As Bolivian unrest grows, I have to ask the question:Where is the International Left?

[Az]

Damn smartass. Go sit in the corner, and think very well about what you've just said.

[Kropotkin]

Yes, sir. I'm so sorry! Really, I am.

[Az]

Sorry, I won't spam my own thread any further.

It seems that backpackers from all over the world are trying to get en masse out of the country.

[chequita guevara]

Bolivia has had a very strong peasant based protest movement for about 50 years. In 1954, they actually overthrew the government. The military overthrew that about twelve years later, stablishing a rather ferocious dictatorship, which was replaced one after another until we got to the Cocaine Coup fo Hugo Banzer (of Klaus Barbie fame).

Since then, and even before, the peasants haven't been shy about marhcing onthe capital and making their feelins known. I met the leader of the peasant women's union. Very tiny, small, powerful woman, old, and tough.

The liberal Spanish professors at my university brought her to speak, and she scared the bejeezuz out of them with her stories. Peasants don't **** around politically. She had expected to come to the U.S. to go on a tour to raise money for her union, but the liberals packed her on the first plane back to Bolivia. Stupid liberals. We tried to rescue her, but were unable to do so.

[GePap]

I don't understand why selling something that you don't need to someone who is willing to pay for it is bad.

The peasants did not think they would get enough benefits out of the contracts signed: ie, they were going to get shortchanged by the buyers. Anyone can understand that.

But we must not let the popular will command!

The guy lost support the second he called the army out and people begun to get shot.

Interestingly enough, has anyone started any threads about the recent elections in Azerbaijan and the violence that followed?

[JCG]

Hopefully they manage to do *something* truly worthwhile and lasting for their people then this time, and not just nationalize and expropiate everything in sight and gain themselves an embargo, at the very least....

[Sandman]

With any luck, they'll take back their utilities from the multinationals, or at least get some much needed regulation to save their economy from being utterly gutted.

[Odin]

I bet the minute the Lefties start wining in an election there, Shrub is gonna send the CIA to rig the elections to please his corporate masters. Dare I say Contra #2?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Odin
I bet the minute the Lefties start wining in an election there, Shrub is gonna send the CIA to rig the elections to please his corporate masters. Dare I say Contra #2?

I don't know, the Chavez thing was bungled (if the CIA rumours are true about that - which is debatable).