Miners strike as generals

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LA PAZ, August 9.

TERRIFIED at the very real prospect of a civil war and their own destruction, as in the revolution of 1952, the rebels and the ruling Junta have patched up a compromise by which both sides concede ground, but the sole guarantor of capitalist rule in this backward capitalist country, the armed forces, remains intact for the time being.

The rebel generals, Alberto Natusch Busch and Lucio Anez Rivero, finally managed to remove yēarlong dictator General Luis Garcia Meza but underestimated the unity of economic interests in the ruling apparatus (the cocaine trade) and failed to dislodge the Junta that he appointed.

One set of lame dogs follows another; the final deal 'among brothers pledged to the nation' has altered little.

Natusch's original demands were for a transitional regime, free elections, full constitutional rights, free trade unions, and a free press. In the end he happily settled for the reincorporation into the military of 200 purged officers; an act that will assuredly engender further unrest as old institutional scores are settled.

Scores

Nevertheless, the officers were only too aware that the sixth and final coup against Garcia had to be brought to a precipitate halt, for it had unleashed a series of strikes in the mines, and factories of La Paz and threatened wave of mass mobilisation.

This was the unceremonious end for Garcia, a vain, cunning creature who attempted to emulate Pinochet with a regime estab.

lished in the bloody coup of 17 July 1980 with: the Natusch perspective of staying in power for "5, 10, 20 years, whatever it takes to purge Marxism from Bolivia.

After a year Garcia is packing his bags with one eye on the $40 million he has stashed away in Europe as the proceeds from his share of the cocaine trade.

Yet Garcia has not yet gone; last week his birthday was celebrated by colleagues in the Military Academy with the conspicuous return to Bolivia after several months' absence of Col. Luis Arce Gomez, principal butcher of the ousted regime, known 'narcotraticante' and capode tutti cappi' of the SES - Servicios Especiales de Seguridad •the extensive paramilitary network with which Bolivia is still ruled by an iron hand.

Thugs

The power of SES, which numbers at least 10,000, is still very evident. These hired thugs dominate La Paz in their unmarked Toyota trucks and ambulances, and since the end of the coup there has been a new wave of arrests.

Any comment in the press during the iprising which conflicted w ith the flaccid pronouncem ents of the Junta's propaganda or revealed their lies for what they were drew physical attacks. not only on the newspaper offices but also on members of the public carrying that paper and even on the children many of whom are blind or disabled - who sell the papers on street corners.

The streets of La Paz. and especially Santa Cruz -the centre of the revolt, remain quiet except for the movement of armoured cars allu the more sinister vehicles of the SES. Work is at a halt: people are angry but remain scared This is especially true in Santa Cruz. the main support for the rebels, where significant numbers of officers and drug traffickers viewed Garcia' s isolation with dismay and, in line with a progressive transfer of cocaine capital into legitimate enterprises, sought to achieve the re-insertion of Bolivia into the traditional imperialist nexus under a veil of democratic verbiage to gain popular support.

Strike

They were stopped in their tracks by a declaration issued by the trade union federation COB late on 5 August calling for an indefinite general strike in defence of trade union, democratic and human rights, a total amnesty and 100% wage increases. The first indication of the support the outlawed COB still has was when the regime had to cancel a rally for lack of support.

This abstentionism was particularly important and a major boost to • popular morale because failure lo obey government orders means immediate firing and the attention of the Sis.

The COB strike call was vigorously presented as an action independent of the coup; "it has nothing to do with either of the two military groups in conflict"

This line accurately reflects the swelling confidence and radicalism of the rank and file against the corrupt and bankrupt leadership outside the country Lechin, the UDP, and the MiR Who have all along consorted with string of disgruntled generals in an effort to ride back to their burcaucratic privileges on the wings of a coup.

Collusion

The degree to which these forces, and particularly the petty bourgeois MIR and the Communist Party have decomposed and betrayed the workers movement fully evident in their unswerving and shameless backing for Natusch, dictator for 14 days in November 1979 when over 300 people were slaughtered.

Leading militants of the self-same parties have acted in direct collusion with the Garcia regime as official. government appointed labour 'relacionadores' in place of the legitimate. popularly elected and mandated union officers.

One CP member, leading figure in the ISTMB (miners' union), Oscar Salas, has held such a post at the huge Sigio XX Catavi complex while at the same time being responsible for the disbursement of funds sent in international solidarity with the miners' struggle against the dictatorship.

Salas has consistently sabotaged this work although he was quick enough to sign the latest COB strike call in a frantic effort to save his skin.

Others, such as Oscar Sanjincs and virtually the entire external teadership of the MIR, have failed to yield literally tens of thousands of dollars sent to Lima. These facts were made known 1o us two days before the coup when a very modest sum from the Bolivian Workers' Support lund was handed over directly to a meeting of section leaders in Sigio Bolivian political prisoners XX itsell, 450 miles to the south of here. This meeing of some 20 popular elected stewards of the clandestine union specifically requested that the corruption and treason of the external 'official' leadership and the 'relacinadores' be publicised and that it be known abroad that "when the time is right ive will proceed to apply justice. however severe, in line with the traditions of the workers' movement."

We attended the meeting for three hours and the whole feeli. in the camp was one of frank radicalism, in line with the traditional militancy of the Bolivian miners who have proved such an heroic vanguard in the struggle against imperialism and dictatorial barbarisin. Yet less than four miles away over 1,000 troops were stationed and in the camp itself the SES was highly active.

We were forced to Icave hurriedly when a further two regiments arrived at the nearby airstrip. and the security forces began to mobilise, clearly in anticipition of the coup and the ubsequent strike.

Today, a week later, the Siglo XX strike remains firm in repudiation not only of the forces of imperialist capital but also the MIR and CP which, in league with the supposedly "progressive' church, are scrambling to regain their old positions once more in careful cohabitation with the junta while continuing to talk to Reagan.

Purge

The sole blessing of censorship here is that we are entirely ignorant of the brave verbiage being peddled by the heroic bureaucrats in the exterior. Blowing hot and cold by turn, they are totally isolated from the struggle of the Bolivian masses who are only Just regaining that confidence and radicalism necessary to purge their betrayers.

Nobody in the movement held the slightest illusion in the coup or in Natusch's ambitions which were perceived as an effort to realign the forces of the class enemy.

The political crisis of the Bolivian bourgeoisie continues to follow its extra ordinarily consistent down hill course. The almost daily divisions in the armed forces the almost total bankruptcy of the economy ($4 billior of unpaid debts), extensive speculation and runaway inflation and the politica failure to please even Reagar will continue whatever tragi comIc reconciliation •i: patched up by the increas ingly confused generals.

The bourgeoisie's las card is Banzer who backec the last coup from the secure distance of Miami anc has declared he will only return to power througl Nobody here discount: this possibility as the mas: movement accelerates. A dos in a corner does not alway: bite first.

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