STATEMENT ON BOLIVA
by the SPUSA International Commission - June, 2008
The Socialist Party USA expresses its solidarity with
the workers, campesinos and indigenous communities of
Bolivia who are struggling to create a new vibrant
socialist project in their country. The possibilities
of achieving such a goal were greatly accelerated by
the election in 2005 of the government of Evo Morales,
representative of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS)
party. Now, two years into Morales' first term, the
MAS government faces serious challenges from the right
delivered in the form of a movement for "autonomy"
coming from a bastion of the old oligarchy in Santa
Cruz.
The historical legacy and theoretical traditions of
socialism make it difficult to publicly declare
opposition to a genuine movement for autonomy
expressed by a nationally-oppressed group. We
re-affirm the notion that oppressed groups, minority
or majority, have, when facing oppression by a state
apparatus be it capitalist or ostensibly communist,
the right to self-determination. For example, claims
by Aymara communities in the north of Bolivia prior to
the election of the MAS government were clearly just
demands for the liberation of a majority grouping from
the shackles of a political economy directed by a thin
layer of capitalist elite taking direction from the
IMF/World Bank. The above definition has little to do
with the current crisis in Santa Cruz.
The claims by the property-owning elites in Santa
Cruz, commonly referred to as Crucenos, have nothing
to do with the right to self-determination or even the
desire for autonomy. They are, instead, part of a
concerted nation-wide effort to re-articulate a
right-wing movement in the country capable of
re-taking state-power. The Crucenos are at the
epicenter of this attempt since they have managed to
maintain key elements of power from the pre-MAS era --
access to property, access to local state-power and
access to external funding from US sources.
However, it would be a serious mistake to see Santa
Cruz as the last bastion of right-wing power in
Bolivia. Aspects of a resurgent right-wing project are
appearing all over the country. Because of the manner
in which it was dispersed in 2003, this new
conservative trend is forced to wear different colors
in different regions. In some cases, such as the Santa
Cruz-based Union Juvenil Crucenista and its
counterparts in other cities, the right acts in an
openly violent quasi-fascistic manner. In other
circumstances, they march in urban areas under the
cover of the Feminine Civic Committee to defend the
"family-basket" against supposedly inflationary MAS
policies. In the case of La Paz a pro-business elite
works through the nominally social-democratic party
dubbed Podemos (Social Democratic Power) which is led
by loser of the 2005 presidential elections Jorge
"Tuto" Quiroga. Taken together, these forces represent
a coherent attempt to re-organize the right in
Bolivia.
The MAS is a party built organically from the social
and workers' movements which developed in Bolivia at
the turn of the 21st century. As such, it contains
within it wings with nationalist, indigenous and
leftist agendas. The Morales regime has attempted to
balance these forces while building a progressive
electoral bloc. The government has carried out reforms
including the hydrocarbons nationalization
(essentially an increase in the tax-rate paid by
multi-nationals to the state) and a literacy program.
The MAS is now faced with the tasks of deepening the
revolution by addressing demands from working class
and indigenous communities for re-organizing the state
to recognize the organs of popular power, for a
substantive land reform and for a more aggressive
campaign of nationalizations. Such developments would
mark a positive move from the development of a
"normal" or "Andean-Amazonian" capitalism towards a
democratic socialist project.
There is much for socialists in America to learn from
the Bolivarian Revolution. The mobilizations of the
early 21st century, the construction of popular organs
of political decision-making and the ability to
dispose of successive right-wing governments
demonstrates the capacity of the working class and
peasantry to transform political reality. Confronting
the elites based in Santa Cruz, a region which
produces 60% of Bolivia's yearly GDP, is a crucial
step to neutralize the resurgent right-wing thereby
securing the future of the Bolivian Revolution. The
Socialist Party USA supports efforts to extend the
democratic-socialist project to address the historical
inequities which have defined class relations in
Bolivia.
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