Bolivia

[Andrei Kuznetsov]

Bolivia: The Uprising of Miners and Peasants
Revolutionary Worker #1218 , November 2, 2003, posted at rwor.org (http://rwor.org/)

For a month, the valleys of the high Andes mountains filled with a flood of discontent. Rebellion built up--with strikes and roadblocks all across Bolivia --during the last weeks of September. And then in October the resistance poured in a torrent down upon La Paz, Bolivia's capital.

The people came in caravans of buses and trucks, and on foot to confront the hated government and its troops. Organized ranks of miners came from the southwest mountains. Poor peasant farmers, the cocaleros , arrived in huge contingents from the mountainous coca-growing regions of northern Bolivia.*

Around this core of militant miners and peasants, the broad population rallied to defy the government. The peddlers of the shantytowns around La Paz entered the city in force, from their ring of red-brick shantytowns on the plateau that encircles the Bolivian capital. Alongside them rallied contingents of bakers, taxi drivers, truckers, hospital workers and many teachers.

Tens of thousands chanted their disgust at Bolivia's President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, a millionaire owner of the country's largest private mines. Sánchez is famous for selling off the country to foreign corporations--and for the American accent that marks his spoken Spanish.

The streets echoed: "Gringo dictador, ándate a Washington." (Gringo dictator, go back to Washington!)

more of this article at http://rwor.org/a/1218/bolivia.htm

[Hawker]

Good for them!

HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

[Jesus Christ]

i wish i could be there

[BRIN]

Avo Morales is great ,he recons that 2007 the socialist party will win.

He also has links with Castro and Chavez :)

[Andrei Kuznetsov]

The victories that the Bolivian masses have won are truly great, but they are not enough. It is not enough to be simply prepared, and organized, and willing to "fight." This is the lesson we learned in Chile, 1973 when Allende was overthrown by Pinochet despite the mobilization of the workers, peasants, and students.

In Chile the people were "vigilant", they were organized, they were fighting; they put up a rightful and powerful struggle against the U.S. imperialists. They could not win, however, by simply organizing and fighting...

The major lesson of Chile is that you can't make a peaceful transition to socialism like Avo Morales wants to do in Bolivia. This is the issue.

What the people didn't do in Chile is follow a party into a revolutionary struggle that would have dismantled the bourgeois state and especially its military. They elected a socialist to power, and thought they were told that his presidential power could contain the military.

This was a lie, and a betrayal.

You also brought up the question of Cub. Some important things:

First the Cuban government (and Castro in particular) ENDORSED the notion of "peaceful transition" in Chile. Castro personally went to Chile and told the people to follow Allende's road. It was a road that led to the Chilean stadium.

A big part of the logic of "peaceful transition" was the idea that the U.S. would be prevented from acting by the "balance of forces" concentrated in the revisionist Soviet Union.

this too was part of the Castro rap: telling people to seek short cuts to power (focoism in Bolivia, then electoral road in Chile) and THEN rely on the revisionist communist parties and the Soviet Union to help them make it through.

This was very wrong. And to quote Castro saying that people need to fight, really disguises the rather sinister role he played in encouraging people to NOT make real revolution.

That is the lesson of Chile.

Maoists say "without state power all is illusion."

These are six words worth thinking about deeply, especially if we are to look at where Bolivia must go, and whether or not we should trust this Avo Morales guy.

[EneME]

That's so great to see that the revolution continues! I will seriously pray and support them in any way possible....and I seriously hope they don't see as much death as in El Salvador thx to the US. I hope they stay out of it as much as possible for the sake of the people...

[Ortega]

HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

the presidents been forced out of office, and the usa has lost another puppet

[RebeldePorLaPAZ]

The U$ better not take one step into the country. Not even to side with the people because the U$ is only going to try to find a way to get money some how.

http://u.univision.com/contentroot/uol/art/images/noticias/lat/2003/10/031016_bolivia_17.jpg

http://u.univision.com/contentroot/uol/art/images/noticias/lat/2003/10/031016_bolivia_14.jpg

http://u.univision.com/contentroot/uol/art/images/noticias/lat/2003/10/031016_bolivia_13.jpg

[RebeldePorLaPAZ]

take a look at this. i was looking at the CIA would factbook and i found some interesting stuff.

Population below poverty line:
70% (1999 est.)

Political parties and leaders:
Bolivian Socialist Falange or FSB [Romel PANTOJA]; Civic Solidarity Union or UCS [Johnny FERNANDEZ]; Free Bolivia Movement or MBL [Franz BARRIOS]; Marshal of Ayacucho Institutional Vanguard or VIMA [Freddy ZABALA]; Movement of the Revolutionary Left or MIR [Jaime PAZ Zamora]; Movement Toward Socialism or MAS [Evo MORALES]; Movement Without Fear or MSM [Juan DEL GRANADO]; Nationalist Democratic Action or ADN [Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez]; Nationalist Revolutionary Movement or MNR [Gonzalo SANCHEZ DE LOZADA]; New Republican Force or NFR [Manfred REYES-VILLA]; Pachakuti Indigenous Movement or MIP [Felipe QUISPE]; Socialist Party or PS [Jeres JUSTINIANO]
note: the MNR, MIR, and UCS comprise the ruling coalition

[General A.A.Vlasov]

Andrei Mazenov...what is the reason of your immigration, son? <_<

[Kez]

http://www.marxist.com/bolivia.asp

on the bolvian situation, loads of articles on analysis and plans for action, including appeal letters YOU can send

[Iepilei]

*claps*

Much support goes out to all the individuals working for the betterment of life in Bolivia&#33;