Bolivia--Libertarian past and present

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The Libertarian Ideal in Bolivia (2 Parts)

FREEDOM, Anarchist Fortnightly
London, June 12, 1999, page 6

Translated from the Spanish
Originally published in CNT, April 1999

Part 1

Sad paradox that of Bolivia: to have as "democratic" president the military
man who in 1971 led a bloody coup d'etat which established an infamous
dictatorship plagued with political assassinations and disappearances. Hugo
Banzer "The General" would then be made, like so many preceding petty
tyrants, to relinquish power forced by the actions of a people who years
later returned him to the presidency by way of the ballot box. Close friend
and protector of Klaus Barbie, the abominable nazi known as 'the butcher of
Lyon', Banzer is also a notorious drug dealer, which doesn't prevent him
from declaring war on the small-time coca farmers of the Chapare whose
out-of control competition he's bent on eradicating by faithfully following
orders from the true power behind the scene--the USA, of course.

With this scenario, and after several decades with presidents of a similar
ilk, who could be surprised that a country with twice the territory as the
Spanish State and barely eight million inhabitants, can figure among the
poorest nations in the continent in spite of its enormous natural resources.
The twenty-first century will arrive in Bolivia the same way the twentieth
leaves: with over half a million children doing all kinds of work, shoe
shines, street peddlers, couriers ... a large work force whose menial wages
has already become crucial to the diminishing family subsistence income;
with a foreign debt of $65 per person and with international financial
assistance shamelessly divided among the authorities and the rich and
powerful in front of the resigned eyes of the people (Transparencial
Internacional classified Bolivia as the world's second in corruption in
1997, topped only by Nigeria).

Although no great resistance to the situation is apparent at the moment
(with the exception of the Chapare peasants) this country has a rich
tradition of social struggle as witnessed by many rebellions. Here, as in
most of the continent, the anarchists played a crucial role.

A bit of history

The first references of truly libertarian character are the Union Obrera
Primero de Mayo (First of May Workers' Union) around 1906 at Tupiza. The
Union published the journal La Aurora Social (Social Dawn). A while later
Verbo Rojo (Red Verb), El Proletariado (The Proletariat) and La Federacion
appear in Potosi, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, respectively. During the '20s
workers' activism multiplies with constant libertarian participation in
miners' and popular struggles which obtain notable successes in spite of
ferocious repression. Groups active in La Paz at the time include Centro
Cultural Obrero (Workers' Cultural Centre), Centro Obrero Libertario
(Libertarian Workers' Centre), Grupo Libertario 'Rendencion' (Libertarian
Group 'Redemption') and the group La Antorcha (The Torch) which had as its
vocal La Tea (The Torch).

During this time the Federacion Obrera Local (FOL--Local Workers'
Federation) is reorganised. It would have a decisive influence in the
movement's struggles. FOL published La Humanidad (Humanity) and was
affiliated with ACAT (Asociacion Continental Americana de
Trabajadores -American Continental Association of Workers) which
co-ordinated anarcho-syndicalists of different countries and today tries to
revive itself. Other relevant groups of the time were Sembrando Ideas
(Sowing Ideas) and Brazo y Cerebro (Ann and Brain) in La Paz, and Centro
Obrero Internacional (International Workers Centre) in Oruro. To the south
at Sucre, the Ferrer i Guardia School was established, and a little later
the journal Tierra y Libertad (Land and Freedom) was published. In 1927 the
Sindicato Femenino de Oficios Varios (Union of women from different trades)
would become one of the most active groups within the FOL. "They were
masses, they marched in front and us behind" commented years later comrade
Lisandro Rodas about those courageous libertarian women who obtained
important improvements in labour conditions for the I endedoras capitalinas'
and women in general thanks to their struggle. Women such as Catalina
Mendoza, Petronila Infantes and Susana Rada among many are still remembered
in the markets of La Paz. Another area of struggle to which anarchists
dedicated much effort was that of the peasants made up, then as now, of an
indigenous majority. At the beginning of the thirties the FAD (Federacion
Agraria Departamental--Departmental Agrarian Federation) appears. Strongly
influenced by anarchists, it quickly grew in the fields of Bolivia causing
alarm among the landlords who reacted supported by the government and
unleashed a savage repression which caused the federation to disappear. The
so called Guerra del Chaco (The Chaco War) between Bolivia and its neighbour
Paraguay seriously weakened the movement and despite the creation of new
groups such as Ideario in Tupiza or the publications of FOL and La Voz del
Canipo (The Voice of Canipo) it was unavoidable that many unions were forced
to join the official COB (Confederacion Obrera Boliviana--Bolivian Workers'
Confederation) which spelled their death.

Modern Times

Between the '50s and the '80s a bunch of devoted militants continued acting
within the COB giving its struggles a libertarian character and suffering
terrible repression by the different dictatorships which coup after coup
succeeded each other at the helm. In 1988 the magazine El Gijio is published
in Cochabamba, analysing themes such as the Spanish Revolution and Bolivia's
anarchist movement. During those years there is important activity
recovering the history of the movement with the publication of several works
by Silvia Rivera and Zulema Lehm. Later, in the early '90s the Grupo de
Trabajo Sindical (GTS) undertook union work of libertarian orientation
although they tell us it is inactive at present. Accion Subterranea Julian
Apaza (Julian Apaza Underground Action) appears around this time in the city
of Cochabamba carrying on numerous activities and counting many anarchists
among its members. Some of its constituents were later co-opted by the local
trotskyists, with the collective suffering a change of ideology which makes
it be thought of as sectarian by many. In 1995 the collective Utopia is
born. It publishes the magazine Despues del Muro (After the Wall) also in
Cochabamba. In our days and always in that city Alternativa (Alternative),
Resistencia y Juventud (Resistance and Youth) and Revolucion are published.
The latter is the voice of the young people from ASP (Asamblea por la
Soberania de los Pueblos -Assembly for the People's Sovereignty), an
organisation created by the coca peasants of the Chapare for the defence of
their rights. These young people, among them many anarchists, stage numerous
activities against the state's repression. During a recent meeting they
decided to split from the ASP to create an autonomous collective based on
the so called communitarian socialism which has not a few parallels with
anarchism. Another collective recently formed in Cochabamba is La Vecindad
Punk-Core (The Neighbourhood Punk-Core), which promotes co-ordination among
music bands with political lines, organising concerts, publishing fanzines
and spreading protest ideology. They have a radio program at a local
station. Among the most committed bands we note Radio Urbano (Urban Radio)
and the already disappeared Llajtay Kjaparin (The Scream of the People in
Quechua) which mixed popular Bolivian music with punk rhythms.

The only apparently active group in La Paz is Mujeres Creando (Women
Creating). Their work is mainly feminist and homosexual vindication with a
libertarian angle. They publish Mujer Publica (Public Woman) and have their
own cafe named Carcajada (Laughter) where they have many activities. Their
dedication makes them well known occasionally enjoying the attention of the
local press and television. In the Bolivian capital the band 3-18 is worthy
of mention. At nearby El Alto there is the Contmataque (Counter attack)
fanzine while to the south, at Tanja, the collective No Represor (No
Repressor) is active with two publications; Insumision and Oveja Negra
(Black Sheep). We've been told that in the city of Sucre there is another
collective whose name we don't know at this time.

To this modest libertarian representation we have to add that of the veteran
fighters that live in the country and continue being faithful to their
ideals: At Beni, in the midst of Amazonia we had the pleasure of visiting
with comrade Antonio Garcia Baron who has lived in this corner of the rain
forest for over forty years. Antonio, barely 14, joined the Columna Durruti
and after the defeat he fought the nazis in France, being captured and
imprisoned in the extermination camp of Mauthaussen where he spent five
years. Cochabamba is the city chosen by another great fighter: Liber Forti.
A known figure in Bolivia's worker movement where he was active, first in
the FOL and later in the COB. He was a member of the collective Ideario and
founding member of Nuevos Horizontes (New Horizons) one of the most
prestigious theatre groups in the country and still active after fifty
years. Both comrades are in excellent health and full of enthusiasm.

This Bolivia of clearly indigenous majority still has a long way to go to
shake off the exploitation which some believe everlasting. Libertarian
ideals found echo, whenever possible, in a community such as the Indians
where a primitive socialism has been practised for centuries. Even so, the
local libertarians have their work cut out for them in order for anarchism
to recover the role it played yesterday in these lands.

***
The Libertarian Ideal in Bolivia

Part 2

FREEDOM, June 26, 1999

The situation in El Chapare

EI Chapare, the beautiful jungle area of Bolivia, is in a state of war.
40,000 peasant families have chosen to grow coca as their subsistence crop
and have organised themselves to resist the attacks of an administration
which has no intention of losing its monopoly of the crop. That a
government, abundantly shown to be involved in large scale drug trafficking,
should declare war on the small time producers would reduce anyone to tears
of laughter were it not for the steady trickle of victims among the peasants
which makes any laughter stick in the throat: fifty murders under the
previous administration and eleven in the first year of Banzer's regime.

Whilst elsewhere, in the region of Beni, the number of air flights--whose
cargo is recognised by one and all--has increased significantly, the
government, following IMF "recommendations" and especially those of the US
has sent 40% of its military to El Chapare with the aim of eradicating the
crop which threatens the fantastic profits to be made up north since it
drives the price down. The coca producing peasants are well organised and
their persistence in their struggle is reminiscent in many ways of what is
happening in Chiapas.

In El Chapare, as in Chiapas, people speak of seizing back their dignity,
women speak of banning alcohol in their communities and if necessary they
resort to violence as a legitimate means of self-defence. The coca peasants
are not only motivated by economics as the government and the media would
have people believe. Coca forms an essential part of local cultural
identity, its use is ritualistic in their culture and of great value in
social and production aspects meaning that its forced eradication affects
the sense of identity of a whole people (particularly when this directive
comes from the outside). The Whipala--the peopie's flag, a square flag with
all the colours of the rainbow, is always present when the coca producers
protest. The mixture of all the colours of the "arco ifis" represents
multiculturalism among the indigenous peoples and its square design
represents the necessary equality. These ancestral indigenous concepts have
fitted in surprisingly easily with the more western vision of the ex-miners
who have become part of the movement since 1985 when the government of Jaime
Paz Zamora ordered, under IMF directions, the closure of the tin mines which
in turn seriously weakened the industrial strength of the mining unions. A
sizeable group of those militant miners relocated to El Chapare swelling the
ranks of the coca peasants and bringing with them the organising experience
they gained in the mines.

The peasants have the support of the COB (Confederacion Obrera Boliviana)
although the union leaders find themselves more and more distanced from a
peasantry willing to resort to direct action rather than the corporate
approach of the leaders. In La Paz we saw one of the numerous demonstrations
of coca peasants which descended on the capital, to protest against the
militarisation of El Chapare and the eradication of coca leaf production. We
noted two things: the enormous police presence which squashed any act of
protest and also the shameless mass media manipulation which repeatedly
referred to the peasants as narco-traffickers who had come to the capital to
cause trouble.

In the organisational structures of the coca peasants, which they claim to
be inspired by communitarian socialism, we can see similarities with
anarchism although they move away from the latter when they try to bring
direct action and parliamentarianism together within their organisation the
ASP (Asamblea por la Soberania de los Pueblos). In Cochabamba, on the
outskirts of El Chapare, we attended one of the sessions of the coca peasant
growers congress which was taking place there. The debate was about the
problem caused by their leader, Alejo **Velez, who had entered into a pact
with the government and was seen as having betrayed the movement. Evo
Morales, one of the main activists and a delegate of the ASP, called
attention to the need for effective control of the leadership by the
grassroots. Several hundred indigenous people listened attentively, their
swollen cheeks showing they were chewing coca and the strange smell of the
"sacred leaf" filled the atmosphere whilst their banners fluttered in the
wind.

The war in El Chapare continues with the government confronting the
determination of a few peasants who believe they can face up to Yankee
intervention and a fascist government that locally implements its policies.

Banzer carries out to the letter gringo "recommendations" because along with
his Peruvian and Colombian colleagues they need to earn the US anti-drug
certification necessary in order to gain "loans" and "aid" from those
international financial organisations controlled by the US (IMF, World Bank
etc.). Without this 'aid' the neo-liberal policies which have been forced
onto Latin America would be unworkable producing a collapse with
incalculable consequences. As one can see a fair bit is at stake, the
blackmail is obvious and the reality is that Bolivia, along with the
majority of countries on the continent are simple vassals of the Empire to
the north. During a visit to Los Yungas, a traditional coca leaf producing
region, although less so than El Chapare due to the government's eradication
campaign, the coca fields extended over countless terraces as far as the eye
could see. In the villages the peasants sell the coca leaf at their
doorsteps and its aroma is present everywhere. Listening to the radio we
were surprised by these lyrics:

"Our coca is not cocaine which is what they make of it. Our coca is medicine
for the people of Los Yungas. "

Originally published in Spanish in CNT, April 1999