Let Them Sip Champagne: The Battle Of Bolivia
Water is the essence of life, making up 70% of the human body. Mankind can't
live long without it.
Such is the background behind a failed swindle, masterminded by the forces of
globalization. The backlash nearly led to a revolution, the first of
hopefully many to follow in the New World Order of economics. Oddly, there
wasn't too much about it in the news.
In 1999, the Bolivian government "privatized" the public water system in the
city of Cochabamba, based on the "advice" (i.e. demands) of the World Bank.
They only considered one bid, by a conglomerate led by Bechtel, the giant San
Francisco-based engineering monolith. Bechtel and its pals were given a
40-year-lease. More than half a million people depend on the water to
survive.
What is important to understand is that there's nothing unusual behind such
plans: it's modus operandi for both the IMF and World Bank. "Privatization"
means selling public enterprises and natural resources to private
corporations. The corporations are unsurprisingly almost always Western
military-industrial titans. In exchange, the countries are infused with more
cash. The sales job is that the corporations will run things more efficiently
than a bungling government industry.
It didn't work that way in Bolivia. Big surprise: why would an amoral money
machine not abuse a granted private monopoly and the license to gouge? The
conglomerate doubled and tripled prices. They claimed it was to recover the
cost of a huge dam project in Misicuni, yet to be built. Many impoverished
people suddenly couldn't afford the essence of life. The response from
Bechtel, the Bolivian government, and the World Bank was a collective shrug.
Get used to the new economic realities. Or, as Marie Antoinette would put it,
"Let them sip champagne."
The people of Bolivia responded to the economic rape and thievery with
protests led by workers, environmentalists, and citizen's groups. A strike
and transportation stoppage brought the city to a standstill. They were met
with tear gas and bullets. Six were killed and 175 injured, including two
children blinded from the chemical warfare.
In April 2000, Hugo Banzer, the former Bolivian dictator and now the
President, declared martial law. World Bank Director James Wolfensohn
commented to reporters that, "The riots in Bolivia, I'm happy to say, are now
quieting down." Bechtel issued a statement denying the upheaval in Bolivia
had anything to do with its plundering, and suggested the revolt was the work
of those opposed to a "crackdown on coca-leaf production."
But the tide had turned. This time, the opponents of Corporatism (under the
banner of "free trade globalization") ended in victory against the evil
empire. While Bechtel and the Bolivian government tried to shift blame to the
other, the industrial giant fled its offices and tried to extract a US$12
million exit payment. The leader of the water protests, Oscar Olivera became
a national hero.
More than even Seattle or D.C., the Battle of Bolivia is a global wakeup call
against economic oppression in the world.
Research by Robert Sterling
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"If insurrection is an art, its main content is to know how to give the
struggle the form appropriate to the political situation."
-Vo Nguyen Giap
"Rather than seeking comparabilities in statistical terms among what are
all too often superficial features of different situations, comparabilities
must be sought at the level of determinate mechanisms, at the level of
processes that are generally hidden from easy view."
-Eleanor Burke Leacock
"Every day one has to struggle that this love to a living humanity
transform itself into concrete acts, in acts that serve as examples, as
motivation."
-Ernesto "Che" Guevara
"Mask no difficulties."
-Amilcar Cabral
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