Overview of Land and History 35The cocaleros were led by the articulate Evo Morales, and
belonged to Bolivia’s Labour Confederation ( COB). One of
their primary demands, ironically, coincided with the stated
programme of the US State Department and the Bolivian
government: a truly viable alternative economy for the
Chapare region. This march helped to build the status of
Mr Morales in the realm of creative non-violence, indirectly
contributing to his election to the congress in 1997.
Class Struggle a la Boliviana
The massive demonstrations that shut down France in
December of 1995 have their ‘striking’ parallel in Bolivia.
Both the Bolivian Labour Confederation ( COB) and
the French labour movement coincide in the belief that
neoliberal economics lead to cutbacks and impoverishment
in social services and diminished purchasing power. Both
oppose privatisation of strategic state enterprises. And both
commonly take their grievances to the streets.
Historically, the COB has been one of the most militant
trade unions in the world. It has remained independent of
all international affi liations and once played a central and
explicit role in national politics, acting as ‘co-government’
in the early years of the 1952 revolution.
With the decline in Bolivian mining, COB ranks have been
dwindling. The Bolivian government’s Education Reform Law
between 1994 and 1997 catalysed a new surge in labour
militancy. Infl uenced and endorsed by the World Bank, the
Education Reform Law contained clauses which would have
disenfranchised the teachers’ union and debilitated university
autonomy. This hard line government stance, along with
human rights abuses by anti-drug forces in the Chapare and
the selling off of state assets to foreign companies, had given
the COB a new lease of life.
Since then, the COB and its regional associations have
continued a process of death and resurrection, but the
COB tradition is alive and well in various other militant
groups, including the Coordinadora (Committee for the
Defense of Water and Life) in Cochabamba, the FEJUVE
(Federation of Neighborhood Associations) in El Alto, the