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Reporter's Notebook: Luis Gomez

While the Social Movements Stick Together, the Middle Class Takes to the Streets

Posted by Luis Gomez - March 10, 2005 at 5:22 pm
While the middle class pours into the Plaza Murillo, to cheer President Carlos Mesa in his palace, the stalemate between the right wing (with the government leading) and the left (with all the social movements united) continues…

This morning there was a second meeting in the Bolivian Workers’ Federation (COB in its Spanish initials) offices. Mesa asked Evo Morales for a dialog, and Morales has invited his peers to come with him, as he had previously announced.

Let’s move on to the facts… At this moment, about one hundred meters from where I am standing, the Plaza Murillo is completely filled with people who support President Carlos Mesa. They are the bureaucrats (who got the government’s permission to leave work), the housewives who color their hair, the lawyers in fancy suits, the middle-class students, entire companies bussed in by their owners… they are the merchants of La Paz who have an agreement with Mayor Juan del Granado (one of Mesa’s allies)… more than 10,000 of them, all excited with their white flags and handkerchiefs, calling Evo a “shit Indian.” They are Mesa’s troops, there for effect, and obviously covered by the Bolivian commercial media.

Last night, as we anticipated, Carlos Mesa called Evo Morales to ask for a meeting and dialogue this morning. “I said that first he had to apologize for everything he has said, and then we would talk,” said Evo. “But now it’s not just about me or just about the MAS and its proposals… it’s about all of the legitimate representatives of the Bolivian people, united in this great pact of national mobilization.”

Morales spoke during the second meeting of the social movements, which began this morning at 11, in the COB’s meeting hall. The social leaders today continued moving towards a stronger, more long-term alliance.

The discussions focused in large part on criticisms of Evo Morales, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party, and their various positions (such as their desire to dominate all the social movements). However, despite the differences on display, everyone agreed that it was important to attend the dialog with the president, united and clear of purpose, this afternoon (at 4pm).

Jaime Solares, executive secretary of the COB and the man Evo informed last night of his idea to go together with all the leaders, suggested that they only discus the central issue that brings all of them together: that of the nation’s hydrocarbons and the new law that Mesa hopes to change in order to keep benefiting the transnational corporations (to name a few, Repsol from Spain, Total from France, BG and BP from Britain, Enron from the U.S., and others).

“When the right wing, the government, the oligarchy, and the transnationals unite, we are forced to unite as well,” commented Evo to those present, answering the critiques that others – especially the Aymara leaders such as Felipe Quispe, Rufo Calle and recently-elected leader of the peasant farmers of the La Paz department, Gualberto Choque – were making. He invited everyone to fight together, at least for the hydrocarbons law proposal the MAS is pushing in Congress.

“And if nothing changes, brothers, we are willing to fight and shut down this Parliament,” stressed Evo, speaking both in the name of the Six Federations of the Tropic of Cochabamba (the main peasant farmers’ organization of the Chapare) and as president of the MAS.

The agreement was reached quickly. Criticisms and mistakes were not ignored, but it was decided to leave these for later discussion “face to face, with respect and clarity.”

This afternoon, when the Bolivian social leaders arrive at the meeting with Carlos Mesa, the first condition will be not to arrest or charge any of the people who are currently blockading or marching in the nine departments of Bolivia.

Once the negotiations have begun, the Bolivian social movements will demand that the president govern as he has promised (to satisfy the demands of the Bolivian people), that he not push a hydrocarbons law that is a product of the pressure of international financial organizations… or that there will be war.

The Masses Keep Growing

After this morning’s meeting, Narco News asked a few leaders about the state of the current mobilizations. Don’t forget, kind readers, that at least two districts in El Alto have been blockading their roads without rest since March 2, that there are marches and blockades in the Chapare, in Potosí, and in Santa Cruz.

The rural Aymara indigenous, the other big group that could change the country’s history, have resolved to prepare for mobilization.  Gualberto Choque, after the meeting, told us that the 20 provinces of La Paz department have begun to “pass along the voice,” to spread the message… and they know, because their history tells them so, that they are a key sector. “Not since the time of Tupaj Katari (in the 18th century) have they been able to defeat us.”

In the Chapare and in Yapacaní, in the north of Santa Cruz department, the blockades remain firm. The people of El Alto have gone back to their blockades today, and in Cochabamba Oscar Olivera and other social leaders are working to shut down their city.

And quick a note to clarify something: in a country with an average yearly per capita income of less than US$3,000, where the poorest people (58 percent of the families) live on less than $1.50 per day, here, in Bolivia, the daily losses for this emergency and conflict are $13.8 million. Do you understand, kind readers? It seems that there is some money in this country, but as always, it is in the wrong hands.

We will keep reporting… for Narco News, direct and live from the social epicenter of our América… don’t miss the next chapter.

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Comments

opposition brings opposition

Submitted March 10, 2005 - 6:33 pm by Ricardo Sala
Gomez and NN folk: is anybody proposing a solution which does not polarize Bolivia?
cheers

The Root Cause of Resistance...

Submitted March 11, 2005 - 5:14 pm by Al Giordano
...is injustice.

When a majority of people (as in Bolivia and elsewhere) lack basic human necessities like adequate food, housing, health care, education, and equal treatment under the law, while a small minority that, without contributing as much time and labor, hoardes excessive amounts of the land and wealth that is available, simply because their ancestors robbed it and they "inherited" it, THAT is what causes "polarization."

Opposition to such injustice is, historically, the only path to peace. You simply cannot impose a peace without creating justice, including economic justice.

There are times when the only dignity left for human beings is to resist, that is, to make visible the silent polarization of society that already exists.

There is no solution, in Bolivia and elsewhere, that involves everybody just holding hands and singing Kumbaya. To fix a calcified injustice, you have to break it, forcefully. Gandhi himself - accused always of "polarizing" things wherever he went - knew that.

Peter Tosh

Submitted March 12, 2005 - 1:58 pm by Teofilo Ballve
The words of Peter Tosh echo Al's post:

"Equal Rights"

Everyone is crying out for peace, yes
none is crying out for justice
Everyone is crying out for peace, yes
none is crying out for justice

I don't want no peace
I need equal rights and justice
I need equal rights and justice
I need equal rights and justice
got to get it
Equal rights and justice

[...]

everyone is talking about crime
tell me who are the criminals
I said everybody is talking about crime, crime
tell me who, who are the criminals...

The tea is brewing

Submitted March 11, 2005 - 4:54 am by Bill Conroy
Polarization is the only thing that makes a compass work. And it appears the leadership of Boliva is in dire need of direction. Remember, if you are from the states, we too have a history of sorting out these kinds of subterfuges through less than pollyannish means.

The hydrocarbon issue in Bolivia bears many similarities to the events that led to the Boston Tea Party. OK, stay with me here....

As you may recall, at the time of Tea Act, the British Crown was trying to establish the British East Indian Company as a monopoly, not unlike the situation with the oligarchs who control the hydrocarbon trade in Boliva today.

Through some slight of hand, the British sought to undercut the colonists' homegrown smuggling trade in tea and establish the British company as the dominate player by assuring British East India Co. tea was the cheapest, and in the process, establish the Crown's authority to rip off the colonists by later jacking the price on that tea by taxing them -- without representation.

The situation in Boliva, although separated from the Tea Act in time, geography and degrees of nuance, still remains essentially a condition of the "Crown" attempting to establish foreign companies in a monopoly position at the expense of the people of Boliva, to essentially tax them, for the services of these foreign companies (by virtue of an unreasonable cut of the action), without the benefit of representation -- or at least that appears to be the direction of Carlos Mesa's current compass.

The Bolivian social-movement leadership wants to sit down with Mesa and change the magnetics of the situation. This is a good thing, if Mesa and his backers will listen. Certainly, even among the colonists at the time of the Boston Tea Party, there were middle class folks who preferred cheap tea -- and might even go to the streets to protest in favor of that cheap tea.

But the true patriots among the colonists knew the cheap tea was little more than a ruse, a bait and hook strategy, to suck people into the Crown's control. Once the colonists lost control of their tea trade -- of their hydrocarbons -- even middle class folks would be paying a steep price for their tea.

But the patriots couldn't wait on the upper crust to see this reality; they feared, rightly, that cheap tea would be too seductive, so they decided to take action, to assure that the compass was brought back into democratic alignment.

This was done by the "patriotic" forefounders of the United States; why should we hold Bolivians to a different standard?

After all, you have to let off a little steam to brew a good cup of tea.

 The Bolivan tea party begins....

One account of the Boston version:

On December 16, 1773, American patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the vessels of the East Indian Company docked in the Boston harbor and dumped all the tea that was on the three ships into the ocean. They emptied 342 chests of tea which was valued at more than 10,000 pounds. This event became known as the "Boston Tea Party."

The Boston Tea Party was a reaction to the Tea Act of 1773 that was passed by Parliament to save the British East India Company from bankruptcy. The Tea Act essentially eliminated all taxes on tea except the three pence Townshend tax. More importantly, it offered Americans tea at a lower price than that of the colonial smugglers. Hence, the British East Indian Company would be saved from bankruptcy, the colonial smugglers would be out of business, and the principle of parliamentary taxation would be upheld.

    However, there were rumors that the Tea Act created an illegal monopoly so resistance to the importation of tea was encouraged throughout the colonies. If the people bought from the East India Company, it would give that company a monopoly of the American tea trade and establish the right of Parliament to raise a colonial revenue by means of port duties. Since the patriots believed that the cheap price of tea would be too much of a temptation to the people, the patriots took steps to maneuver Britain into a difficult position.

    The patriots decided to reject tea shipments and they demanded that tea ships be permitted to return to England without paying the duty required by law. Over 5,000 townspeople of Boston and surrounding towns gathered at Old South Meeting House to plead with the governor to send the ships back to England. However, Governor Hutchinson refused and it was that night, December 16, that sixty men dressed as Mohawk Indians and went over to the Boston harbor. There they boarded the three ships of the East India Company and dumped over 10,000 pounds of tea into the Boston harbor....

Another version:

The British East India Company had controlled all tea trading between India and the British colonies. As a result of the tea tax, the colonies refused to buy the British tea. Instead, they smuggled tea in from Holland. This left the British East India Company with warehouses full of unsold tea, and the company was in danger of going out of business.

The British government was determined to prevent the British East India Company from going out of business. It was going to force the colonists to buy their tea. In May 1773, Prime Minister North and the British parliament passed the Tea Act. The Tea Act allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonists, bypassing the colonial wholesale merchants. This allowed the company to sell their tea cheaper than the colonial merchants who were selling smuggled tea from Holland.

This act revived the colonial issue of taxation without representation. The colonies once again demanded that the British government remove the tax on tea. In addition, the dockworkers began refusing to unload the tea from ships.

The Governor of Massachusetts demanded that the tea be unloaded. He also demanded that the people pay the taxes and duty on tea.

The "Boston Tea Party"

On the evening of December 16, 1773, a group of men calling themselves the "Sons of Liberty" went to the Boston Harbor. The men were dressed as Mohawk Indians. They boarded three British ships, the Beaver, the Eleanor and the Dartmouth, and dumped forty-five tons of tea into the Boston Harbor.


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