[Marxism] Peace in the mine: The Bolivian city Huanuni six months after the bloody conflict

[dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx]

[this is one of the more interesting reports from Bolivia and shows how the 
problems 
between the co-operative and union miners was resolved. I'm totally unfamiliar 
with the group associated with the web site, nevertheless, a fascinating 
report--David]


Peace in the mine
The Bolivian city Huanuni six months after the bloody conflict

The Bolivian city Huanuni, about four hours south of La Paz, is home to the
biggest mine in the country. 5,000 miners remove tin from the mine. The calm
atmosphere on the streets doesn't betray the fact that six months ago, on
October 5-6, bloody fighting left at least 14 people dead.

Everything in the city of 40,000 inhabitants revolves around the mine. That
becomes clear with a glance at the central square: next to the statues of
Simon Bolivar and different mayors, there's also a statue of Juan Lechin,
the father of the Bolivian trade union movement. A bit further up is a
statue of a simple miner with drill in hand.

The riches that are removed from the earth in three shifts ­ i.e. 24 hours a
day ­ stand in sharp contrast to the poverty of the city. At 4,100 meters
above sea level the nights are bitterly cold, but the small houses are
heated only with wood ovens. There is neither running water nor a sewage
system, and this means not only a terrible stench in the whole city: the
infant mortality rate is about 100 in 1,000. The river is terribly
contaminated from the mine, and in the piles of garbage on the banks, pigs ­
which look like dogs because of their long hair ­ sniff around for food.

Last year, 1.000 miners from the state mining corporation COMIBOL and 4.000
workers of the mining cooperatives worked here. On October 5, roughly 400
cooperativists attacked the mine shaft Posokoni, which belonged to the
state. In the ensuing fighting with dynamite and firearms 14 people died and
over 100 were injured. The state miners could defend their shaft.

The minister of mines at the time, Walter Villaroel, who was a
representative of the cooperativists, was implicated in the attack and
dismissed from his post the next day. In the weeks leading up to the
fighting it had become increasingly clear that such a conflict was
approaching: the state miners had repeatedly asked the government to send
troops, but Vice-President Garcia Linera answered: "Until there's deaths, I
won't send anything." ["Hasta que haya muertos, voy a mandar un cajón."]

Now green-uniformed officers of the national police and the military police
stand on every street corner in Huanuni. The government of the Movement
towards Socialism (MAS) withdrew all concessions to the cooperatives. Over
4.000 cooperativists have been integrated into the COMIBOL.

Edgar and Luis, quite young former cooperativists, find their new work
situation better in every way. "We had inhuman working conditions here" they
say. A 16-hour-day was no exception, because the cooperativists didn't get a
wage, only the amount they had removed from the earth themselves ­ minus a
cut for the leaders of the cooperative, of course.

"Now we have an eight-hour-day and a wage of 1.500 Bolivianos" [about 150
Euros per month.) The two reflect that they used to be "like a small
bourgeoisie", since the cooperatives were based on "exploitation amongst
colleagues." For this reason they were more interested in the welfare of the
company than in the welfare of Bolivia. When asked about their role in the
fighting, their flowing speech breaks off. "That's a long story."

They move on. It was precisely the poorest cooperativists who were mobilised
for the attack. Ana, a sociology-student from La Paz who is studying the
fighting, recognises manoeuvres of multinational mining companies behind the
conflict. They had an interest in a monopoly of the cooperatives, so they
could better enter the market.

Edgar and Luis had stopped in the central square to buy a few books from
Marx and Trotsky that a Marxist student from La Paz was offering on a small
table. These ex-cooperativists adapted the traditionally radical ideology of
the miners' union quite quickly: "We miners are all socialists" they say
with pride.

Daniel, a primary school teacher and leader of the local teachers' union,
witnessed the tensions even in the primary schools, i.e. between children of
"staters" and cooperativists. After the nationalisation of the mine, roughly
700-800 cooperativists refused the transfer to the state company (of course
it was those who earned the most). During a road blockade they killed a
police officer, and they're probably also responsible for dynamite being
exploded in a primary school.

"The working class needs its own strategy to win a workers and peasants
government" says Daniel, as he stocks up on Marxist literature. He isn't a
member of any political group, but his father and all his male relatives
were miners. "That's why I have Marxism in my blood" he says.

José, who has worked for the COMIBOL for decades, complains at the book
table that the ex-cooperativists have "no idea about politics". They have
been corrupted by ideas that in the cooperative supposedly everything is
shared, even though the worst exploitation is the norm. They were instilled
with a deep hatred of the trade unions.

For this reason he proposes that the student visitor should offer weekly
courses in Marxism ­ preferably on the radio. The miners' union FSMTB for
years has run the "trade union voice of the Bolivian miners", the only radio
station in Huanuni. Recently they also started a local TV station.

The integration of 4,000 ex-cooperativists in the trade union involved a lot
of problems, explains Miguel Zubieta, general secretary of the trade union
federation (COB) in the surrounding district of Oruro. Zubieta is known
across the country as a left-wing extremist in the national leadership of
the COB, but in his office in the pink house that serves as the trade union
headquarters, the small man with a missing front tooth makes a calm and
quiet impression.

Last week elections in the trade union in Huanuni took place. Even though
the statutes require a two-year membership, the ex-cooperativsts were
allowed to participate in the elections. Nonetheless trade unionists who had
worked for the state company for many years were elected as the new
leadership. Piece by piece the former petty bourgeois are adopting the
ideology of "revolutionary syndicalism", which forms the base of the
Bolivian trade union movement.

Zubieta explains that this ideology is passed on in the trade union
organisations and the miner's families, and not so much in classes. "Being a
miner simply means being left-wing, and people recognise this quickly". The
workers' identify with Marx, Lenin, Che Guevara (who's face forms part of
the Logo of the COB in Oruro) and recently also with the project of
"socialism of the 21st century" in Venezuela.

For the trade unionists, it's clear that demands for higher wages or better
working conditions aren't enough. One must "question the systems" and
"strive forward towards the seizure of power" ­ that's how Zubieta
summarizes revolutionary syndicalism. The wall murals in the assembly room
next to his office are entirely compatible with this: a miner with broken
chains raising a rifle in the air; an outline of the district Oruro with a
hammer and sickel; portraits of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky.

The COB welcomed certain steps of the MAS government such as the
nationalisation of the mine in Huanuni. But  they are generally critical of
the government. Currently they are discussing the formation of a "political
instrument of the workers", a kind of political party of the trade unions,
because they don't trust any of the country's political parties. This
project was decided on at a COB congress in 2002, but it's dragging on ­
Zubieta claims that certain trade union leaders lack the will to risk a
confrontation with the MAS government. But this week an enlarged leadership
meeting of the COB will discuss how to bring the project forward so they can
participate in the elections in 2008.

The COB is particularly critical about the fact that the Morales government
talks a lot about the nationalisation of natural resources but little about
the industrialisation of these resources. For 500 years, raw materials have
been removed from the ground below Bolivia, and this process has left behind
nothing but bitter poverty. That's why it's so important to build up a local
industry. Currently Bolivia is totally dependent on the prices for raw
materials, and Zubieta warns: "If the prices for tin on the world market
fall, then we all fall!"

Wladek Flakin, Huanuni
>From the permanentrevolution.net website.

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