Once again a revolutionary process is unfolding in Bolivia. Since 1952 the country has always shown an exemplary radicalization and deepening of the struggle. Now we are in the midst of a process in which the general pressure of the workers, peasants and communities have just completed 32 days of blockades that have the government of Rodrigo Paz and the plan of the bourgeoisie against the ropes.
By César Latorre
Only when facing a revolutionary process can Marx’s famous phrase be fully understood: we are in the days that compress 20 years. Such is the class struggle and its product: History.
New uprising
This new uprising incorporates all previous experiences and maintains permanent pressure. In 32 days, the government has had to try different tactics to dismantle the process. But not only has it failed in all of them, but the struggle has maintained a rising dynamic until today (there are already 100 reported blockades). Paz went through 3 different policies in the span of 30 days and currently the bourgeoisie does not seem to have a united plan.
The policy of agreeing by sector
When this new uprising occurred, not only was there a lack of gasoline, but it was also adulterated, causing damage to countless vehicles (more than 66,000). This incident added to the struggle of the native peoples and the peasantry after the enactment of the agrarian conversion law.
Thus, on May 1, a COB assembly resolved to begin a strike for an indefinite period of time and a blockade of strategic sectors. Once again the central workers’ union showed its weight as general coordinator of the process of struggle.
Faced with these measures, the government’s response was to carry out bilateral negotiations to divide the sectors in struggle by promising to grant sectoral demands, as it did with the drivers.
Rodrigo Paz’s maneuvers become impotent in the face of the accelerated experience of the mobilized rank and file. They imposed the chant “No Pacts of Betrayal” with the peasant federation and the COB on May 6, which defeated Paz’s policy of dividing the sectors. In addition to this, the conflict went beyond the economic sphere, rising to the political level and converging all the demands in a new slogan: “Out with Paz”.
The repressive trial
The government was forced by the failure of the policy of sectoral division to bet on confrontation. Its first move was to issue an arrest warrant for the executive leaders of the COB and the peasant federation. This policy was confronted with a strengthening of the blockades.
In the face of this, the government tried the argument of guaranteeing a humanitarian corridor to clear the blockades with the armed forces. The armed forces were forced to withdraw, defeated by the organized resistance. In the confrontations, the armed forces killed a 24 year old man in Oruro.
After these events, the blockades spread even more. The government did not abandon its repressive policy and promoted a reform of the law which allows it to declare a state of emergency on May 27. The response was a new increase in the number of blockades, which rose from 55 to 76.
Return to dialogue
On May 29 the justice system froze the request for the arrest of the union leaders and the government showed signs of returning to dialogue. That same day the COB called for a new assembly in El Alto for the following day. On the morning of May 30, the government formalized the call for dialogue with a summons from the Vice-Presidency.
All these movements alerted the rank and file, who began to demand that there be no dialogue and that the struggle not let down until Paz steps down. In El Alto, delegations from all sectors congregated to make the leadership feel their determination to not attend the dialogue. Faced with this situation, the COB suspended the assembly without scheduling a new date, arguing that the safety of its leaders was not guaranteed.
The Fejuves and the communities called for open assemblied due to the distrust of the COB movements. On the same day, the COB called an assembly for the following day in La Paz and the Government suspended the meeting in the hope that the assembly would decide in favor of the dialogue.
The COB’s assembly resolved to reject the dialogue and maintain the request for the resignation of Rodrigo Paz. The mandate of the rank and file prevailed once again. Since that assembly, at the time of writing these lines, the blockades have further deepened and multiplied. The government is zig zaging and insists with the policy of dialogue. The bourgeoisie pressures and complains in the media. A columnist of the newspaper La Patria ends its article with the phrase that shows the uncertainty and lack of control of the ruling classes: “may God save the homeland”.
The initiative in the mass movement
It is evident that the last rejection of dialogue gave complete protagonism to the initiative of the masses. The struggle has a very great depth and the question of power is the order of the day. The evolution of the process led the rank and file to synthesize all the economic demands in one policy, which is that the president must go. However, the proposal for a positive solution to this crisis must be accompanied by a concrete proposal from the sectors in struggle.
The comrades of the MST in Bolivia have been fighting a relentless battle with a clear slogan that complements the one that the mass movement has already reached, which is that the proletariat and the peasants take power through their organizations: All power to the COB, CSUTCB, FEJUVES, Tupaj Katari and organizations in struggle!
As the struggle deepens the slogan is gaining more concrete weight. Today the bourgeoisie is talking about institutional solutions to absorb an eventual departure of Paz. From a recall referendum, the assumption of the vice-president or the mechanism of succession via the legislative assembly.
In this sense, the politics of La Izquierda Diario that speaks of self-convocations in the abstract ends up falling into opportunism. It ignores the depth of the process and the particular characteristics of Bolivia’s institutions. The COB is not the Argentine CGT and neither is its leadership, however collaborationist it may want to be deep down.
The process is so strong that the problem of power is already being raised even by the bourgeoisie itself. That is why even the POR had to modify its economisist positions and have to say that it is necessary to fight for a workers’ and peasants’ government.
The radical nature of the process, the history, the methodological mechanisms, the decisions of the last COB congress and the objective centrality of the COB as an institution that is recognized by the movement of workers, peasants and native communities is what makes it the body that could assume power.
The duty of revolutionaries is to develop and point out clearly that the government of workers, peasants and popular unity is possible. To confuse the leadership with the process at this moment weakens a concrete policy that challenges the leadership and responds positively to whoever comes after Paz.
Of course, at the same time that we develop the revolutionary organization, we are open to regroup forces that are part of this process and with which we can converge on the basis of a correct policy.
Annex: Timetable of the uprising
| Date / Period | Active Blockade Points | Epicenter and Affected Routes | Political Milestone / Triggering Event |
| May 1 to 5 | 0 – 10 points | Central highlands and northern La Paz. | Indigenous and peasant resistance against Agrarian Law 1720. |
| May 6 | Mass urban mobilizations | Cities of La Paz and El Alto as a priority. | Signing of the “No Pact of Betrayal“ (COB-Peasants) and signing of the bilateral agreement with the drivers. |
| May 17 | 21 points | La Paz routes to Oruro, Desaguadero and Copacabana. | The Public Prosecutor’s Office issues arrest warrants for the union leaders. |
| May 22 to 25 | Climbing up to 58 points | Trunk axis (La Paz, Oruro, Cochabamba and Potosí). | The Government is unsuccessfully trying to impose the militarized Humanitarian Corridor. |
| May 26 | 55 points | Western and central regions of the country. | The Legislature debates lifting the limits to apply the State of Exception. |
| May 27 | 70 points | Absolute blockade of the accesses to La Paz and El Alto. | President Rodrigo Paz promulgates Law 1732 on States of Exception. |
| May 29 | 76 points | Main roads in seven departments. | The court temporarily suspends the arrest warrants for the leadership. |
| May 31 to June 1 | 89 to 94 points | Cochabamba (32), La Paz (19), Potosí (16), Oruro (11). | The COB holds its meeting, rejects the government’s dialogue and demands the resignation of the president. |
