Party-Base Linkages and Contestatory Mobilization in Bolivia’s El Alto: Subduing the Ciudad Rebelde

• Date: 01 July 2020
• Author: John Brown
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20918608
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20918608

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 233, Vol. 47 No. 4, July 2020, 40–57

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20918608

© 2020 Latin American Perspectives

40

Party-Base Linkages and Contestatory

Mobilization in Bolivia’s El Alto

Subduing the Ciudad Rebelde

by

John Brown

Confrontations between Evo Morales’s Movement toward Socialism (MAS)-led gov-

ernment and sectors of his original support base have raised concerns regarding Bolivia’s

“process of change.” An empirical analysis of the Regional Workers’ Union and the

Federation of Neighborhood Associations in El Alto reveals that extensive and intensive

linkages forged between the MAS and its base during confrontations with conservative

forces weakened their contestatory efforts and fostered internal splits that the MAS and

the right-wing Unidad Nacional (UN) parties actively promoted. The upshot was the

emergence of two versions of each organization that existed side-by-side, one aligned with

the MAS, the other with UN, and the capacity of the base to hold the government to

popular demands was greatly diminished.

Los enfrentamientos entre el gobierno liderado por Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)

de Evo Morales y sectores de su base de apoyo original han suscitado preocupaciones con

respecto al “proceso de cambio” de Bolivia. Un análisis empírico del Sindicato Regional de

Trabajadores y la Federación de Asociaciones Vecinales de El Alto revela que los amplios

e intensivos vínculos forjados entre el MAS y su base durante los enfrentamientos con

fuerzas conservadoras debilitaron su capacidad de impugnación y fomentaron divisiones

internas que tanto el MAS como los partidos de derecha de Unidad Nacional (UN) pro-

movieron activamente. El resultado fue el surgimiento de dos versiones de cada orga-

nización que existen lado a lado, una alineada a favor del MAS y la otra a favor de UN.

La capacidad de las bases para exigir al gobierno que atendiera las demandas populares se

vio muy disminuida.

Keywords: Left parties, Popular organizations, Mobilization capacity, Parallelism

Over the course of the processes headed by Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo

Morales in Bolivia, and Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, in

Venezuela, tensions increasingly emerged between the left parties and sectors

of their original support bases. In cases where left parties were elected in Latin

America to boost the quality of political and social citizenship for the popular

sectors, they have faced global, regional, and national pressures from the

forces of capital to adhere to pro-market norms and adopt a centrist program

(Cannon and Kirby, 2012). Elected leftist leaders have been presented “with

the dilemma of whether to move forward with further radicalization or

John Brown is an assistant lecturer in politics at Maynooth University, Ireland. His teaching and

research focus on democratization in left-led Latin America.

918608LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X20918608Latin American PerspectivesBrown / Party-Base Linkages and Mobilization in Bolivia

research-article2020

Brown / PARTY-BASE LINKAGES AND MOBILIZATION IN BOLIVIA 41

emphasize consolidation” (Ellner, 2013: 8). Indeed, given Webber’s (2019)

analysis that over the course of their time in power left-party administrators

have tended “to absorb and demobilize independent social movement and

trade union activity,” an up-to-date appraisal of the left-led processes via the

lens of local popular actors is required. Responding to such concerns, this

article offers a macrolevel analysis of state-capital relations and a microlevel

analysis of state-society relations in Bolivia during Evo Morales’s time as

president.

Bolivia’s left turn initially followed “a classic mode of incorporation from

below via a mass mobilization party” (Silva, 2017: 93), and the government

presented itself as a “government of the social movements” (Schilling-Vacaflor,

2011: 11). However, in recent times the Morales government and its party, the

Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement toward Socialism—MAS), have clashed

with some elements of this base (Farthing, 2019). Indeed, Fontana (2013: 31)

notes that “it is clear that the typical oppositional politics of Bolivian social

movements have not changed even with a more progressive administration.”

Álvaro García Linera (2011) describes these as natural “creative tensions” that

act as a motor toward constructing socialism. However, some theorists

(Veltmeyer, 2014; Webber, 2017) question García Linera’s analysis, stating

instead that popular demands have been sidelined and that outcomes to date

resemble a “reconstituted neoliberalism” (Webber, 2011). Responding to such

debates, this article seeks to identify why party-base confrontations emerged,

how the MAS responded, and what the impacts have been on Bolivia’s process

of change.

The LefT-Led STaTe, Organized POPuLar SecTOrS, and

ecOnOmic eLiTeS: a reLaTiOnaL anaLySiS

To explore why constituted forces enter into confrontation with their con-

stituent bases calls for a framework accounting for the relative power of eco-

nomic elites, the organized popular base, and the left government. Jessop’s

(2008) strategic-relational approach is useful in this regard. Jessop (2008: 1)

starts from the proposition that the state is a social relation that “reflects the

changing balance of power among social forces” (Andreucci and Radhuber,

2017: 282). He continues (2008: 6): “Putting states in their place like this does

not exclude (indeed, it presupposes) specifically state-engendered and state-

mediated processes. It does require, however, that they be related both to their

broader social context and to the strategic choices and conduct of actors in and

beyond states.” State managers’ selection of strategies, projects, and policies

will influence the opportunities for groups to achieve their goals, and at the

same time the balance of forces in society will influence the range of policy

options available to state managers. While elected leftist politicians are key

exercisers of state power, they act in relation to and influence a wider balance

of social forces (the organized popular sectors and capital). Therefore, to study

the relation between the left-led state, the organized-popular base, and eco-

nomic elites, “we must consider how state powers are exercised and aligned (or

not) with specific class interests in particular societies and conjunctures, and