Revolutions of the Season
Revolutions of the Season
Bolivian Revolution - Process inspired by the Mexican Revolution, which reached great proportions, with the popular classes including taking power and the means of economic production. However, the inability to maintain that control, lack of political clout and pressure of the strongest sectors, including U.S. imperialism, eventually undermine the foundations of the revolution and its potential reformer who sought to transform the exploitative and miserable social structure Bolivian society a more just and equal.
The uprising occurred on April 9, 1952. Stirred by the MNR (National Revolutionary Movement), a center-left party formed by the petty bourgeoisie who had been alienated from power a year earlier by a military coup, the country's miners began a strike for better wages and living conditions. At the same time, the insurgency exploded in large farms, with the Indians and peasants seizing land, and in the capital La Paz, where the poorest people was organized with the help of the MNR in armed militias that invaded the barracks, and an incredible urban guerrilla warfare, defeated the army sent into the streets to fight them. The Bolivian people, oppressed for centuries, had seized power throughout the country, and the MNR seemed to be their legitimate representative to occupy it. Here, however, begin the failures of the revolutionary process in the country. The party, more concerned to resume the government lost a year earlier and formed by elements of the middle class, he could not meet the basic demands of the population. On the contrary, gradually undermined the achievements of workers and made room for the intensification of the penetration of American capitalism in the economy.
Two landmarks of the Bolivian Revolution, and that they carry that title, are the clearest evidence of how the MNR only relied on the popular uprising to seize power, and not to promote structural changes in society. The first was the Agrarian Reform Law, enacted in August 1953 and designed to organize clutter installed with the taking of farms by farmers, a year earlier, during the revolutionary process. The Act has avoided creating controversy with landowners, ruling that the peasants should return part of the occupied lands to owners alive. I stayed with a small strip of land, often unproductive, wasteful and for which he still had to pay compensation for possession.Thus, the peasants, who in 1952 had occupied most of the country's land, had a fairly equal division and eliminated the feudal structures of sweatshop labor, such as servility, suffered a process of regression. Without tax incentives and large space in the consumer markets, the small landowner, mostly came to lose their land to the squire, returning to his servant and living on the premises for charity and in return for heavy labor in farming. The operating system returned the country to be the same: large property, monoculture, menial labor. The difference is that the field was introduced capitalist forms of commercial operation: a large-scale production for sale in a shorter and cheaper. But the great achievement peasant - the land - were lost mostly due to the Agrarian Reform Act, rushed by the government of the MNR and reveals the inability of the party to rid itself of the groups economically stronger country to promote a radical change in society.
The second milestone of the revolution cheats on his demagoguery. In October 1952, the government nationalized the tin mines, allegedly breaking a secular field of top foreign exchange earner in the country by the family Patiño, owner of the mines and refineries. The act would symbolize a desire for national autonomy in ore exploitation, if not hide certain junctures that served to further reduce the role and importance of the revolution. When nationalized the tin mines had limited income, so they were exploited by Patiño. Thus, Bolivia did not have much ore for export and foreign currency in the international market. Furthermore, the crude tin has reduced the market value and must be treated in foundries - and the country had no time to. The country had been accustomed to receive little in the tin mines withdrawn by the companies of Patiño and taken to be blown abroad. With the nationalization, the process is not reversed. Bolivia continued to receive little for tons of ore for export it raw, and then saw the great powers pay dearly for the refined product. The nationalization of the mines has not brought economic independence for Bolivia, nor improved the lives of miners, but brought a problem: he had to inherit disused mines and of low productivity, freeing the former owners of larger losses. Not only that, they received compensation for expropriation, a total of 22 million dollars. Selling and receiving very little, the MNR government still tried to revive the operation of tin, founding a state company - Comibol - to find new deposits.The initiative, however, only brought more damage and almost no tin. The solution was to resort to loans from the U.S., in return for providing the low prices of minerals and other products such as oil and natural gas.
The process of nationalization of the mines quickly became a continuation of regression observed in agrarian reform: the achievements of the miners are gradually lost by political leaders belonging to the middle class and economic power, can not deny its origins. The presidents of the MNR who ruled Bolivia from 1952 to 1964 tried to change the Bolivian society and its structure by means of decrees, and never effectively. The population did not receive the benefits of the revolution: on the contrary, was even more dominated by poverty and had repressed their political clout when the armed urban militia, were suspended for the reconstitution of the Army in the late '50s.
However, the Bolivian revolution, although thwarted in his plans, he served as an example for subsequent social movements as grassroots mobilization can cause tremors in the established order, seeking improvements in your life. It was named so because it is a case in which the people took to the streets and campaigned on his behalf, for their goals, above partisan ideologies. Perhaps the absence of a genuine leader who channeled their reformist aspirations, avoiding the MNR and its petty-bourgeois opportunism, was the main reason for the defeat of the masses in the revolutionary process. Even without changing the social structures and productive country, the revolution left legacies such as the upgrading of relations in the field (despite the continued exploitation), the politicization of Bolivian society and the foundation of the COB (Central Obrera Boliviana), urban workers union played a key role in the fight against dictatorships in the 70s and 80s.
Fidel Castro, leader of the Revolution
Cuban Revolution - The process led by Fidel Castro is described today as the most radical political change in Latin American scene. After all, Cuba has become, since 1959, the first socialist country in the Western world and the only one that survived such a scheme, breaking the American hegemony on the continent and "anti-communism" that domain preached and fought - the blow military in 1954 against President Jacobo Arbenz of socialist tendencies in Guatemala, expressed this well. Today, even with the fall of the Soviet world, the country insists be called socialist and resists a total economic opening, guided by international agencies like IMF and IBRD.
The modern Cuba, according to sociologist Emir Sader, it bothers the other countries because it is the result of a revolution that denying the U.S., it worked and changed the social structure, despite the economic and political problems facing today.
Sader believes that a revolution involves a total transformation of the socio-productive in the nation by installing a new system and giving the company new conditions of survival. For him, the rebels of Fidel Castro to seize power, had in mind the need to modify the structure to get the Cuban popular support and international autonomy. It is essential to understand how such a structure was before Fidel assume the political leadership of Cuba.Encouraged by the Spanish colonization, the island became a major producer of sugar, whose sales in Europe grew rich local lords and fanned their desires for independence to get rid of colonial taxes. The process of liberation from Spanish rule was consummated in 1898, but the new country, located a few kilometers of the United States, did not escape the economic and political interference of this nation. Since the beginning of the century, Americans have settled in Cuba, controlling the trade in sugar and all other sectors of the agrarian economy. The estates dominated most of the territory, the reigning exploitation and political oppression of the peasants in the cities. The U.S. presidents did and undid his will, until the sergeant Fulgencio Batista, from the '40s, dominated the Cuban political scene and calmed down, the base of the repression, the various demonstrations that erupted in the country against the recessive economic policy and privileges Americans. One of the uprisings in 1953 was that contained in the assault on the Moncada barracks led by a young lawyer named Fidel Castro.Extradited to Cuba with other collaborators, Castro has been living in Mexico for three years then come back and promote, from the Sierras and the peasant support, the guerrilla war against the Batista dictatorship. Even with few resources and few weapons, the guerrilla army grew and defeated most of the Batista forces, gradually assuming control of the main districts of the country. When he reached the capital, Havana, January 1, 1959, Batista has fled to the Dominican Republic, and Castro was proclaimed president and prime minister.
After assuming power, the revolutionaries had in face, to confront the U.S. government, which ordered the removal of all national companies in Cuba and imposed an economic embargo against the country after the failed Bay of Pigs in 1961. The U.S. move was followed by most South American countries, which severed relations with Cuba and even voted for its exclusion from the Organization of American States (OAS). Of a sudden, Cuba would have to seek new partners to survive and, especially, to meet their goals of social transformation. To this end, we decided, in contrast to capitalism, socialism and agreements with the countries of the bloc led by the Soviet Union. Selling sugar and nickel to these nations, Cuba received in exchange for heavy machinery and oil industries to develop and produce consumer goods, with export diversification, foreign currency, allowing the maintenance of free public services to the population. The health and education, among others, are no longer the privilege of those who could pay, because services have become nationalized. Moreover, the government began to send students to the field annually, to teach peasants to read and write. The result of this ongoing process is visible even today. Cuba is the country with the highest literacy rate in the continent, with 85%. The health care is maintained by the State and the equipment is praised worldwide for their quality and technology.
The very productive structure - the field - has been transformed. The first act of the revolutionary government was enacting a Land Reform Law, which called for the nationalization of unused land owned by U.S. companies and landowners. Moreover, the government took land for himself that were abandoned by owners who fled with the guerrilla victory. Farmers were offered two alternatives: to organize into cooperatives or individual tenure.The state imported agricultural machinery, trained technicians to teach new owners how to manage the land and use the new mechanisms of production, encouraged the production with financial support and subsidies. Yields of sugar increased and new crops have been developed, such as tobacco and citrus fruits. The rate of unemployment and seasonal employees (during harvest) declined, with the actual possession of the land. In cities, industrial growth and new services such as tourism, also offered opportunities to the population.
With the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, and consequently its main market for sugar, Cuba faced a serious internal crisis, with a decrease in industrial production and reduction of energy supplies. Even so, the country survives, to resume its relations with Latin American and European view, albeit remote, a principle of openness by the U.S.. The Cuban crisis has raised serious doubts about the validity of Castro's regime and the country's achievements during his administration.
Of course, in the most liberal, Fidel Castro's government is undemocratic, denying the right to elections and perpetuate themselves in power. However, under his leadership Cuba won the long-sought "revolution": a country exporting agricultural and consists of a predominantly rural population and exploited it became a nation with a diversified economy that offers its residents better living conditions than many Latin American countries. The Cuban example sounded on the continent during the 70s as a model of liberation from U.S. imperialism, and today attracts many social movements and guerrillas to their cause. For more disputed that is, the example of Cuba shows that the radical transformation of society is possible if there is interest and popular mobilization.
Peruvian revolution happened in the decade of 30.