REBUILDING THE LEFT

REBUILDING THE LEFT Marta Harnecker. Zed Books, London, 2007, 168 pages.

When most North American adult educators think of adult or popular education in Latin America, they generally think of Paulo Freir? and his text, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. If, however, we want to think of one text that has had the most singular impact on popular educators in progressive and revolutionary social movements in the region, it would be Marta Harnecker's The Basic Concepts of Historical Materialism, which in its original Spanish version is in its third edition and 63rd printing, selling overa million copies? about twice that of Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. This probably comes as a great surprise to most readers, since Harnecker is not generally well-known outside Latin America. Nevertheless, her Basic Concepts text is the most common entry into Marxist theory for the region's radicals and revolutionaries.

Harnecker was born in Chile. She completed university studies in France under Louis Althusser, then returned to Chile in time to work as a journalist during the presidency of Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity government. From the 1 973 coup in Chile until recently, she lived and worked in Cuba, where she directed the Latin American Popular Memory (MEPLA) research centre. She currently resides in Venezuela. During her years at the head of MEPLA, Harnecker involved herself in dozens of popular education and community development projects in Cuba and research projects documenting all...