The Revolutionary Workers' Party ( es, Partido Obrero Revolucionario, POR) is a
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
. At its height in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the POR was able to gain a mass
working-class following.
History
Beginnings
The POR was founded in December 1935 at a congress in Córdoba,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, called by
Gustavo Navarro and other Bolivian radicals who were in exile because of the
Chaco War
The Chaco War ( es, link=no, Guerra del Chaco, gn, Cháko Ñorairõ[Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...](_blank)
, and
Peru
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, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
respectively. Under the advice of
José Aguirre Gainsborg, the leaders of the new POR affiliated with
Leon Trotsky's International Left Opposition
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
. When the Chaco War ended in 1935, the POR leaders returned to Bolivia. The leaders disagreed over whether to maintain a strict Trotskyist party or form a broad socialist movement.
As Bolivia passed through a series of short-lived
military dictatorships, the POR began to enter the emerging
labor movement. In 1947 the party's activists formed the
Mining Parliamentary Bloc caucus in the newly formed miners' union (the
FSTMB
The Syndical Federation of Bolivian Mineworkers (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia''; FSTMB) is a trade union, labor union in Bolivia that represents miners. Bolivia's miners are commonly regarde ...
), which was to become the most active and militant union in Bolivia. Along with the populist
Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement ( es, Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario , MNR) is a centre-right conservative political party in Bolivia and was the leading force behind the Bolivian National Revolution from 1952 to 1964. It influen ...
(MNR) it became one of the two most influential parties in the mineworkers' movement. FSTMB president
Juan Lechín
Juan Lechín Oquendo (18 May 1914 – 27 August 2001) was a labor-union leader and head of the Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers (FSTMB) from 1944 to 1987 and the Bolivian Workers' Union (COB) from 1952 to 1987. He also served as the 29th vi ...
, an MNR member, maintained good relations with the POR. In November 1946, the FSTMB adopted a program known as the "Pulacayo Thesis" that was heavily influenced by the POR's ideology. The Pulacayo thesis was essentially an application of Trotsky's
Transitional Program
In Marxist theory, a transitional demand either is a partial realisation of a maximum demand after revolution or an agitational demand made by a socialist organisation with the aim of linking the current situation to progress towards their goal o ...
to Bolivian conditions.
Bolivian National Revolution
After a
military coup
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
nullified the results of the 1951 elections (which gave the MNR a plurality), the MNR, POR and FSTMB led workers' militias that stormed army barracks and forced the
military junta
A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...
to surrender on April 12, 1952. Following the "Bolivian National Revolution," the MNR took over the government, but the populist party failed to enact major social reforms because of pressure from international agencies.
Pablo, the leader of the IS, characterised the MNR as petty-bourgeois. Others have criticised this arguing that the POR was bourgeois.
The POR played a supportive role in the creation of the ''
Central Obrera Boliviana'' (COB), a new federation of
labor unions
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...
, in 1952. However, when members of the POR began to criticize the moderation of the MNR-led government in October 1952, the MNR removed key POR leaders from the COB and FSTMB. As the MNR's power grew at the cost of the POR, in-fighting increased among the Trotskyists.
In 1954, the POR split into two factions. One of these factions (led by
Guillermo Lora) was opposed to continued work with the MNR. The other faction (led by
Hugo González Moscoso) was less critical of the MNR and sought to work with the left wing of the MNR.
In 1956, Lora founded a separate party (also named POR) that drew supporters of his newspaper, ''Masas''.
1960s to the present
In 1963, a large number of POR members left the party to join Juan Lechín's new
Revolutionary Party of the Nationalist Left
The Revolutionary Party of the Nationalist Left (, PRIN) was a left-wing political party in Bolivia. It was founded in 1963 by the labor leader Juan Lechín Oquendo and by Mario Torres Calleja and Edwin Moller in lesser roles. The PRIN seceded fr ...
(PRIN).
The faction of the POR led by Guillermo Lora continued its activity in the COB and FSTMB during the 1960s and 1970s, when the country was ruled by a series of short-lived military juntas. Lora's POR worked closely with FSTMB president Juan Lechín during these years, when the labor movement largely operated clandestinely. Between 1970 and 1971, when
General Juan José Torres allowed a Popular Assembly (''Asamblea Popular'') to operate, which included unions and was led by Lechín. The POR led forces that sought to keep the assembly independent of Torres. After Torres' overthrow, Lora and other POR leaders went into exile.
In 1988 Lora's POR founded the
Liaison Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International together with other Latin American trotskyists.
The wing of the POR led by González Moscoso, which remained the official affiliate of the Trotskyist
Fourth International
The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...
, turned to the idea of armed insurrection against the government. Inspired by
Che Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
's
guerrilla tactics, they sought to engage in rural combat against the government. The González wing of the POR faced harsh government repression and eventually disappeared.
Lora's POR continues to exist to the present day, though it has been eclipsed by other radical parties such as
Evo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to co ...
'
Movement toward Socialism (MAS). It continues to publish ''Masas''.
See also
*
Guillermo Lora
Further reading
*Robert J. Alexander, ''International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement'' (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991).
External links
Official websiteOfficial website of ''Masas'' (paper of the POR)
{{Authority control
1935 establishments in Bolivia
Communist parties in Bolivia
Far-left politics in Bolivia
Political parties established in 1935
Political parties in Bolivia
Trotskyist organisations in Bolivia