Morales easily wins Bolivian recall referendum

[spartan]

The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, easily won a recall referendum last night and vowed to press ahead with plans to transform the country into a leftwing centralist state.

Morales, a former coca leaf farmer who is Bolivia's first indigenous leader, hopes the victory will enable him to push through reforms including nationalisations, land redistribution and a constitution favouring the long-marginalised indigenous majority.

"What the Bolivian people have expressed with their votes … is the consolidation of change," Morales told thousands of cheering supporters who gathered outside his presidential palace in La Paz.

"We're here to move forward with the recovery of our natural resources, the consolidation of nationalisation and the state takeover of companies."

Unofficial exit polls said Morales had secured 60-66% of the vote – an improvement on his result in the last presidential election, in December 2005, when he took nearly 54%.

An exit poll by the private TV channel Unitel said Morales had won 60.12% of the vote, while a count by the pollster Ipsos Apoyo for channel ATB gave him 63.1%. Final official results are due in the next few days.

However, last night's vote also saw the re-election of regional governors who oppose his reforms and want autonomy for their resource-rich provinces. Their victories mean the conflict over his proposals will continue, with both sides feeling they have won a new mandate to stand firm.

Supporters of Morales and the main opposition governors alike took to the streets waving banners, chanting, dancing and setting off firecrackers after a peaceful vote that contrasted with violent protests earlier in the week.

"I'm glad he has won, because Mr Morales is one of us - he's working class like me," said Hector Gutierrez, a 32-year-old computer technician.
"I expect things to improve now, because someone from the same background as me cannot let me down."

The bitter power struggle between Morales and opposition governors has exposed deep divisions between the wealthier east and the more indigenous west of the country, forcing him to put many reforms on hold.

Morales approved the referendum in an apparent bid to undermine the regional governors' campaigns for autonomy, but the results suggest a standoff will continue unless a compromise can be negotiated.

"The initial reading is that the political crisis and tension in the country is going to deepen greatly," said Franklin Pareja, a professor of political science at the state-run San Andres University in La Paz.

Regional governors are angry that Morales has cut their share of windfall natural gas revenues, accusing him of governing only for his supporters.

They also see him as a lackey of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, the vocal leader of a group of radical leftwing Latin American presidents.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/11/bolivia1

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/08/11/Evo-Morales-460x276.jpg

[John Lenin]

If there were a heaven

Che (who died in Bolivia)

would be smiling.

[OI OI OI]

Morales clinched the referendum, with 63% support, this is more than 54% he got when he was elected.

The AP had this to report:
"As supporters chanted "firm hand," urging him to get tough with his lowland rivals, Morales instead called on all the country's governors to work with him "for the unity of all Bolivians" — especially in fighting poverty."

Again, Bolivian workers and peasants have given him a stronger mandate, and told him to be firm. However, Morales instead called for reconciliation...

So don't have your hopes too high guys.

Morales policies of reconciliation might lead to a disaster for the Bolivian working class

[chebol]

Great source of info and news on Bolivia (a lot of it translated): http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/ (http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/)

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

So don't have your hopes too high guys.

That's an understatement..

Even if Morales and co. are successful in their "revolutionary project", the best we can expect, by their own admission, is "fifty more years of Capitalism."

[cyu]

They also see him as a lackey of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez

Ah the media. How often do you see the quote, "They also see him as a lackey of the American president, George W Bush"?

[cyu]

Here are excerpts from another article at http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/2008/08/bolivia-election-post-mortem.html

Bechtel didn’t get kicked out because people wanted to fight corporate power... It is because the Bozos running the corporation thought that they could raise water rates by more than 50% overnight and get away with it. In economics the technical term for this is called stupidity...

Their obvious “class interest” is not ideological; it is in people’s faces hour by hour. There are certainly many people in Bolivia who do not need to worry about such things but they are not the majority, or even close to it...

For years the real political question in Bolivia was: Why hasn’t some politician or political party come along and figured out how to represent that majority and win its electoral support? Sooner or later it was inevitable that one would, and one did, Evo. It could have been someone else besides Evo and MAS, but it was Evo and MAS that set out to do so...

Two thirds of Bolivians want Evo to be President, a third does not...

...the faces you see in the news sections of the paper are no more representative of Bolivia than all those smiling faces at the quincineras of the wealthy that you see on the society pages.

[Comrade B]

So, just wondering, what does Evo Morales call himself politically?
He is very far to the left and his morals are quite similar to those of the majority of communists. He is routinely seen in photos with Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chavez, who described himself as a Trotskyist (If I remember correctly), and other of the more left leaders of South America, but has he ever described himself as a follower of a branch of Marxist philosophy?

[OI OI OI]

Even if Morales and co. are successful in their "revolutionary project", the best we can expect, by their own admission, is "fifty more years of Capitalism."

We can never know about that . Things change.
Originally Castro did not talk about nationalization of the economy, socialism etc. Mao said that China will most likely have 100 years more of capitalism.

I support the progressive steps towards the betterment of the lives of the indigenous people and in general the progressive steps done by MAS.
It would be absurd not to.
But I think that Morales is a class-conciliator and that is his biggest mistake that can lead to a bloodbath in Bolivia and the massacre of the working class.

So therefore we should defend him from the absurd slander by capitalist media, support his progressive steps but at the same time criticize his many mistakes and his general policy .

I am certainly a friend of "the revolution". What I think we should do as Marxists is to push for the revolution to go faster and be more radical .

Just my humble thoughts....

[spartan]

Reyes Villa (the anti-Morales governor of Cochabamba who called for the recall referendum) has resigned:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1422/31/

[Holden Caulfield]

^ his constituents will be thrilled, democracy is great,

[cyu]

what does Evo Morales call himself politically?

His party, MAS, means Movement toward Socialism - is that good enough for you? Do you require a more specific dead philosopher / politician at the roots of his ideas? I would prefer it if socialists thought for themselves, absorbed ideas they liked, and rejected ideas they didn't like - and not just from other self-professed socialists / communists / anarchists / diggers / anabaptists / whatever, but from anyone who might help improve the lives of people on this planet.

Just as species mutate, improve, and evolve, so should political systems - we should all take part in actively helping that along.



Reyes Villa (the anti-Morales governor of Cochabamba who called for the recall referendum) has resigned:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1422/31/ (http://www.anonym.to/?http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1422/31/)


Great to hear. Thanks!

[Taboo Tongue]

Mao said that China will most likely have 100 years more of capitalism.
And what have we seen?
The rest of your post is notably good however, and I agree with it.

[OI OI OI]

And what have we seen?

Well from when he said it and until 20 years ago China was a deformed workers state which is not capitalism.

There was actualy a progressive nationalized planned economy , however there was no workers control

[bayano]

why isnt there more of a bolivia solidarity movement in north america? there is clearly an effort afoot to destabilize that country through reactionary resistance by the wealthy elites. venezuelan solidarity was at least in part strengthened by smart and principled venezuelan consulates, but bolivia can't afford that kind of direct-to-the-people diplomacy

[bayano]

Evo has cast out the US ambassador as aiding and abetting the predominantly white, predominantly wealthy, predominantly east bolivian opposition. there is loads of evidence, and in the context of the normal practices of the US in the third world (with a Dem or Rep as president, mind you), this is obvious to leftists. need more evidence? check how much money the National Endowment for Democracy sent to Bolivian 'civil society' groups just last year alone. just a tip off the iceberg, mind you:

http://www.ned.org/grants/07programs/grants-lac07.html

[BIG BROTHER]

I don't like Evo's reconciliatory politics. He seeks to appease the opposition with those type of politics, but in the end that causes him to lose supporters who believe the lies of the opposition.

So of course we should support any progressive measures made by him, but in the end the masses can't depend on a leader.

[ajs2007]

The expulsion of the US Ambassador is just part of what's currently going on there. The oligarchy are trying to move against Morales and escalating the crisis. This is provoking the masses to radical action and finally it seems Morales is backing this.

There's an article from the CMR/IMT on the In Defence of Marxism website that gives more details. I can't post the link & I don't want to cut and paste the article - perhaps it could be posted in the News section?

[ajs2007]

I don't know whether to post it here or start a new thread. The following is a summary of an eye-witness account on In Defence of Marxism, link: www [dot] marxist [dot] com/orgy-fascist-violence-bolivia [dot] htm

Violence on the part of Fascist gangs in Santa Cruz over the past two nights has escalated. They have been systematically destroying all government buildings and all buildings that house social organisations critical of the Government. The state-owned TV station in the province, the only one to criticise the oligarchy has been destroyed by fire. The Fascists sought to destroy the markets that provide food for the working class areas of the city but these have been defended in heavy violence. There is a shortage of fuel. Similar attacks are taking place in the southern province of Tarija where one right-wing politician has declared a civil war exists.

Criminally, the Brazilian Government has said that in the event of oil and gas supplies being disrupted, they will negotiate directly with the oligarchy in these provinces and bypass the Government which would amount to de facto recognition.

The US are implicated, hence the expulsion of the Ambassador. Bolivia is heading for a bloody civil war unless decisive action is taken. The CMR in Bolivia are calling for a General Strike, the expropriation of the oligarchy, and the defence of working class areas in the provinces controlled by the oligarchy, patricularly in Santa Cruz.

For those of us not directly involved, at least we can sound the alarm and demonstrate our solidarity with the workers and peasants of Bolivia. I know that the Bolivian Solidarity Campaign with Hands Off Venezuela plan to organise a picket of the US Embassy in London next week.

[bayano]

most south american heads of state are meeting, and just prior, Chavez openly warned he would help fund any resistance movement if the wealthy counterrevolutionaries in the eastern provinces successfully depose evo. i think thats a good warning to make, and i hope he would follow thru. i would wish the progressive governments that surround bolivia (paraguay, argentina, chile and brazil) would get their acts together and close borders to the rightist armed groups, call for reconciliation, avow not to recognize any government to take power after a coup or rightist rebellion, and otherwise support evo's government however he and his government say they need help.