Morales and Bolivia’s Unions: Is the Romance Over?
04 May 2010
Readers:
Since the first arrival of Evo Morales to the Bolivian presidency in 2005 with a lopsided and historic majority, one of the ongoing questions has been – Who will genuinely challenge him?
In the early stages that challenge came from the anemic remaining national opposition let by PODEMOS and his 2005 opponent, former President Jorge Quiroga, but with little impact on the Morales/MAS juggernaut. Then opposition to Morales jelled together in a serious way in the hands of six opposition governors and Morales adversaries in the nation’s east, enough to almost scuttle the Constituent Assembly. But when Morales called the governors’ bluff and held an August 2008 referendum, two of the main opposition governors were tossed out of office and Morales was returned with a mandate even stronger than before.
Now, following another huge Morales ballot triumph in his reelection last December and MAS control over a majority of the governorships, it seemed like he would begin his second term almost unchallenged.
Tens of thousands of marchers in downtown Cochabamba this morning turned that into a political myth. These were not Manfredistas or other remnants of the political right. These marchers came from the core of what has been, up till now, a key element in Morales’ political base – the powerful Centro Obrero Boliviana (COB), the labor organization that has toppled more than one Bolivian president. The issue is the demand by the workers, both public and private sector, for a substantial pay hike, and efforts by Morales to stick to a smaller one.
But there is far more at stake here than the difference between one percentage raise vs. another. On display this week, in Cochabamba, in La Paz and elsewhere in the country, is the face of a new challenge, a powerful one, to Morales. Here’s a special report from Jessica Camille Aguirre and Aldo Orellana of the Democracy Center.
Jim Shultz
Morales and Bolivia’s Unions: Is the Romance Over?
Written by Jessica Camille Aguirre and Aldo Orellana
There have been many mentions of love in the Bolivian newspapers these days, but the headlines read more like a bad-breakup. For the first time since Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (‘Goni’) and then Carlos Mesa were ran out of presidential office, the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) is out on the streets threatening an indefinite general strike.
COB, a national union that represents most workers, has been closely aligned with MAS after years of tenuous relationship with various Bolivian governments. The protests, which began in earnest in La Paz on Monday, represent the first serious break with the Morales administration.
The demonstrations are in response to the government’s announcement of this year’s minimum wage increase, which will be 5 percent. The COB had announced their demands for an increase of at least 12 percent, and in response to the disappointment they are taking to the streets, announcing strikes and recalling a time of widespread unrest in Bolivia.
As conservative forces within national politics have disintegrated over the past months – particularly with the recent departmental elections this past April – the question has been who would be next to challenge Bolivia’s popular President. COB may have just provided an answer. It looks like dissent will once again come from the same place it always has.
The Streets Rumble Again
COB has been one of the main arteries of Bolivian social movements and politics since the revolution of 1952, and they have occupied the nightmares of many a conservative politician since then.
The union is nationwide (though it also exists on a departmental level), and it represents nearly every type of worker imaginable. Factory workers, teachers, health workers and miners make up the strongest base of the organization.
The history of Bolivia could be told through the history of COB. Under the dictatorships, it experienced repression and massacres. With the weakening of the mining sectors in the mid-1980s and the bankruptcy of national mining company COMIBOL, the COB lost much of its political power. But over the past decade the organization has undergone resurgence, playing a pivotal role in the decisive social upheavals of recent history. COB is one of the reasons that the specter of Bolivian miners in parade strikes fear into the hearts of bureaucrats and gives hope to enervated mobilizations.
Morales’ 2005 election cast a brief temporizing effect over the union as social movements rallied behind what was to be their strongest ally. Pedro Montes, one of the most important leaders of the COB has worked closely with the government over the last few years, and minimum wage salary requests have been an ongoing compromise.
Each year Bolivia’s national government announces by how much the federal minimum wage will rise. Since Morales took office the increase has been between 6 and 12.5 percent every year. This year, the increase announcement came on May 1st – international workers day.
This year that increase was limited to a more frugal 5% (bringing the total to 647 Bolivianos, or $92 US dollars per month). “Considering that the 5 percent is only 32 Bolivianos ($4.55), that’s nothing and it doesn’t cover all the prices that are going up in the family basket” René Crespo, a Cochabambino factory worker representative told Los Tiempos. The family basket he is referring to is the estimation of the price value of all good and services that the average family needs. While the minimum salary is supposedly based on this amount, Bolivian non-profit CEDLA estimated the basket to be at least 3,578 Bolivianos (510 US dollars) in 2009.
This disappointment has fragmented and enraged the COB. Its factory workers are now demanding at least 12 percent while the teachers say they won’t settle for less than 25 percent. Members are also venting their anger at their MAS-linked leader, Pedro Montes.
The problem, they say, is that he aligned himself too closely with the government.
“Different Priorities”
Meanwhile the recent demonstrations have turned into confrontations between police forces and protesters, particularly in La Paz. As Morales himself is in Argentina attending a UNASUR meeting, the Vice-President, Alvaro Garcia Linera, has stepped into to announce that the government has “different priorities” this year, which include resource development and education.
Though all of the workers in the COB do not receive their salaries from the government, there are many that do – and the administration says that it cannot handle the burden of the extra costs. The Ministry of Finance is also running television ads claiming that the 5% decree is larger than the current national rate of inflation. The Morales administration has also expressed concern that a significant minimum wage increase could provoke inflationary forces, creating a vicious cycle effect.
But many see the decision in more starkly political terms. The COB was critical force in the last elections – departmental elections in April and presidential elections in last December. Indeed, the COB made up part of a national consortium of social organizations and movement that supported the consolidation of MAS political power. The consortium, called the National Council for Change (an clear reference to MAS’ own slogans), included the powerful indigenous organization CONAMAQ. With a clear mandate secured, the consortium has since disbanded.
That the right in Bolivia has been severely weakened is of little dispute. This week MAS set out to make it even weaker with another recent government decision to re-arrange the apportionment of congressional seats that would likely debilitate the right further still.
With Strength Comes Disunity
It’s an old Bolivian story, many say. Now that the main political antagonists have been decisively, if temporarily, overcome, unity on the left is not such a political necessity.
Earlier signs of some disgruntlement on Bolivia’s left were on display at last month’s global climate change meeting. There a group of Bolivian indigenous organizations and environmentalists formed the infamous Table 18, a parallel event that was organized to challenge some of Morales’ environmental policies at home just as he was challenging the policies of wealthy nations in the North.
But the thousands of workers in the streets, under a COB banner, is another species of challenge altogether, a potent one. It might all end in a simple compromise of arithmetic. But it could also be the opening act of a process of fragmentation in a broad coalition of social forces in Bolivia that have gained great power through unity, but whom are starting to get more dissatisfied with what that new power has delivered.
Once again in Bolivia, the streets are rumbling.
19 responses to Morales and Bolivia’s Unions: Is the Romance Over?
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It was only a matter of when and not if we would see a fracturing within the various movements that make up MAS and Evo’s political base. Nothing new here- we’ve seen it all before.
Evo accused the US Embassy of being behind this. But I didn’t read how he came to that conclusion. Might anyone know what Evo is talking about?
Is Golberg back in Bolivia?
Does anyone see the irony of one attacking imperialism and oligarchy on one hand… and befriending the most imperialist and super-oligarchic structures of all, China and Russia.
Evo is a joke, and now the world is finally getting to know him…
This report says the VP places the US behind this. But it doesn;t indicate why or how the US is behind this. Anyone out there got an answer? Jim?
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/World/2010/05/09/Protests_turn_violent_in_Bolivia_460044.html
You have to understand that the executive branch here in Bolivia is playing the victim; the US is to blame for everything. Sad thing is that the sheep following the government believe it.
Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti has identified a “promoter of violence” in Caranavi as Luis Acho, and claims that Acho once worked in a state office that received money from the DEA before Morales became president in 2006. So my first question now is…So what? Is the IM claiming that some spooky DEA ninjas are causing what is occurring in Caranavi? What is his point in what he said? I wish that when Evo’s administration makes statements, reporters would ask the right additional questions and state whatever incoherent chichi-dribble that comes out of their coca-foul mouths so the world would be able to clearly see what a mess this administration is making of things.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=356683&CategoryId=14919
Per Bolivia’s new Space Agency Minister, the satellite Tupac Katari has picked up imagery of Elvis is in Caranavi!
“You have to understand that the executive branch here in Bolivia is playing the victim; the US is to blame for everything. Sad thing is that the sheep following the government believe it.”
Scapegoats for failings can always be found, like the Libyan HIV fiasco- foreign doctors and nurses were used as scapegoats for a failing health system, as a means of blaming the outside world for the fact Libya’s hospitals had poor sanitary conditions.
you want to know what is really behind these protests, specially the roadblocks in Caranavi? just follow the coca and ask yourselves: why would they target Fidel Surco?
Glen Beck? Rush Limbaugh? Are they from Bolivia? They are millonaires lying and distorting the facts among not bolivians, but among so many red necks from the north. How many of this dum ignorant bunch are part of these comments?
“Glen Beck? Rush Limbaugh? Are they from Bolivia? They are millonaires lying and distorting the facts among not bolivians, but among so many red necks from the north. How many of this dum ignorant bunch are part of these comments?”
Folks, is there any constructive way to even reply to this? Sounds like a misguided bleeding-heart romantic-notioned leftist (or doper) is having a bad day. The smokescreen is fading away and the world is slowly seeing what Evo and his creepy VP are all about. Pobresitos…
misguided bleeding-heart romantic-notioned leftist
That’s a lot of cliches for one phrase.
Oooh you’re a righty! Oooh you’re a lefty! Oooh my life is a vacuous excuse to reflect the opinions of others!
With an angry reply like that Bowsie, one can only assume the shoe fits you. Might you have a logical and constructive contribution toward answering at least one of the questions posted here?
More deaths than during the genocidal Goni period. Abuse of power. Purchasing of overpriced luxurious airplanes and satellites. Cooking data statistics of economic indicators. Subservience to a foreign country (Venezuela). Gay bald chicken summit fiasco.
Now, Evo’s former allies turning on him demanding social justice.
It’s the beginning of the end of Evo’s terrible presidency.
Evo and the drug dealers, bringing peace and prosperity to Bolivia! Yeah, right!
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64E27420100515
My big question to ask is if your gringo govermnet and the office of Asuntos Hemisfericos is just contemplating and having a budhist approach of compassion about what Bolivia under EVO is doing….My response is of course no…No DEA no CIA ..would that be correct??. Seems that now that they have 7 bases in Colombia they are sending Narcos” to Boliva to set up shop AND THEN make it a case about Bolvia not doing things about Drugs….
My recommendacion a las autoridades es metanle el dedo a cualquier Colombiano que entre al pais < DAS esta como buen servil siendo el instrumento para meter el hocico en Bolivia, los lacayos de Uribe ya sean (DAS, Narco.Para, algunos otros metidos de refugiados politicos)estan alla con un mandato…Para mi Los gringos no estan de brazos cruzados