THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS OF LATIN-AMERICA - A THEORETICAL INTRODUCTION

This special issue is devoted to the theoretical and empirical examination of the tendency of capitalist development in Latin America to destroy its own ecological conditions of production, the environmental foundations for the continued existence of dependent capitalism, and therefore exacerbate economic and social crisis trends. It contributes to the shift in emphasis from the traditional neo-orthodox Marxist tradition of analyzing the Latin American crisis in terms of contradictions between productive forces and relations of production to a broader ecological Marxism that focuses on contradictions between these forces and relations, on the one hand, and the ecological conditions of production, on the other. From this perspective, struggles over environmental protection and the reconstruction of nature are crucial to the process of national liberation and socialist transformation. -from Author