An exploration of insurrection on the oil frontier in Ecuador. Developing and introducing gonzo ethnography, Japhy Wilson takes the reader on a journey from a labour dispute to a regional insurrection. Documenting this struggle, the book reveals the numerous challenges confronting a fight for social justice against an oil company; the tactics and strategies employed by authorities.
This book provides a case study to understand the long-term challenges of political uprisings and, most of all, how leaders of past and current struggles ‘Sell Out’ struggles and movements decline. The Savage Road exemplifies an insurrectionary political ecology research approach with countless lessons and reflections to recognise in past and navigate in future struggles.
From the introduction:
“I arrived in Dayuma in August 2017. I was hoping to speak to the settlers who had first colonized the region, as part of my research on the recent history of the Ecuadorian Amazon.1 But as I passed the gates of the production complex, I could see a demonstration taking place outside. And within hours of my arrival I found myself caught up in the midst of a labor dispute, which quickly escalated into a more serious and generalized conflict, involving the detention of the strike organizers, the kidnapping of the construction company manager, the blockading of the production complex, the launch of a military operation to break the blockade, the revelation of a plot to assassinate the leaders of the uprising, and the unleashing of a fluid and rapidly evolving battle against seemingly impossible odds that was destined to achieve a remarkable victory. ”
This book tells the inside story of this struggle.
Details:
Title: The Savage Road
Subtitle: Rage & Revolt on the Ecuadorian Oil Frontier
Autor: Japhy Wilson
Publisher: Active Distrbution & Rupture Press
Published: June 2025
ISBN: 9783911720045
