Bolivia

Workers' news round up

By Pablo Velasco Pakistan Six Pakistani left parties and groups have united to form Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (AJT — the People’s Democratic Movement), which has the potential to become the fifth-largest political group in Pakistan. The AJT aims to contest the 2007 elections. The parties in the AJT are the National Workers’ Party (NWP), the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), Awami Tehreek (AT — People’s Movement), Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party (PMKP), Pakistan Mazdoor Mehaz (PMM — Workers Front) and Meraj Mohammed Khan Group (MMKG). The AJT has announced a campaign against growing militarisation and...

Bolivia: going beyond Morales?

David Broder outlines a critical view of Evo Morales’ rise to power in Bolivia and subsequent programme When Morales was elected in December 2005 the mainstream media saw it as the victory of the — workers’ and peasants’ “social movements” whose demonstrations and strikes shook the establishment last summer. This was a crude mischaracterisation. By then it had already become clear that the Movimiento al Socialismo leader will have to be pressurised into making any of his promised reforms. Morales lacks some of the autocratic tendencies of Venezuela’s president Chávez, with whom he has been...

Bachelet and the Latin American left

The election of leftish governments in Latin America continues with the recent Presidential victories of Morales in Bolivia and Bachelet in Chile. Other left candidates are likely to win in Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela this year. The trend is largely a reaction to the neo-liberal polices pursued by Latin American governments for over two decades, which has led to huge increases in poverty and unemployment, and disillusionment with the formally democratic regimes that replaced military governments. Not all these governments have the same political complexion or roots. Most still implement neo...

Morales installed in Bolivia

By Darcy Leigh On 18 December 2005, Evo Morales of the MAS (Movimento al Socialismo, Movement Towards Socialism) won 54% of the vote in the Bolivian presidential elections - the highest support for any candidate in Bolivia since the restoration of "democracy" in the 1980s. Turnout was 85% which was also much higher than in previous Bolivian elections. Morales is due to become the first indigenous president in a country that has a large indigenous majority. The MAS also won 78 members of congress, with another 78 going to right wing parties and one to the indigenous party, MIP. This means that...

Workers' news round-up

Bolivia The Bolivian elections on 18 December are being hailed as the end of 20 years of neoliberalism. Evo Morales, from the Movement to Socialism (MAS) party, who came second in the 2002 presidential election, is the leading candidate in the polls, with over 30% of the vote. The elections were called after the uprising in May-June this year, which forced out sitting president Carlos Mesa. The left in Bolivia do not believe the election or Morales will solve the problems facing Bolivian workers. Oscar Olivera, leader of the Coordinator of the Defence of Water and Life in Bolivia, the...

Election will not end Bolivian struggle

By Dan Katz IN June 2005 the latest round of street fighting in Bolivia ended, having forced the resignation of the president, Carlos Mesa. Mesa had been in power since October 2003 when similar protests had forced his predecessor, Sanchez de Lozada, out of office. Over the past five years Bolivia has been rocked by waves of protest movements that have demanded nationalisation of Bolivia’s natural resources and rights for indigenous people. Bolivia has a population of nine million; 60% live on less than 50 pence a day. After 1985 and the closure of Bolivia’s once vast state-owned tin mining...

Basta!

Activists should get hold of a copy of Basta! to show to their union branch or student union. It is a short film by Mariette Heres about the Bolivian gas and water wars. It will be shown at the No Sweat conference on 26 November. Basta! deals with the political crisis in Bolivia created by the struggle over Bolivia’s enormous gas and oil reserves. We also see the overthrow of President Sanchez de Lozada in October 2003, following strikes, demonstrations and blockades. The film ends in 2004, before the fall — in similar circumstances — of his replacement, Carlos Mesa. Mesa resigned on 6 June...

Roadblocks to Bolivian elections

By Harry Palmer The road to the Bolivian elections on 4 December is becoming increasingly fraught with obstacles. After Carlos Mesa’s resignation and the inauguration of Supreme Court head Eduardo Rodriguez as interim president last June, it was agreed to move national elections, originally scheduled for 2007, forward to December. However last month the Constitutional Court ruled that seats must be reapportioned to reflect the population shifts in the 2001 census, and without this change, elections would be unconstitutional. The substance of the ruling — the revision of seats based on census...

Bolivia: Will Morales Deliver?

In June mass protests demanding the nationalisation of the energy sector pushed out the president of Bolivia. José Sagaz of the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign spoke to David Broader, giving a personal view. Have the protests against privatization in Bolivia retained the same militancy since President Mesa was deposed the 6 June? The protestors gave the new president time to nationalise the oil industry — they’ve said he has 100 days. The organisations are still intact and haven’t been dismantled. But do the trade union federations seriously think that he’s going to do that? Well, we don’t know...

Behind the Bolivian uprising

By Pablo Velasco The barricades in the Bolivian uprising have come down for now, but the struggle is far from over. For the past month Bolivia has been rocked by strikes, road blockades and street demonstrations, which forced president Carlos Mesa to resign on 6 June. Mesa had been in power since October 2003, when the previous president Sanchez de Lozada resigned after similar mobilisations. The new President, Eduardo Rodriguez, a supreme court judge, is likely to call new elections for later this year. The current crisis began on May 16 when the right-wing dominated Congress approved Mesa’s...

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