In Defence of Marxism

Editor's note: On Friday 17 Sanchez de Lozada finally resigned. This is a first victory for the Bolivian workers and peasants, achieved through three weeks of tremendous struggle. We thank all our readers who supported, signed and circulated this appeal. Follow our website regularly for further analyses of the ongoing Bolivian revolution.

Bolivia is living through a revolutionary situation. Last Monday the indefinite general strike called by the Bolivian Workers Union (COB) against the privatisation of gas took on an insurrectionary character.

There is a popular insurrection, led by the working class, which has formed a workers' militia and is clashing with the army. The heroic Bolivian miners
have been fighting against tanks with dynamite and are preparing to march on La Paz. 

The government has responded by unleashing a white terror. The balance sheet of the clashes between the masses and the army is more than 70 dead
and hundreds of wounded. But all this savagery has not halted the revolutionary movement. The government is increasingly isolated and on the verge of being overthrown.

In El Alto, a town in the forefront of the insurrection, a situation of dual power exists, and an elected neighbourhood committee is actually running the town. On Wednesday 250,000 people marched in La Paz, the biggest demonstration ever in the history of Bolivia.

The events in Bolivia confirm completely the analysis of the situation in Latin America that we have made over a long time in the pages of Marxist.com. The revolutionary process in the continent began in Ecuador, and then one country after another followed: Venezuela, Argentina, the election of Lula in Brazil, Peru and now the revolution has spread to Bolivia.

The supporters of Marxist.com in Latin America and all over the world will do all in their power to aid the Bolivian revolution. We are providing a
detailed analysis of the events in Bolivia on our website. We are also taking steps to inform and mobilise the international labour movement to
support the Bolivian workers and peasants.

BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!!

We ask you to place the question of Bolivia at the top of the agenda and takes urgent steps. We have produced a model solidarity message and a protest to the Bolivian embassy. We invite you, and the organizations you represent, to use these as the basis for messages of solidarity to the
Bolivian working people, and protests to the Bolivian authorities.

Do not waste any time! Do not wait for the weekend to pass! It is likely that dramatic events will already take place on Saturday and Sunday. We ask
you to take some kind of action TODAY, even if it is phoning the embassy and sending reports to the press to denounce the situation. Other, more
ambitious plans can be arranged for the weekend - protest pickets, petitions etc., and a LOBBY OF THE EMBASSY OR CONSULATE EARLY NEXT WEEK. Take photos of the lobby and send them immediately to us, together with detailed reports of any activities you have been involved in, no matter how small.

Resolutions should be presented to every branch of the SP, CP or youth organization where we are active or have contacts. Above all, approach the
trade unions, move resolutions in your TU branch, offer to send a speaker to explain what is happening. Go to the branches, the trade councils and the shop stewards committees. Organise meetings in the schools and universities.

Particularly important are the miners, who are at the forefront. But every other section is involved - including the journalists who are under attack.

The attacks on the Bolivian workers are attacks against the entire world Labour Movement! The cause of the Bolivian working class is our cause!

We urge all our readers and supporters to focus their attention on the situation in Bolivia, and to take action today!

Comradely,

Alan Woods, editor of Marxist.com, 
on behalf of the editorial board.

London, October 17, 2003.