[Marxism] sh*t's hitting the fan again in Bolivia

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

Parliament passes pro-business energy law, movements reviving coalitions and 
protests in response, business threatens capital boycott over this 
insufficiently procapital law.

This comes just as Venezuela took yet another measure against imperialist oil 
companies (demanding payment of higher taxes).

Perhaps the Bolivarian movement can be a factor in overcoming the weaknesses 
and disunity in Bolivia...

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=7817&sectionID=52
ZNet | Bolivia

Bolivia Back to the Streets? Natural Gas and Popular Struggle

by Jeffery R. Webber; May 09, 2005

After about a month and a half of relative dormancy, the beginning of last week 
saw the first interesting signs of renewed life from popular forces in Bolivia. 
On Monday, May 3, three congressmen and one senator of the party Movement 
Toward Socialism (MAS) ? Iván Morales, Germán Yucra, Félix Santos, and Bonifaz 
Bellido ? wore balaclavas (ski masks) to a session of Congress. They were 
expressing their solidarity with Mexico?s Zapatistas, as the special session of 
Congress was taking place to greet right-wing Mexican president Vicente Fox who 
was in the country to secure a deal for natural gas exports from Bolivia to 
Mexico. The mainstream press was suitably disgusted with the utterly juvenile 
behaviour of this party of delinquent Indians and socialists. The influential 
daily La Razon, in a regular news story, expressed its horror: ?Like this they 
received an official guest of the state of Bolivia, during a session of 
honour.? The reader?s jaw was expected to drop. For the first time in months I 
was impressed with some members of the MAS.

But it was later in the week that the basis was laid for what could become 
Bolivia?s next wave of street protests, marches, and road blockades. On 
Thursday, May 5 the lower house of Congress approved a new law on natural gas, 
after it had travelled through the lower house, then to the Senate for 
amendments, then back to the lower house for the past nine months. From 
Thursday, the president, Carlos Mesa Gisbert, has 10 days to approve or veto 
the law, and he is expected by most to do the former.

The flavour of the law is best expressed in the parties that supported and 
opposed it. The neoliberal parties of the ex-megacoalition under ousted 
ex-president Gonzalo (Goni) Sánchez de Lozada ? MNR, NFR, MIR, and ADN ? 
constituted the 59 votes in favour. The MAS, MIP (both indigenous/Left 
parties), UCS, and some individual congress people from the MNR, MIR, and NFR 
constituted the 48 votes against, while three blank votes were cast. According 
to a whole array of the most important popular organizations within radical 
Bolivian society the law falls far short of the nationalization demanded in the 
massive rebellion of October 2003, popularly known as the Gas War. According to 
Edgar Ramos Andrade (in his book Agonía y Rebelión Social: 543 motivos de 
justicia urgente), 73 people died, and over 400 were injured by bullets during 
that insurrection which successfully forced Goni out of the presidency and into 
exile in the United States. The new law, according to many social movement 
leaders, makes a mockery of those dead and wounded. According to Roberto de la 
Cruz, ex-secretary general of the Regional Workers Central of El Alto (COR-El 
Alto), and key leader during the October rebellion, ?The spilt blood of more 
than 80 compatriots has been in vane. The parliamentarians are making a joke of 
that blood.?

Country-wide Popular Forces Plan Actions

Last March it seemed briefly that the notoriously divided and personalistic 
Left in Bolivia had come together to fight the Mesa regime and neoliberalism 
with renewed energy. An ?anti-oligarchic pact? was signed by Evo Morales 
(leader of the MAS), Jaime Solares (leader of the Bolivian Workers Central, 
COB), Felipe Quispe and Román Loayza (leaders of the peasant union, CSUTCB), 
Roberto de la Cruz, Alejo Véliz (leader of the Trópico de Cochabamba, an 
association of coca growers), leaders of the Bolivian Landless Movement (MST), 
Omar Fernandez (who played a key role in the Water War of 2000 in Cochabamba), 
Óscar Olivera (from the Coordinator of Water and Gas, and key leader in the 
Water War of 2000), among others. The pact, though, seemingly had a short 
shelf-life, with leaders renewing their name-calling and divisiveness quickly 
after the historic meeting.

However, this new natural gas law has apparently brought new life to the union 
between social movements, with a big strategizing session of many social 
movement groups planned for today in the city of Santa Cruz. In addition to 
this important development, many social movement and workers organizations in 
different parts of the country have already started announcing particular 
actions.

Abel Mamani, leader of the Federation of United Neighbours of El Alto (FEJUVE 
El Alto, perhaps the most important social movement organization in the country 
at the moment) says, ?Our objective is the total recuperation of hydrocarbons 
(the major one being natural gas).? A recent manifesto emitted by the 
Federation says that parliament is a group of traitors to the nation and should 
be shut down. It declares further, that FEJUVE-El Alto will now take actions 
into its own hands. There is a general assembly being held this Wednesday May 
11, to determine exactly what action will be taken. According to Mamani, ?We 
would be incoherent, irresponsible, and anti-patriotic if we said that this law 
satisfied everyone. We know that the mission of every patriot in the country is 
the recuperation of what we gave away through the irresponsibility of those in 
government. We don?t recognize the approval of this Hydrocarbons Law.?

Jaime Solares, leader of the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) has declared, ?The 
only hope we have is that the people take to the streets,? to ensure a law is 
not passed that only favours transnational corporations. Óscar Olivera 
announced that this week measures will be taken in Cochabamba, including 
marches to La Paz, blockades of the highways, and even the taking of natural 
gas wells. Román Loayza of the CSUTCB emphasizes the importance of the reunion 
planned for today in Santa Cruz, which he says will include social movements of 
various types in addition to the participation of the political parties, MAS 
and MIP (Indigenous Pachakuti Movement). CSUTCB is planning a march from 
Caracollo on the morning of Tuesday May 10, as well as numerous road blockades.

Also, in Cochabamba various groups of peasants, workers and coca growers have 
threatened to convulse the entire country this week, demanding the closing of 
Parliament and the rejection of the new law. The indigenous organization 
CONAMAQ, together with the women?s peasant-indigenous organization, the 
Bartolina Sisa Association, has decided to initiate road blockades, especially 
around the rights of indigenous people to veto natural gas development projects 
in their territories, a right earlier considered in Congress, but rejected in 
the law just approved by the lower house. In short, this week should be 
interesting, even if social movements are unable to carry out all of their 
extremely ambitious actions.

Imperial Discontent and the Worried Face of the Local Bourgeoisie

Of course, for transnational petroleum companies with interests in Bolivia, as 
for local bourgeoisies from various sectors, the new law is ?confiscatory? and 
the threats by social movements threaten the ?legal security? needed to attract 
foreign investment into the country. Since becoming Secretary of State of the 
United States in late January of this year, Condoleeza Rice has been 
highlighting the numerous threats posed in the Andean region of Latin America, 
with Venezuela under Chávez and the war in Colombia top priorities, followed 
thereafter by the recent mobilizations and ousting of a president last month in 
Ecuador, and the frightening popularity of the Movement Toward Socialism in 
Bolivia. This new law and the mobilizations it?s inspiring are not likely to 
make the American administration any happier.

US Treasury Department`s Assisant Secretary of International Affairs, Randal 
Quarles ? while unwilling to make an ?official? statement while president Mesa 
was still deliberating over what action to take ? noted that if the law goes 
into effect, ?it is a sure thing that the first measure would be the suspension 
of investments, at minimum while Bolivia continues this uncertainty.? He 
further pointed to the vulnerability of the Bolivian state in relation to the 
International Monetary fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Inter-American 
Development Bank, all of which would be monitoring closely Bolivia?s action on 
natural gas, and would be considering their manipulation of lines of credit to 
the Bolivian state. In March, 2005 Mesa signed a Stand By loan with the IMF 
that promised to respect existing contracts and to develop an attractive 
environment for foreign investment.

Meanwhile, the Bolivian House of Hydrocarbons, the peek organization of the 
petroleum companies that operate within Bolivia, has threatened to stop their 
activities and investments in the country if this law is not vetoed by the 
President. The Confederation of Private Businesses of Bolivia has likewise come 
out strongly against the law, and has made clear that the social movement 
threats of mobilization threaten the ?legal security? necessary for a healthy 
business environment. In the past this has been the not so subtle code-speech 
for the need for the state to bust heads if social movements mobilize and block 
roads.

The country?s deep injustices of class and racial apartheid are once again 
rising to the surface in a politicized moment. Confrontation and conflict seem 
likely to hold sway over the coming weeks.

Jeffery R. Webber is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of 
Toronto and a member of the Canadian New Socialist Group.He is currently in 
Bolivia. With archives from La Razon, La Prensa, Pulso, and El Mundo.



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