Anarchism in Bolivia
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Anarchism in Bolivia has a relatively short but rich history, spanning over a hundred years, primarily linked to syndicalism, the peasantry, and various social movements. Its heyday was during the 20th century's first decades, between 1910 and 1930, but a number of contemporary movements still exist.
History
The first recorded anarchist movement in Bolivia was the Unión Obrera Primero de Mayo in 1906, in the small southern town of
During the 1920s, the presence of anarchism within the
Women had a prominent role in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. In 1927 the Sindicato Femenino de Oficios Varios was founded. Also founded in 1927 was the Federación Obrera Femenina, a branch of FOL and merger of several other all-female unions. Among female anarchist activists were Catalina Mendoza, Petronila Infantes, and Susana Rada. During the Third National Workers' Congress in 1926, the Bolivian communists proposed that the labor organizations should affiliate with the Third International, an idea which was rejected by the anarcho-syndicalists. The FOL was also present in the agrarian peasantry, organizing the Federación Agraria Departamental (FAD), which later disappeared due to intense government repression.[3][4]
Bolivian anarcho-syndicalism had a strong presence of foreign activists, many of which had fled their countries due to political persecution. Among them were one Fournarakis, an activist of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA) sent into exile, Armando Treviño who was a Chilean cobbler belonging to the Industrial Workers of the World, the Peruvian Francisco Gamarra and Paulino Aguilar, and the Spanish Nicolás Mantilla and Antonio García Barón, the later who came to the country in the 1950s.[1][2]
In 1930, encouraged by the Argentine FORA, the Confederación Obrera Regional Boliviana was founded. The organization, which lasted only two years, published La Protesta. In the 1930s the group Ideario emerged in Tupiza. It published La Voz del Campo. At this point the anarchist movement was in decay, having faced growing government persecution. The Chaco War also caused many problems. Later, anarcho-syndicalist unions saw themselves forced to join the Bolivian Workers' Center to survive. Some anarchists tried to influence the BWC from within, among them Líber Forti. In 1946 the Núcleo de Capacitación Sindical Libertario was formed. Unlike its mother organization FOL, the Federación Obrera Femenina weathered the interwar period, surviving until 1964.[1]
The Spanish
Contemporary
In the modern period anarchism has seen a minor renaissance in Bolivia. Several groups exists, prominently among them
Other groups and collectives include the Grupo de Apoyo a los Movimientos Sociale in Cochabamba, Combate La Paz and
The Black Bridge International, a defunct "decentralized anarchist
The Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), an insurrectionary anarchist organization, with cells throughout Europe and Latin America, is active in Bolivia. On May 30, 2012, four youths were arrested in connection to a dynamite attack on a military barracks and the bombing of a car dealership. Both attacks were claimed by the FAI.[7]
References
- ^ ISBN 980-276-116-8.
- ^ ISBN 052-110-021-6.
- ^ Lehm, Zulema; Rivera, Silvia (1988). Los artesanos libertarios y la ética del trabajo (in Spanish). La Paz: Taller de Historia Oral Andina.
- ISBN 978-160-846-258-2.
- ^ Daniels, Alfonso (8 July 2008). "Meeting Spain's last anarchist". www.news.bbc.co.uk/. BBC. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
- ISBN 978-987-152-312-2.
- ^ Castellón, J. R. (30 May 2012). "Detienen a 4 jóvenes por atentado a cajero". La Razón (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014.
Further reading
- de Laforcade, Geoffroy (2020). "Indigeneity, Gender, and Resistance: Critique and Contemporaneity of Bolivian Anarchism in the Historical Imagination of Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui". ProQuest 2489034063.
- Margarucci, Ivanna (2023). "'A Fatherland worth living in': Anarchism, citizenship and nation in Bolivia, 1900–1941". Nations and Nationalism. 29 (1): 191–208. ISSN 1469-8129.
- Margarucci, Ivanna (June 2023). "Una Historia Sin Fronteras. Difusión Y Recepción Del Anarquismo, Chile-Bolivia, 1904-1923: A HISTORY WITHOUT BORDERS. DIFFUSION AND RECEPTION OF ANARCHISM, CHILE-BOLIVIA, 1904-1923". Cuadernos de Historia (in Spanish). 58: 255–281. EBSCOhost 164882171.
