[A-List] Bolivia and Latin America: New Spaces for the Communist Parties?

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just returned from Bolivia, Blade Nzimande, the general secretary of the 
South African Communist Party, made this interesting report. It was 
published on the site of the sacp :
http://www.sacp.org.za/ on the page of "Umsebenzi Online"

General Secretary South Africa Commmunist Party
15-02-2007

I have just returned from Bolivia, as part of an ANC-led alliance 
delegation. The delegation was ably led by the Secretary General of the ANC,

Cde Kgalema Motlanthe, and included Cde Zwelinzima Vavi, the General 
Secretary of COSATU, Cde Ebrahim Ebrahim, a member of the NEC of the ANC, 
Cde Phumuzo Mqingwana, National Treasurer of the ANC Youth League, and Cde 
Thoko Mabena, a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC 
Women's League.
The origins of the trip partly arose out of discussions that the ANC and 
SACP had had with President Evo Morales when he visited South Africa in 
January 2006 shortly before he was inaugurated as the first indigenous 
president of Bolivia. The main purpose of the visit was to familiarize 
ourselves with contemporary political developments in Bolivia, deepen 
fraternal relations between the ANC (and its allies) with President Morales'

Movement for Socialism (MAS), and exchange views and experiences on many 
other areas of common interest. Foremost amongst the latter were to exchange

views on our own (South African) experiences on constitution making. During 
the second half of last year, Bolivians voted for a constituent assembly 
whose task is to draft a new constitution for the country by the end of 
August 2007.

The delegation reached some bilateral agreements with the MAS, especially 
around deepening solidarity between our two respective movements, sharing 
and acting together on key challenges facing progressive movements in the 
world today and also to facilitate the deepening of relations between our 
two countries. Incidentally this visit was also significant given the fact 
that, at least since 1994, it was for the first time that the Alliance 
Secretariat undertook a joint international visit, an important step towards

harmonizing our perspectives and programme of action in the international 
arena.

A visit of five days is too short a time for anyone to claim any deep 
understanding of the totality of the struggles and challenges facing any 
country. However, we held a wide range of meetings and discussions that at 
least gave us some useful insights in this regard. Amongst those we met 
included President Evo Morales, Vice President Alvaro Garcia and Minister in

the Presidency, as well as national leadership structures of MAS, women 
members of the Bolivian Congress (Parliament), and youth organizations. In 
addition we also met with the Acting President of the Constitutional 
Assembly, as well as some of the members of the Bolivian Constituent 
Assembly drawn from different political parties and formations, and a visit 
to three rural communities around the famous Lake Titicaca, some 65 
kilometres outside the capital La Paz.

'We govern, we do not steal': A brief overview of the current political 
situation in Bolivia
Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America with a population 
of 8 million, 72% percent of whom are indigenous (Indian) Bolivians. It is a

country characterized by deep class, gender and racial inequalities, with 
the indigenous rural women at the bottom of the pile in society.

After some 3 centuries of colonization (including genocidal type violence 
against the indigenous population), Bolivians waged heroic struggles to 
secure freedom from Spanish colonization and the establishment of a republic

in 1825. Since then, like in many other Latin American countries, 
independence from Spain was soon followed by a new wave of (neo) 
colonization by the United States of America, which has consistently 
supported the domestic bourgeoisie and actively undermining all attempts to 
translate the gains of independence into addressing underdevelopment and 
poverty to the benefit of the overwhelming majority of the peoples of this 
region.

Much as racial discrimination against indigenous people in Bolivia was 
officially proclaimed unlawful in 1952, the oppression and 
super-exploitation and extreme forms of discrimination against the 
indigenous people continue. It is because of this that the indigenous 
population of Bolivia, through its own struggles as peasants, coca planters 
and growers, as urban workers, as the poor came together to form the MAS in 
1995 as a 'political instrument', not only to end all forms of 
discrimination against the indigenous people but also as a foundation upon 
which to build a new Bolivia.

One has been struck, though not surprised, at the level of bitterness 
amongst the indigenous people against the ruling classes of Bolivia, 
especially against all those political parties and organizations that have 
over decades represented the rich of Bolivia. This anger and bitterness has 
however found an 'oultet' as it were, the historic election of Evo Morales 
as the first indigenous president of Bolivia. There is now a very strong of 
identification of Morales with the aspirations of the indigenous people to 
free themselves from all forms of exploitation and oppression. Throughout 
our visit and engagement with especially the indigenous leaders and 
communities, Morales is to them what Nelson Mandela is to South Africa. 
There is an unusually strong sense of ownership by the indigenous people of 
the Morales government. The crux of their expectations is the radical 
transformation of society, particularly the socio-economic conditions of the

indigenous people.

Bolivia is currently characterized by acute class struggles, with obviously 
strong racial, ethnic and gender dimensions. In essence the main class 
protagonists in this struggle are on the one hand the overwhelming majority 
of the indigenous people, many of whom are peasants and workers and located 
in the very poor western parts of the country, and the landed agrarian 
bourgeoisie (mainly white and located in the rich east of Bolivia). The 
coincidence between race and class in Bolivia is particularly sharp in a 
manner that has many similarities with our own South African situation.

The acuteness of these contradictions seems to be placing the government of 
Evo Morales in a difficult dilemma. Whilst Evo is the President of Bolivia 
as a whole, the indigenous people see his government as 'theirs', sometimes 
to the point of being 'theirs alone'. It seems that the challenge for 
President Morales and the MAS is that of ensuring that the current 
government becomes a government for the indigenous people as a necessary 
condition for being a government for the Bolivian people as a whole.

Our delegation was particularly inspired by the role of the indigenous women

in the struggle for the transformation of Bolivia. The mass activism in 
Bolivia seems to have unleashed the energies of women in a manner unseen 
before, and many indigenous women are active participants at various levels 
of government and the Constituent Assembly and within MAS itself. This is 
laying a very important foundation for deepening the struggle for gender 
equality in Bolivia, and to this end we agreed that part of our solidarity 
activities and exchanges must centrally include sharing experiences on 
women's struggles and the struggle for gender equality.

Indeed the general assessment by MAS is that the first year of Morales 
government has done well. In particular the measures taken by this 
government to reclaim the country's natural resources (including 
hydrocarbon, the mines and water) and to be placed under the control of the 
people as a whole through the state. In addition Morales is planning a 
radical programme of land reform in order for land to be redistributed to 
the majority of the people of Bolivia. Morales told us that when asked why 
his government has been successful thus far he replied that unlike most of 
the previous governments, 'MAS governs and does not steal' people's moneys 
and resources!

The Constituent Assembly
It is on the above issues that the question of the drafting of a new 
constitution by the Constituent Assembly revolves. The single and most 
immediate challenge facing MAS and the Morales government is the drafting 
and adoption of a constitution that will lay a foundation for the most 
thorough and radical transformation of Bolivian society. At least this is 
the expectation from the majority of the people. The deadline for the 
adoption of the Constitution is August 2007.

However the Bolivian bourgeoisie and other reactionary forces are hell-bent 
on frustrating the process of producing a new constitution, unless such a 
constitution advances its own class interests. However, the MAS and the 
majority of the people are adamant that failure to adopt a constitution 
through filibustering or other means by the bourgeoisie, their answer will 
be to directly proceed to a national referendum which will only require 51% 
as opposed to two-thirds to approve the constitution by the Constituent 
Assembly. In any case the constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly 
will have to be ratified by a national referendum.

The bourgeoisie is using its electoral strength and domination in all the 
eastern regions is also fighting for autonomy of these regions. This they 
also do because the MAS only has 54% of the members of the Constituent 
Assembly and not the two-thirds required in order to pass the constitution 
in the Assembly. Just like was the case during our own constitution making 
process, the Bolivian bourgeoisie is in essence calling for a federal state,

where the rich provinces will keep the Bolivian wealth to themselves, as 
most of the wealth is concentrated in the Bolivian eastern lowlands.

The Bolivian and virtually the whole of the Latin American bourgeoisie have 
for decades been very arrogant and resistant to any changes that threaten 
their interests, principally also because of the backing (including by 
violent means) it has consistently received from the US government.

Currently the US government, which is very hostile and opposed to the 
Morales government, is actively seeking to deepen divisions within the 
indigenous population as part of weakening the Morales government. The other

part of the US strategy is to indirectly strengthen the hand of the more 
radical and ultra-left sections within the indigenous population as part of 
further alienating sections of the middle classes in the East, a significant

section of whom voted for Morales in the presidential elections. This also 
becomes a useful scare tactic for the Bolivian bourgeoisie not to seek any 
rapprochement whatsoever with the Morales government to build a united, 
democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Bolivian nation. Indeed the US is

going out of its way in assisting the Bolivian bourgeoisie to either secure 
complete autonomy for the eastern provinces or sabotage the constitution 
making process.

The Constituent Assembly has practically become the most immediate site for 
the range of class struggles underway in Bolivia. Given the stance taken by 
the parties of the bourgeoisie and reactionary forces, the Constituent 
Assembly is unlikely to meet its deadline of August 2007.

The Party and the masses: Strategy and tactics of the communist parties in 
Latin America
The Bolivian and broader Latin American situation and all these dynamics 
pose questions around the strategy and tactics of communist parties in the 
current period. Due to a combination of factors the communist parties in 
Latin America have been generally weak, with the exception of Cuba. This has

generally been due to the vicious anti-communist strategy of the United 
States over decades. The current mass-led shifts to the left are inevitably 
taking place not under the leadership of communist parties but under the 
leadership of mass movements, with Bolivia being a classic example in this 
regard.

In engagements with the Communist Party of Bolivia (PCB), we agreed that the

current leftward shifts and deepening mass activism in the region definitely

opens up new possibilities to rebuild a strong communist movement in the 
region. The PCB itself also openly admits that it is very weak, and its 
decline was also as a result of the rapid decline of the mining industry in 
the 1980s, which was its strongest social and class base. It has not managed

to make any significant inroads in organizing the peasantry and the coca 
workers in the countryside. Like in the Bolivian situation, this is one of 
the biggest challenges for many communist parties in the region, where there

is a large peasantry, urban and rural poor but relatively tiny working 
classes. This calls for sustained communist party attention to mass 
organization.

A related question posed by the Bolivian and Latin American situation in 
general is whether current developments and socialist orientation of the 
mass movements are not actually inaugurating a new era of building socialism

without communist parties? But another important question is whether mass 
movements, notwithstanding their socialist vision and commitments, have the 
necessary subjective capacity of waging a sustainable struggle for socialism

or even build a sustainable socialist order?

The very character of MAS in Bolivia is instructive in this regard. MAS is a

broad movement, principally made up of the peasantry and coca workers, with 
a variety of ideological tendencies inside the organization - Marxists, 
anarchists, social democrats, including virulently anti-communist strands 
within it. This is certainly a strength for MAS; its ability to bring 
together a wide range of ideological tendencies and social formations around

a minimum platform of transforming Bolivian society for the benefit of the 
overwhelming majority of its people, fighting neo-liberalism and deepening 
the struggle for the restoration of the dignity of the indigenous people.

However this very strength of MAS is potentially its own weakness which can 
seriously undermine its capacity to sustain a socialist oriented struggle. 
Because of the variety of tendencies within mass movements, there is no 
clear, single ideological centre, thus making it susceptible to ideological 
and political vacillations, like any broad mass movement of this nature. The

PCB is also broadly working with the MAS, with one minister and a few deputy

ministers serving in the Morales cabinet, as well as having a few members in

the Constituent Assembly, including the General Secretary of the PCB. A 
similar situation also prevails in Venezuela and Uruguay, where communists 
are serving in these governments.

In fact in Venezuela, President Chavez in December last year called upon all

the political parties and formations that support his government to dissolve

and form one political party, which Chavez has tentatively named the 
Socialist United Party of Venezuela. To this end the Communist Party of 
Venezuela is convening a special congress in March this year to consider its

options with regard to this proposal. Clearly for Chavez this is an 
important step towards creating a political and ideological centre for the 
Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, whose absence at the moment is correctly

seen as a threat to this revolution.

A key continuing challenge for Bolivian and generally all communists in 
Latin America as well as in many other developing countries is the 
centrality of the national question in the struggle for socialism. In a 
country like Bolivia, and the PCB strongly emphasized this point, the 
struggle for socialism cannot be waged separate from and outside of 
addressing the national question, whose main content is the continuing 
discrimination, exploitation and marginalization of the indigenous 
communities.

All these issues raise very fundamental questions not only for Latin 
American communist parties, but for the entire communist movement. It is a 
call to go back to the basics: intensified party work amongst the masses, as

we still believe that much as mass movements are absolutely essential in the

struggle for socialism, but communist parties are absolutely indispensable 
in this struggle. However leadership of the communist parties cannot be 
imposed or decreed, but has to be won on the ground.

In the light of the above the SACP commits itself to continuing solidarity 
activities and exchange of experiences with both the MAS and the Communist 
Party of Bolivia.



http://www.wpb.be/