The MAS (the Movement Towards Socialism party) is going back to its roots. The have finally remembered that they are the party of the people - that their strength lies in the streets, despite the fact that they also have access to the Congressional floor.  Fed up with the stall tactics of the traditional rightist parties in the government (despite last night's announcement, no session was held today because they can't reach an agreement to place the Constitutional Assembly on the table), Evo and MAS have called for nationwide road blocks and for new elections.  Until now, the MAS has been soft: their marches have cruised along the Prado without venturing up the hill to put pressure on the Plaza Murillo, Evo has spoken in vague language, with euphemisms and was refusing to call for anything that would rock the boat.  This "politician-esque" posture had brought on a torrent of criticism from Bolivia's social movements.  But today, everything could have changed. The MAS decision to convert its constituency into a force that challenges the operation of the country and the authority of the current government could be the catalyst we've been waiting for. The numbers and breadth of the MAS will now accompany the fierceness of the Altiplano campesinos, the relentlessness of El Alto, and the complementing pressure from striking teachers, transit workers, and health care professionals within La Paz.  And this combination is a force unlike anything I have ever witnessed.

(June 1, 11pm): Everyone is tired.  Almost every day for the past ten, campesinos and Altenos have walked miles from their highland homes into, through and back up out of La Paz.  Accompanying them through the capital have been urban teachers, university students and profesors, neighborhood organizations and contingents from other areas of the country that have made the capital their home for the course of this battle.  Every day they march for hours. They are gased and shot at with rubber bullets...only to return the next morning for more of the same.  Today once again, despite the weariness their feet and hearts must be feeling as we near the end of week two, thousands of Bolivians continued their demonstration of remarkable collective will and impassioned struggle. The intensity, size and conflict of the marches today was lower than yesterday: only part of La Paz was shut down directly by protests, tear gas remained in its canister, and most of the marches felt calm.

It was the longest day yet. For almost twelve hours--from 9:30 am until almost 9:30pm--the Plaza San Francisco and the area surrounding it were filled with people. A reported 100,000 protesters occupied the streets and squares of La Paz today, paralyzing the city.  They came from around the country, though the largest and strongest contingents were once again from El Alto and the Altiplano.  They marched the length of the Prado, around the Plaza Murillo and extended out to normally untouched regions of the city, creating a feeling that the capital of Bolivia was now under the control of the politicized masses.  

If power concedes nothing without a demand, then the objective of every social change campaign must be to articulate an unavoidable demand which your target (the person/governing body/corporation with power to give you what you want) has no choice but to yield. Only by developing and working through a strategy—a long-term plan that includes a series of actions or tactics and that is born from an understanding of the power you hold in relation to your target—can a demand be made unavoidable.  Though straightforward, this rule is difficult to achieve because of the complicated relationships, disparate desires and physical limitations that characterize any campaign.  Nevertheless, it is what has to be done.

On the surface, La Paz feels awkwardly normal. On this sunny Friday afternoon, the Plaza San Francisco holds its usual mix of Kollas (people from La Paz) making their way to and from work and tourists shopping for jewelry and crafts.  There is no lingering tear gas in the air, no smoke from business suits being burned in effigy.  Car horns and shouts from the men operating mini-buses do not compete with dynamite explosions blocks away. In the Plaza Murillo, people sit eating and conversing under the warm sun, as no more than a handful of police meander around the square.  Street vendors once again sell scarves and hats, saltenas and fresh squeezed orange juice on the blocks that connect the two main Plazas. President Mesa is somewhere in La Paz, perhaps celebrating Dia de la Madre with his family. And most likely, Janet, the 16 year old cocalero who marched for 8 days with thousands of her companeros from Carocollo to La Paz has returned to her home in the Chapare, as most of her fellow marchers have done already.

They descended into La Paz this morning and headed straight for the Plaza Murillo, the seat of government, disregarding the convention of gathering in the lower Plaza San Francisco for photo opps and motivational speeches. 20,000 Aymara campesinos from the Bolivian Altiplano (highlands) came chanting,  "Estamos presente, la gente esta caliente!" (We are here, the people are hot!), looking for confrontation and with a palpable anger worlds apart from the calmness of their cocaleros comrades. And they brought their whips.  As the march strategically segmented itself to encircle all sides of the police guarded Plaza, sexagenarian campesino women ran ahead, whipping everything in their path: taxis, mini-buses and the occasional street vendor unfortunate enough to have been still operating in the vicinity. Rocks followed, shattering the windows of the transportation vehicles that couldn't maneuver out fast enough.