Trotskyism in Bolivia:
Political Tendencies Following the General Strike

Juan Robles

The New International, vol.xiii, no.9,
December 1947, pp.282-5.

For An Independent Workers’ Front

[...] Within the working class one can note resistance to the political adventures of the Nazi-Stalinist alliance; which in spite of the programme of social security laws is really carrying the proletariat toward the disaster of dictatorship which would abolish not only the existing laws but the union organisation and the democratic rights of the workers. In the many centres of Catavi, Llaqua, Pulacayo, etc. independent trade unions have been formed which adhere to the new Bolivian Trade Union Federation, which in turn is linked to the anti-Stalinist Inter-America Trade Union Federation.

This tendency is striving to form an independent workers’ front which resists both the totalitarian offensive and the threat of a military coup. It is difficult to predict how successful this independent action will be, since many agents of the government as well as agents of the capitalists are trying to penetrate its ranks and utilize it for their own aims. Differences as to tasks exist within the left wing of the workers’ movement. While the POR [Bolivian section of the Fourth International] supports the MNR in its struggle against the government, the PSOB [sympathetic to the Workers Party] strives for an independent line of action in the trade unions.

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