In Bolivia, the working masses are continuing to mobilize against the government of Rodrigo Paz. Roadblocks are intensifying, and new social sectors are joining the conflict. Amid this intensification, President Paz addressed the nation in a press conference on Wednesday, May 20.

The president adopted a conciliatory tone toward the mobilized sectors, whom he had referred to as “hitmen” just a few days earlier. He hinted that there was a possibility of lifting the arrest warrants against dozens of union leaders, including Mario Argollo, the executive secretary of the COB, the largest trade union federation in Bolivia. Paz also said it was impossible to uphold the so-called “Anti-Blockade Law,” spoke of a cabinet reshuffle, and reinforced his calls for dialogue.

He also hinted that the government was already in negotiations with COB leaders who, notably, had disappeared from the streets despite having announced a miners’ mobilization for last Wednesday.

While we categorically reject this government’s repression, persecution, and criminalization of the leadership of various sectors, we note that the COB leadership, by completely disappearing from the streets and following the executive’s statements, raises serious suspicion that these bureaucrats are negotiating behind the backs of the mobilized rank and file. If confirmed, this would mean the leadership is flagrantly ignoring the resolutions of hundreds of union, peasant, neighborhood, student, and community assemblies.

The disappearance of the COB from the streets and of the expected miners’ march from Colquiri raises the alarm about a possible new betrayal and takes us back to January, when Argollo sat down with Paz’s pro-business government to draft a new austerity decree aimed at imposing a gas price hike on working people.

In this new phase of the struggle, beginning with the march of the peasant and Indigenous communities of Pando and Beni, we have been warning against trusting the union bureaucrats. While these individuals employ increasingly radical rhetoric under pressure from the rank and file, in practice they refuse to implement essential measures voted on at the May 1 town hall meeting attended by over 6,000 people, such as the indefinite general strike.

That is why, at every roadblock, in every new effort to set up self-organized blockade committees, there is a growing concern about new leadership and a rejection of leaders who only seek to negotiate and betray the struggle.

We must call for grassroots assemblies to reaffirm the continuity of the plan of struggle, deepening coordination with the sectors determined to continue the fight and confronting the lukewarm and cowardly union leaderships. The hundreds of self-organized protesters at Puente Vela and dozens of blockade points in Senkata and Río Seco are already setting an example of this, as are rural teachers and sectors of urban teachers who, a week ago, rejected the negotiations of their national leaderships.

We urgently call for these assemblies and town hall meetings to be held immediately, denouncing the attempts at negotiation and calling for the strengthening of coordination at the roadblocks and mobilization sites.

We must demand that the indefinite general strike with a work stoppage be put into effect and strengthen unity and solidarity to sustain the struggle.

Immediate freedom and the dropping of charges for all those detained for fighting!

Down with the cowardly union leaders!

No negotiations behind the backs of the rank and file!

For the democratic coordination of all mobilized sectors to prepare for the general strike and the downfall of the corporate and repressive government of Paz and the entire right wing!

Originally published in Spanish on May 21 in La Izquierda Diario.

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