Bolivia: The War Goes On
Volk, Steve
Che Guevara saw Bolivia as one of the weakest links in the long imperialist chain. A country with a rich history of worker and peasant struggles, including the democratic- bourgeois revolution of...
...Two years later, Paz Estenssoro officially rescinded the workers' veto (control obrero) in the COMIBOL administration...
...He has governed, until recently, with the combined support of the MNR and the FSB, arch-enemies of yesterday...
...Although most of Bolivian history has been concentrated on the5 Glossary* COB: CENTRAL OBRERA BOLIVIANA (Bolivian Workers' Federation...
...When class strife threatened his government, Bolivian President Daniel Salamanca fostered a conflict with neighboring Paraguay as one way of meeting that crisis...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, NY3 became Paraguayan territory...
...Cited in Laurence Whitehead, The United States and Bolivia: A Case of NeoColonialism (London: Haslemere Group, 1969), 23...
...Founded in 1944, the FSTMB has always been the most important single federation of mine workers and a key organization in the COB...
...On that date, for the first time since 1952, all sectors of the left fought together against the common enemy...
...Recently founded by Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, the Minister of Mines and Petroleum under General Ovando who nationalized Gulf Oil...
...Let us be worthy heirs of the sacrifice of those who fell on August 21st while defending Bolivia...
...The DCR is a movement based on radicalized petit-bourgeois intellectuals...
...Formed immediately after the defeat of Torres as a coalition of the majority of leftist parties and movements in Bolivia...
...Lest it lose a good investment, the United States rushed Barrientos to the Canal Zone in an airplane from the Military Group for emergency treatment...
...Political parties and organizations are annotated and described in a special glossary on page 5. Arms still in hand, the proletarian and peasant sectors of the new government pushed through some fundamental measures within a short period...
...Le Duan, La revolucion vietnamita (Buenos Aires: La Rosa Blindada, 1971), 25, 41...
...The MNR governed from 1952-1964 (Victor Paz Estenssoro: 1952-56...
...Co-government" schemes without a proletarian party leading the government meant that the worker-ministers were used by the MNR to win mass support for bourgeois goals...
...advisers in Bolivia may not have understood this conflict within the leftist movement in Leninist terms, but they did understand standard procedures of distributing enough money and materials to the unions to encourage graft among its leaders...
...The MNR returned to the government in 1971 in a coalition with the FSB and the Banzer regime...
...Of these, the most important were: 1) nationalization of the "Tin 'Barons' " properties and the creation of a state mining corporation (COMIBOL) to administer them...
...The process reached crisis proportions by mid-1951...
...Though momentarily defeated, Che's guerrillas produced a profound and lasting effect in...
...Con- sequently, they have spent twenty years and millions of dollars in an attempt to shore up their forces in that country...
...This contradiction prevented him from arming them until it was too late...
...Supported the Villarroel government (1943-46) and led the 1952 revolution...
...Embassy, Green Berets and the CIA called the political shots...
...PCB: PARTIDO COMUNISTA BOLIVIANO (Bolivian Communist Party...
...This struggle intensified after a reactionary alliance overthrew (and hung) Villarroel in 1946...
...2) basic agrarian reforms for the altiplano, the high plateau where two-thirds of the population lived...
...But agricultural imports were also prohibited, thus strengthening the new eastern agricultural sector...
...But most saw the Assembly as an early stage of, or transition to, the proletarian state, and none viewed it as the final culmination of the socialist revolution...
...Ovando nationalized Gulf Oil in 1970...
...Le Duan, Secretary General of the Vietnamese Workers' Party (Lao Dong), has written: "the revolutionary army . . . can only be the workers' and peasants' army .. placed under the immediate and undivided leadership of our Party, the party of the working class...
...Steve Volk FOOTNOTES 1. See Sergio Almaraz Paz, Petroleo en Bolivia, 2nd ed...
...In general, one can say that revolutionary violence is based on two forms of struggle: armed struggle and political struggle, one combined with the other...
...It is logical, then, that as political crises occur, the union rather than the political party takes upon itself the direction of the response, functioning "as a kind of soviet, fulfilling the responsibilities normally the preserve of the state...
...By 1956 the U.S...
...The wheels of this U.S.style machine were greased with U.S...
...Gil Reyes (Agriculture), and Raul Lema Pelaez (Treasury) are all members of the Santa Cruz bourgeoisie...
...The result of this has been continual revolts, nearly two-hundred presidents in 150 years of national independence, and a tendency to rely on the military to rule...
...3. Drew Pearson, "Wise U.S...
...and, 3) the construction of a new bourgeoisie to replace the one traveling downhill since 1929...
...Member of the FRA...
...Zavaleta, op...
...Barrientos, in return, threw his country open to U.S...
...Disruption in the agrarian sector-especially on the highlands-in the early years of the agrarian reform and a U.S...
...Following three days of intense fighting highlighted by the valient offensive of dynamitewielding miners, the military collapsed and the MNR took over the government...
...The agricultural sector of the ruling class, on the other hand, was socially significant but it was weakened by its very limited economic importance...
...While the party's main strength is in the Santa Cruz region, it is very strong among university students and other sectors of the urban petit-bourgeoisie...
...A 1956 report to the State Department by U.S...
...Organized proletarian support brought Torres to power in 1970...
...Ambassador Edward Sparks convinced Milton during the latter's trip to La Paz that Bolivia could only be recaptured if a moderate, long-term strategy were planned.3 U.S...
...See Gregorio Seizer, La CIA en Bolivia (Buenos Aires: Hernandez Editor), 1970...
...millers such as W. R. Grace & Co...
...aid and an extensive training program for Bolivian officers in the Canal Zone and the United States...
...Some of these conflicts were more important than others, but the Chaco War (1932-1935) was undoubtedly a major turning point in modern Bolivian history...
...1960-64...
...Given the predominant level of U.S...
...Hugo Banzer, a former military attache to Washington, based his power in Santa Cruz, headquarters of the party...
...In 1964 Gulf produced 3 percent of the total Bolivian petroleum output and the state agency, YPFB, produced 95 percent...
...Bolivia is composed of three major geographical regions: the altiplano (highlands), the yungas (valleys or tropical highlands), and the oriente (eastern lowlands...
...The struggle of the Bolivian people became internationalized when the reactionary oligarchy of Santa Cruz turned to Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and the United States for aid in overthrowing Torres and supporting Banzer...
...But the cold-warrior syndrome of Eisenhower-Dulles was tempered by the far-sighted advice of Milton Eisenhower, the President's brother.2 U.S...
...policy: support for an open military dictatorship...
...The plan, highly touted by Kennedy as the model for Alliance for Progress lending and an early experiment in multi-lateral aid, required the massive firing of miners and justified the murder or exile of many of their leaders...
...By 1964 the twelve year U.S...
...Torres feared the workers as much as he realized that he could only survive if they remained strong...
...or the placing of U.S.-trained "free labor unionists" in workers' organizations to influence political decisions...
...Based on a nationalist, petit-bourgeois ideology, the MNR represented large sectors of the proletariat, petit-bourgeoisie, and even a small sector of the progressive bourgeoisie...
...When the workers' traditional militancy is channeled into a revolutionary political instrument, the victory will be theirs...
...Inter-American Economic Affairs, Vol.25 ,no.1 (S.1971 ),3-19...
...PC(ML): PARTIDO COMUNISTA (MARXISTA-LENINISTA) (Communist Party-Marxist Leninist...
...The Falangist Carlos Valverde, Minister of Social Services and Public Health, is a well-known liquor and cigarette smuggler who operates between Santa Cruz and Paraguay...
...In short, unions isolated from a party tend to be over-concerned about short-term economic demands while neglecting larger issues of the securing of class power, react in a spontaneous rather than a politically conscious manner, and follow populist positions...
...1 7 The power of both, according to Rene Zavaleta, was rooted in the army and based on personal control...
...Formed shortly after the 1952 revolution, the COB represents all sectors of the organized labor movement...
...The Banzer regime recently outlawed the federation in an attempt to smash it...
...aid policy had sufficiently disarmed the labor unions, split the MNR, rebuilt the military, and joined the petit-bourgeoisie with the new bourgeoisie to permit a more characteristic U.S...
...strategy toward Bolivia developed into one maxim: "buy time" until a "shift in the balance of power" could be effected...
...MNR: MOVIMIENTO NACIONALISTA REVOLUCIONARIA (Revolutionary Nationalist Movement...
...cit., 64...
...This glossary is designed to provide short descriptions of the various political parties, movements and organizations in Bolivia...
...imperialism cannot govern an exploited area without the direct participation of a local bourgeoisie...
...The union, by itself, "is able to develop only trade-union consciousness," 7 when what is needed is proletarian socialist consciousness...
...Che did not conceive of the struggle in Bolivia as an isolated fact," Fidel later wrote, "but as part of a revolutionary liberation movement which would permit the incorporation of all those who wanted to fight for the liberation of Bolivia and the rest of the peoples subjugated by imperialism in Latin America...
...loans helped construct sugar mills, import mechanized agricultural equipment, explore for oil, support colonization programs, and subsidize sugar, rice and cotton producers...
...The Diary of Che Guevara (San Francisco:.Ramparts Magazine, July 27, 1968), 6. 15...
...U.S...
...But here the similarities end...
...Food-for-Peace program which sold Bolivia wheat at below world market prices discouraged producers from planting certain important food crops...
...These programs also led to the decay of the Bolivian flour milling industry since flour could be imported more cheaply from U.S...
...It is true that Barrientos received some support from sectors of the peasantry which had developed a reactionary petitbourgeois mentality following the agrarian reform measures of the 1950's...
...Ruben Sanchez had been captured and released by Che Guevara's guerrillas in 1967...
...aid money...
...His Rangers were responsible for the death of Che in Nancahuazu in 1967.19 Santa Cruz's proximity-political and ideological as well as geographical-to Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay confirmed Che's political analysis of 1967...
...Col...
...POR: PARTIDO OBRERO REVOLUCIONARIO (Revolutionary Workers' Party...
...A large part of the new bourgeoisie found political expression in the ranks of the Falange (FSB...
...The Foreign Minister, Mario Gutierrez, leader of the party since 1958, is one of the wealthiest Santa Cruz cattle ranchers...
...upper class into various competing economic sectors would produce a major confrontation, the Civil War...
...David Toro, Lieut...
...the Santa Cruz- Yacuiba, Argentina, railroad financed by Argentina (begun in 1955...
...Air Force wings which he proudly wore even though he was a Bolivian, not a United States, officer...
...imperialist strategy would now concentrate on what was impossible in 1952: the physical repression of the workers' movement...
...A. Division of the Proletariat...
...Outstanding unions such as the FSTMB of the miners have defined the nature of the struggle and provided its leadership since the mid-1940's...
...strategy had begun to pay off...
...In contrast to countries like Chile, the Bolivian ruling class has always suffered from severe internal divisions...
...strategy of re-building the Bolivian bourgeoisie had definitely paid off...
...Based on the miners' militant positions (See "The Thesis of Pulacayo" in this issue), the MNR continued to chip away at the ruling class...
...and Brazilian support for the Banzer regime, the present popular movement focuses on the contradiction between imperialism and the exploited countries...
...Although it took no open steps to punish the Toro government for the 1936 nationalization of Standard Oil of New Jersey, the United States did refuse to recognize the Villarroel government until MNR leaders were removed from its first cabinet...
...1 (December 1972), 23...
...Andres Selich, Interior Minister, combined a Santa Cruz background with extensive training by the U.S...
...While these officers feared the independent political power of the proletariat, they realized that they needed the workers' support to remain in office...
...It recently broke that coalition...
...Did the convocation of the Assembly herald the creation of a workers' state...
...The violent years of the Barrientos dictatorship during which the CIA openly ran the Interior Ministry (according to the Minister, Antonio Arguedas),1 3 greatly accentuated the contradictions building in Bolivia...
...The FSB has become very influential in the Banzer regime where its leader, Mario Gutierrez, is Minister of Foreign Relations...
...The early steps of creating an economic infra-structure in the region were finished by 1961...
...Without a working class political party to lead the masses, the MNR's reforms could not be turned into revolutionary measures...
...PRIN: PARTIDO REVOLUCIONARIO DE LA IZQUIERDA NACIONAL (National Leftist Revolutionary Party...
...PIR: PARTIDO DE LA IZQUIERDA REVOLUCIONARIA (Leftist Revolutionary Party...
...A 1970 split from the Bolivian Christian Democratic Party...
...The leftist political parties disagreed in their analysis of this question...
...assistance projects were operating in Santa Cruz...
...The counterinsurgency forces led by U.S.-trained Bolivian Special Forces (Rangers), also understood the importance of isolating Che's column...
...A country with a rich history of worker and peasant struggles, including the democratic- bourgeois revolution of 1952, Bolivia still bears the weight of a reactionary bourgeoisie, an oppressive military, and no small number of U.S...
...and, 7) creation of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), a national labor federation under the leadership of Juan Lechin, one of the miners' top representatives...
...While he had hoped to substitute support from the military (created under his auspices) for that of the left, his plan backfired...
...A last-ditch military Junta found itself forced to nullify presidential election results when the vote count showed a clear victory for MNR-leader Victor Paz Estenssoro, one of the party's founders...
...The dimensions of the tragedy greatly weakened the old oligarchy, which was not in very good shape to begin...
...The first government established after Torres' downfall illustrates their force and the important role of the Santa Cruz bourgeoisie...
...By and large it is probably true that in a showdown the armed civilian militia comprised principally of miners, are the ones who can control the situation...
...He understood that the separation of the U.S...
...Ovando believed that once he had nationalized Gulf Oil he could massacre the guerrillas (the ELN column at Teoponte) and carry out assassinations with impunity...
...Bolivia, the geographical heart of the South American continent, symbolizes the contradictions of Latin American history: a rich country, a pauperized people...
...He wanted both to wipe out the most dangerous elements on the left and to maximize the army's prestige...
...6. Rene Zavaleta Mercado, "Bolivia-Military Nationalism and the Popular Assembly," New Left Review, Vol.77, 70...
...Che often wrote in his diary that, "we continue without contacts of any kind and without reasonable hope of establishing them in the near...
...It left clandestinity for the first time to fight against the Banzer coup d'etat on August 21, 1971...
...5. Ibid...
...A further split in 1964 divided the party into a pro-Soviet group (PCB) and a pro-China group (PC-ML...
...Three years further into Barrientos' term, Gulf held 82 percent of production and the YPFB share slipped under 20 percent...
...The Santa Cruz bourgeoisie had prospered with the region's cash crops and basic resources...
...When congressmen attending hearings on the aid program to Bolivia ($20 million for fiscal year 1956, for example) complained that it was only "subsidizing inefficiency of production," they were reminded that "we are having to buy time here (Bolivia...
...FRA: FRENTE REVOLUCIONARIO ANTI-IMPERIALISTA (Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Front...
...Parties, on the other hand-aside from the MNR-tend to be small and play a leadership role only in so far as their militants are also union members...
...Torres nationalized the Matilde zinc mine owned jointly by U.S...
...Pro-China sector of the Communist Party which was formed in 1964...
...Formed after the defeat of Torres by Major Ruben Sanchez, head of the Colorado regiment, the only loyal troops in the fighting against Banzer...
...But his government brutally attacked the working class whenever the occasion arose...
...8 B. Destruction of the Worker-Petit-Bourgeoisie Alliance...
...And the other "crop" flourished, as well...
...To the extent that the Bolivian bourgeoisie had crumbled away during the previous two decades, the United States was forced to keep a closer watch on the situation...
...Although he spiced his speeches with nationalist rhetoric, Barrientos mortgaged his government to the First National City Bank, W. R. Grace and Company, and Gulf Oil while the U.S...
...loans (1954-9...
...Bolivia has endured one of the most tumultuous histories in Latin America...
...Founded in 1941 as a nationalist coalition of the proletariat, petit-bourgeoisie and progressive bourgeoisie...
...German Busch, and Major Gualberto Villarroel, attempted to introduce radical nationalist reforms from above, but with the support of the working class and the peasantry...
...Member of the FRA...
...In short, this is the basic reason for an unusually chaotic political history...
...Member of the FRA...
...Gulf Oil is a case in point...
...Other U.S...
...To add to the already serious situation, the United States refused to negotiate a new contract for the purchase of Bolivian tin with the Junta in March of that year...
...FSB: FALANGE SOCIALISTA BOLIVIANA (Bolivian Socialist Falange...
...1,128-29...
...The process of shoring up the ruling class and attacking the workers accelerated with the 1961 "Triangular Plan" financed by USAID, West Germany and the InterAmerican Development Bank...
...15 Thus, a great danger exists for revolutionaries when these two struggles are separated...
...Workers' control" in the COMIBOL mines led to the creation of a trade union bureaucracy, thus dividing each mine from the others and the miners from other laboring sectors...
...The POR is presently led by Guillermo Lora...
...The international depression of the early 1930's had hit Bolivia with particular fury, sharpening internal class conflicts and intensifying the differences which already existed within the ruling class...
...The war goes on...
...4. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on the Committee on Government Operations, Hearings on United States Technical Assistance and Related Activities in Latin America, 84th Congress, 1st Session (October 1955),384-5...
...It has been led by Juan Lechin since its earliest days...
...Member of the FRA...
...The United States reacted cautiously to events in Bolivia...
...The Santa Cruz connection was important in the naming of the other new ministers as well...
...1 4 Che encountered the same problem that has plagued the Bolivian left since 1952: no political party existed to direct and focus the struggle developing in the Nancahuazu region of Southeastern Bolivia...
...For example, while altiplano production of corn and potatoes increased 21 percent and 31 percent respectively between 1962 and 1971, production of cotton (up 809 percent), coffee (+375 percent) and sugar (+242 percent) had boomed...
...Founded in 1937 by university students...
...Member of the FRA...
...The Santa Cruz Bourgeoisie and the Reactionary Offensive...
...He also has strong ties to the reactionary governments of nearby Paraguay and Brazil...
...change would flow from above...
...To a large extent, though, the war between these two countries also was encouraged by a conflict between two international oil giants-Standard Oil of New Jersey and Royal Dutch Shell-each of which wanted control over the supposedly oil-rich lands of the Chaco...
...5) initiation of "cogovernment" (the coalition rule of the petitbourgeoisie/ bourgeoisie and the working class) with the naming of worker and peasant cabinet officials...
...On April 9, 1952, the MNR led an open revolt against the Junta with the support of one of its own top officers...
...Revolutionary workers' control should have encouraged the realization that worker control of all enterprises was necessary before worker control of any could be assured...
...The regimes of General Alfredo Ovando (1969-1970) and General Juan Jose Torres (1970-1971) contained many similarities...
...It is still headed by Juan Lechin...
...The FRA's unity, which represents only the first step in a very long march, was forged in the heat of battle on August 21, 1971...
...The stabilization plan was drawn up by George Jackson Eder, a North American adviser invited to Bolivia by Paz Estenssoro only after the United States threatened to curtail their aid program.11 One of its provisions greatly en- couraged the creation of the Santa Cruz bourgeoisie...
...Under Barrientos the military had become so unpopular that, according to Torres, "we were not even able to get on to the buses...
...His economic base was cattle, and he had large herds in the eastern province of the Beni...
...16 per year for non-profit institutions ($30 for two years...
...MIR: MOVIMIENTO DE LA IZQUIERDA REVOLUCIONARIA (Leftist Revolutionary Movement...
...More than 80,000 Bolivians perished in the fighting and a sizable chunk of Southeastern Bolivia ARGENTINA SPROVINCE SOUDARY MA_ O ROADS -MA)OR RAILROADS AUtt Marp of Bolivia NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT Vol...
...1 2 So the MNR re-built the army with large doses of U.S...
...Cornelius Zondag, La economia boliviana, 1952-1965 (La Paz-Cochabamba: Los Amigos del Libro, 1968), 84...
...the United States had "bought enough time...
...6 Yet history has shown that only a politicalparty, based on the strength of the proletariat but more encompassing than a work-place organization, can develop and carry through a program designed to win power for the workers as a class...
...Dual exchange rates for imports were prohibited, thus crushing national industry which previously could import machinery and equipment at a low cost...
...Labor Counselor Eugene A. Gilmore clarified this to a congressional committee, saying: The revolution was engineered largely by miners and they are organized in what is known as the Central Obrero Boliviano...
...In countries like the United States the military is generally used by a united ruling class against the working class either at home or abroad...
...And leftist leaders, jailed, exiled and persecuted, manage to return to the struggle at the first opportunity...
...Characteristic of both the old and the new bourgeoisie, Barrientos had strong ties to the United States...
...By calling for the nationalization of the large tin mines and the re-assertion of national control over the economy, the MNR mobilized a mass movement to fight for social change...
...Foreign wars have always provided the oligarchy with an opportunity to cement over class differences with the notion of "national interest" and "defense of the Fatherland...
...Since August 1971 Bolivia has been brutalized by Hugo Banzer and his Santa Cruz allies...
...or, simply, how to encourage programs of short-term economist demands which, in effect, divided the labor movement within itself...
...Today's9 struggle is between the majority of the Bolivian people," states a FRA manifesto, "and the reactionary dictatorship of Banzer...
...Hugo Gonzales, Minister of Information, had carried on a persistent press campaign in favor of Gulf Oil (located in Santa Cruz) during the Ovando government when he ran the important paper, La Nacion...
...But, for the first time in Bolivian history, a new political alliance emerged after the Chaco War: the nationalist military supported by the proletariat...
...Labor militancy has not decreased since the coup...
...Since the revolution of 1952 it has been a right-wing party with very little support...
...In fact, previously moderate sectors of the labor movement have become increasingly radicalized in the face of government attempts to destroy their organizations...
...a revolutionary proletariat, no vanguard, no leadership...
...George Jackson Eder, Inflation and Development in Latin America...
...Members of his own political police squad recently beat to death their former leader, Col...
...It obviously cannot replace the political analysis of these groups which is presented in the body of the articles.6 relatively narrow altiplano, the easternlowlands constitute 70 percent of the national territory.And, while mining generally occurs in the highlands, the eastern regions have abundant reserves of oil, natural gas, and wood, and present optimal conditions for the cultivation of rice, sugar, cotton, and the raising of cattle...
...construction of feeder roads and bridges on this highway with $33.7 million in U.S...
...The U.S...
...Selected Works, Vol...
...The party is strongest in urban areas and in some of the mines...
...Che did not outlive his ideas, but he fecundated them with his own blood...
...2. Milton Eisenhower's recommendations for his brother's Latin American policy were written in his book, The Wine is Bitter: The United States in Latin America (Garden City: Doubleday), 1963...
...strategy for Bolivia, it seems, has paid off: it is no longer "buying time" in this land-locked country...
...Production of petroleum, natural gas, iron and cattle from the Santa Cruz region also flourished...
...imperialists...
...Rogelio Garcia Lupo, "Los separatistas de Santa Cruz dominan completamente al gobierno derechista boliviano," Inter-Press Service release NRO 992/971, August 1971...
...Although the United States poured over $198 million into Bolivia between 1953 and 1961 (as opposed to only $23 million from 1946-1952), the net effect of the aid was to disrupt the Bolivian economy in all but certain areas...
...The correlation of forces within the country shifted out of the workers' favor...
...His U.S...
...Bolivia's bourgeoisie was even less able to reach an agreement within its own ranks on how "development" should occur...
...2) the destruction of the petit-bourgeois-proletarian alliance by the creation of a reactionary petit-bourgeoisie...
...As in earlier periods of Bolivian history, the workers' support could maintain the government in power-at least temporarily--but it was not sufficiently strong to dictate its course...
...On the other hand, the Assembly, or elements within it, pressed for certain revolutionary structural changes in the country without also tackling the problem of self-defense from the inevitable counter-revolutionary offensive...
...In response to the revolutionary threat of the Popular Assembly, the international bourgeoisie sowed the seeds of another Vietnam in Bolivia...
...When a miners' conference voted to support Che's forces in June 1967, the army moved in and massacred more than 100 at the large Siglo XX mine...
...The United States Plans Its Strategy...
...The plan blamed the proletariat for the severe inflation rather than the bourgeoisie which had systematically decapitalized the tin industry, or the petit- bourgeois sectors of the MNR, up to their ears in graft...
...Formed from the ranks of Che's guerrilla column, the ELN has carried on the majority of military attacks directedat the reactionary governments since Barrientos...
...The United States turned its energies to this region, centered around Santa Cruz, in the hopes of cultivating yet another cash crop: a bourgeoisie...
...Both carried out nationalizations, were dominated by institutional loyalty and negotiated with the imperialist powers...
...2, February 1974 Published monthly, except May-June and July-August when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, NY 10027...
...Following the late 1972 devaluation of the Bolivian peso by 67 percent, the textile workers took to the streets to protest the exorbitant increase in their cost of living...
...Falangist elements have dominated Bolivia since the reactionary coup d'etat of August 21, 1971...
...Since the early part of this century, labor unions rather than political parties have been the strongest organizational tool of the Bolivian left...
...Ibid., 65...
...The MIR is strongest among the radical petitbourgeois intellectual sectors of the urban areas and universities...
...The importance of this cannot be underestimated...
...See "Tin and Imperialism" in this issue...
...Subscriptions: $10 per year for individuals ($18 for two years...
...Bolivia in 1952 posed a serious problem to the United States since such a local force did not exist...
...In early 1964 an assassin's bullet aimed at him was deflected by the set of U.S...
...Over the next ten years, three "military socialists," Col...
...By 1960 over sixty U.S...
...Member of the FRA...
...Hernan Siles Zuazo: 1956-60...
...The PCB was organized in 1950 after a split within the PIR, an older Marxist party...
...La Paz: Jose Camarlinghi), 1969...
...The MNR-FSB coalition shattered in late November 1973, and the old opportunist, Paz Estenssoro, has again been forced into exile...
...One hundred and thirty-two worker delegates, 53 delegates for white collar groups, 23 for the Independent Peasants' Confederation and 11 for the most important left parties composed the bulk of the Assembly...
...Bank employees, teachers, miners and others have also militantly demonstrated their opposition to the Banzer regime, undoubtedly the most repressive in Bolivian history...
...New York Times, January 9, 1974...
...For Bolivia's unusual position in the center of South America gives it an importance which its small population (5 million) and poverty cannot explain...
...COMIBOL: CORPORACION MINERO DE BOLIVIA (Bolivian Mining Corporation...
...Ciro Humboldt (Labor), Carlos Serrate (Mining and Petroleum), Enrique Leigue (Urbanism and Housing), Col...
...He also nationalized the properties of the Dallas-based International Metals Processing Company.8 The Torres government reach its high point with the convocation of a Popular Assembly, a measure demanded by the workers and peasants who supported the general's bid for power...
...Since 1938 it has followed the ideological position of the Fourth International (Trotsky), and is now affiliated with the Paris-based Organization Communiste Internationaliste...
...At present," he wrote, "with the army reduced to a nominal force, and the miners and peasants armed, the government seems to lack a certain element of strength...
...Since 1952 was an election year, the problem of Bolivia was left to the incoming Eisenhower administration...
...strategists clearly saw that, following the revolution, armed Bolivian workers held the key to power even though they did not have a very firm grasp on it...
...The Assembly was to represent the working class in the same way that the Congress had always represented the bourgeoisie and the petit-bourgeoisie...
...FAR: FUERZAS ARMADAS REVOLUCIONARIAS (Revolutionary Armed Forces...
...2 1 And even junior officers of Banzer's own military institution have begun to protest the massive mortgaging of the country to foreign capitalists...
...Fidel Castro, "A Necessary Introduction...
...Three crucial manipulations were necessary: 1) the division and demoralization of the proletariat...
...In 1952 the proletariat and the petit-bourgeoisie acted together for both classes suffered from the misrule of the oligarchy...
...Abe Lincoln once noticed that "a house divided against itself cannot stand...
...All forms of sectarianism are counterrevolutionary...
...General Rene Barrientos dumped him from office in a bloodless military coup late that year...
...C. Construction of a New Bourgeoisie...
...Formed in May 1971 as a coalition of various popular, leftist and Marxist groups and parties...
...Castro, op...
...The Destruction of the Old Bourgeoisie...
...The new president, Col...
...General Rene Barrientos overthrew Paz at the beginning of his third term in office...
...7. Lenin, "What is to be done...
...Characteristic of the new bourgeoisie, Barrientos came from the lowlands (Cochabamba Valley) rather than the altiplano...
...These included various projects designed to link the eastern region to the rest of the nation: completion of the Cochabamba-Santa Cruz highway with a $50 million loan from the Eximbank (1953-4...
...Instrumental in overthrowing the Villarroel government in 1946, the Falange fostered continual attempts to remove the MNR during its years in power...
...Member of the FRA...
...1 The war, which Bolivian leaders thought they could easily win, was disastrous...
...The PIR, while very strong in organized labor before 1943, lost that support as a common front strategy allied it with the reactionary elements who overthrew Gualberto Villarroel...
...9. Melvin Burke, "Does 'Food for Peace' Assistance Damage the Bolivian Economy...
...But the similarities ended at that point, for by 1971 the U.S...
...Furthermore, sectors of the petit-bourgeoisie stood with the workers in 1971 as in 1952 since their economic foundation was shaken by both preceding governments...
...tin prices tumbled down...
...Encouraged by the undying militancy of the Bolivian workers, Che foresaw the liberation of Bolivia as a strategic step in the liberation of all Latin America...
...Designed to control the severe inflation, the IMF's plan actually aimed at controlling labor...
...While Ovando believed he could buy off the working class by nationalizing oil, and could then adopt a reactionary line, Torres was well aware that he had an active and powerful working class to deal with, and that without the workers, the balance on which his power rested would have collapsed...
...Steel, Phillips Brothers Ore Cor- poration, and Englehard Minerals and Chemical s Corporation...
...Remaining phases of U.S...
...The strength of the party is in the mines as well as among the proletariat in general...
...future...
...25 per year for profit-making and government organizations ($48 for two years...
...Member of the FRA...
...It is presently led by Mario Monje and Koelle Cueto...
...Member of the FRA...
...Yet its all-out determination to destroy the leftist parties and its attempts to crush the labor movement can only mean its time is swiftly running out...
...As with the military leaders, the MNR also sought an alliance between certain "enlightened" sectors of the bourgeoisie and the masses...
...Policy Paid Off in Bolivia," The Washington Post, March 22, 1967...
...An outright invasion, on the other hand, could be ruled out because of the proximity of the Korean War...
...The Movement has gradually lost most of its worker base and now draws its strength from sectors of the bourgeoisie and the petit-bourgeoisie...
...The vast majority of leftist and popular parties and organizations have joined the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Front (FRA...
...It participated in the guerrilla movement of Teoponte, and joined the MIR in 1971...
...8. House of Representatives, Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, op...
...Recently split into two groups (MIR-Causa Obrera and MIR-DCR) over the question of mass political work or vanguard military actions...
...In Bolivia and similarly exploited countries, it is used both for this purpose and by one sector of the bourgeoisie against another...
...6) implementation of workers' control (control obrero) in COMIBOL mines as workers won veto power over all decisions...
...The Politics of Repression...
...connections, in fact, once saved his life...
...economic adviser Cornelius Zondag reminded Siles that he needed political strength to push through the IMF Stabilization Program...
...DCR: DEMOCRACIA CRISTIANA REVOLUCIONARIA (Revolutionary Christian Democracy...
...I, no...
...In the 1960's and 1970's, the majority of national leaders from Barrientos to Banzer either have close ties to the Santa Cruz bourgeoisie or are its direct representatives...
...common borders with many South American republics, physical isolation...
...U.S...
...military in Panama and the United States...
...ELN: EJERCITO DE LIBERACION NACIONAL (National Liberation Army...
...Mining production declined as workers encountered massive problems in the administration of an industry which had been disintegrating for over twenty years without capital input...
...Paz Estenssoro (1952- 1956) authorized the re-opening of the Military Academy in July 1953, but only in 1956 did Hernan Siles (1956-1960) seriously construct an army...
...As Commander of the Bolivian Military Academy in 1955, he received training in the Canal Zone...
...The old problem of the Bolivian left persisted: unions, given to spontaneous activities and close to populist leaders, formed the backbone of its organization, not political parties...
...9 Severe inflation and generalized economic disruption resulted from these programs...
...While Banzer has nearly run out of strings to pull in order to maintain himself in power, the future success of the Bolivian revolutionaries depends on their ability to unify their ranks, combat sectarianism and form a political party capable of directing their struggle...
...the workers had just watched Ovando's installation...
...3) universal suffrage;4)disnemberment of the bourgeois armed forces...
...The Falange is a neo-fascist party founded in 1937 by five university students and modeled after the Spanish fascist party of the same name...
...Address all correspondence to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, NY 10025 or Box 226, Berkeley, CA 94701...
...They still have the arms and still represent the effective force in this Government...
...The United States also felt it was high time to reconstitute a full-scale armed force in Bolivia...
...The crisis of the Chaco War was also instrumental in the formation of the MNR, * founded in 1941...
...Copyright O 1974 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...Founded in 1934 as a Marxist party of the petitbourgeoisie and the proletariat...
...In light of these considerations, U.S...
...Economic conditions favored their movement as well: the petit-bourgeoisie flocked to the MNR as inflation ate away their earnings and savings...
...See "Bolivia: Brazil's Geopolitical Prisoner" and "Alliance for Power" in this issue...
...The Korean War again demonstrated that the United States4 could ill afford to lose Bolivia, the only major tin-producer in the Western Hemisphere...
...By forcing Bolivia to compensate the "Tin Barons" for their nationalized mines, the United States further decapitalized the mining industry...
...Yet this alliance was particularly fragile as the petit-bourgeoisie always sought to maintain its vulnerable economic position...
...The cost of living rose from an index of 100 in 1952 to 2,270 only four years later.10 Since inflation greatly affected the petit-bourgeoisie, they soon broke their tacit alliance with the workers and sought a more familiar union with the newly-forming bourgeoisie...
...VIII, No...
...Andres Selich, after he had begun to attack Banzer from the right...
...Torres, however, knew the limitations of his power, but wanted such a limited power since the price of real power was a weaker army and a stronger working class.18 As Zavaleta points out, the biggest difference between the two was the role of the working class in the Torres govern- ment...
...The death (or murder) of Barrientos in a helicopter crash in 1969 opened the road for the governments of two military nationalists following a short civilian interregnum...
...4 By refusing to recognize or deal with the new MNR government, the balance of power would swing even more in the workers' favor...
...These measures naturally produced some splits within the ranks of the governing MNR but, for the moment, the armed workers in alliance with other oppressed sectors held more power than any other single sector...
...In fact Lyndon Johnson, another cattle rancher, closely supported his rise to power...
...Organized in 1940 by a group of Marxist intellectuals who accepted the direction of the Third International...
...A Case History of Inflation and Stabilization in Bolivia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1968), 479...
...To the same extwnt the proletariat, organizedlargely aroundmining and some textile workers' unions, had enough power to cause the downfall of the nationalist military, but not enough to rule by itself...
...1 6 Military Nationalism and the Masses...
...And a workers victory there-as Che realized-could dramatically alter the balance of power throughout the continent...
...He later attended advanced classes as an air force general in Oklahoma...
...Although it has gone through some opportunist political maneuvers, it remains the neo-fascist party of the upper bourgeoisie and the reactionary petit-bourgeoisie...
...In the final analysis, though, the Assembly failed to develop into the political organ of a workers' state since it neglected the fundamental problem of power, of its own defense...
...and, the Santa Cruz-Corumba, Brazil, railroad financed by Brazil (begun in 1957...
...Yet over the years Paz had gradually lost the support of important right-wing sectors as well as the left...
...It has been one of the strongest parties in the mines since 1946 and was key in the formation of the left-wing of the MNR before the 1952 revolution...
...It was with this knowledge of the heightened contradictions that Che Guevara began his fateful guerrilla column in Bolivia...
...In 1956 the United States forced through an International Monetary Fund-financed "stabilization" program...
...investments...
...PS: PARDIDO SOCIALISTA (Socialist Party...
...5 Yet an imperialist victory in Bolivia required more than patience...
...2 0 Pressure from the left and the internal contradictions of his own coalition are forcing Banzer into a corner...
...Only the tin industry provided the bourgeoisie with a solid economic base, and the three dominant figures of this industry--Patino, Aramayo, and Hochschild-had already begun to move their profits out of Bolivia...
...It is important among peasant groups and, when Frederico Escobar was alive, the miners...
...The political situation of 1971 resembled that of twenty years earlier in that during both periods the proletariat was well organized and militant...
...For more on the Chaco War, see Herbert S. Klein, Parties and Political Change in Bolivia, 1880-1952 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1969...
...State-owned mining corporation which took over the properties of the three largest mine owners (Patino, Aramayo and Hochschild) following the 1952 revolution...
...FSTMB: FEDERACION SINDICAL DE TRABAJADORES MINEROS DE BOLIVIA (Bolivian Federation of Mine Workers...
...If Che understood the fragility of the oligarchy's control of the country, his imperialist enemies also did...
...In one of its most conscious acts, the United States proceeded to create a new bourgeoisie to replace the old divided and demoralized ruling class...
...But the leadership, clearly, would always come from the former...
...Both generals knew that only by moving the military within a nationalist framework could they protect its institutional continuity...
...The MNR closely identified with the ideas of the "military socialists," and even shared the government with Villarroel (19431946...
...Manifesto del FRA," Causa Obrera (Bolivia), Vol...
...In many respects it is similar to the Chilean National Party as both draw their strength from the upper bourgeoisie and the reactionary sectors of the petit-bourgeoisie...
...Fidel has summarized the idea which Che left in Bolivia, writing that "in all ages and under all circumstances there will always exist abundant reasons not to fight, but that will be the only way not to obtain liberty...
...In that year Paz7 Estensoro, mastermind of the MNR's opportunist wing, arranged for his third term in office...
...Formed in 1964 by Juan Lechin, an important labor leader, who was expelled by Paz Estenssoro from the MNR...
Vol. 8 • February 1974 • No. 2
