Mariátegui and the Specificities of the Latin American Class Struggle: The Questions of Race and Large Landholdings

Abstract

This article discusses how the Peruvian Marxist thinker José Carlos Mariátegui analyzes concretely, from a classist and anti-capitalist perspective, two of the principal problems related to the Peruvian and Latin American class struggle at the beginning of the 20th century: 1) the feedback between the exploitation of the labor force and racism; 2) land concentration at two levels in Peruvian society, as the monopolistic exploitation of land and as the persistence of servile pre-capitalist labor. Finally, it concludes by discussing the pertinence and timeliness of Mariátegui’s thought, recommending the study of his work and the application of his ideas to the Latin American anti-capitalist struggle.