Revolutionary Situation in Bolivia

[anonymous red]

as the situation in bolivia continues to escalate toward worker's revolution, i thought it would be good to have a sticky in this forum similar to that of the one covering chavez's venezuela. would a moderator kindly make this a sticky so that all pertinent information/discussion can be consolidated into one thread to further facilitate our discourse of the topic?


here is a link to the latest development in the stiuation:
http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/bolivia-rev...blies090605.htm (http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/bolivia-revolutionary-assemblies090605.htm)

further links can be found at the bottom of that page.

http://img156.echo.cx/img156/8796/americalatinarevolucion2ur.jpg

[anonymous red]

a stumbling block for bolivia's socialist future?

Bolivia activists ready for truce

Indian leader Evo Morales might well become the next president
Bolivian protesters have started lifting roadblocks and ending the occupation of oil fields after a new interim president took office.
Eduardo Rodriguez, former head of the Supreme Court, has pledged to hold a presidential election soon.

But some activists continued rallying in La Paz on Friday to remind the new president that nationalisation of the gas industry is still a top demand.

They are also calling for the constitution to be rewritten.

Some protesters in the capital made it clear they would not stop unless their demands were met.

"Until we get an answer we are going to keep marching, because there are no jobs, lots of hunger and we still don't have answers - even with this new clown," said Sanet Pardo, a demonstrator in La Paz on Friday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4082834.stm

i've read that morales, the popular choice for president and leader of the bolivian movement toward socialism, is actually prepared to make concessions to the the bourgeoisie if he becomes president. i hope that this new interim government DOES NOT nationalize bolivia's gas reserves, consequently continuing the revolutionary agitation that is underway.

[Colombia]

Yes I motion for this to become a sticky, this is a pressing issue.

[danny android]

I've read in the paper today that the new provisional president is going to try and make Bolivia more democratic. It did not give much information on this because it is a crappy small town paper which has longer articles about the sheep shearing than it does about major world events. I would like to hear your opinions about this new president.

[anonymous red]

'thank you' to the mods for pinning this topic.

i don't know much about the new provisional government/president. we'll find out their intentions in the coming days and it will be most interesting to watch unfold. to make a general assumption, i believe this new government will continue to cater to the ruling class while attempting to make enough concessions to the indigenous workers to suppress their uprising. let us hope that the people of bolivia do not accept the bourgeoisie's compromise.


Miners, rural peasants and labor groups, who forced former President Carlos Mesa to resign on Monday after weeks of massive marches, have lifted roadblocks around the Andean nation but their key demands on natural gas and constitutional reforms to guarantee more rights for Indians have not been met.

Urban protesters in El Alto, a sprawling poor city in the mountains above La Paz, ended a three-week occupation at the only gasoline distribution plant for La Paz, but warned they will restart protests if they don't get answers to their demands.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.htm...y=1118529314000 (http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5863711&cKey=1118529314000)

(edited to include snippet & link)

please, everyone share their info here. this is a situation that we simply cannot overlook.

[Commie Girl]

This should also be included:

(exerpt)

For this reason, the first enlarged meeting of the Originaria National Peoples’ Assembly takes the following decisions:

1) That the city of El Alto be the General Headquarters of the Bolivian Revolution in the XXI century.

2) To create a United Leadership of the Originaria National Peoples’ Assembly as an INSTRUMENT OF POWER, at the head of the Federation of Neighbourhood Juntas of El Alto (FEJUVE), the Regional Workers’ Union of El Alto (COR), the Bolivian Workers’ Union (COB), the United Trade Union Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB), the Trade Union Confederation of Artisan Workers, Small Traders of Bolivia, the Trade Union Federation of Mine Workers of Bolivia, the Interprovincial Transport Federation of La Paz and the other mobilised social organisations in the interior of the country.

3) To create SUPPLY, SELF DEFENCE, PRESS AND POLITICAL Committees whose aim is to guarantee the success of the organised peoples’ organisations.

4) We reiterate that our struggle for the NATIONALISATION AND INDUSTRIALISATION OF HYDROCARBONS is non-negotiable.

5) To organise the formation of Peoples’ Assemblies in every department under the leadership of the COB, the Departmental Workers’ Federation, and the delegates elected from the rank and file in mass meetings and cabildos.

6) To reject all manoeuvres of the ruling class either through a constitutional succession or elections involving the same old “politicians”.

In the city of El Alto, this eighth day of June of two thousand and five.

[*NOTE: “Originaria” refers to the “original” inhabitants of the country before Spanish colonisation, i.e. the indigenous people.]





Source (http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/bolivia-peoples-assembly090605.htm)

[MeTaLhEaD]

Chavez said today that the crisis in Bolivia is the product of Capitalism

[anonymous red]

Most Bolivians demand full renewal of Congress

Eight out of ten Bolivians are requesting caretaker president Eduardo Rodríguez to call a general election which includes the renewal of the Executive and all congressional seats, according to an opinion poll published Sunday in La Paz.

Pte. Eduardo Rodriguez
Captura Consulting shows that 84% of those interviewed are demanding an election that includes the renewal of the entire Congress, while 13,9% are against the initiative.
Similarly 66,7% favour presidential elections with 28% disapproving.
Mr. Rodríguez was named caretaker president last June 9, following Congress’s approval of former president Carlos Mesa resignation in the midst of political turmoil that had paralyzed the country.

According to the Bolivian constitution Mr. Rodríguez must call an election for president and vice president so they can complete the current mandate which ends in August 2007. Mr. Mesa had not completed three years in office.

Therefore technically Mr. Rodríguez can’t call a general election (congressional) and can’t promote any election with results beyond August 2007.

La Paz daily La Prensa quoting political analysts says that only an “interpretative bill of the Constitution could open the way for a general election that would include the renewal of the Legislative branch which concludes in 2007”.

The public opinion poll also indicated that 51% are against closing Congress while 45,6% demand its suspension.

“This reflects the extreme de-legitimization of institutions and authorities”, says analysts Jorge Lazarte who suggests that Bolivians are demanding politicians “to better synchronize with the needs of the country”.

The poll was taken in Bolivia’s cities most involved in the recent demonstrations.
Bolivia faced for weeks popular unrest with massive street demonstrations and road blockades in demand for the nationalization of the energy industry and a Constitutional assembly which took the country to “the brink of civil war”.

Over the weekend life was returning to normal as fuel and food provisions began arriving again to the main towns.

However for the most radical protesters who are waiting for their key demands on natural gas and constitutional reforms to guarantee more rights for Indians to be met, the current situation is described as a truce with government.

Urban protesters in El Alto, a sprawling poor city in the mountains above La Paz, ended the three-week occupation at the only gasoline distribution plant for La Paz, but warned they will restart protests if they don’t get answers to their demands.

“We haven’t heard anything regarding our request for a meeting with President Rodriguez”, said Edgar Patana, a labour leader from El Alto.

“I don’t know when the meeting will happen. I expect within the next few days. We’re going to keep asking for the nationalization of hydrocarbons”.

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=5826

it looks like we're going to have to wait to see what the new government does about elections and natural resources before we see how far this revolution is going to go.

[Matty_UK]

Looks like Bolivia did not become socialist, but never fear! The people know what they want, and if the new leader fails to deliver he will have the same fate as the last. Eventually, the people will get sick of these games and take control once and for all; although their reluctance to use violence is promising! Perhaps it suggests a benevolent socialism unlike that of China, North Korea, etc?

[SocialismIsCentrist]

china socialist?

it is ultra-capitalist - production at the expense of evironment - most of their water supply now is badly tainted.

it is a business friendly environment - thats why they've got all the inward investment.

[anonymous red]

i know you were replying to a previous post SIC, but i think it would be best if we kept peripheral arguments out of this thread so that we can focus on what is going on in bolivia.


Mesa: “No Venezuela meddling in Bolivian affairs”

Former Bolivian President Carlos Mesa said in an interview published Sunday in Mexico City that his administration found no evidence of meddling in Bolivia's internal affairs by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, as Washington charged.

http://www.mercopress.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=5827

[anonymous red]

That said, Bolivia has for the last 20 years been the primary lab rat in Latin America for a whole set of economic policies imposed on it from abroad. I mean, if you think about the United States right now, in the U.S. you're having a big debate over what to do with Social Security. The president wants to privatize it, a lot of people are resisting that, I think, for good reason. One of the most fundamental decisions that a democracy makes is: What's public and what's private-- education, health care, social security. Well, in Bolivia that decision was completely taken out of the people's hands, taken really out of the government's hands by the International Monetary Fund, who said, "Look, you're dependent on foreign aid. If you want foreign aid, if you want the assistance from the International Monetary Fund, here's the commandments. First, you have to privatize your national resources including oil and gas."

Bolivia is resisting that. And so what you have actually in this country is two different social movements, or big changes happening in the country at the same time. The first is a very broad popular resistance to these economic policies. The second is, this is a country in which 60 percent of the population are indigenous. They are locked out of power in this country, and they are demanding that they become the stakeholders in the country and in its politics, that they deserve to be.

These two things have come together in the war over gas. Because the indigenous population is especially, I think very sensitive to what it means to have natural resources stolen out from underneath their feet....

If these economic policies of privatization and the rest had worked, if they had delivered the goods, I think people in this continent would have been embraced them. The fact that not only have they not embraced them, but in country after country, these policies are being rejected -- it's because they are a practical failure. They just don't work. They only make the lives of the poor more miserable, and that's what's happening here.

People take their politics very seriously in a place like Bolivia. They can't afford to just read about it in the newspaper or listen to it on the radio. They have to act. They have to be engaged, because it affects their lives in a direct way.

So I think what's happening in Bolivia is part of something that is happening all over this region and it is really worth people in the United States, especially progressives, to try to understand what it really means.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0506/S00198.htm

[anonymous red]

REVOLT ON HIGH
The Indians of Bolivia's El Alto lead a drive for social change that has toppled two presidents.

By Héctor Tobar, Times Staff Writer

EL ALTO, Bolivia — This Indian metropolis on the wind-swept plateau of the Bolivian Altiplano exports two things to the capital city in the rocky valley below: cheap labor and social revolution....

El Alto is the crucible of Bolivia's Indian uprising, a sometimes explosive, always simmering challenge to this Andean country's centuries-old social order. Last week, an Indian-led rebellion forced President Carlos Mesa to resign and prevented two of his would-be successors from taking office. Just 20 months earlier, Mesa's predecessor was ousted in similar fashion.

"We will triumph because the people of El Alto have willed it, because Bolivia has willed it," Abel Mamani, leader of the Federation of Neighborhood Assemblies of El Alto, told 400 activists at a meeting last week. "The people of El Alto began this mobilization, and they cannot lower their guard."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-elalto16jun16,0,3079405.story?coll=la-home-headlines)

[anonymous red]

Bolivia's Gas War Moves Inside
By Jean Friedsky,
Posted on Wed Jun 15th, 2005 at 04:35:05 PM EST
The images of a returning "normality" in the capital of Bolivia are seductive. Fleets of oversized pick-up trucks filled with thousands of gas cisterns roll out of the Senkata Gas Plant in El Alto, past police guards who stand chatting next to the burned tires, rocks and barbed wire remnants of blockades that had shut down the facility for the past two weeks. The trucks zoom down the cleared Altipista highway that connects El Alto to La Paz towards the eager masses. On residential streets, rusted yellow gas cisterns snake along the pavement while neighbors visit, waiting to refill their supply of liquid cooking gas that had run out the week before. A few blocks away, a gas station owner crosses his arms across his chest, nods and smiles, watching the line of thirsty cars grow as word spreads that he has gotten his shipment of fuel. On the Prado, cars and minibuses chug along past open store fronts and happily shopping tourists, unencumbered by angry protesters or the fog of tear gas. Abel Mamani, President of Fejuve (the El Alto neighborhood organization), shakes hands with the new President, who has vowed to bring about new general elections. Cut to scenes of campesinos clearing away boulders and tree trunks on the roads that connect Bolivia to neighboring Chile and Peru. And, for the mainstream media: fade to black.

These surface images and neat-ending stories of the last five days in Bolivia are misleading because they portray closure where there are only more beginnings. La Paz is calm, market stalls are again overflowing with fresh fruit and recently slaughtered meat and tregua (truce) is the word of the week. But the quiet on the streets is a symptom of the noise that now fills the meeting halls, organizational offices and livings rooms. With a break in the marches, thousands sit analyzing this most recent "battle" and deliberating the future. So, whether its apparent on CNN or not, the Gas War here still continues - it's just gone inside.
This article is therefore a brief analysis of what's happened, what continues and what might follow.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/6/15/16355/7224

[chebol]

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050704&s=parenti

Bolivia's Battle Of Wills

by CHRISTIAN PARENTI

[from the July 4, 2005 issue]

At a roadblock on the Bolivian altiplano, a group of indigenous tin
miners in brown fiberglass helmets, their jaws bulging with coca
leaves, lounge around on an empty strip of road. Suddenly the thin,
high-altitude air shakes with a quick explosion. Everyone laughs. The
comrades are killing time by tossing lit dynamite into a field.
Tomorrow they will march across these high empty plains, through the
sprawling, impoverished, majority Indian city of El Alto and over the
edge of a steep canyon down into the capital of La Paz, and there lay
siege to the government.

The miners have held this road for the past twenty-four hours. Both
main arteries linking La Paz to the outside world are shut down. The
Bolivian economy is beginning to sputter and stall; before long the
restaurants, hotels and offices of the capital will start to run out
of food and fuel; uncollected garbage will pile up in the streets.
Soon six major cities will be sealed off by more than eighty
blockades.

"The Congress is dominated by the transnational corporations. We are
fighting to recover our natural resources. It is our right," says a
stern miner named Miguel Sureta.

The social movements--a host of mostly indigenous organizations
representing Aymara and Quechua peasants, miners, teachers, urban
community organizations, coca growers and the oldest national labor
federation--are demanding nationalization of the country's massive
natural gas reserves, now estimated to be the second-largest in the
hemisphere, at 53 trillion cubic feet. Their other plank is a
constituent assembly to reformulate Bolivia's political system and
give greater power to the majority indigenous population.

Throughout South America, center-left governments are taking power,
with Uruguay and Ecuador being the latest to join the trend. Bolivia,
home to some of the most well-organized and radical popular movements
on the continent, could be next. But the challenges facing the
Bolivian left are enormous: Despite all its strength, it is riven by
ideological disputes, pervasive Quechua versus Aymara ethnic
factionalism and the constant clash of leadership egos.

Meanwhile, the right is also mobilizing. European-descended elites in
the gas-rich lowland provinces of Santa Cruz and Tarija are agitating
for autonomy or possible secession. The major oil companies operating
in Bolivia are all threatening disinvestment if the industry is
restructured. There are also rumors of a possible military coup.

On June 6 the centrist president, Carlos Mesa Gisbert, resigned. For a
tense week it seemed the next president would be Hormando Vaca Díez,
president of the Senate, a right-wing cattle rancher who warned that
continued protest would "end in authoritarian government." But now
Eduardo Rodriguez, head of the Supreme Court, has been sworn in as
Bolivia's president. He is obliged to hold elections within six
months.

The recently departed Mesa inherited his job in October 2003, the last
time the issue of natural gas exploded. In that conflict his
predecessor, then-president Gonzalo "Goni" Sánchez de Lozada, ordered
troops to open fire on demonstrators. At least sixty-seven people were
killed, and in the outrage that followed, Goni fled to the United
States.

Back at the miners' blockade, three weeks before Mesa's resignation,
nine trucks are sitting before a string of stones laid across the
highway. In the center of this is a homemade bomb of dynamite, packed
in a bottle full of pebbles. A few of the stranded drivers play soccer
next to their vehicles.

"With the blockades we all lose out," says Fernando Chavez, an Aymaran
shepherd from the nearby village of Achica Arriba, where the miners
have bivouacked. "The dynamite scares the children," he says, one eye
on his flock of fifty sheep. "President Mesa should talk to all
sectors."

In a truck called Rey de Reyes ("King of Kings") and painted with
evangelical inscriptions sits Johny Miranda. He had dropped off a load
of soybeans in Peru and was headed home to Cochabamba when he hit this
barrier last night. If he tries to run the blockade, he says, the
miners will slash his tires and destroy his truck. He doesn't support
such tactics, but he wants the people to get more of the revenue from
natural gas.

"Instead of blockades they should go right for the power, attack the
gas fields and the Parliament," says Miranda. Within hours that's
exactly what happens.

Crucial in all of this is the character of Evo Morales and his party,
the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS). Morales is of mixed Aymaran and
Quechuan descent and got his start as a coca farmer, or cocalero. He
lost the last presidential election, in 2002, by only one percentage
point. MAS is now the second-largest group in Parliament. But Morales
is not the driving force behind Bolivia's social movements.

Most grassroots organizations in Bolivia are far more radical than the
social democratic MAS. Morales originally called for a 50 percent
royalty on foreign oil companies, while most of the movement wants 100
percent nationalization. This has caused Bolivian sociologist Carlos
Crespo to describe Morales as "Lula-ized," and to call MAS
"hierarchical" and just "a presidential vehicle." Antonio Peredo, a
senior MAS senator, has a different critique of his party: "If we took
power now we wouldn't last ten weeks. We're not ready." But neither is
anyone else on the left, and as Alex Contreras, a radical Bolivian
journalist, puts it, "MAS is the only organization capable of uniting
enough factions to win elections. They're not corrupt and they're not
fanatics. They're the only real option."

To find out what Morales thinks of the unfolding turmoil I track him
down at the party offices in Cochabamba. Morales shows up late for the
interview, a crowd of campesino activists, cooperative miners and two
television crews in tow. He politely locks them out of his office and
sits for the interview at a simple desk. Behind him hangs a wiphala,
the square, rainbow-checked flag of indigenous self-determination. On
other walls are posters bearing pictures of Che Guevara and Evo
Morales himself.

How does MAS plan to win elections to be held before the end of this
year? "We are the primary political force in the country. If there had
been a runoff in 2002 we would have won," says Morales, as if victory
had been almost assured. Not all agree with this assessment--many
suspect that the traditional rightist parties would have united to
smash MAS in a runoff.

When I press Morales on various issues--such as how to expand his base
and reach out to Aymaran organizations that are now openly hostile to
MAS, which is seen as heavily Quechuan--Morales is surprisingly
reticent. He appears tired and distracted. What would the party do
once in power? Morales says they would abolish a few ministries and
create a few new ones that would better serve the poor. How will MAS
woo the middle classes? "Who knows about the middle class, they are
fickle," says Morales with an evasive grin. "Mesa is damaging the
middle class. He can't walk in the streets now." Other than pointing
out Mesa's faults, Morales seems to have no real plan for winning and
using state power.

As for the famous Aymaran leader Felipe Quispe, who is one of
Morales's main rivals, "sometimes we get along, sometimes we don't,"
says Morales. What are the biggest challenges MAS faces? "Political
meddling from the United States." When I ask him about the difference
between his call for 50 percent royalties and the increasingly popular
demand for nationalization, he offers a contorted attempt to reconcile
the two. "If we renegotiate all of these illegal contracts, and insure
local community consultation on the new contracts, that is essentially
nationalization."

A week later, when the airports have not yet been shut down, Morales
and I end up on the same flight to La Paz. He can't remember our
recent hourlong interview. I remind him of all the details; he looks
at me with earnest, tired eyes but still can't remember. I am
traveling with a colleague, Ryan Grim from Slate. Neither of us can
decide whether Morales's total lack of pretense should be read as
reassuring honesty or simple incompetence. After all, glad-handing
journalists is Politics 101. As we take our seats in coach and Evo
slides into first class, Grim leans over to me: "If you hear a loud
bang and see a bright light, you know the CIA has gotten rid of the
Evo Morales problem with a 'mysterious plane crash.'"

The lowland jungle of the Chaparé region, a few hours east and
downhill from Cochabamba, is where Morales got his start as a union
leader among the cocaleros. Driving into the Chaparé on alternately
paved and washed-out dirt roads, the jungle looms up--lush, wet and
claustrophobic. The roadside villages are mildewed and feel broken
down. The air is soft and full of oxygen, unlike planet La Paz at
13,000 feet.

The first white and mestizo settlers in this area were deserters from
the Chaco War with Paraguay in the late 1930s. Disease whipped most of
the local Yuki Indians. In the 1980s a new wave of immigrants arrived,
pushed out of the highlands by the layoffs and deindustrialization of
president Victor Paz Estenssoro's monetarist "new economic policy." To
survive, the former miners and displaced highland Quechua campesinos
turned to growing coca, some of which made its way to the legal market
to be chewed as a mild stimulant and hunger suppressant but most of
which was, and is, purchased by Colombia-connected drug traffickers
who turn it into cocaine.

In many ways the first chapter in Bolivia's current season of
political upheaval began here in the Chaparé during the 1990s, when
the US-orchestrated drug war began targeting these new cocaleros and
their openly socialist and indígenista trade unions. Known simply as
the Six Federations, the cocaleros' unions function as a de facto
state, mixing traditional Quechuan communitarian custom with more
modern forms of political organizing. Though land is formally titled
to individuals, it is really the Six Federations that collectively
manage it. Cocaleros who do not cultivate their plots and refuse to
participate in union and community struggles have their land
repossessed and redistributed by the unions.

In the city hall of Villa Tunari, one of the damp little towns in the
Chaparé, MAS party mayor Feliciano Mamani takes a break from meetings
to explain the politics of the Chaparé. "The drug war is a political
fight. It's about dismantling our union organizations," says Mamani,
who came up through the ranks with Evo. "First they called us
communists, then they called us narco-traffickers, now they call us
terrorists."

To emphasize his point Mamani rolls up his pants to reveal his dented
and blackened shin, where he took a canister of police tear gas five
years ago. The wound exposed his bone and remained open and weeping
until recently. As he explains the story of his injury, a gray Huey
helicopter sweeps low and loud overhead.

For the past six years the Chaparé has been in the grip of a
very-low-level guerrilla war and counterinsurgency: The military kills
unarmed civilians, tortures detainees, uproots the cocaleros' crops
and occasionally burns down their homesteads, while police and
prosecutors jail union leaders and MAS officials on charges of drug
trafficking and terrorism. So far, 150 MAS leaders have faced such
charges, often based on evidence as flimsy as possession of coca or
pamphlets by Che Guevara.

The cocaleros fight back with blockades, protests, roadside sniping,
occasional abductions and homemade bombs hidden in the coca fields,
set to kill the military eradication teams. According to Kathryn
Ledebur of the Andean Information Network, an NGO that monitors human
rights conditions in the Chaparé, the violence has claimed the lives
of about sixty cocaleros and twenty soldiers since the conflict began,
with hundreds more, mostly cocaleros, wounded and maimed. During my
trip to the Chaparé two corpses show up: One is a possible snitch,
found in the field of a local union leader.

The cocaleros claim that the drug war has only made them stronger, but
I can't help getting the impression that MAS and the Six Federations
would be better off if the United States were not giving the Bolivian
police and military roughly $90 million every year to harass and
prosecute rank-and-file activists.

Off one of the back roads, through some coca fields and up a dirt path
lives Hilaria Perez, a Quechuan woman who was shot in the back by the
military when they tore up her coca crop in 2003. The bullet went
through her right lung, but she survived. She still farms coca and
lives in a dark brick shack with her husband and four little children.
Since the shooting, the Perezes have drifted from the union.

"I haven't been to a meeting in two months," says Hilaria's husband.
To enforce participation, the unions--like all Bolivian social
movements--impose fines on members who shirk their political duties
such as attending meetings, marches and blockades. The new social
movements fit the romantic activist's vision of a reinvented left in
that they are "networked," highly democratic and rooted in indigenous
forms of community decision-making. But politics in Bolivia are deadly
serious, and the movements use subtle forms of coercion to bolster
consent and to keep the cadre marching.

Despite the drug war and grinding poverty, MAS has run the local
governments of the Chaparé remarkably well. Over the past decade they
have practiced a type of Third World gas-and-water socialism,
investing their meager budgets in an infrastructure of roads, schools
and clinics.

To the left of Morales and MAS are myriad other organizations and
leaders. One of the most important is the Aymaran nationalist and
former guerrilla Felipe Quispe (a k a "El Mallku," the Condor), who
now heads a large peasant union called the CSUTCB.

I meet Quispe in the CSUTCB's chilly and barren La Paz offices in a
brick building with a round facade. He wears a dusty black fedora and
a heavy leather jacket. His face is set in a permanent, take-no-crap
frown. He begins the interview by offering a small pile of coca leaves
and sweet herbs. Throughout the discussion he methodically strips the
stems from the small leaves.

Quispe's worldview is nothing if not radical. Forget the presidency,
the Parliament, the squabbles over gas royalties and tax rates. He
sees a future indigenous nation run by a council of elders and
encompassing Bolivia along with parts of Peru, Argentina and Chile.
Quispe tried his hand at liberal democracy; he was a congressman from
the indigenous party, MIP, but walked out, dismissing Parliament as a
decadent talking shop.

"My mother was a slave," says Quispe with a blunt stare. Indeed, many
indigenous Bolivians were serfs, tied to the land they worked until
1946. "I am accustomed to living dirty. Eating simple food. How much
money do those pigs in Congress spend? One deputy could pay the salary
of ten or twelve teachers. While I was there my brethren continued to
live in poverty. The deputies are supposed to start work at 8 but show
up at 11." He strips and chews more coca.

Quispe insists his vision of an Aymaran nation is not atavistic or
fanciful. "We want technology; we will have relations with other
countries." And as for white people?

"The foreigners can stay as long as we get 90 percent of the power. If
not, there will be war. But the foreigners will have a hard time here.
They don't own any land. We don't want to exterminate white people. We
just want power."

As for Evo Morales's more mundane quest to be president, Quispe is
dismissive. "Evo is like [President Alejandro] Toledo in Peru. Nothing
will change for the Indians if he is president." Getting back to the
big picture, he sums up: "We will rewrite history with our own blood.
There will be a new sun, and even the rocks and the trees will be
happy."

Another radical, but pragmatic, vision comes out of the Cochabamba
Water War of 2000, in which Bechtel's privatization bid was defeated.
Oscar Olivera is one of the most respected local leaders in this
region, known for his humility, honesty and hard work. Like many
others he sees elections and the quest for state power as
distractions.

"We need self-management," says Olivera. "That is what we are trying
to do with the water company here." Later I tour the outlying
self-managed water districts. As in the Chaparé, the movements here
function as a de facto government and do so with remarkable
efficiency.

But what about Bolivian elections in a hemispheric context--doesn't
Olivera think adding another country to Latin America's new left bloc
is important? He pauses, then almost apologetically says, "It's true.
We become very regionalized and localized here in Bolivia and do not
think about the wider context much. Maybe we should."

And how would self-management work in relation to a highly complex oil
and gas industry? In El Alto, some activists with the powerful
neighborhood organization FEJUVE tell me of plans to occupy and
"self-manage" the gas fields. But later the head of the engineering
and technicians' organization supporting them says that such
occupations would not involve pumping and selling gas.

It's late May, and week two of protests is under way. A general strike
has been called. At a huge march descending from El Alto to La Paz I
meet a young street vendor named Ricardo. He supports nationalization,
but adds: "If I didn't march I would be fined by the union. The union
controls everything--where you can sell, if you can sell."

When some of his fellow merchants find a few street stalls still
active in La Paz, they knock down the offending merchants' umbrellas.
The laggards quickly close up. "We are fighting for everyone's
rights," says one of the stick-wielding women merchants. "They have to
respect that."

The next day the cadre of the CSUTCB, along with miners, teachers and
landless peasants from the Movimiento Sin Tierra, march down from El
Alto. In typical highland dress of heavy jackets, bowlers and felt
hats and bearing sticks, pipes, shepherds' whips and the colorful
wiphalas, the weather-beaten columns of Aymara farmers move fast
through the narrow streets of old La Paz, occasionally tossing
dynamite down empty streets for effect. Their destination is Plaza
Murillo, where the Congress and the presidential palace sit. Nervous
police in riot gear have blockaded all the key entry points.

The marchers smash in the windows of the few minibuses that have
ignored the strike. A journalist appears on a balcony with a camera.
Rocks are let loose and just miss his head as he ducks back inside.
These rugged peasants are furious--it's been 500 years, and the bill
is due.

At a standoff with police there is some yelling in Aymaran, and people
back away. Someone tosses a small charge of dynamite in front of the
cops, who fall back and block the blast with their Plexiglas shields.
The police answer with volleys of tear gas and shotguns firing rubber
bullets. Ryan Grim and I sprint with the crowd up a narrow colonial
side lane, sucking in the harsh gas as we go. Rubber bullets ricochet
through the toxic clouds. One catches Grim in the back and we get
separated in the mayhem. Hours later the police and protesters clash
again. This time the gas is extremely thick. It's like drowning on dry
land. The streets are cramped and chaotic.

The next day brings more of the same. Protesters and journalists rely
on the Bolivian remedy for tear gas: smoking cigarettes. Strangely,
this actually cuts the effect of mild gassing. At one point, when we
are standing among cops with a few other journalists, a man uphill
tosses what looks like a potato down toward the police lines. The cops
scatter. The potato detonates in the biggest dynamite blast yet. The
collision of air is deafening; windows shatter up and down the block.
The cops regroup and fire more gas and rubber bullets.

The battle goes on like this for three weeks, with La Paz and most of
Bolivia's other major cities blockaded, with food and fuel running
low, the buses and taxis idled. Seven gas fields and a pipeline
station are seized. Before bowing out, Mesa agreed to take the first
steps toward a constituent assembly; the new president, Eduardo
Rodriguez, will have to organize emergency elections. The blockades
have just now started to lift but Bolivia is still locked in
stalemate; the core issues are unresolved and the path forward
unclear.

Many in the social movements dismiss elections as a trap; they attempt
to go around the machinery of government by turning protest into what
Oscar Olivera calls self-management, and they critique Evo Morales and
MAS for being fixated on the presidency. But making radical demands on
the old political class is insufficient. Nationalization and a
reconstruction of the political order are projects so massive that
they may require the left to take power, ready or not.

[anonymous red]

Article16 June 2005
Bolivia: an 'indigenous revolution'?
Some Westerners view recent Latin American protests through rose-tinted spectacles.

by Josie Appleton

'The indigenous majority of Bolivia, Quechua, Aymara, Chiquitano, and Guarani, mobilised.... The neighborhood association of El Alto mobilised to lay siege to La Paz much as the followers of [indigenous leader] Tupac Katari did over 200 years ago.... After 500 years of massacre, genocide, rape, slavery, torture, and exploitation, that the indigenous of Bolivia should begin their reconquista so peacefully staggers the imagination....' (1)

This is one Western leftist take on recent events in Bolivia. Over the past couple of months, the country has been brought to a standstill with waves of strikes, road blockages, and industrial occupations. At issue is the exploitation of the county's ample gas reserves by foreign multinationals, which drain off all the profits along with the petroleum, leaving little behind for Bolivian development. The government is in chaos. President Carlos Mesa threw in the towel, and after tortured and acrimonious deliberation his office was passed to the third in line of succession, the head of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Rodriguez.

These events provide an interesting index of the problems and potential of radical politics today. But the situation is obscured rather than illuminated by the rose-tinted accounts that spring from the mouths of Western supporters. This is seen as payback for 1492, a glorious revolution of indigenous Bolivians against the white elite and foreign business interests. Such an uprising will inevitably succeed, it is implied; all anybody has to do is sit back and watch Bolivians walk into the sunset, to the strains of panpipes.

Take away the sepia, though, and a more complicated situation is revealed - which makes you wonder if Western accounts owe more to their own issues, than to any reality in the Andean mountains.

The backbone of the protest movement comes less from indigenism, than from syndicalism. It's not really about the sacred nature of natural resources, or harking back to a pre-Colombian patrimony. When such statements are made, it tends to be with an eye to international supporters. The main groups behind the uprising - such as neighbourhood committees in El Alto, the makeshift city on a plateau above La Paz; and the coca-growers of the Chapare region further south - draw on the country's trades union past.


http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CABEC.htm

[American_Trotskyist]

Chavez said today that the crisis in Bolivia is the product of Capitalism

No shit? I'm just joking with you.

Yes this is a real class uprising.

Who can now deny that socialism is alive and kicking? Who can now say that Lenin's Imperialism isn't vindicated, again? The Mensheviks are calling for a two stage revolution tomarrow when the working class is developing the system of workers and peasants power today. Who can deny that two stage revolution and class colaboration are archaic?

[chebol]

Your misunderstanding of Leninism is only surpassed by your misunderstanding of Bolivia.
It is EXACTLY that kind of simplistic attitude that has prolonged Bolivia's misery for decades due to the sectarian COB, COR and POR, and it is exactly that which is destroying the working class' chances this time round as well.

I don't deny that socialism is alive and kicking, but revolution is NEVER that simple.

[American_Trotskyist]

Your misunderstanding of Leninism is only surpassed by your misunderstanding of Bolivia.
It is EXACTLY that kind of simplistic attitude that has prolonged Bolivia's misery for decades due to the sectarian COB, COR and POR, and it is exactly that which is destroying the working class' chances this time round as well.

I don't deny that socialism is alive and kicking, but revolution is NEVER that simple.

How?

Please, elaborate.

So socialism is dead? We need a two stage revolution? They should follow MAS back in to wage slavery? Are they not creating democractic centrism? Please I have no idea what you are talking about, you just said I knew nothing of Leninism and stoped.

[anonymous red]

a clearly bourgeois take on the situation:


Elections for Bolivia

Sunday, June 19, 2005; Page B06


FOR THE SECOND time in less than two years mobs have defeated democratic institutions in the poor South American nation of Bolivia. President Carlos Mesa, who tried to settle paralyzing political conflicts through a referendum and accords with Congress, was forced from office earlier this month by a few thousand demonstrators who strangled the capital with road blockades. Mr. Mesa served only 19 months as president; his elected predecessor was also ousted by the militants. Capitulating to their demands, Congress swore in the president of the Supreme Court as a caretaker, and he in turn promised new elections. A free and fair vote offers the only real hope for Bolivia; the question is whether those who seek to rule by force will allow it to occur.

Bolivia, a landlocked nation of 8 million traversed by the Andes Mountains, is often portrayed as a land where an indigenous majority suffers under the yoke of a white elite and its exploitative policies. It's true that the country is riven by a divide between poor and rich that reflects ethnic lines, and that the Aymara and Quechua populations have never been adequately represented in Bolivian government. What's questionable is whether the xenophobic left-wing populists who now claim to represent the Indian poor really do so. Their best-known leader, Evo Morales, received

21 percent of the vote the last time he ran

for president; until recently polls showed that a large majority of Bolivians supported Mr. Mesa, who tried to bridge the ethnic gap. Maybe that's why Mr. Morales, a client of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has repeatedly resorted to paralyzing strikes and road blockades to achieve his aims. These include nationalizing Bolivia's best hope for development -- the natural gas industry -- and holding an assembly to rewrite the constitution.

The populists' agenda would quickly return Bolivia to its benighted history as a backwater of state socialism, quintuple-digit inflation and endless political coups. Even worse, if that state of affairs is imposed via road blockade, it will risk civil war; Bolivia's eastern provinces, where most of the country's gas reserves lie, reject the militants' agenda and are demanding autonomy. That's why the country desperately needs the vote promised by caretaker president Eduardo Rodriguez, one that should encompass Congress as well as the presidency. If Mr. Morales and his followers really represent a majority of Bolivians, let them win a free and fair election. If not, they must stand back to allow another elected leader to govern. The international community -- led by the United States and the Organization of American States -- must make credible elections the centerpiece of an active policy for Bolivia

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5061800875.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061800875.html)

[kurt]

lol.. ya, that was just a 'little bit' biased. I like how they said only a few 'thousand' ousted Mesa; in fact it was more like 500,000+ in one city alone :\

[anonymous red]

that article also talks about how the democratic process capitulated to a few rable rousers when in fact these masses of people are protesting for a more representative government and new elections as well as nationalisation of the hydrocarbon sector. capitalists seem to get a little nervous when the people decide they want to take their country back from international corps.

[anonymous red]

not directly related to the current situation, but interesting nonetheless:


Cochabamba is a town of 800,000 situated high in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia. Two years ago, a popular protest there turned into a deadly riot. The army battled civilians in the streets on and off for three months, hundreds were arrested, a seventeen year-old boy was shot and killed, the government of Bolivia nearly collapsed. The issue was water.

The spark was privatization. A private consortium, dominated by the Bechtel Corporation of San Francisco, had taken over Cochabamba's water system and raised water rates. Protestors blamed Bechtel for trying to "lease the rain."



http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/...a/thestory.html (http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bolivia/thestory.html)

[anonymous red]

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia's Indian movement is feeling powerful after forcing two presidents out of office in two years, and it says it will topple another if it does not win its ultimate goal: a new constitution granting Indian communities seats in Congress.

An overhaul of the Bolivian constitution would be an unprecedented vindication of native rights in the region conquered by Spain 500 years ago.

Indians, many descended from the mighty Incas who were enslaved in colonial silver mines, say they seek justice for the downtrodden majority in South America's poorest country.

"This is a legitimate demand to make a more inclusive, brotherly constitution, recognizing that we are the majority," said Indian Affairs Minister Pedro Ticona, whose top priority is to get the fragmented Congress to call for a national assembly to rewrite the constitution.

Critics say Indian demands for a constitution granting them unelected congressional seats for their communities would be undemocratic.

The critics also contend that foreign business will be scared away from this perennially unstable Andean nation if Indian groups move the country in a populist direction following other Latin American nations such as Venezuela and Argentina.

"Constitutional reform is being imposed by violent pressure from some groups over the rest of the society. They speak 'in the name of the people' but that does not give them legitimate power," said Roberto Laserna, an economist from the Universidad Mayor de San Simon University.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=8850299 (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=8850299)

[poster_child]

Has anyone seen the movie "the corporation"? It really opened my eyes about the crisis in Bolivia. In case you haven't seen the movie I'll give you the lowdown:

A multi-national company bought out all the rights to all of Bolivia's drinking water. The only way someone could have water was to buy it from this company- meaning if you wish to LIVE then you must buy your water from them. It was illegal to collec rainwater and the water that was available was too polluted to drink... thanks to these US companies who rape and pillage foreign land.

Anyways, it's a must see.

Bolivia seems to be moving in the right direction. Countries that have corrupt governments have no choice but to overthrow. Socialism is meant for countries like Bolivia... government lacking in ethics, land owners few and rich, and a population severly oppressed.

[maoist_revolution]

I hope there is a revolution in Bolivia

[Kitbag]

It all seems particularly fucked up. I certainly hope they manage to revolutionise, and I hope even more that surrounding governments will see what's going on and offer constructive support (unlike Bush: "Ah, we can just go into other people's countries and steal their leaders, right?"). What I'm getting at is I hope they can provide support without over-stepping their bounds. Also, I know about a million people have Che as their Avatar, in different shapes and forms, so I apologise for being unoriginal, but, hey, at least my songs aren't...I hope.

[OleMarxco]

That's just sickingly...how they discredit the worker's movement as a motherfuckin' MOB. Oh, okay, so perhap's their a mob, but it's TEH PEOPLE's mob, BABY! REK-OG-NIZE! Oh, okay, so perhap's you don't have to RECOGNIZE it, but don't you goddamnedly lie about it either, like the little whore you..little media-whores, a lil' media whor3s!? This time they won't be a goddamn ***** slap ass, they ain't your Bin Ladens gone outta gas, big ass bomb, kill your mom...uhhhhhh *SUDDEN SCRATCH* Nevermind that, almost went into a song I used to know...hmm...nevermind that, 'tho. Make no mistake about: They are cold ass killa's...right...a "minority group cult"... :P

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Bolivia: A Revolution Betrayed, Again
by R. Santiago

For weeks throughout May and June, angry miners and factory workers, joined by peasants, Indians, teachers, students, organizations of the unemployed, thousands of slum dwellers from the impoverished city of El Alto and tens of thousands of others poured into the capital city of La Paz, demanding "Nationalization of gas and oil," and "Obreros al poder" (workers to power).

In the face of government threats of violence, protestors occupied several oil facilities while peasants cut off the river which supplies water to La Paz.

Indian women, armed with sticks and pieces of wood, forced shops and street merchants to close.

Miners exploded dynamite and riot police fired tear gas as demonstrators fought to break police lines and seize central La Paz to shut down the Bolivian Congress.

An unlimited strike was called and protestors successfully blockaded key supply routes making it impossible to for delivery trucks to enter the city.

The protests began after a hydrocarbons law that guaranteed imperialist "multinational" energy corporations' (Enron, British Petroleum, Shell, etc) profits was passed by the Bolivian Congress and signed by right-wing Santa Cruz senator Hormando Vaca Diez (fearing the reaction of the masses, Mesa didn't sign the law himself). The reaction was immediate and Congress and Mesa fled the capital.

The oppressed people of Bolivia were fighting for the immediate aim of the nationalization of the abundant gas and oil reserves in their country. "Multinational" corporations exploit these abundant resources to reap huge profits, while Bolivia remains the poorest country in South America, with a per capita GDP of a mere $2,600.

But nationalizations are not enough to solve Bolivia's deep rooted problems, and many, if not most of its oppressed people know this.

The uprising was also driven by the call from the rich, and openly racist, bourgeoisie of the gas-producing eastern Santa Cruz de la Sierra department and southern Tarija department (which are also the "whitest" regions in a country with an Indian majority) for "autonomy," guaranteeing them even more wealth while keeping out the Indian masses of the highlands.

Evo Morales, leader of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS-Movimiento al Socialismo), was largely seen as the "leader" of the protestors, though, after his failed attempts to limit the activity of the protestors, he himself admitted, "the rank and file have outflanked us." Morales received the support of most of the Bolivian labor, union, peasant and Indian leaders, and has even been lauded by some so-called "leftists" as a "revolutionary," though in reality he is no more than a parliamentary reformist.

Deja Vu
The events are a continuation of the 2003 "gas war" in Bolivia. Following his failed attempt to crush a demonstration -- against his attempted deals with "multinational" gas corporations -- with ruthless repression, then-president, and Washington favorite, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada ("Goni") was forced from power by a worker and Indian uprising.

Following his ouster, the armed forces and Bolivian Government, with the blessings of the U.S. embassy, gave power to Goni's vice-president, former journalist Carlos Mesa.

Leaders of the workers, peasants, Indians and others involved in the 2003 uprising took the reformist road, deciding to "give Mesa a chance." Anyone with a proper understanding of the situation of course, saw it then as the defeat it was.

While Mesa, in an attempt to subdue the angry oppressed masses, promised reform soon after gaining power, the reality of his rule was much different. The unelected president served no one but the imperialist "multinational" corporations and the United States government. One of his moves in office was convincing the Bolivian Senate to grant immunity from the law for U.S. troops.

Mesa also played into the interests of the racist right-wing bourgeoisie in the richest regions of the country, granting them elections for departmental governors (to occur in August), to which they opportunistically attached an "autonomy" referendum.

In March, Mesa claimed he was resigning in protest to the "crazy" demands of labor, Indian and peasant groups, only to reverse his decision and vow to stay in office for the duration of his term (until 2007).

But after weeks of protests and blockades, and in the face of very real threats of a military coup, Mesa had no choice but to finally submit his resignation in early June. He was replaced by a "caretaker" president, Eduardo Rodriguez, by the Bolivian Congress.

Compromise Spells Defeat
At a crucial time when the Bolivian ruling class was divided and weak, and the working class had its best opportunity yet to seize power, the leaders of the workers, Indian and other groups called and end to the protests and blockades following an agreement by Rodriguez to hold early elections.

The reformist Morales declared a "truce," conveniently paving the way for his candidacy in the early elections which Rodriguez must arrange within five months. Once again the workers, Indians and the rest of the oppressed masses of Bolivia have been sold out by their "leadership."

But the conditions that created this uprising -- and that of 2003 -- have not gone away; and, as at the conclusion of that 2003 uprising, the oppressed Bolivian people are not defeated.

"Our life is very sad. We have carpenters and day laborers who can't find work, the children go hungry and sometimes all you eat in a day is a bowl of watery soup ... and look at the politicians who keep all our money and have gardeners and maids," said Carmela de Nina, 67. "We are lifting the blockades for now, but this can start again at any time."

The working people, peasants, Indians and other oppressed Bolivian people must organize and fight for their interests collectively under the leadership of the working class, not settling for a reformist "truce" or simple nationalization. In order to solve the problems of centuries of poverty and exploitation, and to break free from the clutches of imperialism, they must wrestle the power from the hands of the ruling class through a genuine socialist revolution, and establish a state in which they have the power!

Full Story (http://freepeoplesmovement.org/fp13e.html)