Bolivia--Direct Action in Caranavi July  06, 2000

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      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
            http://www.ainfos.ca/
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Small-scale coffee growers played a major part in a forceful protest against
the EMDEX company, a coffee exporter. The protesters burned and smashed the
company's plant equipment, computers and furniture, and threw oil on stored
coffee beans. They were protesting the companies highly exploitative
practice of buying coffee from them at $13 a quintal (46 kilograms), and
reselling it for $120 per quintal. They were also protesting their bad
treatment by the coffee transporters.

As of July 8, there have been no arrests.

The timid press has scarcely investigated or reported the story.
Nevertheless, the company's management has been forced to negotiate with the
growers.

Caranavi is a small region in the northeastern part of Bolivia where the
production of coffee is concentrated. Most of the growers are former mine
workers. After a massive lay-off in the mines in 1985, they migrated to this
region. They barely survive on the meager payments they receive for the
coffee they produce, while a small number of entrepreneurs, helped by the
bourgeois government, grow fat by exploiting them.

This year, there have also been a number of other direct actions taken by
workers  in order to defend themselves against the state and capital. It is
clear that the only recourse is to fight, not to go to our enemies on bended
knee. Standing up we see them better. Let us rise up to confront and repel
the blows of the capitalist system and its state, because it is possible to
win--all we have to do is fight.

July 8, 2000
JUVENTUDES LIBERTARIAS
Contact:  juventudes_libertarias@latinmail.com