Bolivia: Resolution from the National Emergency Gathering of the Social Organisations

Sucre, August 23, 2007

Considering:

That the oligarchy, out of desperation, is using all its means to ensure that the process of revolutionary democratic change and the constituent assembly fail, which is why at the moment they are pushing the idea of Sucre becoming the full capital, aiming to provoke a confrontation between brothers from the department of La Paz and Chuquisaca, like during the times of the “Federal War” of 1899, which cost the lives of thousands of our indigenous, originario and campesino brothers.

That, for this reason, the state powers should remain in the place where we all feel secure to continuing to recuperate the dignity of Bolivian men and women, recuperate natural resources and continue with the process of revolutionary, democratic, social and cultural change. In summary, this is the result of a process of growing political consciousness, and of not allow ourselves to be fooled by this corrupt oligarchy.

That, the constituent assembly has expressing the sentiment of the people, the achievement of structural changes in favour of the originarios, workers and the people in general, that it is why it is the obligation of the social organisations to defend it in the face of the destabilising acts that the representatives of the corrupt oligarchy have incited.

Therefore, we resolve:

1. We will defend with our lives the constituent assembly, the unity and integration of the country, the process of democratic change driven by the majority, and the proposals we have presented. We demand the immediate installation of the plenary sessions of the constituent assembly by next week. If not we will see ourselves obliged to take up radical measures in defence of democracy and the constituent assembly, and to change the place of the sessions to another department, without affecting its headquarters.

2. We will not allow minority oligarchic groups who, using fascist shock troops made up of the Cruceñista Youth Union and university youth from Chuquisaca lacking in revolutionary consciousness, are attempting to provoke the failure of the constituent assembly, which is the only scenario of originario and foundational deliberations in the country.

3. We repudiate and condemn the physical and material aggressions against the headquarters of the social organisations of the Unity Pact, perpetrated by fascist oligarchic groups in the hours of the night of August 22, 2007, who entered violently, destroying doors, windows, mirrors, computers and Radio New Homeland, with the sole aim of terrifying the leadership of the social organisations. We declare the members of the supposed Inter-institutional Committee of the Full Capital, PODEMOS and Tuto Quiroga, the intellectual authors behind this, as enemies of the constituent assembly and democracy.

4. We demand that national and international human rights organisation pronounce themselves and denounce internationally this persecution of leaders, burning of symbols (Whipala) and destruction of headquarters of the indigenous, originario and campesino peoples.

5. We demand that the forces of order comply with their role of safeguarding the assembly delegates who are suffering physical and verbal aggressions at the hands of hired shock troops, and that they guarantee the functioning of the constituent assembly.

6. We condemn the attempts at division and confrontation, favoured by the oligarchs of the Half Moon, and we reject the idea of the constituent assembly dealing with the issue of the full capital, because it is an imposition by the oligarchs who are trying to distort and truncate the process of change that our country is living through and take us to a civil war.

7. We applaud and support the revolutionary organic constituent delegates and the constituent assembly in full for having taken the wise decision to not deal with the issue of the full capital, because it is an issue that goes against the unity of the country, and as national organisations we guarantee the defence of this decision.

8. We fully support the United Federation of Workers of the Originario Peoples of Chuquisaca and the United Federation of Women from the Originario Peoples of Chuquisaca “Bartolina Sisa” and the Regional Federations of Chaco and North and South Cinti for their revolutionary decisions and actions and the dialogue between Chuquisaca and La Paz, as well as the peaceful march set for August 27, 2007 in defence of the constituent assembly.

9. We support the decisions taken by the chamber of deputies to put on trial the four magistrates of the Constitutional Tribunal who committed the crime of perversion of justice, who were elected through the quota system of those same traditional parties that today defend them, whilst seeking to impede the trial of responsibility against Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

10. We declare ourselves in a state of emergency, with vigils and permanent marches in each department, in order to guarantee the unity of Bolivia, the functioning of the constituent assembly, in defence of our natural resources, and the enforcement of indigenous, originario, campesino autonomies.

This was decided upon in the city of Sucre on the twenty third day of the month of August of the year two thousand and seven.

By the social organisations of Bolivia