resolution on bolivia

The 1st World Congress of the Committee for the Refoundation of the Fourth International denounces that the Bolivian bourgeoisie has refloated chauvinist agitation on the question of a way out to the sea, as an attempt to deviate the tendency of the masses towards a new rebellion. We point to the fact that Bolivia's backwardness and misery are not consequences of its being shut in on the continent but is rather due to imperialist pillaging, with the complicity of the Bolivian bourgeoisie itself. We denounce that for the Bolivian exploiters, the demand for a way out to the sea is linked to the exploitation of gas, that is, to a new national surrender in exchange for juicy "commissions."

We characterize as reactionary wars between oppressed nations, in the face of which we call for fraternization, for the unity and combined combat of the peoples against the local bourgeoisies and imperialism.

In the face of the Bolivian bourgeoisie's chauvinist campaign, the political crisis and the still open perspective of a new people's uprising, we raise the following: Out with Mesa; state-ownership without compensation and under workers control of the oil and gas industries, of mining and the banks; unity of the peoples of Bolivia, Chile and all of Latin America against imperialism and the local bourgeoisies. The progressive resolution of Bolivia's maritime demands, in favor of the interests of the exploited peoples of Bolivia and Latin America, can only take place in the framework of the socialist unity of Latin America. The workers and peasants governments of Bolivia, Chile and Peru will establish a common plan for the exploitation of sea resources and the wealth of the region for the benefit of the economic, social and cultural development of all the peoples.

The balance sheet of the Bolivian revolution of October poses the ineludible conclusion for the workers and youth vanguard, that of the impossible to postpone task is that of the construction of the revolutionary party of the working class. The center-left and democratizing leaders of the masses safeguarded bourgeois power, endorsing the constitutional coup that handed power over to Mesa. We denounce the counterrevolutionary role of the Latin American center-left headed by the governments of Lula and Kirchner, with the participation of the MAS of Evo Morales.

The overthrow of a government (people's insurrection) is inconceivable without the organization of that overthrow. If, on the contrary, this is not the case, the most that can occur is for other members of the established power to replace it, as occurred in October.

The taking of power is a concrete task, it is not the derived, automatic or spontaneous result of other tasks. The workers uprising must aid the troops in carrying out the destabilization of the armed forces. A people that undergoes enormous sacrifices and takes the struggle to the ultimate consequences runs the risk of suffering a huge defeat if it is not capable of bringing about the conclusion of the struggle, the defeat of the enemy. The organization for the taking of power is an art and a technique, it has rules, requires discipline, requires preparatory work. The organized activity for the taking of power is the culminating moment of the mass rebellion, it requires a political party of the working class that has gained authority in the workers vanguard and among the exploited on the basis of its previous revolutionary intervention. The final aim of the revolutionary party is the struggle for the conquest of political power.

The structuring of dual power does not resolve the question of the taking of power, it exacerbates it. Dual power is not a strategic objective; that is the workers and peasants government. The development of dual power has been, in revolutionary history, the most frequent variation, but is not an absolute law of that development. The limits of dual power and those historically pertaining to all the organizations of the people, can only be overcome by a program and a party, that is, by consciously political organization.

The demand of the COB for the dissolution of parliament and for it to be replaced by a Popular Assembly does not pose the taking of power. On the contrary, it is a proposal for co-power together with the pro-imperialist democratizing regime (since it does not pose the overthrow of the government), in which the Popular Assembly would be reduced to "controlling" the Executive, would have as its mission that of "political commissar" of the bourgeois government. The COB's proposal for "co-power" reproduces, in a deteriorated form, the experience of the Popular Assembly of 1971, for whose majority --nationalist and democratizing-- it had to co-govern with General Torres and convert the Assembly into the parliament which the latter lacked. In contrast to the COB's proposal, the Popular Assembly of 1971 posed a workers and peasants government, although only formally. After Banzer's military coup, its exponents recognized that the arming of the people had not been carried out --something they had never attempted.

The slogan of "participative democracy," of which the COB's proposal is a variation, aims for the integration of the masses into the capitalist State and to abort the conquest of power by the working class. The strategic objective is the workers and peasants government, that is, the dictatorship of the proletariat.

If the leaders of the COB and the peasant unions actually convenes the Popular Assembly, as a parallel power to the capitalist government, we will denounce all the attempts at institutionalizing a totally impotent "co-power," and we would put forward that the Popular Assembly should expel the capitalists and assume all power, linking this demand to the arming of the people and all the demands of the masses.

The crisis of power

The construction of the workers party is intimately linked to the intervention in the crisis of power, raising slogans transitional to the workers and peasants government, adapted to the evolution of the consciousness of the masses. To the extent that democratic illusions persist, it is obligatory to take them into account upon adopting slogans for the taking of power.

The agitation of the "danger of a coup" by the MAS, exploiting the democratic illusions of the masses, is in the service of defending its joining Mesa's government, which they intend to sustain until 2007. To leave power in the hands of Mesa is to maintain Gonism without Goni, and is the negation of political democracy and popular sovereignty, since the people repudiate the capitalist parties responsible for the national debacle and the massacre. In order to confront the perspective of a coup it is necessary to struggle for the trial and punishment of those responsible for the repression, for the dissolution of the praetorian guard and the arming of the exploited, creating workers and peasants militias.

Mesa intends to use the call for a referendum and for the Constituent Assembly in order to recompose the authority of the capitalist government and to advance in the surrender of Gas and the attack on the living conditions of the people. The announcements of the call for the Constituent are a desperate maneuver in the face of the danger of a new people's uprising. We denounce the impotent and anti-democratic character of a Constituent not holding power and limited to the drawing up of a new Constitution, and its condition of counterrevolutionary maneuver. A sovereign and revolutionary Constituent will only be able to be convened by a workers and peasants government.

In opposition to all these proposals seeking to assure the continuation of the capitalist government, it is necessary to raise a democratic demand as a transitional slogan towards the workers and peasants government: Out with Mesa, the parliament and the judges of the bourgeoisie. Dissolution of the armed forces and repressive bodies, and their substitution by workers and peasants militia. For a Constituent Assembly holding power, convened by the people's organizations on the basis of a program of transitional demands. For a workers and peasants government.

The building of the party

The Congress proposes the launching of a campaign for the building of a workers party, addressing the workers vanguard and the youth, in order to struggle for a workers and peasants government, on the basis of the characterizations of Mesa's government and of the counterrevolutionary role of the center-left, and the program of transitional demands. The campaign should raise the objective of a conference or Congress of the workers party, and seek to involve diverse sectors of the workers and students movements in this debate and in the building of the revolutionary party.

The development of this campaign and the construction of the party can only take place upon the foundation of the regular publication of the press of our Bolivian section, in order to systematically develop our program in relation to the evolution of the political situation, and in order to turn the journal into a tool for political deliberation among the vanguard. In this way our section will gain political authority and will penetrate new sectors of the working class and the exploited, and will be able to unite the best elements of the workers vanguard.

The Secretariat is recommended to support the efforts of the comrades of the O.T. by sending a cadre, in order to put this resolution into effect.

Submitted by: Cesar Uscamayta (Oposición Trotskista, Bolivia) - Rafael Fernández (Partido de los Trabajadores, Uruguay)