From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Wed Dec 21 2005 - 11:48:43 EST
Selected quotes:
"I would scituate it [MAS, JL] on the centre-left because the project of
economic and social transformations that this organization wants to
carry through can not be described as either communist or socialist
or even 'communitarist'."
"There are two reasons why there is not much of a chance of a socialist
regime being installed in Bolivia ...." (see what his 2 reasons are
below)
"Q: In that case what kind of system does the MAS want to build?
A: A kind of Andean capitalism."
"Q: What is Andean capitalism?
A: It is a question of building a strong state, which can coordinate
in a balanced way the three 'economic-productive' platforms that
coexist in Bolivia: the community-based, the family-based and the
'modern industrial."
"Bolivia will still be capitalist in 50 or 100 years."
This doesn't sound all that revolutionary, does it?
In solidarity, Jerry
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Interview with Álvaro García Linera, newly elected Bolivian vice-president
- "The MAS is of the Centre-Left"
IV Online magazine : IV373 - December 2005
Interview with Álvaro García Linera, newly elected Bolivian
vice-president
"The MAS is of the Centre-Left"
Pablo Stefanoni
Sociologist, political analyst, very much present in the media,
ex-leader of the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army (EGTK) along with
Felipe Quispe at the beginning of the 1990s, Álvaro García Linera is
the newly elected vice-president of Bolvia.
In the eyes of some observers, he is the MAS's "trump card" for
winning over the "urban middle classes", thanks to his profile as an
intellectual. For others, he is just an "ex-terrorist"; for still
others, he is the person who can be a moderating influence on
Morales. He did this interview with Pablo Stefanoni for Inprecor,
our French-language sister journal.
What difficulties emerged during the negotiations with the other
components of the Left?
From a programmatic point of view, there is a consensus, from the
most moderate to the most radical, on the demands that should be put
forward. We were quickly able to reach agreement on a common
platform of reforms: nationalization of hydrocarbons, a Constituent
Assembly and a new economic model. Where the difficulties appeared
was when the time came to discuss list of candidates. However, there
are some principles which seem to me to be essential.
Álvaro García LineraFirst of all, the respect for the territorial
representativeness of the organizations, which is after all an
original way to build a social network of electoral mobilization.
There is a general acceptance of the principle that consists of
leaving each organisation a form of sovereignty in choosing its
candidates, and that enabled us to make quick progress.
It is a logic that is very different from the one that governed the
previous left fronts between parties. But since, in certain
territories, several organisations are superposed, for example in El
Alto, it is necessary to achieve a fair balance. And that is where
the difficulties appeared.
Did the Bolivian Workers Confederation (COB) want well-placed
candidates in return for allying with the MAS?
Alvaro Garcia Linera: All the organisations want that, the COB the
same as the others.
Did Jaime Solares want to lead the alliance along with Evo Morales?
Solares wanted the COB to be at the centre of the initiative, for it
to be the entity that coordinated the other movements, and I think
that in the period we are living through, no social movement can
attribute to itself such prerogatives, because there is no longer a
national movement in Bolivia. All the social movements, today, are
regional and local movements. There exists in the COB a kind of
melancholy, but we are not dealing with the COB of the 1970s.
Where do you situate the MAS from an ideological point of view?
I would situate it on the centre-left, because the project of
economic and social transformations that this organisation wants to
carry through cannot be described as either communist or socialist
or even 'communitarist' [a reference to the indigenous communities
as units of economic and social production - translator's note].
Is it your thesis that socialism is not viable in Bolivia today?
There are two reasons why there is not much chance of a socialist
regime being installed in Bolivia. On the one hand, there is a
proletariat that is numerically in a minority and politically
non-existent, and you cannot build socialism without a proletariat.
Secondly, the potential for agrarian and urban communities is very
much weakened. There is an implosion of community economies into
family structures, which have been the framework within which the
social movements have arisen. In Bolivia, 70 per cent of workers in
the cities work in family-based economic structures, and you do not
build socialism on the basis of a family economy.
In that case, what kind of system does the MAS want to build?
A kind of Andean capitalism.
What is Andean capitalism?
Iit is a question of building a strong state, which can coordinate
in a balanced way the three "economico-productive" platforms that
coexist in Bolivia: the community-based, the family-based and the
"modern industrial".
It is a question of transferring a part of the surplus of the
nationalised hydrocarbons [oil and gas] in order to encourage the
setting up of forms of self-organisation, of self-management and of
commercial development that is really Andean and Amazonian.
Up to now, these traditional sectors have not been able to develop
because of a "modern-industrial" sector that has cornered the
surpluses. Our idea is that these traditional sectors should have an
economic support, should have access to raw materials and markets,
which could then generate prosperity within these artisan and
family-based processes. Bolivia will still be capitalist in 50 or
100 years.
Don't you consider that the movements in defence of water in
Cochabamba and El Alto are forms of community-type experiences?
They are community experiences socially and economically, but not
politically. They are a dramatic expression of the communitarist
limits of the present social movement, for example in the domain of
the management of new enterprises. But in any case, these
experiences enable us to conceive of a political revolution, in the
Marxist sense of the term, which in the case of Bolivia corresponds
to the decolonisation of the state.
What differences are there between today's candidate of the MAS and
the leader of the EGTK?
There is a line of continuity and a line of rupture. The continuity
lies in the conviction that I have, that the indigenous peoples must
govern Bolivia, and that this is the only way to overcome the fault
line that has existed for 180 years between society and the state,
and to end the colonial character of the Republic, which affects
just as much the state institutions as the private lives of
Bolivians.
The difference lies in the means: fifteen years ago, we thought that
it could come about through an armed uprising of the communities.
Today, we think that it is an objective that we can attain through a
great electoral triumph. The means change, but the objectives remain
the same.
What are your principal theoretical and ideological influences?
I will mention five writers. Two classical writers have contributed
to my education. They are Marx, but the Marx of Capital, not the
Marx of the manuals [the training manuals of the communist parties]
and Max Weber. Reading him led me to become interested in the role
of the symbolic in political struggles. Another decisive influence
in my intellectual formation is undoubtedly Pierre Bourdieu, from
whom I inherit my way of analysing fields, relationships of forces
in struggles. And I would cite two classical Bolivian writers:
Fausto Reinaga and Rene Zavaleta [1].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pablo Stefanoni is a Bolivian journalist and researcher in social
sciences.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES
[1] Fausto Reinaga was the fundamental thinker of "Indianism". Rene
Zavaleta could be described as a Marxist revolutionary nationalist.
|
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