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{The following report on the COB’s actions is from the web site
Bolpress.com. It has been translated with the help of Eduardo
Quintana, a trade union activist in Arizona whose native language is
Mexican Spanish.}
“COB Proposes Minimum Program to New Government”
(Bolpress.com)—An enlarged session of the leading body of the COB,
with the participation of twenty different affiliates (trades or
branches of industry), decided, overnight, to continue the open-ended
general strike until the next government has made a commitment “in
front of this organization, not to export gas, either to Chile or
Peru, and to repeal the Law on Hydrocarbons.” {Apparently this is a
recent law that allows the multinational corporations, once again, to
gain control of Bolivia’s gas and oil. In Bolivia’s great national
revolution of 1952, those natural resources were nationalized.}
In addition, the COB approved a document that presented the new
government with a minimum program. Most prominently, the program calls
for revision of privatization contracts, annulment of the agrarian
reform law sold on the market], revival of national industry, and the bringing to
justice of those responsible for “genocide” against the people during
the so-called ‘gas war.’ {“Gas war” is the journalistic name that has
now been given to the mass protests since late September against the
exporting of Bolivia’s natural gas by foreign multinational
corporations.}
The COB decided not to give support to the new government, because it
considers the ouster of Sanchez de Losada to be only a change of
individuals, not a change in economic policy {literally, “no change in
the economic model”}.
In addition, the COB prefers to maintain its “class independence,”
that is, not to compromise with a government that is not of the
working class. But since the COB ought to be responsive to the
existing situation, COB President Jaime Solares indicated that, in
order for the indefinite general strike to be called off, the
government would have to “make a commitment, in front of this
organization (the COB), not to export the gas, either through Chile or
Peru, and to repeal the law regarding gas and oil.”
In this connection the COB presented the new government with a minimum
program, which in its view expresses “the outcry of the people.” As
long as the newly mandated government works in this direction, the COB
will remain alert and vigilant. If the opposite occurs, “the roads and
streets will again be turned into barricades.”
Among the points in the proposal are: “Review by the Congress of all
privatization contracts, ‘shared risk’ contracts, and leasing of
petroleum deposits, mines, and state-owned companies, so that the
Political Constitution of the nation will be respected.” {The Bolivian
constitution apparently intends that the mineral wealth of the country
be preserved for the nation as a whole.}
The proposal also demands: “Annulment of the agrarian reform law,
which commercializes the land. Redistribution of the land. And
respect for communally owned land and land originally owned by the
indigenous peoples.”
The third point in the proposal specifies: “Restoration of the social
rights of the Bolivian workers. Immediate annulment of ‘free
contracting.’” {“Free contracting” apparently allows employers to hire
and fire at will, without any legal restrictions.} In addition, the
proposal urges: “Revival of national industry, rejecting the kind of
‘free trade’ that the FTAA would establish.”
The final demand is “bringing to justice those responsible for
genocide against the people of Bolivia, who rose up in defense of the
nation’s natural resources and in defense of democracy.” The COB also
demands “annulment of the Law of Security of the Citizen” {which
apparently gives excessive powers to the security forces}.
The enlarged session began at five in the afternoon, after the arrival
of miners from the cooperatives of Caracoles, who entered the Plaza of
San Francisco, setting off dozens of sticks of dynamite. This group of
miners were received with applause {by the crowds of protesters in the
plaza; it is estimated that as many as 350,000 had turned out in La
Paz that day}. The miners {on their way to La Paz} had suffered two
fatalities in the locality of Patacamaya, when the army cowardly fired
on them. Immediately a rally was organized, in which the miners’
leaders participated, along with David Vargas {the former police major
who helped leaded the police rebellion of February 2003}.
At the closing of the enlarged session of the COB, at eight in the
evening, Solares called for another enlarged session at 10:00 a.m. the
next morning, at the Teachers’ Social Center, for the purpose of
discussing such subjects as the strengthening and unity of the COB,
and for the purpose of calling an Assembly of the People, which is the
political solution, for the medium term, that the workers will be
discussing and analyzing.
The enlarged session of the COB also approved a letter that will be
sent to the acting president of the National Congress, Carlos D. Mesa,
in which the COB “demands that the Congress publicly reject any
request to allow foreign troops to enter Bolivian territory.” This
letter followed hot on the heels of an announcement that the Pentagon
would be sending troops to Bolivia to defend U.S. citizens and the
U.S. embassy.
They are demanding that the U.S. not interfere.
Yesterday morning {October 16}, 100 U.S. residents in Bolivia issued a
statement demanding that their government “not intervene in this
internal conflict.” They reminded their government that “the people of
Bolivia have the right to determine their own political future free
from pressure or sanctions by the United States.”
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