Strike as a constituent praxis

the coloniality of power and the capture of conflict by the State in Latin America

Abstract

This article analyzes the phenomenon of strikes in Latin America from the perspective of decolonial theories and State Science. It is argued that the peripheral State, far from acting as a neutral mediator, operates as a matrix that produces exclusions based on the coloniality of power. Through a bibliographic review that articulates concepts such as abyssal thinking and the ideology of competence, it investigates how the judicial apparatus depoliticizes labor conflict, transforming insurgency into a mere object of bureaucratic and technical management. The methodology is based on the qualitative analysis of fundamental works by Aníbal Quijano, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, and Alysson Mascaro. The results indicate that the strike overflows the strictly contractual dimension, revealing itself as a constituent praxis capable of tensioning the political form of capital and claiming new spaces of sovereignty. It is concluded that the construction of a State Science rooted in the Global South requires the recognition of the political power of the margins and the overcoming of the abyssal lines that make the workers' knowledge invisible. The study reaffirms the need for a justice that protects dissent and union autonomy as prerequisites for the real democratization of Latin American societies, proposing the aesthetics of resistance as a matrix for a new decolonized and plural institutionality.