The struggles against pollution: from self defense to recreation of democracy

Abstract

Our approach to the struggles against environmental pollution is political- institutional, and is related to our participation with our co-citizens in the claim to democratic institutions for recognition and guarantees of life, health and enviroment as rights. Facing the consequences of large- scale mining, transgenic agriculture, the cutting down of native forests, among others, the struggles reveal the specific problems of the institutions of the republic to fullfill its constitutional commitments. Also they promote reflexivity and creativity about alternative forms of articulation between exercise of rights, representation, law and justice. In doing so they recover the contributions from the environmental imaginary and practice in order to deal with conflict and complexity. Within this frame, we propose the theoretical contributions made by the green political thought and the democratic theory as key elements to the reformulation of a sense of democracy that makes justice to the affected peoples.