[Marxism] Bolivia's vice-president on the course of revolution

["Andrew Pollack" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

I would encourage comrades to read this speech, as well as the others
with links provided.
I don't know if García Linera is just confused or if, like many Social
Democrats in EuroCommunists when Gramsci was rediscovered in the
1980's, he is purposely trying to confuse his followers. I'm even
willing to say we needn't decide that and will judge him instead by
his actions, in particular what he does when the imperialist stooges
push their "autonomy" moves further. Nonetheless, we need to explain
what is wrong with his arguments and how they could ideologically
disarm the revolution. And on the basis of those arguments I am not
optimistic about him pursuing a path unlike that of Allende.
Just a few comments along those lines for now.
First, his concept of catastrophic equilibrium, which has several
stages, could, if one wanted to be charitable, be understood as a
further specification of the "revolutionary situation" concept he
attributes to Lenin, or of dual power, which he doesn't mention.
He says: "The way out of the catastrophic equilibrium or deadlock
would be the third step in the state crisis, which we will call
ascendant hegemonic construction," a point which represents a
bifurcation.
The examples of post-bifurcation states which he gives from Bolivian
history could in no way be characterized as revolutionary. Yet he says
that after bifurcation:
``From this moment on, we have a reconstituted neoliberalism or we
have a national, indigenous, popular, revolutionary state.''
That, he believes, is what exists in Bolivia today.
And that revolutionary state, he says, will resolve the current impasse thus:
"In actuality, the government is betting on another, a third form of
point of bifurcation, which would be a sort of democratic resolution
through a form of iteration... through various democratic actions the
tensions between contending forces will be resolved. This is one of
the possibilities that has opened up and the one that the government
will be trying to promote. The point of bifurcation will be resolved
neither through insurrection nor through a show of force and the
political and moral defeat of the adversary, but through the repeated
manifestation of the sovereign power based on the relocation of
powers, of local and regional forces, and the use of surpluses.
"A referendum will determine how many prefects remain, or a referendum
will determine whether the president and the vice-president continue
to govern. A referendum will determine the viability of the new
political constitution. Another referendum will determine the type of
autonomy that will be implemented... the three moments of force — how
to resolve the state architecture between the national and
sub-national levels, how resources are to be redistributed, and how
the institutional level of the state is organised — will have to be
determined through electoral action...
"In some of these moments, the deterrent capacity of the new social
power bloc will probably be put to the test, and this will illustrate
its ability to make decisions based on its capacity for social
mobilisation at the national, departmental and fundamentally regional
levels, which in turn will reveal its capacity to maintain command,
control and compliance with the structures of legitimate coercion in
the hands of the state, that is, the national police and armed
forces."
Again, Garcia Linera believes the Bolivian state ALREADY represents
the national, popular, revolutionary movement: "we can now say that in
Bolivia we have a government of social movements."

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