Post-capitalist Societies Facing Social Inequality. Two Cases of Resistance

INTRODUCTION
Throughout its history, capitalism has produced inequalities. According to Piketty (2014), the functioning of the capitalist system generates a tendency toward the concentration of wealth and income; it suffices to point out that just one percent of the world’s population holds more wealth than the remaining ninety-five percent. According to the Oxfam report Multilateralism in an Era of Global Oligarchy (2024):

Tosepan united with nature
Picture: Cooperativa Tosepan

Social inequality in Mexico is a phenomenon that has deepened, especially since the implementation of the neoliberal model. Rural areas have suffered the most severe effects; according to figures from the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval), poverty affected 55.3 percent of the rural population, encompassing seventeen million people (Coneval, 2024). This situation is exacerbated by the human rights crisis and the displacement of Indigenous and peasant communities due to violence and pressure exerted by government projects and large corporations that appropriate common resources such as water and forests. This clear manifestation of inequality and conflict reflects processes of accumulation by “dispossession,” that is, a renewal of the original accumulation of capital in our time, considering this process as a transhistorical separation of the means of production (Harvey, 2007; Zarembka, 2012).

The accumulation of capital has always entailed inequality, violence, and dispossession, as Rosa Luxemburg warned:
Thus, accumulation by dispossession is hidden under the discourse of economic growth, undermining community ties and destroying their ecosystems:
Faced with this situation, various Indigenous and rural communities have expressed their rejection of development projects, which they themselves call “projects of death.” At the same time, they have developed strategies that have allowed them to reduce inequality in their communities, resulting in a “good life.”

THE FIGURE OF THE COMMUNITY SUBJECT IN POST-CAPITALIST SOCIETIES
The logic of capital accumulation has led to various socio-ecological crises that have threatened and, in many cases, modified the way in which Indigenous and rural communities organize their exchanges of materials and energy with the environment—that is, the socio-metabolic configurations for their material and symbolic reproduction (Barkin & Fuente, 2021), as well as for the autonomy of their community life projects. The collective consciousness and political stance of these communities in the face of threats to their community life projects are responding by strengthening their productive capacities and defending their territories, undertaking strategies to ensure improvements in their quality of life through collective management implemented by what we have called the community subject (Barkin, 2022; Barkin & Sánchez, 2020).

Tosepan Titataniske Regional Cooperative, Northern Sierra of Puebla
Picture: La Coperacha

The construction of alternatives undertaken by the community subject is directly related to its worldview, which shares principles with philosophies such as those encompassed in the Bantu word ubuntu, from southern Africa (a concept understood as “I am because you are”), as well as the concept of el buen vivir (good living) in the Andean region of Latin America (Huanacuni Mamani, 2010) and communalism in Oaxaca (Martínez Luna, 2010). These visions share the idea that there is a very close link between human beings and nature, from which they cannot detach themselves and which, consequently, is present in their decisions regarding the production, management, and conservation of ecosystems, as well as the defense of their territory. Furthermore, they include the understanding that collective life implies that no one is excluded from the common good, and everyone accepts the commitment to participate in the project.

The community subject transforms its reality based on material elements of social reproduction and from subjectivities that allow it to rethink and resignify experiences of socio-environmental injustice. These experiences open up a completely new perspective on the problems of the collective, leading to emancipatory processes that link community strategies and forms of self-management (Barkin & Sánchez, 2020). Women, as part of the community subject, are fundamental in the construction of these processes.
These alternatives differ from conventional “development” projects that have devastated and exploited rural areas. The goal of these post-capitalist societies is to implement actions aimed at community well-being through the collective governance of common goods, control of their productive forces, and the creation and strengthening of networks and alliances with other communities and organizations. These actions lead to closing the gaps of inequality with social and environmental justice. There is a long history of communities that organized collectively to ensure a dynamic of equality within their communities, a history that was cut short by the Conquest and its aftermath. More recently, they are resuming this dynamic and achieving significant progress in their productivity and in their processes of protecting their territories, while also ensuring a good quality of life for their members (Grandia, 2025).

RESPONSES FROM POST-CAPITALIST SOCIETIES
There are social groups committed to building community-based alternatives. These groups create mechanisms to reduce economic and social inequalities, guaranteeing the inclusion of all their members in collective life. They implement diverse productive, organizational, and political strategies that serve to defend their territory, generate surpluses that contribute to their well-being, conserve their ecosystems, and strengthen their governance capacity. These strategies have, in turn, led them to form alliances with organizations and other communities at the national and international levels, allowing them to exchange knowledge, experiences, and support.

Examples of this include the communities of the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico, made up primarily of Nahua and Totonac indigenous peoples. These territories possess great biological and cultural richness. Historically, they have faced the implementation of development policies that have not benefited them, such as the “Green Revolution” of the 1970s, and more recently, the promotion of extractive projects like mining and hydroelectric dams (Linsalata, 2017).

Art decorating the community social mobile virtual operator: Wiki Katat
Picture: APC

In response, these communities have formed collective organizations for almost half a century, enabling them to create conditions for production and social reproduction, thereby achieving a better quality of life. One such organization is the Tosepan Titataniske Regional Agricultural Cooperative, which has forty thousand members from thirty-two Nahua and Totonac communities in the Sierra Norte region of Puebla. Among its activities are lodging and tourism services, development of contaminant-free farming systems—for coffee, honey pepper, and bamboo—, a savings and loan cooperative, ongoing training in production techniques, sociopolitical, environmental, and gender awareness, educational projects for children and youth, and projects to strengthen and teach the mother tongue (Armenta and Carcaño, 2021). Likewise, in recent years, the Radio Tosepan Limakxtum group, part of the Tosepan Titataniske cooperative, has promoted an integration agreement to install its own telephone and internet service in the mountain communities, becoming the first mobile operator with a social focus in the country, where the benefits are not concentrated in a single person but are allocated to the needs identified by the community. It is a model based on indigenous community values ​​and practices (De la Torre, 2025).

This organization is part of a network of groups opposed to extractive projects. Part of their mobilization involves meetings with communities in resistance, ensuring the population is informed and learning about the experiences of other communities affected by mining. In the case of the municipality of Cuetzalan, land-use planning—designed collectively and with input from community members, considering their worldview—has been fundamental as a legal tool.

This struggle to defend their territory has been a long one. After eleven years of litigation, based on regional land-use planning, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for Administrative Matters declared that the mining concessions granted in the municipalities of Tlatlauquitepec, Cuetzalan del Progreso, and Yahonáhuac are definitively canceled because they lack legal basis. This represents a major victory for the communities and organizations that actively participated in this defense, demonstrating their organizational capacity, their fighting spirit, and their unity in the face of events that threaten the lives and continuity of their communities. It reinforces the region’s historical initiative to take control of its territory and lays the groundwork for collective efforts to ensure a dignified life for one of the largest Indigenous groups in Mexico. It testifies to the possibility of building egalitarian societies outside the polarizing dynamics of the nation-state of which they are a part.

Tosepan has established several cooperatives aimed at providing a decent life for the local
Picture: CCMS

Another example of this transformation is the community of Cherán, Michoacán, which has responded against extractive policies by “reclaiming traditional practices such as cultivating cornfields, reforesting, and tapping for resin” (Velázquez, 2019). On April 15, 2011, the people of Cherán rose up in defense of their forests. The mobilization was initiated by a group of thirty women who confronted the loggers who were plundering the timber from their community forest. More than ten thousand hectares of forest had been affected by illegal logging for years, with the tacit approval of the municipal authorities. The struggle initiative represented a break with a gender order and in turn generated an effect of strength and cohesion with the other members of the community: “the organization of collective action was key to the self-siege of April 2011. Repertoires of confrontation were deployed such as the bonfire, the patrol, the barricades and the mobilization alert” (Velázquez, 2019).

Ending forest extraction involved implementing management based on communal logic:
The self-defense carried out in Cherán allowed for the consolidation of its autonomy, the implementation of a community-based management model for its common resources, the creation of jobs that included women, and greater participation by women in community assemblies. The actions they have undertaken demonstrate that community organization has succeeded in closing the gaps of inequality to which they have historically been subjected.

Cherán and self-governance system continue to face attacks from groups seeking to seize its communal resources and destabilize its community ties. On July 2, 2025, the community was the victim of an armed attack by organized crime, and so far, it has not received support from state security forces. Once again, the community has organized itself to defend its territory and, consequently, its people. At the time of writing, twenty-nine other communities in the P’urhépecha Plateau of Michoacán have joined this effort, successfully participating in the participatory budgeting process initiated by the federal government.

Like the Tosepan experience, these communities are demonstrating how collective solidarity, firmly rooted in the recovery of their worldview and ancient traditions and the revitalization of their language, is overcoming the dynamics imposed by centuries of colonization and discrimination. They are deliberately confronting inherited inequalities to ensure the full participation of all people in governance processes and their social and economic integration. It is particularly noteworthy in this region, with its long history of international migration, that communities in the United States are showing solidarity by contributing financial support to consolidate this new project.

Autonomy in Cherán, Michoacán
Picture: Radio Zapatista

CONCLUSIONS
There are concrete examples of post-capitalist societies that are succeeding in reducing internal inequalities. Many of the actions they have undertaken have been developed outside of state policies, demonstrating their capacity for self-management and showcasing a society-nature relationship based on their worldviews, where the central objective is the care of life. These self-managed and autonomous processes are in constant tension with the mechanisms implicit in the dynamics of capital accumulation, where dispossession and violence are evident. However, these social groups show us that they not only confront neoliberal policies of exclusion, inequality, and impoverishment, but also generate alternatives that draw on community ties to build projects for the future. At the same time, they demonstrate that other worlds are possible and offer valuable lessons on how they build their community well-being by maintaining, defending, and caring for their territories. 

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