Paper short abstract:

This paper interrogates the connections between authoritarianism and (neoliberal) capitalism, arguing that both are predicated upon a shared teleological vision of progress that seeks to annihilate societal dissent and difference.

Paper long abstract:

A recent statement by an Ecuadorian indigenous leader that he'd prefer 'the banker' over 'the dictator' in the presidential elections was highly controversial. The controversy did not emerge from his characterization of the aptly-named left-wing candidate Lenin Moreno (or the outgoing president, Correa) as 'the dictator'. The controversy was that an indigenous activist would make common cause with the country's business elite and urban affluent classes to vote for Lasso, 'the banker', who promised to undo many of the policies of the Correa administration that sought to create a post-neoliberal development model.

This discursive alliance was in keeping with recent geographies of resistance in Ecuador in which Amazonian indigenous communities and environmentalists have provided active support to right-wing detractors of Correa's Allianza Pais movement. By focusing on the 'Yasunidos' movement that continues to resist the abandonment of Ecuador's proposal to 'leave the oil in the soil', the paper investigates the potential of such cross-class alliances to contest authoritarian developmentalism on the basis of an appeal to shared ecological interests. Building on Raymond Williams' recognition that state hegemony over society cannot be separated from the hegemony of dominant classes over nature, it also explores the potential of cross-class alliances to enact transformative environmental practices such as the one promised by the Yasuni-ITT initiative. Ultimately, by probing the agency of cross-class alliances, the paper interrogates the connections between authoritarianism and (neoliberal) capitalism, arguing that both are predicated upon a shared teleological vision of progress that seeks to annihilate societal dissent and difference.