Imperialists Fight for Control of Bolivia and the World

Fascist Coup Against Evo Morales

November 19—Some capitalist media denounce the Bolivian coup as a vile racist attack on a democratically elected leader. Others praise it as a democratic act to prevent a dictatorial president from holding onto power.

All hide that the coup is a product of the struggle among imperialist butchers for world domination: US versus China and Russia.

Evo and the Bolivian capitalists represented by their Movement to Socialism forged alliances with China and Russia. The oldest Bolivian capitalist sector wants to maintain its alliance with the US.

Indigenous masses are motivated by their hatred of the racism they have suffered and relentlessly fought against for centuries. But without communist leadership they are being mobilized to fight for one capitalist-imperialist side against the other.

Bolivia is in a pre-revolutionary situation that can either install fascism, unleash a fratricidal civil war or become a communist revolution — if there is communist party to lead one.

Evo Was Supposed to Prevent Civil War

In 2000, the government privatized water and charged for it. The Water War broke out. The working masses, including indigenous groups, rose up heroically against this racist and fascist attack on their survival. Faced with a growing prerevolutionary situation, the government retreated.

Three years later, the government planned a pipeline to Chile to sell gas cheaply to the US. The masses rose up even more massively and militantly against this theft of their resources, bringing Bolivia to the brink of civil war.

Both times, trade union and indigenous leaders such as Evo Morales were key to pacifying the angry masses. In 2005 Evo was elected as the first indigenous president of Bolivia.

This guaranteed that for almost 14 years Bolivian resources and workers were exploited “peacefully” by Creole and imperialist capitalists.

Evo has Never Been a Communist

Evo started out as a trade-unionist. He founded the Political Instrument for Popular Sovereignty (IPSP) to advance himself politically. In 1997 the IPSP allied with the Movement to Socialism (MAS).

MAS had nothing to do with the socialism of the old communist movement. It took the name of an extinct faction of the fascist Bolivian Socialist Falange Party.

This alliance allowed Evo to participate in the 1997 elections because MAS was registered and ISPS was not. Evo was elected to Parliament, beginning his career as a bourgeois politician.

There’s no middle ground: If a government is not communist, it is capitalist.

If the communist working class does not govern, the government remains capitalist. It can never meet the needs of the masses.

So Evo began to lose popularity. He proposed projects to “develop” indigenous areas for the benefit of capitalists and imperialists. He confronted indigenous protests with beatings, tear gas and rubber bullets.

The price of gas has been low since 2014. Evo’s government has less income for popular social welfare programs.

His approval rate fell to 43%. The capitalist-imperialists saw him as less and less useful for appeasing future workers’ explosions.

Then came his latest “crime.” He granted two Chinese companies the right to exploit the world’s largest lithium reserves. This mineral is indispensable, for example in electric car batteries. US imperialists could not allow that. Hence the coup!

Communism: the only alternative for the international working class.

Only communism, without money or capitalists, can guarantee our self-sufficiency in providing all our basic needs. For what we do not produce, we will depend on other workers around the world.

Unlike the capitalist-imperialists who fight over oil, natural gas, lithium, etc. for their profits, we will share all the resources of the world with the international working class to meet our needs.

In communism we will not have electoral parties or elections. We will have only one Party of many millions of communist leaders. Together with the masses, the party will make all the decisions that affect our lives.

Our red army – made up of millions – will defend our revolution. We will not stop fighting until we have built a communist world without borders or nations.

Pre-revolutionary Situations Show Urgency of Building ICWP

Mass movements in Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Iraq, Haiti, Sudan and elsewhere show the capacity and fighting potential of our powerful international working class. This makes it urgent to build a mass International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) with a mass base in the working class, in the army and among the youth.

Let’s support our international family in struggle by building ICWP where we are. If you are not a member, join! Distribute Red Flag to workers and soldiers, co-workers, family and friends. Recruit them to organize ICWP collectives.

This is how we prepare so that future pre-revolutionary explosions bring the communist working class to power!

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