dollars, who no longer have any influence in the scene today.
Imperialism, along with its economists and advisers, knows that it is condemned to die. But as it nears the grave, it will try through its military rulers to drench the soil of Bolivia with blood, as it is doing today in the fields of Vietnam. Socialism or Death Is the Battle Cry!
There is no way out in Bolivia under a bourgeois regime. The capitalist policy, dictated by Yankee imperialism, only means misery and death. The military government, like the government of Paz Estenssoro, or any other bourgeois party, will only bring suffering to the Bolivian people. The twelve years of MNR rule and the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the country, over which. the various bourgeois groups are battling each other for the profits, have demonstrated that all roads to progress in Bolivia are closed off so long as the capitalist regime remains. The bourgeois utopias, advanced too late by the generals, are being dissipated by reality. Because of all this, the only feasible road in Bolivia, a real, concrete, certain road, free of all utopian fantasy, is socialism, with the establishment of a workers and peasants government. Let the slogan of the day, the battle cry for the masses and the people be "Socialism or Death." Socialism to prevent the slaughter being pre-~ pared by the Military Junta, socialism against capitalist chaos and anarchy, socialism against unemployment, misery and hunger.
Prepare for the Struggle
In view of this situation and these dangers, it is the duty of revolutionists and leaders of the masses to prepare and to organize the struggle, seizing the initiative away from the Military Junta and the reactionary parties, The Partido Obrero Revolucionario, with the authority and the right derived from its long and vigorous tradition of struggle, as it stands in salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the heroes of the proletarian struggles of Bolivia this May 1, vigorously appeals for a redoubling of energy, the strengthening of the militant unity of the unions preliminary to launching the counteroffensive of the workers against imperialism, its military agents and its rightist and reactionary parties.
In face of the imminent repression and the military mobilization against the industrial centers, the POR raises the slogan of taking up arms, of reorganizing the proletarian militia and armed
peasants. We cannot wait passively until the generals begin shooting. With audacity and courage it is necessary to organize the armed action of the masses to liquidate the forces of the enemy before or during their criminal mobilization. We must not look at armed struggle and civil war as a.tragic mishap but as the continuation of the social struggle by other means. We cannot stop to lament the dangers brought to us by imperialism and the Military Junta; it is necessary to overcome these dangers arms in hand, opening the socialist solution to the present crisis.
Forward with the Workers Struggles and Demands!
Neither dangers nor threats must stop us. In face of each obstacle it is necessary to raise the level of struggle. No organization must stop fighting for economic demands. In face of the constant increase in prices, the struggle for a general rise in wages will be the banner of battle. The teachers, factory workers and miners, together with the other sectors of labor, must unify their economic demands for a joint struggle. The firm attitude of the union ranks will activate and carry forward the 38-Point Program of the COB [see World Outlook November 27, 1964, for the program advanced by the Central Obrera Boliviana]. sweeping over the leaders who are not organizing the struggle or preparing action, tied as they are to the vices of the bureaucratic school of MNRism.
Intransigeant opposition to turning our national wealth over to the foreign monopolies must be the point of departure for the defense of the nationalized mines, expelling from the country the advisory group of the BID, a gang of cynical trustees, and struggl-. ing for workers management of these mines. ee
None of these demands must be given up or modified in face of the danger of military intervention. In each workers conflict the armed workers militia must remain on guard, ready to reply to any provocation whatsoever from the military. This defense work will fuse with the fundamental preparations for attacking the very bases of the fascist military heel. The workers must ready their arms more and more and be prepared to use them despite their vacillating and conciliatory leaders,
The POR calls on the peasants to unmask their bureaucratic leaders who try to tie them to the generals, and to establish a worker=peasant alliance in order to take the direct road to liberation of the peasantry.
Proletarians of Bolivia, Long live the First of May!
Down with the military heell Death to Yankee imperialism!
Long live the POR and the Fourth International.
Long live the Workers Government,
Hugo Gonzdlez Me Secretary ‘General of the POR.
For the Executive Committee: A. Carvajal
Gabriel Guzmfin
EB. Sanchez -
~W. Aldana
Felipe Vdzques
V. Silva