Alaskans in the world
‘Reality tour’ to Bolivia reveals country in ferment
By: Geoff Bederson
Alaskans are sleeping, while their counterparts in Bolivia begin to shake themselves into activity. The similarities between Alaska and Bolivia are striking, and so are the contrasts. Alaskans are fattened and complacent because of their unearned wealth. But Bolivia, aroused by poverty, is awakening from five centuries of subservience to external and internal elites.
Millions of people participated in social protests in May and June, 2005, which culminated in the expulsion of the previous president from the country. Bolivia is the most politically unstable nation in the region: eight presidents have been toppled in the last eight years.
The country is divided between Indians and non-Indians, rich and poor, East and West.
Counterparts: Alaska and Bolivia
Like two sleepwalking giants, or puppets pulled by strings, the only contribution Alaska and Bolivia make to the global economy is their bountiful natural resources. Both Alaska and Bolivia are small in population, but the percentage of indigenous peoples is large. There is little or no manufacturing in either country. During the course of modern history they have been colonies, isolated provinces at the periphery of leadership, creativity, and power.
It was the fortune of Alaska to be claimed by a global powerhouse; landlocked and neglected Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, remains impoverished.
The U.S. contributes about $12,000 per capita to Alaskans; Bolivians receive just $200 from their government. The gross domestic product of Bolivia is the same as Knoxville, Tennessee (about $8 billion). Eighty percent of Bolivian workers are in the informal sector, the highest in the world. But Bolivia has an intense social consciousness.
The first victim of the neoliberal policies of cutthroat economic globalization, Bolivia is also the first to become fully aware of its victimization and to mobilize against this.
Bolivia is in the midst of political ferment. It has the largest and most organized social movements in the world. Unions are powerful. There is a whole parallel power structure. In town plazas and rural highways, the people are out in force making demands.
Political crises and social demands
The actual nature of Bolivian society is being thrown into question. In an interview on July 12, 2005 nationally known journalist and political analyst Alvaro Garcia noted that all access to power is blocked off to the indigenous population. “But the indigenous have awaken. It is not just electoral politics: there is a profound fight for power. The left wants more state power. It also wants to revive traditional, family models. A new elite is emerging, but with different color and traditions.”
Miners, labor activists and the poor majority indigenous population are fed up with the centuries of exploitation of their country’s resources that has left them impoverished.
Several major decisions will have to be made in the near future. The social movements are demanding the nationalization of the country’s massive natural gas resources. The Eastern bloc of the country is demanding regional autonomy, and they fear that a new constitution would strip them of control of their resources. All sides agree that, for the first time, state governors should be elected; but the Eastern bloc demands that this occur before the assembly is convened and land distribution is certain to be the next big natural resource struggle.
New presidential and congressional elections are set for December 4, 2005. Plans are underway to convene a Constitutional Assembly.
Background: Social movements turn back corporate globalization
In 1985 Bolivia was the first country to have an imposed Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). It was also the first to organize against it, and twenty years of experience in this struggle has begun to reap rewards.
“Bolivia has for the last twenty years been the primary lab rat in Latin America for a whole set of economic policies imposed on it from abroad,” according to Jim Schultz, director of the Bolivian Democracy Center.
Modern history in Bolivia began in 1985. The 1985 SAP’s effectively removed the right to organize. All the mines were closed and privatized. 25,000-30,000 miners (125,000 people including their families) lost their jobs overnight. The many labor rights achieved since 1952 were lost.
Oscar Olivera was a leader of the Water Wars demonstrations in 2000, which for the first time in history forced the removal of a multinational corporation. According to Olivera, “2000 was the turning point, though we really didn’t know what we were doing when we challenged Bechtel. It was the first chipping away of the neoliberal model.”
According to Olivera, the new form of social organization in Cochabamba is horizontal. Sometimes 100,000 people meet without a leader - and this works. “Leaders should lead by obeying the grassroots. Since 2000 there hasn’t been a single failure of a social movement demand.”
A burden of debt
The Jubilee Foundation is seeking the nullification of Bolivia’s international debts, which they claim are unjust. Juan Carlos Nunez, director of the foundation, noted that even now Bolivia receives the highest per capita foreign aid in the world. Nunez says that almost all of this is wasted or is actually harmful. “Why is so much money entering this country and we remain in poverty? The government is entirely unable to calculate the impact of projects. This is the ‘cement mentality’ of all development agencies.”
“They’ve already written off $4.6 billion, but we’re always in more debt - because all development is through loans, not grants.”
“How do we build a state that everyone feels a part of, both in terms of contributing as well as in sharing in resources?” asked Juan Nunez. “Instead of building these big white elephant projects, let’s talk about improving the quality of life of the people. So in addition to debt relief it’s a question of developing a new way of life and thinking. The real question is one of social justice.”
“The next 12 months,” Nunez adds, “is going to be absolutely historical.”
Looming crises
According to Alvaro Garcia, there are four possibilities for the immediate future: A military takeover; civil war; the rise of a charismatic leaders; and, finally, a new political alignment.
According to Oscar Olivera, there are two basic demands underlying the social unrest: the need to regain control over national revenues, and the convening of the Constitutional Assembly. But these are just the political expression of inescapable human challenges. “It’s a fight for life against death; for dignity, so that kids don’t die because they don’t have access to life.”
In this battle against death Americans should understand their complicity, Olivera said. “The US supports the transnational corporations in spite of the millions who oppose them.” Do we benefit from policies that impoverish Bolivians? To what extent is Alaska’s prosperity due to the suffering of people in poor countries, like Bolivia?
What’s happening in Bolivia, according to Alvaro Garcia, is just a moderate redistribution of wealth. “It is not a radical political movement, it is not socialism, it is not a challenge to the rest of the world.” It is just the peasants of a sleeping nation waking up after five hundred years of servitude and asking for justice.
Geoff Bederson traveled to Bolivia with Global Exchange, which offers ‘reality tours’ to various countries. Details can be found on their site globalexchange.org.
Interviews in this article were taken July 2 - 14, 2005.