Afterwards, we discuss the strenghts and limitations of the Pact, and later on we present some of the main ideas being stressed by radical eco-social collectives and organizations in Argentina. We finish our work with some brief reflections.