A HISTORIC CROSSROADS FOR BOLIVIA AND EVO MORALES

By Jose Enrique Pinelo and - - Reprint | | Print |

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LA PAZ, Jun 25 2008 (IPS) - The social movement of Bolivia remains integrated with President Morales as its symbol, but the government does not seem able to build a new collective identity and a new social order to accommodate it, writes Jose Enrique Pinelo, an activist in Bolivia\’s social movements since 1970. In this article, Pinelo writes that Morales\’ project for change must be reflected in the new Political Constitution of the State. The task of government was to convene a Constituent Assembly, redact the constitution, and submit it to popular vote. However, for more than a year the government has lost its political initiative and the Assembly has ceased its work. Morales was charged with safeguarding the strategic character of this process but because of the advance of the opposition, he used it as a tactical negotiating piece. He has called for a recall referendum on the mandate of the president, vice president, and the department prefects to be held on August 10. Thus far it doesn\’t seem likely that the constitutional process will succeed.

The party system established in the 1980s and 90s failed to achieve these goals. Will Morales fail as well? If he does, he will go down in history as the last gasp of the party system of the 20th century.

If he succeeds, however, we will see Bolivia incorporated into the processes of globalisation on its own terms, with its diversity of cultures seen as the strength underlying its transformation, with a participatory political system and policies tooled to battle poverty and redistribute the wealth generated by its natural resources.

This would finally resolve one of the paradoxes of Latin America’s popular movements: “If in Cuba fighting against private property is revolutionary, in Bolivia, fighting to extend it is.” This statement clearly presents the logic of the slogan “economic inclusion”.

Bolivia’s current political opposition managed to keep its grip on power for 38 years by rotating its leaders through the presidency. In this period, the social movement was able to gradually accumulate enough political capital to win the presidency for Morales in December 2005.

This accumulation of support began at the local level. Those years saw the emergence of new political actors: the peasant farmer movement organised around the Unique Confederation of Rural Labourers of Bolivia, the indigenous movement of the Amazon region, and small producers, from mining cooperatives, artisans, to small and micro entrepreneurs. The above account for 83 percent of jobs in the country.

Morales is seen as the embodiment of the process of the empowerment of these groups, and his election is a mandate to build a new collective identity and assure the formation of a new social order.

This project for change must be reflected in the new Political Constitution of the State. The task of government was to convene a Constituent Assembly, redact the constitution, and submit it to popular vote. However, for more than a year the government has lost its political initiative and the Assembly has ceased its work.

Morales was charged with safeguarding the strategic character of this process but, because of the advance of the opposition, he has used it as a tactical negotiating piece.

He failed to impose his national agenda on regional agendas and allowed confrontation among the regions to gather strength, particularly in the south and east of the country, where the opposition appropriated the banners of decentralisation and autonomy and drafted what are known as ”autonomic statutes”.

Symptoms of territorial division have appeared, though they are not major.

If the government doesn’t regain the initiative, for the people -whose demands are still pressing- it would mean that the Morales government is not the body to advance their cause and carry forward the process of empowerment and ultimately passage of the new constitution. The loss of political initiative implies that the strategic plan is in jeopardy.

What is the importance of President Morales today? The social movement remains integrated with Morales as its symbol, but the government does not seem able to build a new collective identity and a new social order to accommodate it.

Morales has called for a recall referendum on the mandate of the president, vice president, and the prefects (of the nine departments of the country) which will determine whether they remain in office or leave. It will be held on August 10.

At the same time the government has proposed dialogue with the political parties and the opposing prefects and has chosen as mediators the Catholic Church and the group of countries friendly to Bolivia -Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia- with the goal of integrating regional proposals into the text drafted by the Constituent Assembly.

The opposition is threatening to block the establishment of new rules and new institutions that would guarantee the political and economic inclusion of its social allies and make the victory of the president possible. Therefore, Morales will have to decide whether dialogue or the referendum is the right instrument to safeguard in the long term the process of empowerment begun in the 1980s

Thus far it doesn’t seem likely that the constitutional process will succeed; its last chapter may well be the national referendum to approve or reject the content of the new draft constitution on August 10. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)