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 Tupiza.
The organization edited the newspaper La Aurora
Social.
Other contemporary libertarian publications
were Verbo Rojo, El Proletario and La Federación,
published in the cities of Potosí, Cochabamba
and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, respectively.
Several minor trade unions came together to
form the Federación Obrera Local (FOL) in
1908, and in 1912 the Federación Obrera Internacional
(FOI).
They adopted the red-and-black flag of anarcho-syndicalism.
In the city of La Paz, FOL maintained the
periodical Luz y Verdad, while FOI published
the Defensa Obrera, which launched a campaign
for an eight-hour day.
1918 the FOI was renamed the Federación Obrera
del Trabajo (FOT), which moved ideologically
towards marxism.During the 1920s, the presence
of anarchism within the labor movement was
at its highest point, with anarchist participating
in the struggles of the Bolivian miners.
Many strikes - such as in Huanuni in 1919
- were started to demand an eight-hour work
day.
The anarcho-syndicalist FOL, later associated
with the international Asociación Continental
Americana de Trabajadores confederation, published
the weekly newspaper La Humanidad.
Numerous anarchist movements were active in
La Paz, such as the Centro Cultural Obrero,
the Centro Obrero Libertario, the Grupo Libertario
"Rendición", Sembrando Ideas, Brazo y Cerebro,
and the group La Antorcha (founded in 1923)
led by Luis Cusicanqui, Jacinto Centellas
and Domitila Pareja.
Other groups elsewhere in the country were
the Centro Obrero Internacional in Oruro,
the Escuela Ferrer i Guardia in Sucre, and
the newspaper Tierra y Libertad.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.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.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.The Spanish expropriative
anarchist, and notorious bank robber and forger,
Lucio Urtubia participated in planning the
kidnapping of Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of
Lyon", a former Nazi German officer and war
criminal who after fleeing to Bolivia with
the help of the CIA helped the government
fight Communist guerrillas, later aiding a
coup d'état in 1980.
In the 1950s Antonio García Barón (1921–2008),
described by the BBC as the last surviving
member of the Durruti Column, an anarchist
militia in the Spanish Civil War, and a former
prisoner of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration
camp, moved to Bolivia with his wife Irma.
There he started a self-described anarchist
community, deep in the jungle of San Buenaventura.
=== Contemporary ===
In the modern period anarchism has seen a
minor renaissance in Bolivia.
Several groups exists, prominently among them
Mujeres Creando, a anarcha-feminist collective.
The organization participates in a range of
anti-poverty work, including spreading propaganda,
street theater and direct action.
The group was founded by María Galindo, Mónica
Mendoza and Julieta Paredes in 1992 and members
include two of Bolivia's only openly lesbian
activists.
It publishes Mujer Pública, produces a weekly
radio show, and maintains a cultural café
named Virgen de los deseos.
In 2001, Mujeres Creando gained international
attention due to their alleged participation
in an armed occupation of the Bolivian Banking
Supervisory Agency.
Other groups and collectives include the Grupo
de Apoyo a los Movimientos Sociale in Cochabamba,
Combate La Paz and El Alto, Acción Anarquista
Quepus im Sucre, Quilombo Libertario e Infrarrojo
in Santa Cruz, and the Colectivo Libertario
Gritos in Tarija.
Since 2005 there exists an anarchist student
movement in the southern region of the Gran
Chaco, the Autonomía Frente Universitario.
Anarchist newspapers and fanzines include
Contraataque, Insumisión and Oveja Negra.The
Black Bridge International, a defunct "decentralized
anarchist mutual aid network", had a local
group in Bolivia.
In 2003, an affiliated collective in New York
City produced a Black Bridge documentary entitled
"Bolivia Calling".
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.Among
contemporary anarchist figures are Silvia
Rivera Cusicanqui, an Aymara feminist sociologist
and historian.
Fredy Perlman (1934–1985), a prominent author
within modern green anarchism and anarcho-primitivism,
spent seven years during his childhood in
Bolivia.
== References ==
