Ecofeminism in Latin America
with Andrea Sempertegui
In this episode we’re joined by Andrea Sempértegui, Assistant Professor of Politics at Whitman College and a member of the anti-extractive collective Comundisis based in Quito, Ecuador. She focuses on indigenous politics, environmental and feminist movements, struggles over territory and natural resource extraction and decolonial thought in Latin America. Her essays have appeared in the likes of New York Review of Books and Verso. We delve into the importance of women in the climate struggle, the initial logic behind extractivism and what is being done to fight it, and why the women leading this fight don’t call themselves feminists. Andrea is currently working on her book, Earthed Politics: The Mujeres Amazónicas’ Fight against Extractivism in Ecuador.
Andrea Sempertegui
Andrea Sempertegui is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Whitman College and a member of the anti-extractive collective Comundisis based in Quito, Ecuador. She focuses on indigenous politics, environmental and feminist movements, struggles over territory and natural resource extraction and decolonial thought in Latin America. Her essays have appeared in the New York Review of Books, Alternautas, Verso and NACLA. She is also co-editor of a translated book by the Bolivian sociologist Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui.
Andrea is currently working on her book, Earthed Politics: The Mujeres Amazónicas’ Fight against Extractivism in Ecuador. It delves into the territorial struggles of Amazonian Women, a group of indigenous women that have organised against oil and mining in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Text Discussed
Maristella Svampa, 2015, Feminisms of the South and Ecofeminism
This text is part of the final chapter of the book Bad Development: the Argentina of Extractivism, published with co-author Enrique Viale. Svampa speaks about the key principles of eco-feminism. She introduces the feminisation of fights — an idea suggesting that women have been at the forefront of recent fights for social justice.
Silvia Federici, 2004, Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation
In this book, Federici responds to parts of feminist theory and Karl Marx’s theory of ‘primitive accumulation.’ She provides an alternative to Marx’s theory which integrates feminism into the viewpoint.
You can read our explainer of her book below!