Hope and History Collide in Bolivia: Historic Mobilizations Leave a Country at a Crossroad

This past May and June, a convergence of diverse sectors of Bolivian society overwhelmed the city of La Paz and the capitalist world, sparking dread among oil magnates and global investors and hope among the anti-corporate globalization movement. The masses managed to oust an ineffectual President, reject a proposed presidential replacement and get closer to realizing their goals of becoming owners of their natural resources and political processes. However, the verdict is still out on whether these advances will result in civil war, an innovative experiment in participatory democracy or a political façade that only temporarily quells the growing discontent of Bolivia's poor majority.

A NATION FIGHTS FOR ITS RESOURCES

Over the past five years, Bolivia's Left has launched various mobilizations cutting to the heart of a neo-liberal economic agenda that has hit the landlocked South American nation with particular potency. Between 1986 and 2001, Bolivia received $350 million in International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans, adding to a debt that ranks among the highest in the world. The IMF's imposed economic adjustment strategies, meant to reduce Bolivia's endemic poverty level, required that they slash government social spending, obliterate labor standards and privatize basic services. These initiatives have not been well received.

In 2000, an attempt to sell the water system in the city of Cochabamba to a consortium headed by the US-based Bechtel Corporation resulted in fierce opposition that ended in the reversal of the $2.5 billion deal. In October of that same year, plans to build three new military bases in the coca-growing Chapere region with US government funds met violent protest, again achieving the shelving of the proposal. In February 2003 (aka Black February), protests opposing IMF-imposed reforms that included raising taxes on the poor and lowering them for transnational investors closed down the business district in La Paz, burnt down goverrnment buildings and left 34 dead. Again, the proposals were withdrawn. In short, a series of top-down "reforms" ostensibly geared towards alleviating poverty have been refuted by the poor majority in Bolivia, stirring their civil society into action and the global oligarchy into a tail-spin.

In 2003, then President Sánchez de Lozada announced that Bolivia would sell gas to the US and Chile, sparking widespread dissent. The government responded with violent supression and in the end more than 60 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Sánchez de Lozada stepped down, and out of the turmoil was born the October Agenda, calling for the creation of a new hydrocarbons law, a Constituent Assembly and justice for those responsible for the violence. A cosmetic referendum, partially funded by The World Bank and condemned for the ambiguity of its questions, created the skeleton for a new Hydrocarbons law, passed last May. The Hydrocarbons law increased the royalties on petroleum and natural gas extracted from Bolivia's vast reserve. Multinational energy firms and the US Department of State condemned the law as "confiscatory," threatening that it would jeopardize future investments, while indigenous groups, trade unions and other social movements pointed out that it fell far short of their objective of returning control of Bolivian oil and benefits to the Bolivian state and people.

THE RECENT UPRISING

El Alto, a destitute town of predominantly ex-miners that spills over the mountains surrounding La Paz, is what USAID refers to as the "epicenter" of organizing in Bolivia. The Monday after the Hydrocarbon bill passed, massive crowds of bus drivers, teachers, shoe-shine boys, indigenous women, neighborhood activists and many others gathered on the cusp of the mountainside and began their descent into the capital. Organizing sectors included the Federation of United Neighbours of El Alto (FEJUVE-El Alto), the Regional Workers Central of El Alto (COR-El Alto), the Public University of El Alto, the Departmental Workers Central, the Confederation of Original Peoples, the Federation of Peasants of La Paz "Tupaj Katari," the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), the teachers unions of El Alto and La Paz and many, many others.

Meanwhile, a bus blockade began in the Altiplano, a region that lies just to the west of La Paz, and traffic in the region came to a halt.

The blockade quickly grew in size until it paralyzed the highways of nine departments of the country.

Another march initiated near Cochabamba by the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), a political party headed by ex-coca grower Evo Morales, and brought hordes of coca growers and campesinos into the capital after marching over 300 kilometers to arrive. On May 24, these diverse sectors and mobilizations converged on Plaza Murillo, the seat of the federal government, creating one vibrant and multilayered mobilization, demanding that the terms of the October Agenda at last be satisfied. This time, however, the call was not simply for another Hydrocarbons Law giving greater benefits to the Bolivian people. This time they wanted the oil itself to be theirs.

POSSIBLE REFORMS

The Constituent Assembly is another key element of the promises made at the end of the October 2003 uprising. It aims to create a new governmental body based on sectoral autonomy and consensus decision making. At best, the Constitutent Assembly will be, as described by a June 10 Communique of the Coordination in Defense of Water and Gas, a space that, "with the majority presence of the Bolivian population, and not of the political parties, [develops] ….a new form of internal coexistence and social regulation for all of us, constructed by a collective will from below." Although most Bolivians support its creation, debate revolves around whether the assembly should be convened by the state or whether it should be self-convened by the social movements, and whether it will create an entire new Constitution for the Bolivian state or simply add a new element to the current political system.

Leaders on the left from organizations such as FEJUVE, COR and CONAMAC (The Syndicated Confederation of Campesino Workers) are wary of the Constituent Assembly and fear that it will ultimately amount to little more than a trap -- an attempt to harness energies presently directed towards nationalization and revolution and divert them into a legislative cul-de-sac, controlled by business and imperialist forces.

However, a more immediate concern of all parties involved is the upcoming December elections, which will name Bolivia's new President and, according to many, determine the direction that any new reorganization takes. Currently, the only candidate considered a contender, Evo Morales of MAS, has turned away a lot of his base support by calling for 50 percent royalties rather than complete nationalization, in an effort to widen his middle-class appeal.

With 67 percent of Bolivians claiming indigenous heritage and 70 percent living below the poverty line, the people of this country have learned that coming together in a moment of crisis isn't just good organizing, it's a matter of survival. This simple truth has gotten them far and captured the attention of activists, politicians, investors and the exploited around the world. However, their actual gains to this day remain largely symbolic. What is clear is that this historic coming together has already begun to evoke a strong and direct response, and the goals of this particular struggle for bottom-up economics and popular, responsive self-government is looking more and more within reach.