Bolivians strike in charter row (right-wing, anti-Morales)

[allemand]

Opposition leaders in four of Bolivia's nine provinces have led a one-day general strike in protest at plans to rewrite the country's constitution.

The strike was called against plans to allow a constituent assembly to amend the charter by simple majority vote.

A power struggle between Bolivia's wealthier, white elite - which opposes the changes - and its indigenous majority is at the heart of the row.

On Friday morning opposition leaders said the strike had "massive support".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5328900.stm

Same old story?

Chilean coup of 1973

October 1972 saw the first of what were to be a 24-day wave of confrontational strikes by truck-owners, small businessmen, some (mostly professional) unions, and some student groups occurred. Other than the inevitable damage to the economy, the chief effect of the strike was to bring the head of the army, general Carlos Prats, into the government as Interior Minister.<15> The truckers' strike was, at least indirectly, financially aided by the CIA.<9>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile_under_Allende#Crisis_and_Coup

[Say_What]

1. Check out what NED and USAID are funding to the Bolivian *opposition*.

The information is sometimes easy enough to find on their websites.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Quite appropriate your second link

which refers to the original 9/11. The eventual number of deaths as a result of that made those of the second one, 28 years later, pale into insignificance.

See here also : http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm

[Peace Patriot]

3. They pulled the same crap in Venezuela--a crippling oil professionals'

strike, after the violent military coup didn't work, and before the U.S. taxpayer funded Recall election against Chavez (which also failed--in the most heavily monitored election in history). Bush's Congress broke Venezuelan law when it poured our money into the Recall.

They are using OUR money to do this--to try to destabilize and topple democratically elected leftist (majorityist) governments. It is outrageous.

I'm glad, though, that Evo Morales' government is taking the fight TO them, and proceeding with what it thinks best for Bolivia. As I recall, Bolivia has a rather weak presidency, and that may be what they are trying to correct. We're paranoid about it here--because we have a tyrant--but it may be a needed balance in Bolivia, to bring about the changes to government policy and to the economy that are much needed to reverse years and years of corruption by the rich and exploitation by U.S.-based corporate rulers. One key fight in Bolivia--before they elected Morales--was the fight against Bechtel Corp. Bechtel had privatized the water in one Bolivian city, then jacked up the prices to the poorest of the poor, even charging poor peasants for collecting rainwater! The Bolivian people rose up, threw Bechtel out of their country, and elected their first indigenous president, Morales. The Corporate Rulers must be smarting over that, and targeting Bolivia and Morales--although that was not the only, or last, indigenous rebellion against "neo-liberalism" in Latin America. It's a famous one, though--better known here than most Latin American events. So they would probably like to cripple Bolivia's economy in order to bring Morales down--not just to teach a lesson to Latin Americans, but also to demoralize US, the people whose votes (if we still had the right to vote) could theoretically dismantle Bechtel Corp. and seize its assets for the common good. (That's WHY they took away our right to vote, with these electronic voting machines, run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations!). And, no doubt about it, OUR MONEY is funding these jerks.

Hang in there, Evo and all of Evo's supporters! Don't let them destroy your democracy, as they have done ours!

[PeaceProgProsp]

4. If you have Netflix, add this film to your queue:

Our Brand is Crisis

Following members of a political consulting firm to Bolivia, where they've been hired to help controversial candidate Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada reclaim the presidency, filmmaker Rachel Boynton reveals the manipulation and orchestration involved in big-time political campaigning. With only a few weeks before the election, consultants Jeremy Rosner, Stan Greenberg and James Carville work their magic, shaping Goni into the ideal candidate.

http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70038841&trkid=90529

[Peace Patriot]

6. Thanks, PeaceProgProsp! Will do! n/t

[Joanne98]

5. Unions are always saving the fascists. Isn't it STRANGE!

Someone should do an investigation. UNIONS WHO OVERTHROW LEFT-WING GOVERMENTS!

[electricray]

7. I'm confused...

From the article:

"Strike leaders fought members of unions supportive of the president in the city's streets."

This seems to indicate that the union members were actually against the strike.

I'm curious about your statement about unions "always saving fascists". What historical examples are you referring to? Perhaps corrupt union officials can co-opt fascists, but union membership is vital in the struggle against fascism.

[Judi Lynn]

9. You could do yourself a lot of good by starting to read about US-backed

strikes in Latin America, designed to devastate left-leaning governments.

A good place to start is Chile, during the run-up to the election of Salvador Allende, and the truckers' strike which enabled Nixon to feel he had been able to "make the economy scream" in Chile, as recorded for posterity.

Another recent strike you SHOULD know about, as do so very many DU'ers, is the massive strike in Venezuela to bring Hugo Chavez' administration to a dead stop.

Don't ask people a lot of questions, as it's all been covered here exhaustively, with links. Just jump in there and start reading up on it, the way the rest of us must, to keep from being obnoxiously ignorant.

[electricray]

18. The thing is I am not ignorant.

it seems to me that ignorance would be to blame when one person jumps to a ridiculous conclusion without addressing the actual point that another person is making.

My question was genuine and respectful and I don't believe that you even really know the answer or you would have posted real evidence backing up the claim as opposed to the personal attack.

The thing I hope to challenge with questions such as I asked is the baby-with-the-bathwater approach to unions when union leadership does something under the guise of worker resistance that actually happens to be against the true spirit of the labor movement.

Is it appropriate to tear up the Constitution simply because the current leadership is doing things that are counter to a true democracy? Assuming your answer is no then I would pose that neither is it appropriate to take a stand against unions simply because current leadership in one area is corrupt. Unions are traditionally the back-bone of true people-driven politics, a core tenet of leftist governments. Unions are democracy in the workplace and to toss aroudn rhetoric linking them to fascism is irresponsible without citing excellent resource material.

So I'll ask again: Can anyone post something reliable and accurate where workers and fascists joined hands to hurt democracy?

[1932]

10. In Venezuela, the unions were management-run and they had a lock-out

of the workers so to cripple the economy. It didn't work.

[electricray]

17. my point exactly

Management-run lockouts are hardly the same as worker strikes. Management-run unions can be corrupt as can neo-con run democracies.

[rman]

20. Uhm, not always. However,

unions, like any other people's organization with influence, are a prime target for fascist infiltration and take-over.
In Venezuela one union was a tool for the opposition to Chavez, other unions are not.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Bolivia Strikers Bomb TV Station

Bolivia Strikers Bomb TV Station

La Paz, Sep 8 (Prensa Latina) An explosive attack on the state TV channel and outrages by clashing groups marked the beginning of a 24-hour regional work stoppage on Friday in Bolivia, which was condemned by the Executive.

Government Minister Alicia Muñoz denounced that two bombs were thrown against a TV station in eastern Santa Cruz city.

TV news showed drunken strikers carrying sticks, blocking streets and assaulting people, in addition to raiding and sacking establishments.

German Antelo, president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, tried to minimize the violent actions and said the protest, which has cleared the streets in this city and in the capitals of Tarija, Beni and Pando provinces, was succeeding.

The minister reminded that regional and popular organizations in those departments are not involved in the strike, which is promoted by business sectors and the opposition party Podemos.
(snip/...)

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BF33E077E-6EA3-4F3F-BDB2-302D64E6BC97%7D)&language=EN

[Judi Lynn]

12. Sorry, here's a link to the article above which should work:

~~~~ link: better late than never! ~~~~~

[dipsydoodle]

11. Your BBC link

has been updated and includes the paragraph:

A power struggle between Bolivia's wealthier, white elite - which opposes the changes - and its indigenous majority is at the heart of the row.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5328900.stm

[Judi Lynn]

13. Just like the situation in Venezuela..... It's a critical "detail!"

Undoubtedly they are getting their encouragement, and funding and guidance from OUTSIDE their country, as well. It's an ugly, familiar pattern.

On edit:

Also note the previous attempt by the wealthy, oil-producing elite in Bolivia's Santa Cruz to secede from the country altogether recently, and gangs from Santa Cruz attacking peasants demonstrating in favor of nationalization.



Santa Cruz, Bolivia

[dipsydoodle]

14. Might just be one of those things

but I've noticed that on CNN International tv teletext news that odd sentences disappear never to return. That occured earlier today in the middle of the report that Pakistan has said that the CNN news item stating that Omar is holed up there is a preposterous fabrication.

On the subject of 9/11/73 Chile , if you were to search deep enough , you'd find that ITT had threatened to withdraw support to the Repugs unless they intervened in Allende's intention to nationalise the copper mines.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Brazen, but completely credible, unfortunately.

If politicians decided to start living with conscience again, and ignoring these threats, they'd see threats like that, and by groups like Fundie Christians who threaten to withdraw support are completely laughable, as those groups are so unlikely to be able to link up with any OTHER political party satisfactorily.

What Nixon/Kissinger did to Chile should have earned them both life in prison. Instead, _Bush chose Kissinger to lead his 9/11 investigation:

The gold standard for badness

~snip~
Hyperbole? Consider the record.

Vietnam. Kissinger participated in a GOP plot to undermine the 1968 Paris peace talks in order to assist Richard Nixon's presidential campaign. Once in office, Nixon named Kissinger his national security adviser, and later appointed him secretary of state. As co-architect of Nixon's war in Vietnam, Kissinger oversaw the secret bombing campaign in Cambodia, an arguably illegal operation estimated to have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Bangladesh. In 1971, Pakistani General Yahya Khan, armed with U.S. weaponry, overthrew a democratically elected government in an action that led to a massive civilian bloodbath. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Kissinger blocked U.S condemnation of Khan. Instead, he noted Khan's "delicacy and tact."

Chile. In the early 1970s, Kissinger oversaw the CIA's extensive covert campaign that assisted coup-plotters, some of whom eventually overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and installed the murderous military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. On June 8, 1976, at the height of Pinochet's repression, Kissinger had a meeting with Pinochet and behind closed doors told him that "we are sympathetic to what you are trying to do here," according to minutes of the session (which are quoted in Peter Kornbluh's forthcoming book, "The Pinochet File.")

East Timor. In 1975, President Gerald Ford and Kissinger, still serving as secretary of state, offered advance approval of Indonesia's brutal invasion of East Timor, which took the lives of tens of thousands of East Timorese. For years afterward, Kissinger denied the subject ever came up during the Dec. 6, 1975, meeting he and Ford held with General Suharto, Indonesia's military ruler, in Jarkata.

But a classified U.S. cable obtained by the National Security Archive shows otherwise. It notes that Suharto asked for "understanding if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action" in East Timor. Ford said, "We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem you have and the intentions you have." The next day, Suharto struck East Timor. Kissinger is an outright liar on this subject.
(snip/...)

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=14144

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CNN has learned, along with the other right-wing-pandering networks, there is NO ONE who will hold them responsible for anything they do, as long as it benefits the right-wing. It's an odd moment in history.

[dipsydoodle]

16. If you didn't already have this bundle

then have a root through. There's some really good stuff there. Worth searching through the whole site and keeping an eye open for newies. Most of the stuff has previously been aired on either BBC or maybe Channel 4.
http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/video_cover-ups.htm

edit delete their insert there - doh.

[Judi Lynn]

19. The choices there now could keep you busy a LONG time! Just heard

"The Age of Terror: In the Name of the State," and heard some very interesting points concerning Nicaragua, Argentina..

What a find, and I've only made the slightest scratch on the surface. This is a wonderful source.

Thanks, so much. I'm looking forward to a whole lot of titles I've seen there already.

[Judi Lynn]

21. BOLIVIA: Right-wing push against Morales

BOLIVIA: Right-wing push against Morales

Federico Fuentes

A growing conspiracy to destabilise the government of Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, appears to be reaching a climax. On September 1 right-wing opposition deputies withdrew from the country’s constituent assembly, returning to their traditional trenches in the east, in order to move from a war of words to one of actions.

The crisis came after Morales’s Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), which has 135 of the 255 assembly’s delegates, pushed for the assembly to make decisions on the basis of a simple majority.

The original law of convocation for the assembly, the result of a pact between MAS and the opposition, spoke of a two-thirds majority, but MAS argues that in order that a minority not be given complete veto rights, only the final draft should be decided by a special majority. If after three attempts a two-thirds majority cannot be reached, the draft will go directly to a referendum.
(snip)

Behind the cries for democracy, at stake here for the representatives of Bolivia’s oligarchies — the civic committees of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, and the parties of the opposition — is their hold on power.

Carlos Anton noted in an August 29 Argenpress report, “the confrontation within the constituent assembly has pushed aside the out-of-date Bolivia that was ruled by the oligarchies and remained on its knees in front of imperialism; at the same time the other, ancestral, and new Bolivia is beginning to rise up, one which could be revolutionary if it dares to go to the finish line”.
(snip/...)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/683/683p14.htm

[praeclarus]

22. everytime I hear Bolivia....

... I think about Cochabamba.

As a condition of acquiring a loan from IMF,
Bolivia had to sell (privatize) all remaining
public enterprises which included the water
company in Cochabamba.

Bechtel et al, got the water company and,
naturally, first thing they did was raise prices
to the point of rape. Also if you can believe this,
the company became the "owner" of rainwater and it
became illegal for peasants to collect rainwater.

This is what US foreign policy has been about in
South American forever. To ensure regimes are in
place who are in favor of The Corporation. And this
current deal is no different.

[1932]

23. The '03 riots that happened when Goni was president started for several

reasons, but really intensifed when the IMF told Bolivia they needed to have money coming in before they'd lend money, so Goni went on TV and told the country about his new tax plan which was to tax people making less than 800 bolivars per month 10 or 20 bolivars. He was trying to get blood from stones.

There's a great scene in Our Brand is Crisis where Sonia. the translator, has to explain how explain how politics works and why the poor are rioting over that plan to the American "expert" from Greenberg, Carville & Devine's consultantcy firm.

More on Goni here (yes, he was an American businessman and he went to the University of Chicago): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_Sánchez_de_Lozada