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E. IV.3.b. The Rebellion of 2003

Whilst there were many significant popular protests against neo-liberal programmes of privatization in Latin America – notably the resistance to the privatization of water in Cochabamba in Bolivia – the first uprising over privatization that overthrew a government is the 2003 rebellion. This movement was sparked by plans for a gas pipeline, but occurred in the context of a President (a former mining magnate) undertaking rapid privatization, and US pressure to stop all growing of coca, which angered the Andean Indian farmers. As a result indigenous farmers, trade unions, students and neighbourhood groups combined embarked on a campaign including a mass hunger strike, blockades and a general strike. A major march on La Paz in October 2003 (during which miners dynamited bridges to prevent use of tanks) resulted in 70 deaths and 200 wounded, leading some ministers to resign from the coalition government in protest, and to bring it down, Two years later Evo Morales, the first indigenous President, was elected.

Albo, Xavier, Bolivia: From Indian and Campesino Leaders to Councillors and Parliamentary Deputies, In Sieder, Rachel , Multiculturalism in Latin America. Indigenous Rights, Diversity and Democracy Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan, , 2002, pp. 74-102

Albro, Robert, The Water is Ours, Carajo!”, Deep Citizenship in Bolivia’s water war, In Nash, June , Social Movements. An Anthropoligical Reader Oxford, Blackwell, , 2005, pp. 249-271

Beltran, Elizabeth Peredo, Water, Privatization and Conflict: Women from the Cochabamba Valley, Global Issues Papers, no 4, April, Berlin, Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2004, pp. 48

Crabtree, John, Patterns of Protest: Politics and Social Movements in Bolivia, London, Latin America Bureau, 2003, pp. 117

Covers other protests over land, water and coca, but the final chapter ‘El Alto and the Gas Wars’ describes and analyses 2003, including brief discussion of women’s organizations and the role of radio.
Crabtree, John ; Chaplin, Ann, A New Bolivia? Change, Resistance Protest from the Bottom Up, London, Zed Books, 2013, pp. 192

Dangl, Benjamin, The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia, Oakland CA, AK Press, 2007, pp. 240

Dangl is an editor of http://towardfreedom.com and http://upsidedownworld.org.
Kohl, Benjamin ; Farthing, Linda, Impasse in Bolivia. Neoliberal hegemony and popular resistance, London, Zed Books, 2006, pp. 224

Perreault, Thomas, From the Guerra Del Agua to the Guerra Del Gas: Resource Governance, Neoliberalism and Popular Protest in Bolivia, Antipode, Vol. 38, 2006, pp. 150-172

Postero, Nancy Grey, Now We Are Citizens: Indigenous Politics in Postmulticultural Bolivia, Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 2006, pp. 340

Shultz, Jim ; Draper, Melissa Crane, Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia’s Challenge to Globalization, Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 2009, pp. 352

Webber, Jeffrey, From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia: Class Struggle, Indigenous Liberation and the Politics of Evo Morales, Chicago IL, Haymarket Books, 2011, pp. 340

Zibechi, Raul, Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces, Oakland CA, AK Press, 2010, pp. 163

The state, argues Zibechi, ‘is not the appropriate tool for creating new social relations’, and therefore Morales’ presidency represents a challenge to popular emancipation. Instead, he looks for inspiration to the social struggles in Bolivia and the forms of community power instituted by the Aymara people, especially in El Alto.