A groundbreaking feminist perspective on Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) rule in Bolivia and the country’s radical transformation under Evo Morales
 

The presidency of Evo Morales in Bolivia (2006–2019) has produced considerable academic scholarship, much of it focused on indigenous social movements or extractivism, and often triumphalist about the successes of Morales’s Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS). Turning a new lens on the movement, Cash, Clothes, and Construction presents the first gender-based analysis of “pluri-economy,” a central pillar of Bolivia’s program under Morales, evaluating the potential of this vision of “an economy where all economies fit” to embrace feminist critiques of capitalism and economic diversity. 

Based on more than twelve years of empirical research exploring the remarkable transformations in Bolivia since 2006, this book focuses on three sectors—finance, clothing, and construction—in which indigenous women have defied gendered expectations. Kate Maclean presents detailed case studies of women selling secondhand high street clothes from the United States in the vast, peri-urban markets of Bolivian cities; Aymaran designers of new pollera (traditional Andean dress) fashions, one of whom exhibited her collection in New York City; and the powerful and rich chola paceña, whose real estate investments have transformed the cultural maps of La Paz and El Alto. 

Cash, Clothes, and Construction offers a gendered analysis of the mission of MAS to dismantle neoliberalism and decolonize politics and economy from the perspective of the Indigenous women who have radically transformed Bolivia’s economy from the ground up.

An incisive history of government and corporate failures to infuse capital into Black urban neighborhoods—as well as the organizers and activists who stood up to predatory financial practices.

In the 1960s, conditions in impoverished Black neighborhoods attracted mainstream attention as civil unrest erupted in hundreds of cities across the United States. Finally recognizing the dire effects of racial segregation and urban disinvestment, politicians and corporations joined community activists to call for capital infusion, or reinvestment, in struggling communities. Proposals for reinvestment universally claimed the shared goal of reviving Black neighborhoods, but most of these efforts—some well-meaning, others cynical and predatory—failed to do so.

As renowned historian Beryl Satter shows, private and government interests have long manipulated reinvestment programs to benefit outside business, finance, and real estate professionals. Because these programs focused on corporate tax breaks and federal insurance for lenders, they were easily exploited by private interests to divert funding from poor urban neighborhoods. Meanwhile, community organizers proposed much bolder reinvestment plans that directly confronted institutionally racist practices. They called for a significant reallocation of resources, including government investments in depleted areas and guaranteed incomes for poor people. Activists, often working-class women, also united across racial divides to challenge predatory finance and real estate practices. Yet while they successfully advocated for laws to impede such behaviors, reform legislation often contained loopholes that accommodated racism and corporate greed.

To revive impoverished neighborhoods, we must not only challenge institutional racism in finance and real estate but also resist government policies that enable predatory practices. Cash on the Block envisions a future in which reinvestment policy, guided by community leaders, at last benefits those it is meant to serve.