By the Socialist Workers’ Movement – Bolivia

REVIVING THE ALLIANCE OF WORKERS, FARMERS, AND THE PEOPLE

ENOUGH WITH THE BETRAYALS AND DEALS WITH THE GOVERNMENT

COB: ORGANIZE THE GENERAL STRIKE WITH A VIEW TOWARD TAKING POWER

ONLY A WORKERS’ GOVERNMENT WILL SAVE THE COUNTRY

The economic austerity measures imposed by the IMF and implemented by its lackey, Rodrigo Paz, are taking a massive toll on the livelihoods of working families. The price of diesel, which last year was set at Bs.3.74, skyrocketed under the current administration to Bs.9.80, but with the recently enacted Decree No. 5716, the fuel subsidy has been completely eliminated, raising the price to Bs.17.95. This increase represents an 84% rise compared to January of this year and a 380% increase compared to 2025. The price now depends on the fluctuations of the international market.

This adjustment triggers a deepening of the crisis in the people’s economy, causing a dramatic spike in the prices of basic household goods, public transportation, imports, and production in general, further undermining the living conditions of the working class.

This pro-imperialist economic attack is part of the government’s agreements with the IMF to shift the burden of the crisis onto the working class. This is how the policy of increasing the country’s foreign debt is being implemented; it goes hand in hand with the devaluation of the currency against the dollar amid unstable exchange rates, fuel shortages, and the distribution of contaminated gasoline, as well as cases of corruption and drug trafficking linked to the government and the Paz family—not to mention the exposure of the corrupt media policy of the international right wing led by Cerimedo.

To implement this policy against the exploited and oppressed, the government, the IMF, and Donald Trump’s “Shield of the Americas”—to which Paz belongs—have all needed a force other than their own: the power of the COB bureaucracy. They were only able to remain in power because of the truce agreed upon in June with the COB leaders.

This truce was disguised as a state of emergency, but the military lacked the power to stop the sector-specific protests that immediately arose in response to the Paz austerity measures—ranging from protests by transportation workers following the agreement to protests by families over excessive charges by real estate companies, and the relentless peasant protests over fuel in eastern Bolivia, as well as the protest by residents of Viacha who, in the wake of the ammunition explosion at the Bolívar Regiment—which claimed the lives of several conscripts—exposed the abuses of the rotten bourgeois military system. We must also mention the urban teachers, among other sectors, who are once again joining the struggle.

The pact between the COB bureaucracy and the government was the main factor behind the dispersal of the May–June protests and became the pillar supporting the peace process. But it lasted only three months. That pact has ended. The government believes that it was the state of emergency that allowed it to govern. Based on this perception, it has decreed an extension of the state of emergency for three more months, through December. But it is mistaken, and this error will cost it dearly.

The rank and file are pushing the COB to reorganize. They are forcing the union bureaucracy to call for assemblies and the parent organization to convene the corresponding expanded meeting to take up the struggle. The leaders can no longer contain the pressure from the rank and file. The same is happening in peasant and popular organizations.

Bolivia is heading toward the third phase of the revolutionary process. Here we must take the bull by the horns. We demand that the COB organize a general strike! Not only against the diesel price hike, but against the entire government of Rodrigo Paz. Against the corrupt, right-wing Parliament. Against the bourgeois justice system that only protects the corrupt government.

The streets echo with the memory of Bolivia’s “Red October” of 2003. Everyone is beginning to prepare for Paz’s downfall. Vice President Lara is preparing for a constitutional succession. Even the right-wing opposition is gearing up, positioning itself as an alternative with Tuto and Doria Medina, and “Evo’s return” is also taking shape as the “Arcistas” of the MAS resurface.

All of these “alternatives” advocate for “early elections.” But in order to get there, they forget that we must first go through the path of direct mass action—through a general strike—and this, whether we like it or not, involves objectively raising the question of power for the working class… through revolutionary means.

We cannot gloss over this revolutionary period without further discussion. To think this way is to reject revolutionary solutions from the outset in favor of the electoral solutions offered by the semicolonial democratic reaction.

In light of this situation: We demand that the COB prepare for a general strike with the goal of seizing power! This lack of a perspective on power was the weakness of May and June. We must overcome it by taking on the historic task that reality demands.

Organize the struggle with the goal of establishing a government of the workers, peasants, and the people.

Enough with the betrayals and deals with the pro-imperialist government.

We invite the working-class vanguard and militant youth to fight together for these goals.

La Paz, September 20, 2026