Seeking common ground: On possible dialogues between Marxisms and Political Ontology

Abstract

This commentary seeks to flesh out a series of ongoing debates regarding Marxism, Latin American decolonial thought and the rise of political ontology. I deal with several issues that emerged in conversations with Arturo Escobar, Jason W. Moore, and the commentaries in this theme issue. I identify three main points of entry. The first one comes from engaging with Marx’s writings in the second part of his life. As Marx moved away from a teleological understanding of history, he saw capitalism as a totality, which allowed him to look beyond the rise of the bourgeoisie toward the possibility of emancipation beyond capitalism. The second entry comes from analyzing the history of the social movements emerging in Latin America, 500 years after colonization began. I argue that the genealogy of emancipatory struggles can guide the emergence of a pluriverse of alternatives. The last point of entry comes from the critiques formulated against political ontology. These points of entry open new avenues for discussion to listen and learn with and from the subaltern and provides some examples of bringing political ontology into a dialogue with other forms of Latin American Indigenous resistance and struggles for re-existence.