"The opressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the opressing class are to represent and repress them." - Karl Marx


"The universal suffrage of the whole people in the election of people's representatives and rulers of the state -- that is the last word of the Marxists, as also of the democratic school -- [is] a lie, behind which is concealed the despotism of the governing minority, and only the more dangerously in so far as it appears as expression of the so-called people's will.
With collective ownership the so-called people's will vanishes, to make way for the real will of the cooperative. So the result is: guidance of the great majority of the people by a privileged minority. But this minority, say the Marxists, will consist of workers. Certainly, with your permission, of former workers, who however, as soon as they have become representatives or governors of the people, cease to be workers and look down on the whole common workers' world from the height of the state. They will no longer represent the people, but themselves and their pretensions to people's government. Anyone who can doubt this knows nothing of the nature of men."- Mikhail Bakunin, Statism and Anarchy

This is great news.
Forget all that marxist crap, and rejoice in the fact that a staunch, proud American people (the Aymara and Quecha) now have a ruler who - for the first time since the Inca were overthrown by the Spanish - is at least the same race as them.
Paz, aoc

oh thats ok then ... morales' election is the state system trying to accomodate the upsurge in grassroots struggle in Bolivia. Lets hope it is taken as a sign that the grassroots movemens are winning, and not they have won.

When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier
if it is called `the People's Stick'."

Michael Bakunin

Similarly, when the the Aymara and Quecha are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called `the same race as them's stick'."


Shitty belief

is at least the same race as them?

Saddam Hussein gassed his own people.


We hope Evo Morales doesn’t turn into Saddam.

Evo Morales has become the first indigenous candidate to be elected President of Bolivia, and the main opposition candidate, ex-President Quiroga, has conceded defeat.

Morales won around 50% of the vote in Sunday's election - far outstripping the polls. This level of support also goes way beyond that which any previous president has been able to achieve, the highest gaining no more than 37% of the vote.

This was despite many thousands of his potential supporters mysteriously finding themselves off the electoral register and unable to vote. For example Lois Gomez, a Mexican journalist, reports that "In Pongo, an Aymara highland community loyal to the MAS, 1,200 out of a total 1,800 voters were purged [from the electoral roll]." Nevertheless the candidate that for many represents class struggle and the movement from below has at last won the day.

Evo stated that "we are going to work to bring an end to the neo-liberal model... The people are finally in power." Seconds after the first exit polls went out, celebrations could be heard in El Alto, the town high in the mountains around La Paz. Morales' party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), has also won around 78 of the seats in congress, needing 79 for an outright majority. The picture will become clearer as more votes are confirmed.

In the last four years Bolivia has had five presidents because of an incredible mass movement from below that refused to accept that the privatisation of natural resources was inevitable. Whilst Morales has had an over cautious relationship with these recent revolts, because of his history as a leader of real and radical struggles prior to this he is seen as the candidate of the movement.

In fact it is the very popularity of these struggles, against racism, for nationalisation, for real democracy and opposition to poverty that so many voted for Morales. Opposition to the policies of the World Bank and the IMF is not confined to small groups of informed leftists but is right at the top of the agenda for those millions who have felt their harsh effects.

In the 2002 elections, Morales' presidential campaign received a healthy boost when the US ambassador in Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, warned that Washington could cut off aid if Bolivians chose candidates like Mr Morales. This time round the privately owned media has run a vicious campaign against him and Morales took the opportunity of his victory address to thank them for helping him win the presidency.

Morales has a close relationship with many leftist political leaders in Latin America. Castro, Chavez and Lula have all had a profound personal influence over him. This, and the fact that he plans to legalise the growing of Coca, a traditional product of indigenous Bolivians, has led some, like CNN, to run headlines of "America's nightmare leads Presidential race".

As Znet right states "Morales and running mate Alvaro Garcia Linera are the first to temper both the over-ambitious hopes of the left as well as the exaggerated fears on the right. "We should admit that Bolivia will still be capitalist in the next 50 to 100 years," Linera said in recent interviews."

After huge struggles and many years of endemic racism some Bolivians have been talking about needing a new Mandela to lead the country, but it's unlikely Morales can become such a figure.

Some ask whether Morales will be a Lula or a Chavez - but the real difference between the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela is the movement in those countries - and Evo Morales' trajectory will also be determined by how the movement responds to his victory.

If they allow Morales to take the "reasonable and responsible route" that he is clearly indicating is his preference then that is just what will happen and Morales, like Brazil's Lula, will be a break upon social change attempting to co-opt the movement and divert it from its aims.

If, like Venezuela's Chavez, Morales is forced to rely upon the movement to maintain power then Morales, who comes from a rank and file militant background, will be well placed to do so and may shift to the left.

But the third option is that the movement continues with its struggles as it must and Morales chooses to put himself in opposition to those demands. The pressure to do that will be strong. The US state department, the IMF, and the multinationals are all very real presences in Bolivia, not to mention endemic racism and powerful elites. If the movement is forced to confront Morales head-on then it will certainly be the end of Morales and a journey into new, uncharted terrain.

Whatever tomorrow holds Morales election victory has been a massive surge forwards for true democracy in Bolivia and Latin America more generally. People voted for social justice, radical reform and opposition to the power of the multi-nationals, only time will tell if this is what they actually get.


Read updates here
 http://socialistunitynetwork.co.uk/news/bolivia01.htm





Useful articles

From the Democracy Centre Bolivia's Election Stunner  http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/2005/12/bolivias-election-stunner.html

From the Democracy Centre Evo Morales- “The Voice of the People is the Voice of God.”  http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/2005/12/evo-morales-voice-of-people-is-voice.html

From Znet Evo Morales Becomes Bolivia's Next President, Now His Real ...
 http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=9353

From Narcosphere With 51% of the vote Morales is president elect
 http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/12/18/212437/57

From Narcosphere Election day in Bolivia
 http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/12/19/01427/982

From Socialist Unity Jim Shultz on the election
 http://socialistunitynetwork.co.uk/voices/bolivia01.htm

See Also Nick Buxton's Blog from Bolivia
 http://www.nickbuxton.info/

Prensa Latina Venezuelan Media Highlight Morales´ Victory
 http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B8EF8F1D4-0E9C-49A0-9D2E-88192AEF5627%7D)&language=EN

From CNN America's nightmare lead Presidential race
 http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/12/18/bolivia.election.ap.ap/index.html

From ABC Bolivia elects first Indian leader, anti-US leftist
 http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1420807

International Herlad Tribune 'Anti-imperialist' wins presidency in Bolivia
 http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/19/news/bolivia.php

From the Melbourne Herald Sun Cocaine fear follows win in Bolivia
 http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17612568%255E663,00.html

From BBC Profile- Evo Morales
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3203752.stm