Paper
Peasant-indigenous women's action against Agrarian Extractivism in Argentina: from cook to international feminism
presenters
Mariela Pena
Nationality: Argentina
Residence: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) (Argentina)
Presence:Online
My ethnographic research explores the experiences of women in a peasant-indigenous movement in Argentina, examining the characteristics of their activism and political action, which extends beyond the boundaries of their own communities and fosters solidarities with other Latin American feminisms and environmental movements. This research, ongoing since 2016, centers on the Santiago del Estero Peasant Movement (MOCASE, for its acronym in Spanish), which emerged in Argentina in 1990 amidst conflicts between local residents and businessmen over land tenure and ownership, due to the national expansion of the “soybean frontier” . Nowadays, with a political trajectory of over 30 years, MOCASE has not only developed forms of resilience in their local territories, but has also forged its own identity based on the principles of agroecology, food sovereignty, and the sustainable use of natural resources. My argument is grounded in the understanding that Argentina’s local context is intertwined with a broader North-South conflict arising from the global expansion of the agro-industrial and extractive model. In particular, I allege that these processes especially impact the bodies of women, dissidences, and racialized individuals. However, they also give rise to new alliances and alternative ecological (g)local proposals and integrated and fluid resilience strategies. This perspective aligns with Latin American and decolonial feminist studies that challenge traditional approaches to women in the so-called “Third World” as a monolithic category that assumes their role as passive victims of multiple oppressions. Within this line of work, I account for women’s agency in a context of environmental crises and their diverse experiences of local organizing within broader historical, socio-economic, and political processes. Additionally, I reflect on how large-scale processes, power dynamics, exclusion, and privilege intersect with intimate practices and multiple dimensions of social difference, giving rise to alternative everyday politics.
Keywords:
peasant-indigenous women, extractivism, resistances, feminism, Argentina