Bolivia: The Liberator subject of the Grand Homeland is born

Heinz Dieterich

The Regional Bloc of Popular Power (BRPP): Antecedents

Two years ago comrade Evo Morales publicly called for a reunion of the social movements of Latin America and their progressive presidents to be organised, so as to bring forward the dream of Our Americas. Almost simultaneously, at the Americas Social Forum (FSA) in Quito, in July 2004, some 200 organisations focussed themselves on that same necessity. They left behind the idyllic Latin American Summer School, the FSA and they decided to exhort presidents Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Nestor Kirchner, Tabare Vasquez and Inazio “Lula” de Silva to immediately implement the economic, political, cultural and military unification of the South Union - Abya Yala.

Two points of agreement overlapped with the work agendas of the presidents: 1) the renegotiation of the external debt as a bloc, with the “Caso Olmos” (Argentina) approach and the London Agreement of 1952 and; 2) the participation of the abovementioned presidents in a summit of public debate, organised by the social movements, around the four axis of economic, political, cultural and military integration of the Grand Homeland.

But, despite the fact that the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights of Ecuador (APDH) and the National Trade Union Network of Electrical Workers of Ecuador offering support, which the Venezuelan president immediately accepted so as to participate in this dialogue with the people and which Fidel, without doubt, would have also participated, the logistical problems were unsurmountable, which in part came from the difficult political situations that Lula and Kirchner found themselves in at the time.

Today, the shared dream of the social movements and President Morales is becoming reality. In the historic city of Sucre, Bolivia, over the days 26, 27 and 28 of the month of the First European invasion of the Western hemisphere (October) the First Encounter of the People and States for the Liberation of the Grand Homeland will occur (see convocation and program at www.bloquerpp.org).

The Liberator Subject is born out of the struggle against the oligarchies and the imperialisms

The vital necessity of a strategic alliance between the organised peoples and the integrationist governments comes from the deadly fact that the power of the Latin American oligarchies and of US and European imperialisms remain intact; and have begun a strategic counteroffensive to destroy the developmentalist governments which on their own can not defeat Leviathan. Only an alliance between the peoples and the developmentalist governments is capable of defeating the oligarchic-empire threat.

Nevertheless, the peoples without a historic project nor adequately organised, and eventually, armed, are “short-sighted and invertebrate giants” (J W Cook). It is within this political logic that the social movements of the Great Homeland are being constructed as autonomy subjects acting for their liberation, constructing in conditions of equality the axis of civil society-progressive government power, capable of defeating the Monroe Doctrine and the new imperial threats.

The social movements and progressive institutions, constituted into active subjects, will not be just another committee of solidarity framed within a paternalistic logic. Neither will they be non government organisations (NGO) that try to remedy particular abuses and prejudices of the system. Much less will they be a political entity that brings together people for party or governmental positions, in exchange for material privileges, positions inside the state apparatus or a platform on television.

We are dealing with a new democratic and participatory subject in hemispheric and global politics.

Morphology of the new popular subject of the Great Homeland and the importance of Bolivia

Considering the gigantic task of social, national and regional liberation of the Regional Bloc of Popular Power (BRPP) has in front of it, neither elitism nor sectarianism can be allowed. It needs to born democratically through its historic project, developmentalism and direct-participatory democracy, the vanguard and the middle cadre of the process. Nor can it be a sectoral entity. We are dealing with an integral power bloc, made up by the principal sectors of Latin American society, the workers, indigenous people, Afro-Americans, peasants, women, intellectuals and democratically minded military people. They will be the social basis and the emergent leaders, the Evo, Che and Manuela Saenz of tomorrow, not the “figurines”, which configure this grand subject of liberation.

They have a double mission: defeat the oligarchic-empire counteroffensive and construct a direct and participatory democracy of the majorities. With this noble aim the movements of Our Americas and the president of the republic of Bolivia are convoking a reunion in Sucre, the land of Tupac Katari, Juana Azurduy, Antonio Jose de Sucre, Simon Bolivar, Che and Evo Morales, in the month of the first European invasion of the Homeland of the First Nations.

For the second independence of the Great Homeland – Abya Yala and real democracy of the peoples!