“We Are All Indigenous!” Insurgent Universality on the Extractive Frontier

ABSTRACT

This paper tells the inside story of a spontaneous uprising in the Ecuadorian Amazon in 2017, in which mestizo, Afro-descendant and Indigenous workers and communities confronted the combined forces of a multinational oil company and a militarized state. The paper documents a rapidly evolving battle that achieved a remarkable victory, and bears witness to the fleeting emergence of an insurgent form of political universality. It suggests that the decolonial dichotomy between top-down universalism and a bottom-up pluriverse should be replaced by an approach that is attentive to manifestations of universality performed by subaltern subjects in their confrontations with extractive capital.

KEYWORDS:

• Universality
• pluriverse
• extractivism
• uprising
• Ecuador

Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to those involved in the uprising it depicts. I am immensely grateful to Natalia Valdivieso for tying up some crucial loose ends through interviews conducted on my behalf in Coca in March 2021. Martín Arboleda, Kai Heron, Mazen Labban, Estefanía Martínez, Thomas Purcell, Erik Swyngedouw and Ioanna Tantanasi all provided invaluable comments during the gestation of the paper. An earlier version was presented at the Alternative Futures and Popular Protest conference in June 2021, where I received further useful feedback. All remaining errors are my own.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 I was directly involved in the uprising from the 28th of August to the 6th of September 2017. The description of events during this period is based on my field notes, and all direct quotes are taken from audio recordings that I made at the scene. The account of events after my departure is based on local news reports and interviews conducted during my return to the region in 2018. All translations from Spanish are my own.

2 The information in this paragraph is largely drawn from interviews with inhabitants of the region.

3 Gonzalo Plazarte, author interview, 28 August 2018, Dayuma, Ecuador.

4 Pseudonyms have been used for this community and its members. Kapáku means “red” in Shuar.

5 The depiction of the strike prior to my arrival is based on interviews with those involved, and internal reports of CGA, which were provided by an employee.

6 The translation of these lyrics from Shuar to Spanish was provided by a member of the Kapáku community. The subsequent translation from Spanish to English is my own. 

7 “Conaie y Confeniae respaldan paralización en Dayuma 19-10-17 Radio Musical [CONAIE and CONFENIAE Support Blockade in Dayuma 19 October 2017, Radio Musical” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qFtbX5vWKs (accessed July 25, 2019).

8 Guillermo Grefa, author interview, 31 August 2018, Rumbipamba, Ecuador.

9 This paper has focused on those aspects of the uprising on the Savage Road that most vividly embody insurgent universality. Its full complexity and intensity are conveyed in Wilson 2023.