From the underground,
BOLIVIA
"On September 18, the day before of siege, the declaration of the state our headquarters was surrounded by forces and sealed security off. They did not let anyone come in. Inside, unionists appeal for world support there were a lot of comrades who had just gone on hunger strike, and their families were bringing blankets, tea, and other drinks. But the security forces kept us totally isolated
"Later, in the morning, the miners' mobilizations managed to break our
TWO LEADERS of the Bolivian Confederation of Labor (COB)
who managed to escape the recent police roundup of trade unionists
(see International Viewpoint No 84, October 14, 1985) gave the following interview on September 21 to a representative of Internationalen, the paper of the Swedish section of the Fourth International.
Anibar Castonon Clavijo, the COB's secretary and
Angel permanent
Zaballa, the Executive Committee's financial secretary, had gone underground to continue to organize the struggle. It was in those days that trade-unionists being many were arrested, when the radio stations of the factory and mineworkers were shut down, and when the editor of the radical weekly Aqui was arrested when he came to the parliament in his capacity as a journalist to cover the debate on the state-of-siege pro-
It was in these days when many workers took refuge churches and started up a hunger regime's repression. At the same time, the governthat a state of siege needed because
"plans for rebellion" were afoot and that the hunger represented attempted suicide.
This is how Angel Zaballa described the situation.
"The regime has rejected all attempts at negotiations and all offers from the Church and the Commission for Human Rights to mediate between the labor movement and the government. We find ourselves virtually in government's war in which the
"In the government there are ministers who participated in the previous military regime. There is the minister of defense, Valle, who led the militarv's assault on the university under dictatorship of Garcia
There is the minister of information,
Rivero, who was also minister of information in Busch's government.
"This is the new style today in
Bolivia. We have a democracy that out fascist and a carries measures government whose main enemy is the class. The government is the dirty work of the bourgeoisie and US imperialism."
Zaballa was among the COB leaders arrested by the military on Tuesday, were taken off to internal exile in the northern part of the country, he managed to escape. He explained how the conflict with the government
"The reason for the conflict government wants to impose. It means selling out Bolivia to imperialism. It opens up all the doors for foreign
It gives management the right to hire and fire as they chose.
freezes wages, while removing all controls on prices and trade. All of this is going to lead to the total collapse of small and middle businesses in the country.
already knew what was happening and we decided not accept these very subsistence of workers in this country.
"So, when all attempts at dialogue with the government came to nought, we called a 48-hour strike, then a 72-hour one, and finally a general
"We always wanted to talk to the government. We proposed a wide-ranging debate with the government policy, a debate that broadcast over all radio and TV stations.
"But the government refused. And then they shut off all possibilities for dialogue.
"In response to this, we began a mass hunger strike. The entire Executive Committee of the COB, with Juan Lechin in the lead, took the initiative for the hunger strike.
national strike committee was selected to negotiate with the government.
isolation for a while. We got permission for contacts.
*It was on that occasion that Lechin made his last public appearimprisoned. He journalists, in front of all the miners, factory workers, and students who had
However, the building was soon
"Finally, we requested that the government give us a chance to meet, the entire Executive Committee with the National Strike Committee.
"It was to present this demand that our delegation went government palace. delegates got there, they were arrested and taken to the premises of the Ministry of the Interior.
"We have to condemn a government that is so perfidious that it arrests our comrades when they come to negotiate.
next day, September 19, at 3.00 am, a large group of police came into the building where we were on hunger strike. They fired into it and smashed doors and windows and dragged us off.
"After that we were taken to the airforce base at El Alto, on the heights
Paz. From there, they all, us from the Executive Commit.
internal exile in Pando and
"It was during these proceedings that I managed to flee and go underground."
Castonon said that so far 2,500 people had been taken to the airforce base at El Alto. But the government has published lists of only 148 persons sent into internal exile. Where were the others taken?
The COB's underground leadership is appealing support in this difficult situation for the workers of Bolivia.
"We want to inform world opinion about what is happening here. We want to inform the workers movement so that it can exert pressure and so that we can win back our trade-union rights. We need your help in condemning and protesting against this 'democratic' regime that is pursuing a fascist poliey."