The Ex-Worker

In December 2022, a wave of popular protests led by campesino and Indigenous movements swept across Peru, including a nationwide mobilization in the capital. In response, the government has decreed a state of emergency, and the police have killed more than 60 people and injured thousands. For a direct view of these events, we spoke with Peruvian anarchists, hoping to get perspective on the aspects of this movement that exceed state politics. This episode narrates The Uprising in Peru, an interview conducted by comrades in Latin America with participants in Periodico Libertária, an anarchist publication based in the territory of Peru, originally published on February 19th. The comrades discuss the centrality of campesino and indigenous participation in the uprising, the brutality and racism of the police and their connection to the former dictatorship, the failures and opportunism of the political left, regional tensions across the Peruvian state, and different forms that anarchism takes in the region. (April 20, 2023)

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• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: The Uprising in Peru {0:37}
  • Interview with Periodico Libertária {4:25}
  • Conclusion {25:33}

• This episode is an audio version of The Uprising in Peru: Anarchists Discuss the Revolt Against Police Violence and the State of Emergency, published on February 19, 2023.

• We interview members of Periodico Libertária, an anarchist publication based in the territory of Peru.

• Some references made in the interview for which you might want some additional context: the terruqueo, an anti-leftist discourse used by sectors of the Peruvian government to portray their opponents as terrorists; Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a Maoist guerrilla group active in Peru; here’s a link to an anti-authoritarian, anti-colonial take on the group from the 1990s.