ABSTRACT
Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed denounced all forms of oppression, but the evils of capitalism were one of the main aspects of the social criticism embodied in its theatrical method and performances. This chapter discusses the critique of capitalism in socialist theory, from Karl Marx ecosocialism, as well as the implications of that critique for present indigenous struggles in Latin America. Human action–the emancipatory unity of its victims–can change the world, and defeat the armies of capitalism: mercantilism, the idolatry of the market, and commodity fetishism. Peasant and indigenous movements of Latin America are at the center of the socio-ecological struggle for the environment. Ecosocialism is a political current based on an essential insight: the preservation of the ecological equilibrium of the planet and, therefore, of an environment favorable to living species–including people's–is incompatible with the expansive and destructive logic of the capitalist system.
