Strikes are schools for communism, and the workers, students, and indigenous movements in Bolivia have been on a general strike since May Day. Strikes are where the working class flexes itstheir power and takes hold of their organizations, their work places, and attempts to fight the bosses. The bosses in Bolivia are divided between the pro-China socialist wing and the Pro-U.S. imperialist wing that is currently holding power. Bolivian president Rodrigo Paz is a vital part of U.S. security at home and its imperialist interests in South America. The one thing missing from this general strike is for the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) to function as a central organization that can coordinate against these government attacks from within the struggle and at all levels in order to fight for a communist revolution.
The unintended effects of interimperialist rivalry of the U.S. war in Iran are cropping up in Bolivia. Causing the Strait of Hormuz to close severely affected gas prices that were government subsidized. On top of fuel skyrocketing over 90 percent, there is a shortage of it, and the little fuel that is available is polluted. Speaking of pollution, lithium mining is an important part of AI chip production and for lithium batteries.
Workers in Bolivia shut it down!
The continuing AI war between China vs. the U.S. means that the U.S. needs to control the mines, and they need the Bolivian government to provide the means to do so. Though the miners have struggled in the past against the mining conditions, the strikes are rooted in May Day and the history of struggle associated with the working class holiday. Unions marched and went on strike demanding more money, better working conditions, and for more control over what the state apparatus is doing to their lives. Learning from slave rebellions of the past, the striking workers set up barricades around La Paz and shut the city down. Capitalism has responded with concessions, but the bosses are threatening to send in the military in order to quell the protests.
Reject revisionist misleaders!
What role are the revisionists (fake revolutionaries) playing? Evo Morales’ MAS party for socialism is involved in the strike, but there is no single, cohesive party that is coordinating the struggle. Instead, what we are witnessing is the working class using its self-organizing skills to set up barricades, man them, and use dynamite and other weapons in battles with the police. Imagine how much more powerful a strike this would be without sellout union leadership or Chinese imperialism behind it. However, it does not appear to be an overt political move by China to support socialism in Bolivia, even though they would benefit from a pawn of U.S. imperialism being deposed.
Bolivia has one of the few conscripted militaries, and it’s spread out over the country. There are way more strikers than soldiers. On top of that, as PLP learned first-hand in Minneapolis, soldiers can be won to join the protesters. The Bolivian ruling class has attacked the strikers twice already, and each attack has only strengthened the barricades. So, though the ruling class can wield the military, they are wary of increasing the strength of the barricades. However, U.S. imperialism requires that this strike be smashed. This contradiction is still resolving.
Evo Morales represents the faction of the Bolivian ruling class that is aligned with Russia and China. The domino effect is being revisited in the Lithium Triangle. With students in Argentina and Peru occupying universities and beginning to take to the streets, seeing a movement where the working class has shut down a city and is forcing the outing of a loyal servant to U.S. imperialism is a spark. Is the fundamental contradiction in the world today shifting towards the working class taking hold of their organizations and challenging capitalism? The answer, unfortunately, is an unequivocable “no.” Without a revolutionary party organizing in the unions, in the military, in the schools, and with the ability to coordinate the working class against the bosses, this movement is a militantly reformist movement.
The bosses will give what they need to in order to keep state power. President Paz has slashed his salary, offered the teachers concessions, and given token appointments to indigenous groups, but that doesn’t change capitalism. Capitalism will still remain with the capitalists in power until the PLP sweeps them away.
Fightback is heating up
Regardless of how far this strike movement goes, whether or not the military joins the strikers or attacks them, without a revolutionary communist party organizing to seize and hold of state power, this struggle will lead to reforms and may topple a U.S. pawn, but it won’t lead to the dictatorship of the proletariat. We must learn lessons from and get excited by the new wave of protest getting ready to grip South America, but the ruling class can survive any crisis or catastrophe except communist revolution. With one of the few fully conscripted armies in South America and its size already dwarfed by the number of protesters, it is easy to understand why the Bolivian U.S. backed bosses fear a coup and the soldiers joining the protesters. It isn’t even summer yet and things are really starting to heat up!
