The colonial question in the global periphery from the perspective of oppressed peoples

Abstract

The colonial question constitutes a socio-historical phenomenon that emerged in the phase of original accumulation during the genesis of capitalism, forming a historical continuum with the expanded reproduction of capital in non-capitalist societies, as analyzed by Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg. Considering that the foundation of what we know as Latin America and the Caribbean took place in the context of the emergence and development of capitalism, this article analyzes: a) the colonial question as a structuring axis of the relations of domination, exploitation, and oppression historically instituted in the region; b) the understanding and conceptualization of the colonial question in the global periphery, from the perspective of oppressed peoples, especially indigenous and peasant movements, and in the theoretical production of Latin American Marxisms. The method employed is social history, with emphasis on political processes and documents produced by indigenous and peasant movements, in addition to the analytical deepening of the colonial question and its expressions, in the categories of internal colonialism and global colonialism within Latin American Marxism. The main article offers evidence of the persistence of colonialism in the contemporary history of Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in the current stage of capitalism by dispossession. Therefore, the validity of the colonial question as an interpretive category of the contradictions inherent to the nature of exploitation and marginalization in the Global South should be deepened in the analysis of Latin American Marxism.