We plan to have a friendly kick-about to show solidarity with Bolivians who are facing a political crisis and could turn violent.

The idea of a football match in solidarity with the people of Bolivia originated with the article published by the BBC 'Maradona in Bolivia charity match' Tuesday 18th March 2008.

Seeing how interested the BBC are in Bolivian football, we felt that it would be appropriate to extend an invitation to representatives of the BBC news team, and other journalists to join in our planned commemorative football game on Saturday.

London event
Saturday, May 3rd at 3pm
Football, FIFA and a coca Farmer:
There's more to play for in Bolivia
Bolivia Solidarity Campaign updates BBC World Service
We plan to have a friendly kick-about to show solidarity with
Bolivians who are facing a political crisis and could turn violent.
Burgess Park, Albany Road SE1 5HG (nearest station Elephant & Castle
then 12 min bus ride 63, 172, 168, 453).
Organized by Bolivia Solidarity Campaign

Bristol event
Saturday, May 3rd at 12 noon
Football, FIFA and a coca Farmer:
There's more to play for in Bolivia
Bolivia Solidarity Campaign updates BBC World Service
We plan to have a friendly kick-about to show solidarity with
Bolivians who are facing a political crisis and could turn violent.
On College Green outside the Council House in Bristol.
Organized by Bristol Bolivia Solidarity Campaign

European Region of the Humanist International          
of Political Parties and Grassroot Organisations 

www.humanisteurope.org 

The Bolivian people are preparing to decide whether to approve or reject their new Constitution through a referendum.  This Constitution will protect human rights, freedom of individuals and deepen real democracy, establishing levels of participation and autonomy that reaches down to the municipalities and communities.  This Constitution that recognises in its multi-nationality, the original peoples, discriminated and exploited for centuries and that, without eliminating private property, includes the right of the communities to a collective economy and to recover the sovereignty of the Nation over natural resources.  This advanced Constitution that rejects War as a method of conflict resolution – A Humanist Constitution.
It has been an admirable process that Evo Morales has lead with intelligence and courage, confronting the violence of economic power with the methodology of nonviolence.

The process of changes in favor of the Bolivian majority is at risk of being brutally restrained. The rise to power of an Indigenous president with unprecedented support in that country and his programs of popular benefits and recovery of the natural resources have had to face the conspiracies of the oligarchy and United States interference from the very beginning.

In recent days the increase in conspiracy has reached its climax. The subversive and unconstitutional actions of the oligarchic groups to try to divide the Bolivian nation reflect the racist and elitist minds of these sectors and constitute a very dangerous precedent not only for the country’s integrity, but for other countries in our region.

History shows with ample eloquence, the terrible consequences that the divisionary and separatist processes supported and induced by foreign interests have had for humanity.

Setting indigenous people against mestizos in a country like Bolivia is to betray one's country. It is as absurd as trying to separate red blood corpuscules from white ones while trying to keep the body alive. Our independent life was born from the fusion of the indigenous rebellion of Tupaj Katari in 1781 that weakened the Spanish imperial power and of the untamed cries for freedom of High Peru from 1809 onwards. Its most decisive expression was La Paz's Junta Tuitiva presided over by the mestizo Pedro Domingo Murillo and composed also of the indigenous Katari Inkacollo de Yungas, Gregorio Roxas de Omasuyos and José Sanco de Sorata. The inheritors of the colonial period were the beneficiaries of those heroic deeds that gave birth to Bolivian statehood. (see www.patriagrande.org.bo)

The separation of indigenous and mestizo always ended in tragedy. The feudal mining oligarchy, in order to prevent indigenous people from taking up military service, left the country defenceless during both the Pacific War of 1879 and the Acre war of 1901-1904. Unity given free rein, on the other hand, allowed the survival of Bolivia during the fratricidal Chaco conflict of 1932-1935, provoked by Standard Oil and Shell. In 1899, the mestizos abandoned the aymara leader Pablo Zárate Willca and helped the tin barons and big landowners into power for more than 50 years. Quechua leaders, by supporting the pro-US General René Barrientes Ortuño between 1964 and 1969 made possible the massacres of mineworkers and greater imperialist control of mining and oil.

Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice
U.S. State Department 

Dear Secretary Rice,

We, the undersigned, write with concern about U.S. foreign policy towards Bolivia. It is important that the United States appreciate the historical context of changes currently underway in that country and the tensions created. At such a sensitive time, the U.S. must be careful not to appear biased, and should support a peaceful and constitutional resolution in Bolivia.  

We ask that USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy stop funding regional government initiatives and opposition groups in Bolivia.

Come and join us to celebrate

Second year of the government for change in Bolivia

On Sunday the 27th of January 2008

From 12:30 to 14:30

At the Bolivar Hall

54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL

Tube Station: Warren Street

Telephone: 020 73874589

Organised by:

The Bolivian Embassy to the UK embassyofbolivia.co.uk

Bolivian Federation in the UK fedbol.org.

click image to download flyer 

Violent confrontation could erupt

Karl Debbaut, cwi

In November and December last year Bolivia was on the brink of civil war. The right-wing opposition of the gas-rich eastern provinces had declared autonomy in protest against the new constitution. They called a general strike, brought armed gangs on the street and threatened to break up the country. The Ponchos Rojos, an armed indigenous movement, came out in support of the government. Although since then the immediate threat of civil war has subsided, the failure of the Morales government to break with capitalism means the situation could still spiral out of control in the coming months.

On taking office last year, Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, promised to "refound" the country, taking up a long standing demand of the social and workers' movements, by rewriting the constitution.

In Bolivia, the poorest country in Latin America, the working class, the urban poor and the poor peasantry suffer even more extreme poverty and destitution than their brothers and sisters in the rest of the continent. While more than half of Bolivia's population are living below the poverty line, the richest 10% of the population take 40% of the country's income.

Picket in front of the Bolivian embassy in London showing solidarity 

and support to the new constitution and the process of change in Bolivia.