ABSTRACT
The resurgence of the "free market" and the neoliberal project is the effect of political and social changes in the balance of power between labor and capital. The current phase of neoliberal ascendancy is rooted in changes in the correlation of class forces within the state, society, and workplace. The very terms of "success" of the neoliberal model have created the conditions for the resurgence of radical, extraparliamentary, sociopolitical movements. Under the financial pressures imposed by capital lenders, the Latin American neoliberal state sells off more and more of its public resources—forests, mines, natural reserves, maritime resources. Neoliberalism in Latin America is a highly contradictory phenomenon. As multinational corporations expand, they absorb a growing proportion of local resources through the process of state subsidies, buyouts, and loans, while the fiscal bases to sustain the economy and state decline. The result is a sharp decline in social services and resources for local producers relative to multinational corporations.
