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Introduction: Class conflict is always present, endemic, in Latin America. What changes, over time, is the character of the class struggle. By ‘character’ we mean, the principal classes and leaders, who direct in the struggle, set the political agenda and define the parameters of socio-economic changes.
What is striking about the class struggle in Latin America, over the past decade and a half, is its changing character. Though different forms of class struggle overlap in most periods, one or another of three forms of class struggle predominate. Though there is no uniform pattern of class struggle throughout Latin America, for analytical purposes, we can identify the predominance of one type or another in different time frames.
We will examine class struggle in four countries, which best illustrate the variety of class struggles, the changes in class struggle and the dominant tendencies in the current period.
We have chosen to examine the class struggle in five countries: Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. Each of these countries illustrates the swings and changes in the nature of the class struggle.