Unite the struggles of the workers and peasants of Bolivia! All solidarity with the struggle of the Bolivian masses! – Declaration of the Liaison Committee for the Fourth International -LCFI
The government of Rodrigo Paz Pereira (of the Christian Democratic Party) is at war with the workers of Bolivia.
Just weeks after taking power, the government issued a landmark decree ending the state subsidy for diesel and gasoline. This measure, which had kept prices frozen since 2006, led to significant cost increases, fueling inflation that is hitting workers hard. Diesel and premium gasoline saw a sharp increase (diesel went from 3.72 to 9.80 bolivianos per liter). This immediately raised freight and urban and interprovincial fares.
Furthermore, the Paz government promoted a so-called “medium-sized property law,” which aimed to reclassify Bolivian peasant landholdings from smallholdings (with guaranteed protection against confiscation for debt) to medium-sized properties, making them liable to confiscation for debt. This was done to serve the interests of large landowners who sought to dispossess peasants of their land.
The Bolivian Constitution expressly protects small agricultural properties as the basis of family subsistence, decreeing that they are inalienable, indivisible, and exempt from taxes. By changing their classification to “medium-sized property,” this protection disappears completely. This has generated alarm among the peasants, leading them to quickly mobilize against the law.
The measure was originally decreed by the Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB) in protest against inflation and the elimination of fuel subsidies. As the days passed, what began as a union mobilization turned into a near-total road blockade that surrounded the main cities of western Bolivia.
In this context, the struggles and demands of workers and peasants converge. Currently, there is an indefinite general strike in full swing in Bolivia, which began at the start of the month and has become increasingly radicalized with the massive participation of multiple sectors.
The government, which has declared war on the workers, is responding with repression that has already cost the lives of at least four popular activists.
The government of Rodrigo Paz seeks, above all, to transfer the burden of the crisis to the masses, to expropriate the peasants from their lands, favoring the large landowners, and to orchestrate the transfer of control of Bolivia’s strategic resources, such as lithium, to US imperialism, as part of a global maneuver to cut off supplies to the People’s Republic of China.
It is the duty of all popular fighters to stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Bolivian people.
This solidarity should be directed, above all, towards preventing neighboring far-right governments, such as Katz’s in Chile, Milei’s in Argentina, or the Bolsonaro opposition in Brazil, from collaborating with Rodrigo Paz (providing him with repressive material, even under the pretext of sending “humanitarian” aid) so that he can continue his war against the Bolivian masses.
For the unity of the workers’ and peasants’ struggles!
Down with the repressive government of Rodrigo Paz!
Active solidarity with the struggle of the Bolivian masses!
