RED OCTOBER: LEFT-INDIGENOUS STRUGGLE IN BOLIVIA, 2000-2005 by Jeffery R. Webber A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Political Science University of Toronto Copyright by Jeffery R. Webber 2009 ii RED OCTOBER: LEFT-INDIGENOUS STRUGGLE IN BOLIVIA, 2000-2005 Jeffery R. Webber Doctor of Philosophy 2009 Graduate Department of Political Science University of Toronto Abstract This dissertation provides an analytical framework for understanding the left- indigenous cycle of extra-parliamentary insurrection in Bolivia between 2000 and 2005. It draws from Marxist and indigenous-liberationist theory to challenge the central presuppositions of liberal-institutionalist understandings of contemporary indigenous politics in Latin America, as well as the core tenets of mainstream social movement studies. The central argument is that a specific combination of elaborate infrastructures of class struggle and social-movement unionism, historical traditions of indigenous and working-class radicalism, combined oppositional consciousness, and fierce but insufficient state repression, explain the depth, breadth, and radical character of recent left-indigenous mobilizations in Bolivia. The coalition of insurrectionary social forces in the Gas Wars of 2003 and 2005 was led by indigenous informal workers, acting in concert with formal workers, peasants, and to a smaller degree, middle-class actors. The indigenous informal working classes of the city of El Alto, in particular, utilized an elaborate infrastructure of class struggle in order to overcome structural barriers to collective action and to take up their leading role. The supportive part played by the formal working class was made possible by the political orientation toward social-movement unionism adopted by leading trade-union iii federations. Radicalized peasants mobilized within the broader alliance through their own rural infrastructure of class struggle. The whole array of worker and peasant social forces drew on longstanding popular cultures of indigenous liberation and revolutionary Marxism which they adapted to the novel context of the twenty-first century. These popular cultures ultimately congealed in a new combined oppositional consciousness, rooted simultaneously in the politics of indigenous resistance and class struggle. This collective consciousness, in turn, strengthened the mobilizing capacities of the popular classes and reinforced the radical character of protest. At key junctures, social movement leaders were able to synthesize oppositional consciousness into a focused collective action frame of nationalizing the natural gas industry. Finally, throughout the left- indigenous cycle, ruthless state repression was nonetheless insufficiently powerful to wipe out opposition altogether and therefore acted only to intensify the scale of protests and radicalize demands still further. The legitimacy of the neoliberal social order and the coercive power required to reproduce it were increasingly called into question as violence against civilians increased. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One – Politics of Indigenous Resistance and Class Struggle 1 1.1 – Social Movement Theory ………………………………………………………. 3 1.2 – Liberal Institutionalism and Neoliberal Multiculturalism………………………. 12 1.3 – Working Classes as Historical Formations……………………………………… 19 1.4 – Infrastructure of Class Struggle…………………………………………………. 23 1.5 – Social-Movement Unionism…………………………………………………….. 25 1.6 – Defining Ethnicity and what it means to be Indigenous in Bolivia……………... 25 1.7 – Popular Cultures of Resistance and Opposition…………………………………. 29 1.8 – Combined Oppositional Consciousness…………………………………………. 32 1.9 – Neoliberalism…………………………………………………………………….. 36 1.10 – The State, Crisis, and Repression………………………………………………. 40 1.11 – Methodology…………………………………………………………………… 44 1.12 – Structure of the Dissertation…………………………………………………… 48 Chapter Two – Indigenous Insurgency, Working-Class Struggle, and Popular 50 Cultures of Resistance and Opposition, 1781-1964 2.1 – Late Colonialism and Early Republicanism: Silver Capital, the State, and Indigenous Rebellion………………………………………………………………….. 51 2.2 – The Federalist War of 1899 and Early Twentieth Century……………………… 58 2.2.1 – Tin Capital, Working-Class Formation, and Indigenous-Socialist……. 60 Alliances, 1900-1932 2.2.2 – Racial Ideologies of the Ruling Class…………………………………. 61 2.2.3 – The Labour Movement………………………………………………… 62 2.2.4 – Indigenous Peasant Resistance: The Chayanta Rebellion, 1927………. 65 2.3 – The Chaco War, Left Party Formation, Revolutionary Workers, and Indigenous Rebels (1932-1952)……………………………………………………………………. 67 2.3.1 – The Great Depression and the Chaco War…………………………….. 67 2.3.2 – Military Socialism……………………………………………………… 68 2.3.3 – The MNR and Radical Left Parties……………………………………. 70 2.3.4 – Working-Class Formation……………………………………………... 74 2.3.5 – Indigenous Resistance: the 1945 National Indigenous Congress and the 1947 Uprisings………………………………………………………………… 78 2.4 – National Revolution, 1952-1964………………………………………………... 81 2.4.1 – The Legacies of Revolutionary Nationalism………………………….. 82 2.4.2 – Developmental Capitalism – A Nationalist-Populist Regime of Accumulation…………………………………………………………………. 84 2.4.3 – The Revolution Moves Right…………………………………………. 86 2.4.4 – The Working Class – 1952-1964……………………………………… 88 2.4.5 – The Indigenous Peasantry – 1952-1964………………………………. 91 Chapter Three – Authoritarianism, Democracy, and Popular Struggle, 1964-1985 97 3.1 – The Legacies of Barrientos……………………………………………………… 99 3.1.1 – The Working Class, 1964-1971………………………………………. 101 3.1.2 – The Asamblea Popular, 1971…………………………………………. 106 v 3.1.3 – The Indigenous Peasantry, 1934-1971……………………………… 108 3.2 – Political Economy of Hugo Bánzer’s Dictatorship, 1971-1978……………… 112 3.2.1 – Santa Cruz and the New Bourgeoisie………………………………. 116 3.2.2 – The Working Class – 1971-1978…………………………………… 118 3.2.3 – The Indigenous Peasantry – 1971-1978…………………………….. 121 3.3 The Struggle for Democracy, 1978-1982………………………………………. 128 Chapter Four – Neoliberal Counterrevolution, 1985-2000 142 4.1 – From State-Led Developmentalism to Neoliberalism………………………… 142 4.1.1 – Privatization of the Tin Mines……………………………………… 146 4.1.2 – The New World of Labour…………………………………………. 148 4.1.3 – Formation of the Cocaleros’ Movement…………………………… 153 4.1.4 – Formation of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)………………... 158 4.1.5 – Other Indigenous Peasant Struggle in the Late-1980s………………. 160 4.1.6 – the Acuerdo Patriótico………………………………………………. 164 4.2 – State Multiculturalism and Phase II of Neoliberal Restructuring, 1993-2000… 166 4.3 – Privatization…………………………………………………………………… 170 4.3.1 – Natural Gas………………………………………………………….. 170 4.3.2 – Cochabamba’s Water……………………………………………….. 173 4.4 – Recession and State Crisis at the End of the 1990s…………………………… 175 Chapter Five – Left-Indigenous Insurrectionary Cycle, 2000-2003 181 5.1 – The Cochabamba Water War, 2000…………………………………………… 182 5.1.1 – Usos y Costumbres and Oppositional Consciousness……………….. 182 5.1.2 – Infrastructure of Class Struggle……………………………………… 185 5.1.3 – Three Battles and State Crisis………………………………………... 193 5.2 – The Insurrectionary Aymara Peasantry………………………………………... 200 5.2.1 – The CSUTCB and Rural Infrastructure of Class Struggle…………... 200 5.2.2 – Blocking Roads: April, September-October 2000 and June-July 2001. 207 5.2.3 – Popular Cultures of Resistance and Oppositional Consciousness – Aymara Radicalism…………………………………………………………… 212 5.3 – The February 12-13, 2003 Impuestazo…………………………………………. 218 Chapter Six – Red October: Gas War, 2003 227 6.1 – A Portrait of El Alto……………………………………………………………. 230 6.1.1 – A City of Migrant Labourers…………………………………………. 230 6.1.2 – El Alto’s Working Classes as Historical Formations………………… 233 6.1.3 – Popular Cultures of Resistance and Opposition……………………… 236 6.2 – El Alto’s Infrastructure of Class Struggle……………………………………… 241 6.2.1 – FEJUVE-El Alto……………………………………………………… 243 6.2.2 – COR-El Alto………………………………………………………….. 244 6.2.3 – Dialectics of Popular Power…………………………………………... 246 6.3 – Infrastructure of the Formal Working Class and Social-Movement Unionism…. 249 6.4 – Narrative of the Gas War: Dialectics of State Repression and Mass Radicalization………………………………………………………………… 250 6.4.1 – Indigenous Peasant Revolt and Urban Tremors in September……….. 252 vi 6.4.2 – The Collective Frame of Gas……………………………………...... 255 6.4.3 – State Massacre in Warisata and the Radicalization of Left-Indigenous Struggle……………………………………………………………………… 257 6.4.4 – The Formal Working Class Steps In………………………………… 260 6.5 – ¡El Alto de pie! El Alto on its Feet! Democratic Insurgency, State Repression, and Elite Fractures………………………………………………………………………... 262 6.6 – Middle-Class Moment: Goni’s Resignation…………………………………… 267 Chapter Seven – Carlos Mesa and a Divided Country: Left-Indigenous and Eastern Bourgeois Blocs in the Second Gas War of May and June, 2005 273 7.1 – Carlos Mesa and a Divided Country: Left-Indigenous and Eastern Bourgeois Blocs……………………………………………………………… 275 7.2 – Nationalization Frame, Class Infrastructure, Repertories of Contention……… 284 7.2.1 – The Collective Frame of Gas Nationalization……………………….. 284 7.2.2 – Infrastructure of Class Struggle and the Left-Indigenous Bloc……… 286 7.2.3 – Repertoires of Contention……………………………………………. 287 7.3 – Narrative of the May-June Gas War…………………………………………… 288 7.3.1 – Tensions Mount in Early May……………………………………….. 288 7.3.2 – Elite Ruptures………………………………………………………… 289 7.3.3 – Moderates and Radicals………………………………………………