Oh, hey, you might not believe it, but I have been following what's going on in Bolivia very keenly.
"I cannot resign because it would mean the end of the democracy and probably the disintegration of the country" - Sanchez de Lozada
The general strike was growing and spreading throughout the country, the first elements of dual power had emerged, the masses were prepared to go the distance, divisions within the ranks of the army and the police were growing, the middle class was joining in the protests, and the workers had started to organize self-defence committees.
‘Goni, bastard, the miners have arrived’
Then the president resigned!
However the celebration cannot hide the fact that the movement is aware that the aims of the struggle have not yet been achieved: the cancellation of the sale of gas and oil, the agrarian reform, the respect of the rights of the Indians, an end to the harassment of the coca-growing farmers.
The new government of Mesa has made all sorts of promises. It cannot do otherwise if it wants to buy some time in order to establish some sort of social basis. At the moment it only has the precarious support of the army, the US embassy and a handful of capitalists and landowners. I have no confidence in Carlos Mesa and his government!
And neither do the unions!
www.bolpress.com
Quote:
The COB programme of demands includes the following points: “the investigation in Congress of all the contracts concerning privatization and part privatization of oil, mines and state owned companies”, “the cancellation of the Land Law and the distribution of Land to the Peasants. Respect of the property of the Indians over the land”, “the recall of all the laws against the rights of the workers”, “the immediate withdrawal of the right to hire and fire”, “the recovery of the national industry, rejecting free trade as established in the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement”. Finally it also demands “trial for genocide of the Bolivian population of those responsible”.
The statement of the National Enlarged Meeting of the COB ends with a warning that: “whatever government there may be, it has to apply the demands of the people. If that is not the case, the streets and roads of our country will be our barricades again”. The Workers’ Union also called for another mass meeting on Saturday 18 to decide what steps to take.
The COB statement made this point clearly: “140 lives have been lost on the streets, giving their blood for the country, showing that with our strength we are able to overthrow dictatorships, even if they use the robes of democracy. Governments, even the most vicious and bloodthirsty ones, can be overthrown by the targeted aims of the people. Now we know that with our organization and our struggle we can and we must defeat neoliberalism.”
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