(The following article appeared in the January 21, 1975, issue of Combate, the underground organ of the Partido Obrero Revolucionario Combate (POR- Revolutionary Workers party, the Bolivian section of the Fourth International).
(The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
Long Live the Strike at Catavi Siglo XX!
Do not leave the miners isolated. Extend the movement!
While we repudiate and condemn the attack on the four radio stations of the miners in Llallagua by the dictatorship's henchmen, we also hail the energetic response of the workers at Catavi and Siglo XX. We must extend this movement to the masses as a whole. At Catavi-Siglo XX more than the fate of the four radio stations is at stake. It is the starting point of an allout confrontation with the gorilla dictatorship to regain control of the unions, get rid of the Serviçio Civil Obligatorio [militarization of labor policy], lift the ban on political parties, and win back the democratic rights of the masses. We must not leave the miners isolated. For an extension of the strike!
Trade-union militias must be organized again to prevent the entry of the army into the mines!
The Entire Bolivian People Must Support the Miners!
The Dictatorship Will Be Defeated! The Masses and Socialism Will Win!
A Plot Against the People
The dictatorship has denounced "subversive" plans it discovered. With this news as a backdrop it has launched new aggressions against the workers and people: (1) the attack and silencing of the four radio stations in the Catavi-Siglo XX mine district, followed by the imprisonment of leading miners and members of the Oblate order, who were accused of being involved in the conspiracy; (2) synchronized with this, the promotion by the gorillas of their economic package, which once again sacrifices the interests of the masses to those of the national and imperialist exploiters.
It is true that for some time there has been a continuing conspiracy and plot-by the military dictatorship against the broad masses of the nation. A minority armed by the imperialists and backed by the North American monopolies conspires and plots, lowering the standard of living of the Bolivian masses, doing away with their democratic freedoms and rights. This minority of fascist military men is conspiring against the very existence of Bolivia, giving up its national heritage.
The broad masses of the nation resist and oppose the plans of this minority and for that reason they are attacked and persecuted.
The assault on the miners' radio stations, like the jailing of revolutionary militants, is an attempt to prevent the masses from showing their dissatisfaction, making their ideas known, and organizing to defend their wages and suspended democratic rights.
Price Freeze a Hoax!
Through its controlled press and radio, the dictatorship has launched a campaign to present its measures as favorable to the people. The dictatorship is lying, as we shall see:
The price freeze applies to a few foodstuffs and fuels produced domestically; everything else is exempt. Moreover, price controls under capitalism with its scarcities are nothing but a resort to demagogy. Thus they do not benefit the people. We have had long experience in such matters.
But the government itself is aware of the hoax. The following measures show this:
1. The 66.7 percent increase for housing turned over by Conavi [Consejo Nacional de Vivienda-National Housing Council] has been maintained.
2. Transport charges on freight trains were raised 50 to 70 percent. This increase will soon be reflected in the prices of transported merchandise.
3. The lifting of price freezes in railroad general stores for 50 percent of the rail workers is becoming a source of increased living costs for this sector.
4. Imported goods, whose prices keep rising as attempts are made to overcome the crisis of the capitalist regime brought on by endless world inflation, are producing and will continue to produce a steady rise in the cost of living.
The Lowering of Customs Tariffs
This is not a measure that benefits the workers. It benefits one sector of the bourgeois importers and well-to-do sectors of the middle class. For example, the lowering of the tariff on auto imports will mean that firms with less capital can bring in more vehicles and thus earn more, since transport costs for passengers and freight will stay the same or tend to rise. It is an illusion to think otherwise. Likewise, the tariffs on pharmaceuticals will not improve the purchasing power of wages. White- and blue-collar workers depend on the various social security funds to obtain medicines. The great masses of peasants are not familiar with either drugstores or doctors. The lowering of customs taxes will produce greater earnings for the capitalists, an objective Banzer faithfully carries out. Finally, the reduction of tariffs on housewares, especially electric appliances, can only benefit moneyed sectors, not poor and working-class layers.
The Wage Freeze
With all the measures taken by the dictatorship, the only things that will not rise are wages and salaries. On the contrary, although they will have the same dollar value, their purchasing power will decline.
Wages were already frozen at the end of 1972. In October 1974 the freeze was lifted and authorization to negotiate raises was granted. But before this could occur we were faced with a new wage freeze. Meanwhile, prices have risen and today the worker must face them with wages at the old level, which every day buy less.
For example, the railroad worker must meet the lifting of the price freeze at his general store with his old, frozen wages. On the other hand, white- and blue-collar workers must pay increased housing costs of 66.7 percent.
The January 14 measures? attack the masses' standard of living and lower the purchasing power of their wages. Once again the dictatorship is showing its oppressive side, which serves the exploiting firms.
Reject the Wage Freeze
When the dictatorship imposed its "New Governmental Model," our party, the POR Combate, denounced the fact that in addition to its being politically repressive, such a model signaled an attack on the economic situation of the masses. We are faced with the first blow, others will follow later.
The workers, the people as a whole, must halt this offensive. We must launch a united national movement for a wage increase and a sliding scale, along with the political struggle against the military dictatorship. No to those who starve us!
Notes
1. One-fourth of Bolivia's tin industry was shut down as the result of a miners' strike that began January 13. The strike was called after the Banzer regime raided and closed four radio stations on the grounds that they "had become centers of political agitation and subversion."
2. The wage-price freeze package previously described.