Indigenous people in transnationational mobilizations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas - a case study of the indigenous movement CONAIE

Abstract: The initiative to unite the economies of the Americas into a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is increasingly threatening the survival of the indigenous people making them coalesce into transnational coalitions with people throughout the region. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the threats posed by the proposed FTAA and the opportunities of transnational activism opposing it has influenced the movement identity of an indigenous social movement. My object of study is the indigenous movement Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE). I have made a case study of CONAIE where I use a social movement approach to transnational activism in order to examine whether the participation in transnational anti-FTAA initiatives has affected the collective action repertoire and the activists of CONAIE. I find that it has partly changed the focus of the movement, but rather intensified and expanded its repertoire of contention through national and international alliances. The movement strategies and discourse have largely remained the same, while some change in the organizational structure is identified. A more noticeable shift is reflected in the character of the movement's activists which have developed new identities operating as'rooted cosmopolitans'with 'multiple belongings' and 'flexible identities'.