The Precariat and Popular Power

The term "precariat" helps us understand the struggle of the UC COLA movement, but also helps us situate it as part of a broader social upheaval waged by marginalized workers across the globe. The term describes a growing phenomenon of a predominately unorganized, underemployed, and below-poverty-earning population that often moves between the formal and informal sectors. Whereas 20th Century class conflicts have been waged primarily via trade unions, contemporary conflicts have introduced the precariat worker as a new subject for historical change. These new protagonists have only begun to accumulate experiences that are key for building popular power - something that is constructed rather than taken. Through experiences such as COLA, everyday people across various sectors take on a new, counter-subjectivity that must be deepened, sustained, and engaged as part of a long-term process of social transformation. The presentation borrows heavily from autonomist Marxist theory and experiences of Latin American social movements, specifically the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation's concepts of pueblo fuerte and poder popular.

Matías Beverinotti is an Assistant Professor at the Spanish & Portuguese Department at San Diego State. His research is on 20th and 21st century South American Literature, Films, Music, and Museums. He is currently researching in two areas of political narratives. The first one is about the new hagiographic historicism of the South American Progressive Cicle or Pink Tide, focused on the narratives of Uruguay, Argentina, and Venezuela and how these countries share a historical narrative structure in order to legitimize their occupation of power. His second research topic is on the "exhausted" work metaphysics, and how to destroy them, in order to build a post-work society.

Troy Araiza Kokinis is a Lecturer in the Latin American Studies Program at UC San Diego. He recently completed a dissertation on organized insurrection and armed struggle in pre-dictatorship Uruguay, 1962-73. His research focuses on the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation and situates the organization amidst a social upheaval that saw nearly 4,000 strikes in just over a decade. He is also currently completing a documentary film based on interviews with feminist militants in Argentina and Uruguay.