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Guillermo Lora (1921-2009), La Conscience Ouvrière Bolivienne

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Guillermo Lora (1921-2009), La Conscience Ouvrière Bolivienne Guillermo Lora (1921-2009), la conscience ouvrière bolivienne http://www.le-militant.org/carnet/lora.htm Guillermo Lora (1921-2009), la conscience ouvrière bolivienne. Par Vincent Présumey. Juillet 2009 La mort de Guillermo Lora le 17 mai 2009, c'est la disparition d'un grand révolutionnaire du XX° siècle. Il n'est pas très connu de par le monde, il n'est pas de ceux dont le nom est enseigné dans les écoles, ou orne posters, tee-shirts, briquets et fonds de culottes, mais ce nom est de ceux qui seront repris par des générations de combattantes et de combattants, car le combat continuera. Guillermo Lora était l'une de ces figures du mouvement trotskyste dont le nom incarne à tort ou à raison un courant, une organisation, voire une culture politique, comme ceux de Mandel, Lambert, Just, Grant, Cliff, Cannon, Moreno ... et à ce titre il était le dernier de ces "monstres sacrés" plus ou moins sacrés et plus ou moins monstrueux, à avoir vécu leur jeunesse dans le mouvement ouvrier révolutionnaire des II° et III° Internationales et à en avoir tiré la leçon fondamentale qu'il en fallait une quatrième pour gagner. De cette génération, proche du décès de Guillermo Lora, s'est d'ailleurs produit, le 27 avril 2009, celui de Hugo Gonzales Moscoso (1922-2009) qui fut un peu, du point de vue des "internationales trotskystes", son frère ennemi après avoir longtemps été son camarade. Mais Guillermo Lora est unique car il fut aussi, et dans son cas ceci est indissociable de son "statut" de grande figure du trotskysme, une sorte d'incarnation de la conscience du prolétariat bolivien, en particulier du prolétariat minier de l'Altiplano andin, pendant plusieurs décennies. Au point qu'il était devenu sur son grand âge un peu une icône nationale, une composante du complexe sentiment national bolivien, et que sa perte a été ressentie en Bolivie comme un chagrin national même chez ceux qui le méprisaient ou le craignaient, la presse, qui semble t'il ne le craignait plus guère mais qui frissonne encore à l'idée de ce qu'il représenta, ayant salué en son décès le départ du "dernier bolchevik" . Aucune autre de ce groupe de grandes figures se réclamant du trotskysme, dont sa disparition conclut l'extinction, n'a joué un rôle aussi décisif dans le mouvement ouvrier et l'histoire nationale de son pays. Nous verrons que cela semble lui être un peu monté à la tête, mais le fait est réel, historique : la Bolivie est un pays marqué par le trotskysme et cela ne se serait pas produit, car ce sont les hommes qui font leur propre histoire, sans l'action de Guillermo Lora. SOMMAIRE. Chapitre I. 1 sur 126 15/08/2009 23:56 Guillermo Lora (1921-2009), la conscience ouvrière bolivienne http://www.le-militant.org/carnet/lora.htm Des origines à la révolution de 1952. Guillermo Lora, Uncia, la Bolivie et la guerre du Chaco. La naissance du Parti Ouvrier Révolutionnaire. Les hommes de la seconde génération. L'organisation du prolétariat minier. Le Thèses de Pulacayo. Sous le talon du Sextenio. Le cas Lechin. Le Bloc ouvrier et mineur et la répression. Chapitre II. 1952, la première révolution prolétarienne d'Amérique latine. La révolution. Quelques mots ... Le POR et l'Internationale en 1952. Lora et l'Internationale en 1952. Quand la révolution éclate, Pablo ne paie pas le voyage à Lora. A propos du parallèle POR-bolcheviks (ou mencheviks ! ). La révolution d'avril 1952. La bataille perdue de la nationalisation des mines. La réforme agraire et le reflux. Chapitre III. Digérer les leçons d'une révolution tronquée. Genèse du "lorisme". Nouvelle étape. Crise et scission. Le POR et "les deux "Quatrième Internationale" ". Les années 1956-1964. Le renforcement du POR-Masas. Le parti historique du prolétariat bolivien. Devenir du POR "Moscoso". Village gaulois. Chapitre IV. Une tentative d'écrasement. Le régime militaire. Les martyrs de la classe ouvrière. La guérilla du Che. Lora, Cuba et le SU. De la guérilla du Che à la guérilla selon le SU. Chapitre V. Nous y voila : les soviets, l'armement, la prise du pouvoir ... De la crise de l'Etat à l'irruption des masses, premier temps. De la crise de l'Etat à l'irruption des masses, second temps. Le moment de prendre l'initiative. L'Assemblée populaire. 2 sur 126 15/08/2009 23:56 Guillermo Lora (1921-2009), la conscience ouvrière bolivienne http://www.le-militant.org/carnet/lora.htm Le début des travaux de l'Assemblée populaire. Les courants extériorisés par rapport à l'Assemblée populaire. L'Assemblée populaire, les mines, l'Université et les paysans. Quelques semaines ... Quatre journées. Chapitre VI. Débats et enjeux autour de l'Assemblée populaire et du coup d'août 1971. Le POR, l'OCI et le CORQI. Légendes noires et réalité du POR en 1971. Analyse de l'orientation du POR en 1971. Comment ne pas tirer les leçons d'une défaite partielle. OCI et POR : gel d'une alliance. Chapitre VII. La butte témoin. Le POR après 1973. De Pinochet aux années 1980. La rupture avec le CORQI. Les années 1980. Enfoui dans les profondeurs de sa classe. Mines de cuivre et feuille de coca. Conclusion. Note sur les sources utilisées. ANNEXES. Les Thèses de Pulacayo (1946). Déclaration de la Tendance Quatrième Internationaliste (1979). Chapitre I. Des origines à la révolution de 1952. Guillermo Lora, Uncia, la Bolivie et la guerre du Chaco. Guillermo Lora n'aurait pas été Guillermo Lora sans l'action d'autres militants, qui l'ont gagné et formé. Il ne s'agit pas ici bien sûr de faire une biographie individuelle du personnage Lora, mais il nous faut expliquer son parti, le POR quand Lora le rencontre et ce que le POR deviendra en quelques années après cette rencontre. Guillermo Lora Escobar naquit en 1920, 1921 ou 1922 à Uncia, dans le département de Potosi où se trouvent les centres miniers de Siglo XX, Catavi, et "le" Potosi proprement dit, la vieille montagne d'argent et de souffrances. A Potosi, on se croit à la périphérie du monde, dans ces hauts plateaux écrasés de soleil et de vent, peuplés d'indiens dont la famille de Guillermo Lora était issue, à une époque où ils ne revendiquaient plus et pas encore cette identité indienne. Mais on est aussi au haut lieu des mines d'argent dont l'exploitation, par un travail souvent forcé, a ouvert au XVI° siècle la voie au triomphe mondial du mode de 3 sur 126 15/08/2009 23:56 Guillermo Lora (1921-2009), la conscience ouvrière bolivienne http://www.le-militant.org/carnet/lora.htm production capitaliste : le cœur du monde. A la fois périphérie du monde et cœur du m onde, telle sera la contradiction de toute l'histoire et de la vie politique de Guillermo Lora et du POR. La Bolivie est au cœur du mode de production capitaliste, comme système mondial, depuis le XVI° siècle. Mais dans la manière dont elle a été saisie, les vestiges des anciens modes de production ont été maintenus et recyclés, au service du capital : la Mita, corvée imposée aux communautés paysannes dans les mines, remonte aux Incas. Ce n'est pas un Etat-nation, c'est plutôt une pièce détachée de l'ancienne vice-royauté espagnole, en 1825, amputée territorialement par ses voisins qui en ont fait une enclave sans débouché maritime. Quand la jeune bourgeoisie libérale mène la lutte contre la vieille oligarchie qu'elle accuse de féodalisme, lors de la guerre civile de 1898, c'est pour, immédiatement, se retourner violemment contre les paysans qui demandent la terre, souvent sous la forme de la possession commune indienne. Uncia, berceau de Lora, est le foyer, en 1923, d'un massacre mené par l'armée au service de ces mêmes magnats de l'étain, pour interdire l'organisation syndicale du prolétariat minier. Dans les années qui suivent les courants anarchiste et socialiste commencent à s'organiser, et un premier Parti Communiste prend forme à la fin de la décennie, auquel adhère en 1930 le jeune José Aguirre Gainsborg, issu d'une grande famille d'intellectuels et de politiciens libéraux, et l'un des leaders du mouvement pour la Réforme universitaire qui sera la pépinière des cadres du nouveau mouvement ouvrier qui va émerger après la catastrophe de la guerre du Chaco (1932-1935). Ce conflit absurde et sanglant entre la Bolivie et le Paraguay, attisé des deux côtés par la finance nord-américaine et britannique dans le contexte de la crise mondiale des années 1930, épisode tragique ignoré en Europe au delà des allusions dans ... les aventures de Tintin (L'oreille cassée ), permet la destruction des cadres du mouvement ouvrier naissant dans les deux pays, et entraîne l'exil de J.Aguirre Gainsborg au Chili, où se trouve le plus important mouvement ouvrier organisé du continent. La naissance du Parti Ouvrier Révolutionnaire. POR, Parti Ouvrier Révolutionnaire, est un sigle dont l'inspiration pourrait avoir été chilienne : au Chili la Gauche communiste dont la fréquentation a été décisive pour J.Aguirre Gainsborg, représente sans doute la majorité du Parti communiste. Se réclamant de Trotsky, la Gauche communiste chilienne était aussi très influencée par le POUM hispano-catalan d'Andreu Nin (Parti Ouvrier d'Unification Marxiste), lui-même souvent qualifié de trotskyste par ses adversaires, staliniens en tête. Par la suite les trotskystes ou trotskysants de la Gauche communiste chilienne sont entrés au PS et l'ont pratiquement pris en main -ils sont les ancêtres du PS chilien de Salvador Allende, détruit le 11 septembre 1973. Ceux de ses militant qui voulaient maintenir un parti révolutionnaire délimité et indépendant ont justement fondé le POR chilien en 1936 (il sera lui aussi finalement dissous en 1965 dans le MIR, Mouvement de la Gauche Révolutionnaire, le front d'extrême gauche membre de l'Unité populaire d'Allende).
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