Morales takes on ‘Big Oil’

Bolivia:

Morales takes on ‘Big Oil’

The part-nationalisation of Bolivia’s gas and oil industry by
president Evo Morales, similar to Hugo Chávez’s decree in Venezuela
earlier this year, is another blow to the ‘neo-liberal’ agenda of big
business and imperialism in Latin America.
 This measure reflects years of bitter struggles by Bolivia’s
working class and indigenous poor to reclaim the country’s resources for
their own interests.
KARL DEBBAUT reports on the political implications.

"THE SPANISH, the North Americans, the Europeans looted the tin, the
silver and the natural resources. We should recognise that in 1937, under
the leadership of the armed forces petroleum was nationalised for the
first time, the second nationalisation was carried out in 1969 with the
intellectual Marcelo Quitoga Santa Cruz and his struggle continues
today".

So declared Bolivian president Evo Morales on May Day 2006 as he
announced a presidential decree reversing the privatisation of the oil
and gas industry instituted in 1996.

Making his speech in the south eastern department of Tarija Morales
was flanked by various ministers. In addition, the army stepped in and
guarded all major installations and refineries.

Everywhere huge May Day demonstrations took place. The jubilant masses
were celebrating what they see as a first step to the full
nationalisation of the oil and gas industry. Jose Lopez, a Santa Cruz
native, expressed his joy: "For the first 100 days of his rule, Evo
didn’t do the things he said he would. But this was much better. Now
everyone is behind him again".

Western imperialism’s response to the "first nationalisations of the
21st century" as the vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera called the move,
was one of condemnation. The Spanish president and ‘social democrat’ Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero threatened to cut the Spanish aid budget to
Bolivia. The Brazilian ‘social democrat’ president Lula called the move
"unfriendly," while the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
accused Morales of "demagoguery".

The Movement towards Socialism or MAS, the party of Evo Morales, may
present the presidential supreme decree 28701 as its gift to the masses
but in reality it isn’t theirs to give.

The struggle of the Bolivian working class and poor masses with its
main demand for the nationalisation of the hydrocarbons industry, known
as the ‘gas wars’, has dominated the political landscape for the last
four years.

The mobilisations of the working class, organised in trade unions and
community committees, has led to the downfall of two governments. The MAS
was largely a bystander in the uprising of October 2003 and the mass
mobilisations of May and June 2005.

Nationalisation or renegotiation

The biggest foreign operators in Bolivia are Spanish-run Repsol and
principally PetroBras, the state owned Brazilian giant. The Bolivian
affiliate of Petrobras accounts for 24% of Bolivia’s tax receipts, 18% of
its GDP. Beyond this Petrobras itself operates 75% of the gas exports and
95% of Bolivian refining capacity.

The decree passed by Evo Morales stops short, at present, of the
expropriation of the multinationals. Instead, the state run oil and gas
company, the YPFB or Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales, (all but
destroyed in the privatisation process of 1996), will be resuscitated to
take majority control over all the gas fields and installations.

The multinationals, who have made enormous profits over the last ten
years by paying only 18% tax, will be made to pay 82% tax and have, under
the new agreement proposed to them, control over only 18% of the
resources which they exploit. If they do not agree to renegotiated
contracts over the next 180 days the government has threatened to
expropriate them.

The working class has been demanding outright nationalisation of the
hydrocarbons, with the most foresighted layers in the Bolivian trade
union confederation COB, demanding workers’ control and management of the
industry as a first step towards finishing with capitalism and build a
socialist society

Pressures

Morales and the MAS have never committed themselves to such a course.
Throughout the election campaign Morales has said that he wanted to
renegotiate foreign ownership of Bolivia’s natural resources. This would
not be appropriation, it would not be nationalisation, it would be a
renegotiation of contracts.

Nevertheless such is the pressure of the mass movement that Morales
might be forced to nationalise completely. The first 100 days of the
Morales government has seen it swinging from left to right and back again
in an attempt to try and find a balance between the interests of the
masses and appeasing imperialism.

Morales and his government repressed mobilisations of striking airline
workers, and reneged on a promise to increase the minimum wage by between
50% and 100%. It seems that in the last couple of weeks the social
temperature had been rising again in Bolivia. An announced general strike
for 4 May in the Santa Cruz region was called off only after the
announcement of the hydrocarbons decree.

The announced decree by the Bolivian government will be perceived by
Western imperialism as a threat to their interests and welcomed by the
Bolivian masses. However, the situation in Bolivia, with two-thirds of
the population living in absolute poverty, is crying out for a break with
capitalism and the building of socialism.

Boasting the most unequal distribution in wealth in Latin America, the
richest ten per cent of the population have an income 143 times greater
than the poorest 10%. In rural areas the ratio is 170 times greater!

Only by taking full control over the natural resources of the country,
and the leading sectors of the economy, under workers’ control and
management, will it be possible to work out a democratic plan to use the
richness of resources and the value created by the labour of the working
class for the good of the country.


Bolivia’s May Day

Hundreds of thousands of workers and poor took part in the May Day
demonstrations.

An eyewitness report says: "I walked past the Coca-Cola workers with
their red union jackets, Che [Guevara] emblazoned on the left breast
pocket. Factory workers, pensioners, indigenous peasant groups from the
altiplano, teachers, informal workers of a thousand varieties and
thousands upon thousands of disciplined marching women from various
sectors, some in indigenous dress, others in jeans and union jackets. The
only people working were the street vendors."

The placards, signs and banners on the march paid homage to the
international martyrs of the working class. One banner read: "Glory to
the martyrs of Chicago who offered their lives for the eight-hour day";
and linked this with the continued fight in Bolivia. Other placards
demanded: "Out with the looting transnational corporations", and
"Nationalisation of the hydrocarbons now".