ABSTRACT
Extractivism or natural resource wealth extraction can be traced back for centuries, but neoextractivism as the latest phase of capitalism has a history of only decades. The result, for Svampa and other Latin-American scholars of extractivism, is a proliferation of enclave economies and the splintering of indigenous and peasant territories through dispossession: “accumulation by dispossession” in Marxist discourse. While extractivism and the struggles arising from it are common across many Latin-American countries, there are also Inter-American entanglements, connections and parallels, which can be seen from including Canada in the discussion. The end of the global commodities boom, rising and organized resistance, together with the increasing severity of global climate change may point to a relaxation of the reliance on extractivism by states but this is unlikely to be a long-term solution as the logic of capitalist extractivism is to continue to exploit resources until they are gone.
