EMBRACE AND DEEPEN SELF-DEFENSE AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY
PURE AND SIMPLE IMMEDIATE FREEDOM FOR ALL THOSE DETAINED!
GLORY TO THE FALLEN!

By: MST Bolivia

The COB leadership has called for an expanded meeting after 45 days of revolutionary struggle. The meeting will discuss whether to negotiate with Paz or continue the fight for his resignation.

Previously, the union bureaucracy of the Confederation of Industrial Workers had reached an agreement with the government. Added to this is the betrayal by the leaderships of the CODs in Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, Santa Cruz, Potosí, and Tarija, all of whom advocated for a deal with the government against the triumph of the mobilization. In practice, this union bureaucracy had long since withdrawn from the revolutionary scene.

The mining proletariat, together with the peasantry, form the vanguard of the struggle alongside the militant districts of El Alto; so far, they have prevented their leaderships from striking a deal with Rodrigo Paz.

However, these leaders do not organize for an escalation of the struggle; rather, they stage marches without preparing for self-defense; they do not consolidate self-sufficiency, and in their mass entry into the seat of government, they reveal a lack of strategy in the face of police repression, demonstrating their intention to wear down the forces.

If the leadership truly wants to fight for Rodrigo Paz’s resignation, it must clearly commit to the goal of seizing power and replacing oligarchic rule with a COB government in alliance with the peasantry and popular sectors. With this objective in mind, we set the course for taking the final step required by the struggle: intensifying the general strike and resolving the issues of self-defense and food supply.

THE GOVERNMENT, THE OLIGARCHY, IMPERIALISM, AND THE REPRESSIVE APPARATUS IN CRISIS

After 45 days of protests, the government is between a rock and a hard place. Tuto Quiroga, the very political representative of the oligarchy, exposed the government’s weakness and hinted that the president cannot declare a state of emergency due to problems with the military and his ministers. He emphasized that it was the government that asked its congressional caucus to immediately approve the regulations for a state of emergency and then, faced with its inability to implement them, changed course by opting to negotiate with the leaders of the protest movement.

These reports are true. The labor and peasant movements have received solidarity and support from some rank-and-file police officers who have provided information about the internal situation within the institution, such as the report they shared regarding the shortage of tear gas in May. The peasants exert a decisive influence on the military bases at the provincial barracks, as well as on some commanding officers who have stated their refusal to fire if a state of emergency is declared.

Furthermore, the government has launched three police and military offensives that legal analysts have interpreted as a de facto state of emergency. But all three were defeated by the masses. The latest offensive was led by the fascist gangs of the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista, who—armed by the government and protected by the military and police—cruelly attacked the mobilized people of San Julián in Santa Cruz from behind. However, the mobilization immediately grew stronger, the roadblocks intensified, and the fascist gangs were forced to flee the area along with the military. The police had to abandon the provincial barracks, which were taken over by the masses.

Is the government supported by the military and fascist gangs? Clearly not, because they have already been defeated in the streets.

On the other hand, Donald Trump, no matter how much he may back the government, cannot assert his authority in Bolivia; imperialist power is in tatters after 45 days of struggle by workers and peasants.

TAKE POWER OR BETRAY AND SUPPORT RODRIGO PAZ

All that’s left is to give Rodrigo Paz the final push to bring him down. Who is propping up the government in the meantime? Well, the leadership of the struggle—the bureaucracy of the COB and the peasant sectors—refuses to give him that push over the edge, because they know that would mean seizing power. This betrayal also involves elements of cowardice that lead them to refuse to form a workers’ and peasants’ government after Rodrigo Paz’s fall, so they continue calling for blockades and marches, deploying and wearing down their forces without deepening dual power— that is, self-sufficiency and self-defense, which are already in their infancy alongside all the gains achieved where the working class dominates the west and now the east with San Julián. But this objective dual power is neither deepened nor organized by the leadership, leaving the process in the hands of the spontaneity of the rank and file.

This spontaneity has not developed into a process of rebellion, since not only has it not prevented Rodrigo Paz from governing, but by succeeding in undermining him, it has raised the question of power. This revolutionary process has handed the COB and the organizations in struggle the opportunity to seize power on a silver platter. But this has not materialized because the leadership does not want it to. However, the rank and file have outpaced them by sustaining the struggle for a month and a half. The question of power remains clearly on the table.

NOT A STEP BACK

REORGANIZE THE STRUGGLE WITH THE GOAL OF TAKING POWER

REORGANIZATION MEETINGS DOWN TO THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL

COMPLETE SHUTDOWN OF THE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

CALL ON MILITARY AND POLICE PERSONNEL TO JOIN THE PEOPLE’S ARMY

ORGANIZE SELF-SUFFICIENCY

ON BEHALF OF THE COB GOVERNMENT, CSUTCB, TÚPAJS KATARI, AND POPULAR SECTORS IN STRUGGLE

La Paz, June 14, 2026