In chapter 1 Brown examines the emergence of labor activism in Charleston during the early national era. Concern about slave competition with journeymen was the major impetus for the formation of the various mechanics’ societies. The early labor movement was not an overt class struggle between capital and labor. However, class interests did influence the movement’s trajectory. Elite slave-owning mechanics were able to move into the leadership and control the movement for their own financial and political benefit and prevented any significant limitations on slave labor in the mechanical trades to the detriment of the journeymen’s interests.
Examination of the indigenous issue under the Evo Morales government in the framework of class struggle points to the weakening of the labor movement with the implantation of neoliberal measures in the late 1980s and the rise of the indigenous movement. The constituent assembly restored the democratic illusions weakened by the upheavals of 2000 and 2003. Its predominantly indigenous and peasant composition brought the agrarian question and the recognition of indigenous nationalities to the center of the debate. This experience did not and could not change the class nature of the state. The maintenance and defense of large private capitalist property is incompatible with a practice of national sovereignty and self-determination of indigenous nationalities. Um exame a questão indígena sob o governo Evo Morales nos marcos da luta de classes aponta o enfraquecimento do movimento operário com a implantação de medidas neoliberais nos fins dos anos 1980 e a ascensão o movimento indígena. A constituinte recompôs as ilusões democráticas enfraquecidas com os levantes de 2000 e 2003. A composição predominantemente indígena e camponesa da assembleia constituinte e a presença das suas organizações no processo traziam para o centro do debate a solução da questão agrária e do reconhecimento das nacionalidades indígenas. Esta experiência não modificou e nem poderia modificar a natureza de classe do Estado. A manutenção e defesa da grande propriedade privada capitalista são incompatíveis com uma prática de soberania nacional e autodeterminação das nacionalidades indígenas.