Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland
19 October 2020
The exit polls and early counts in the Bolivian election indicate a major victory for the working and indigenous peoples, despite the mass repression, including the murder of many activists, workers and indigenous leaders by the military and fascist forces that ousted the government of Evo Morales in a coup.
But the majority of the oppressed remained loyal to the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), led by the former president, Evo Morales, who had been ousted in a military coup organised and supported by imperialism, both the United States and the European Union.
Morales, who now lives in exile in Argentina, was a thorn in the side of imperialism and local reaction within Bolivia. The big global monopolies wanted their hands on the rich natural resources that belong to the people, to rob the people to enrich a few.
Morales and his mass movement were staunch allies and friends of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua—the other targets in the “regime change” strategy of the United States and the European Union.
It is the duty of all left and progressive forces here in Ireland to build solidarity with the people’s of Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and, most importantly, Cuba. The left in Ireland needs to abandon its infantile attitude towards the continuing struggles in Latin America. We have to take sides. We have to be partisan on the side of the anti-imperialist forces; otherwise we side with the forces of local reaction and imperialism.
There is much that we can learn form the working people of Latin America: the need to build a clear class perspective on what is to be done, the need to build fighting, independent organisations of the people—trade unions, women, youth—capable of defending and advancing the interests of the people, not to allow our aspirations to be narrowed and channelled into purely electoral struggles and state institutions—all mechanisms for controlling the course of how we should struggle and what we should struggle for, institutions established and sustained to try to narrow our vision and control the outcome of our struggles and our demands.
As we face into a new wave of austerity, new debt built upon old debt that will be placed upon the backs of working people, our children and grandchildren, we need to prepare for the coming struggles. We need to rebuild a fighting trade union movement, build people’s organisations.
The future belongs to socialism, to working people. But it can only be achieved if we organise ourselves and take our future into our own hands.
