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Bolivia faces civil war – for a workers republic to unite the country

Bolivia is being torn apart by its own capitalist class. Faced by a right-wing offensive, the government of Evo Morales is in crisis. Only the working class can thwart the plots of the right wing, writes Keith Spencer

On 15 August, the Bolivian city of Sucre was brought to a halt by mass demonstrations in favour of making it rather than La Paz the seat of government, a blow aimed against Morales and the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). Then on August 28 a “strike” organised by the right shut down Cochabamba, hitherto a stronghold of the MAS and the popular forces.

After a yearlong campaign by the country’s financial and landowning elite, which has obstructed and frustrated the work of the Constituent Assembly, a major political crisis now faces the country. Throughout this period Morales and the MAS have made repeated concessions to the right. But now he has called for a demonstration of 100,000 workers, peasants and indigenous peoples in Sucre on September 10 to pressure the right into ending its blocking and sabotage of the CA and its moves to declare total autonomy for the resource rich southern and eastern provinces, known collectively as the media luna (half moon). In the midst of this crisis the Bolivian working class has beginning to organise itself politically. It must take decisive action to thwart and smash the counterrevolution planned by the right and the American Embassy.

The right on the attack

For nearly a year the right, both within the CA and on the streets of the provinces it dominates, has thwarted the wishes of the majority of Bolivians to see the Assembly take the measures to radically improve their daily lives. Immediately these include full and complete nationalisation of the country’s gas an oil reserves (law on hydrocarbons), greatly improved rights for Bolivia’s indigenous majority and the land question.

The right wrung an early concession from Morales that the Constituent Assembly had to have a two-thirds majority to pass articles for the new constitution and since then has used this to demand a whole series on referenda on various important items. In addition the CA has had to have the duration of its sittings, their extension and other procedures submitted to the existing National Assembly. Thus in effect the CA is not a sovereign body and has various rights of veto for the right wing minority built into it. The right too have held a pistol to the head of Morales and the right, the threat of secession of “their provinces”.

The most recent of these acts of sabotage was to demand that the Constituent Assembly (CA) debates the issue of moving the seat of government to Sucre. Sucre is the official capital and seat of the judiciary, the place where the CA meets but all government functions reside in the capital La Paz. The aim is to sow dissension in the popular camp, some of whom (especially those in Sucre) wish to see the lucrative functions of central government moved to a small provincial city.

But the real reason the right want this move is that La Paz is too near the impoverished high Andean plateau- the altiplano – and the huge shantytown city of El Alto. With 800,000 inhabitants, and probably more, El Alto is the focus of the working class and radical popular movements. These are represented in and headed by the FEJUVE – the Spanish acronym for federation neighborhood councils. Led by the FEJUVE, the masses of El Alto have succeeded in

overthrowing two right wing governments and presidents in the last few years. It is clear why the right wishes to move the government well away from the revolutionary pressure these masses can exert.

In July, the demand for moving to Sucre was met by a mass protest of more than a million people in El Alto, rejecting the move and calling for the defence of national unity. President Morales called the demonstration “historic” while supporters of the move to Sucre said it was an “illegal threat”. On 15 August in Sucre, while a mass demonstration for the move was held outside it, the CA voted not to discuss the move. This led to about 50 rightwing and local delegates withdrawing from the CA and several going on hunger strike.

But despite their apparent defiance Morales and the MAS have made major concessions to the right. First they introduced a complicated system into the CA that gives the minority right wing plenty of opportunities to undermine the demands of the workers, secondly by going back on the crucial hydrocarbon reforms. Pressure from the oligarchs, the Brazilian government of Lula and government timidity weakened the hydrocarbon law that would have transferred more control of the profit making companies to the state. The government has privately given the latter assurances that whatever it may say in public it will not act against companies operating ‘legally and in good faith’.

“Foreign mining investors believe that mining code revisions to be announced by the government will be neither draconian nor confiscatory in terms of a higher tax burden and are therefore pressing ahead with their projects.” (Economist Intelligence Unit, Bolivia: Country Profile 2006)

Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz, the main base of the oligarchs, the civic committee produced a document calling for its absolute control over land, resources, the justice system, the police and army. This in effect is a declaration of independence that says: “La Paz has no role in Santa Cruz”. It was this that sparked the million strong demonstration against autonomy.

Along with all these legislative and legal measures has been the mushrooming of semi-fascist groups based on the richer students to attack and intimidate the left or MAS supporters. Similar bodies have been set up in other states including in Cochabamba, the city that led the fight against water privatisation in 2003. The mass campaign against the governor Manfred Reyes Villa saw a commune set up as an alternative to the state assembly. But, attacked by the right and betrayed by Morales and the MAS, who refused to recognise or arm it, the commune lasted only a few days. Since then many activists have been targeted and arrested by the police.

Rather than buying off the oligarchs, the compromises of Morales and the government have emboldened the reaction to go further down the road to independence and the crushing of the popular forces in the provinces they control. Bolivia is effectively splitting between the media luna provinces controlled by the oligarchs, and the highland areas, including El Alro, where the MAS still dominates.

Which way forward?

To reverse this process of splitting of the popular forces and retreat on their demands, to throw back the Right and help the masses in Cochabamba and other regions regain the initiative, requires a mass nationwide mobilisation of the popular forces: all those who have struggled for the natural resources, the water, the hydrocarbons, the mines and the land. A massive general strike, with blockades and occupation of land, such as Bolivia has witnessed twice already in this decade, is needed to throw back the right and defeat their plans to seize the natural resources of the country.

The Constituent Assembly must meet under the permanent pressure of the worker-peasant majority- in El Alto would be best – and declare itself completely sovereign over the Assembly, the Judiciary and above all the police and the Army. It must mobilise and arm the masses- organised by the FEJUVE and is equivalents in other cities and towns, to enforce this sovereignty. It must rapidly pass the decrees the people want

But who will lead such a decisive struggle against the right? Certainly not Evo Morales and the MAS. The reason is that the MAS cannot defeat the oligarchy is because it is a popular front party. This means it is a party that weld together capitalists, the middle classes, workers and peasant’s organisations but leave the control of the party in the hands of the bourgeoisie. This contradiction is one that allows the right to mobilise and organise whilst much of the left is tied to the timid MAS, unwilling to mount a serious fight against the forces of reaction.

However sections of the working class are now organising. In October 2006, the Congress of Factory Workers of Bolivia agreed a document that called for the “definitive victory of socialist revolution.” The congress called for revolutionary leadership, independent and militant action of the working class, for a political instrument (i.e. party), and for a social revolution.

This was followed by earlier this year with the Confederation of Bolivian Workers (COB) repeating its call for the creation of a “political instrument” of the workers. The call was originally made two years ago but put on ice after the election of Morales and the MAS. However, in the spring the COB reaffirmed the need for party, correctly identifying that the conciliation of the MAS has “strengthened the counter-revolution in Santa Cruz”. Alongside the COB organisations like the COR-El Alto (the El Alto trade unions) are also critical of the MAS.

The organisations breaking from the MAS and calling for a new workers party must convene a conference to set up democratic structures and open an urgent debate about the programme of the party. The forces involved such as the factory workers, COB and the COR-El Alto appear to already agree that the party has to be an anti-capitalist party and one that fights for the revolutionary social overturn of private property. Only a revolutionary party – based on the organisations of the working class and not a popular front party – can provide the s courageous leadership the masses derserve in the fight against the right wing counterrevolution.

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