Read on Twitter
#BoliviaEnCrisis
A comment on the six-day blockade campaign by labor and peasant allies of the MAS:
Every strike is a test of the mobilizing capacity of movements involved & the power of the government to dissuade them.
A comment on the six-day blockade campaign by labor and peasant allies of the MAS:
Every strike is a test of the mobilizing capacity of movements involved & the power of the government to dissuade them.
The MAS showed its organizational capacity to raise blockades in over 100 locations nationwide…
a willingness to rapidly paralyze intercity traffic, and some substantial marches (last week) and blockades in the cities.
Compared with late November, this was a more geographically widespread and bolder effort, but not necessarily a demonstration of greater overall popular support.
The concerted effort, international attention, and reduced fear all mean that voices in the government calling for a military solution were pushed aside. That is an unequivocal good.
Some grassroots left movements that were skeptical on November 6-9 have returned to the fold, most dramatically the leadership of the COB and the Mallku. Others have not.
Meanwhile, the sharp split over the health impacts of the blockades may have undermined MAS's attempt to broaden its electoral coalition.
There remain many former MAS voters and former MAS allies who are deeply disenchanted. Witness division in El Alto, distancing from Cbba Fabriles and Magisterio, CONTIAP, etc.
This week's action was to ensure that elections aren't permanently delayed. It looks like they were successful in doing that, and in sending a warning that the countryside may become ungovernable if elections are canceled or indefinitely postponed.
But securing a strong electoral coalition, to either secure a first-round victory or win a second-round majority requires recovering a large chunk of former MAS voters. https://woborders.blog/2019/10/22/understanding-the-end-of-the-evo-morales-majority/
Arce and the MAS may be grateful they have 10 weeks to do that instead of four, especially to the extent that concerns about the health impacts of blockades undercut them.
