The Bolivian government nationalised four power companies

[punisa]

AlJazeera:
"Evo Morales, president, signed the decree at one of the companies in the city of Cochabamba on Saturday, hours after police had moved in to secure them.
Since taking office in 2006, Morales has nationalised more than a dozen energy companies.
He says profits generated from the firms will will fund social programmes for Bolivia's "marginalised" indigenous communities."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r162UR-ZpbI

One thing I do not understand in this video report, it says that power plant workers took to the streets and chanted anti government slogans.
Why is that?
Workers perceive this as downgrading of their situation or?

[pranabjyoti]

AlJazeera:
"Evo Morales, president, signed the decree at one of the companies in the city of Cochabamba on Saturday, hours after police had moved in to secure them.
Since taking office in 2006, Morales has nationalised more than a dozen energy companies.
He says profits generated from the firms will will fund social programmes for Bolivia's "marginalised" indigenous communities."

r162UR-ZpbI

One thing I do not understand in this video report, it says that power plant workers took to the streets and chanted anti government slogans.
Why is that?
Workers perceive this as downgrading of their situation or?
I think they are "hired workers".:sneaky:

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

They might of course also have fallen for bourgeois propaganda saying it might detrimentally affect them, or, they might simply be confusing their own interests with the interests of the capitalist class.

[Nolan]

One thing I do not understand in this video report, it says that power plant workers took to the streets and chanted anti government slogans.
Why is that?
Workers perceive this as downgrading of their situation or?

I can find no other source to validate that.

[The Vegan Marxist]

It says that they were part of the oil rich areas of Bolivia. So I'm guessing they weren't real workers, but rather upper-class bourgeoisie instead. Figures!

[punisa]

It says that they were part of the oil rich areas of Bolivia. So I'm guessing they weren't real workers, but rather upper-class bourgeoisie instead. Figures!

I'd say that this is the case as well.

[GreenCommunism]

workers in the energy sector usually have better wages and priviledges than the rest of the working class. i wonder if the nationalization won't affect them in this sense.

[Robocommie]

So, this military and heavy police action, is this normal for nationalizations? I assume it's to prevent sabotage of the facilities or violent resistance from the owners?

[Red Commissar]

From what I gather Morales hasn't had a smooth time nationalizing the various industries. He ran into similar issues when he made moves to nationalize or tax the mining and gas industries.

While this is wikipedia, I think it gives a broad overview of the gas dispute they had early in Morales's mandate that carried over from the previous administration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivian_gas_conflict

Which got messy to say the least. In that case the location of the dispute was in a zone which was typically hostile to people of Morales's inclinations and demanded autonomy so that they could have some control over their local resources, as opposed to nationalization which would have ensured the resources be better distributed, and by extension mean those provinces wouldn't get to hog as much of the wealth.

It might be a similar situation here.

[The Vegan Marxist]

So these "workers" are just a bunch of Bolivian tea-baggers? Always flipping out when something is "government-run" under their paranoid bourgeois semantics. Even if things go great for them, they'll probably still complain. Like the tea-baggers here. I don't like Obama, but it's true that taxes have been much lower than when Bush was in office, yet the tea-baggers continue to claim that taxes have risen in a unbelievable rate. Just a bunch of paranoid right-wingers. Fuck them!

[Buffalo Souljah]

"Fuck them", indeed. Well said. Cheers.

[REDSOX]

Good move by morales, should have happened sooner especially with the electoral mandate he and the MAS has. This move follows the Nationalisation of telecommunications, some tin mines and the oil and gas industry. Next on the list i believe are the Railways, owned currently by chilean and american capital. By the way the workers who were protesting against the Nationalisation were workers from a co-operatively owned electric company in cochabamba called ELFEC. Other workers from the other 3 companies nationalised and owned by foreign capital were i believe delighted with the move. The co-operative owned company handed to the workers during neo liberal times has been given 120 days to negotiate compensation, in the mean time the government will take operational control of this company. The workers have a false conciousness on this move by morales not surprising really as they are effectively owners!!!

[Stranger Than Paradise]

I don't know why everyone is dismissing these workers for protesting against the government, they could be protesting about anything, and the nationalisation of these companies may have nothing to do with these workers. They could be protesting that nationalisation isn't synonymous with representing them and giving them power.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I don't know why everyone is dismissing these workers for protesting against the government, they could be protesting about anything, and the nationalisation of these companies may have nothing to do with these workers. They could be protesting that nationalisation isn't synonymous with representing them and giving them power.

But keeping them privatized is? Excuse me for laughing :laugh:

Besides, I'm dismissing them because they come from a oil rich region, & so this plays into why they're protesting against the nationalization. These are all bourgeoisie more than likely.

[Ligeia]

Workers of the ELFEC (electricity network operator) held 40% shares and refused to sell them (that may be another reason for the protests).
On 1st May there were also pleas for higher wages (more than the proposed 5%), which was supported by COB union (Central Obrera Boliviana).

[Stranger Than Paradise]

But keeping them privatized is? Excuse me for laughing :laugh:

No I was thinking they may be protesting from the angle of being for workers control of industry and making it clear that Nationalisation does not mean breaking away from Capitalist relations.

[pranabjyoti]

No I was thinking they may be protesting from the angle of being for workers control of industry and making it clear that Nationalisation does not mean breaking away from Capitalist relations.
I don't think that they are advanced upto that level. IT'S JUST IMPOSSIBLE AT PRESENT IN A COMPARATIVELY BACKWARD COUNTRY LIKE BOLIVIA.