Bolivian Workers' Center

Last updated
COB
Bolivian Workers' Union
Central Obrera Boliviana
Headquarters La Paz, Bolivia
Location
Key people
 Pedro Montes, executive secretary
Oscar Salas Moya, general secretary
Affiliations WFTU

The Bolivian Workers' Center (Spanish : Central Obrera Boliviana, COB) is the chief trade union federation in Bolivia. It was founded in 1952 following the national revolution that brought the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement to power. The most important affiliate of the COB was the Union Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers (FSTMB). From 1952 to 1987, the COB was led by the legendary Juan Lechín, who was also head of the FSTMB. In its heyday it was arguably the strongest independent labour movement in the world. [1]

Traditionally a demanding, confrontational organization, the COB has had a difficult relationship with every Bolivian president since the 1950s. More recently, it played a significant role in the series of demonstrations that brought down President Carlos Mesa (2005). The COB currently supports nationalization of Bolivian natural gas reserves and opposed water privatization during the 2000 Cochabamba protests. In 2010 it led a brief national march that led to pension reform and in April 2011, it organized a twelve-day general strike for higher wages.

The COB represents about two million Bolivian workers, bringing together workers from various branches of industry and public services as well as consultation with many peasants' and indigenous leaders, such as Felipe Quispe.

Structure and leadership

The COB is led by a National Executive Committee, which is regularly elected in Ordinary Congresses of the organization, which are held every few years. [2] The leading figure is the Executive Secretary, followed by the General Secretary. Other members of the National Executive Committee are also named secretaries, each with a designated area of responsibility. Leadership rank within the National Executive Committee has long been allocated by assessing the sector's power and militancy. Since this Fifth Congress, this has been based on: union density (the percentage of workers in the sector who are unionized); degree of emancipation from private property, through nationalization or cooperatives; and history of combativeness, revolutionary tradition, political consciousness, and solidarity with other sectors. In practice, the Executive Secretary has always been from Bolivia's mining sector. [3]

The current Executive Secretary of the COB is Juan Carlos Huarachi, a miners' union leader in Huanuni, Oruro, who was elected at the XVII National Congress, held in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in February 2018. [4] Prior executive secretaries include:

Executive SecretaryAffiliationElected atHeld inTerm began
Saturnino Mallku [5] MinerXIII Ordinary CongressSucreMarch 2002
Pedro Montes. [6] [7] Sindicato Mixto de Trabajadores Mineros de HuanuniXIV Ordinary Congress2006
Juan Carlos Trujillo [8] Sindicato Mixto de Trabajadores Mineros de HuanuniXV Ordinary CongressTarijaJanuary 2012
Guido Mitma [9] Sindicato Mixto de Trabajadores Mineros de HuanuniXVI Ordinary CongressTupizaJanuary 2016
Juan Carlos Huarachi [10] Sindicato Mixto de Trabajadores Mineros de HuanuniXVII Ordinary CongressSanta CruzFebruary 2018

While the National Executive Committee represents the COB, its powers are subordinate to National Congresses (Ordinary and Extraordinary gatherings of member unions) and to National Ampliados (smaller gatherings of union representatives).

The unions that are part of the COB are affiliated into Federations (typically representing a single sector, such as factory workers or peasants, within one of Bolivia's departments), which are grouped into (usually national) Confederations by sector. [2]

Related Research Articles

Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas

Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas was a coordination of revolutionary mass organizations in El Salvador formed on January 11, 1980.

Movement for Socialism (Bolivia) Political party in Bolivia

The Movement for Socialism–Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples, alternately referred to as the Movement Toward Socialism or the Movement to Socialism, is a Bolivian left-wing populist and indigenist political party led by Evo Morales, founded in 1998. Its followers are known as Masistas.

The Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia,, is a national representative organization of the Bolivian indigenous movement. It was founded in October 1982 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra as the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of the Bolivian East, with the participation of representatives of four indigenous peoples of the Bolivian East: Guarani-Izoceños, Chiquitanos, Ayoreos and Guarayos.

Álvaro García Linera

Álvaro Marcelo García Linera is a Bolivian politician, sociologist and political theorist who served as the 38th Vice President of Bolivia from 2006 until his resignation in 2019. García Linera was also the leader of the Túpac Katari Guerrilla Army in the early 1990s.

Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia


The Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia, FSTMB, is a labor union in Bolivia that represents miners. Bolivia's miners are commonly regarded as the country's most class-conscious workers. The FSTMB has played an important role in Bolivia's recent history.

Juan Lechín Bolivian labor leader and politician

Juan Lechín Oquendo 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 Vice President of Bolivia between 1960 and 1964.

Enrique Hertzog 42nd President of Bolivia

José Enrique Hertzog Garaizábal was a Bolivian politician who served as the 42nd President of Bolivia from 1947 to 1949. He resigned in 1949, and died in exile in Argentina.

Bolivia recognised one same-sex civil union on 9 December 2020. Couples since then have been refused.

Constitutional history of Bolivia

Bolivia has had seventeen constitutions, including the present one, since its foundation in 1825.

Óscar Salas Moya was a Bolivian politician and trade unionist. A miner by profession, Salas Moya was a key leader of the Communist Party of Bolivia and a leader of the Huanuni miners union. The position of Salas Moya, then belonging to a younger generation in the party leadership, was strengthened in 1964, after the party had been deserted by Pimentel and Escóbar.

Jenaro Flores Santos often Genaro Flores Santos, was a Bolivian trade union leader and politician.

The Workers' Socialist Movement, known for many years as the Workers' Socialist Party, is a Trotskyist political party in Bolivia. PST/MST was affiliated to LIT-CI for a long period.

The Trade Union Confederation of Bolivian Workers was the largest and most prominent trade union confederation in Bolivia from 1936 to 1952.

Coca in Bolivia

Coca has been cultivated in medium-altitude parts of the Bolivian Andes since at least the Inca era, primarily in the Yungas north and east of La Paz. Cultivation expanded substantially in the 1980s into the Chapare region of Cochabamba and some production flowed into the international cocaine market. The US-backed efforts to criminalize and eradicate coca as part of the War on Drugs were met by the cocalero movement's growing capacity to organize. Violence between drug police and the Bolivian armed forces on one side and the movement on the other occurred episodically between 1987 and 2003. The cocaleros became an increasingly important political force during this period, co-founding the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples party. Coca growers from both the Yungas and the Chapare have advocated for policies of "social control" over coca growing, maintaining a pre-set maximum area of cultivation as an alternative to drug war policies. In 2005, cocalero union leader Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia. Morales has pursued a combined policy of legalizing coca production in the Chapare and Yungas and eradication of the crop elsewhere.

National Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia was the largest union of peasants in Bolivia from its founding in 1953 until it was superseded by the Unified Syndical Confederation of Rural Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) in 1979. The organization's first leaders were Executive Secretary Nuflo Chávez and General Secretary Severo Oblitas, chosen in July 1954. Its highest decision-making body was the Congress; the First Congress was held in La Paz on 3 October 1954; the Second in Santa Cruz in 1963; the third in Ucureña in 1964; and the fourth in Tarabuco in 1967.

National Confederation of Popular Organizations Mexican political organization of the Institutional Revolutionary Party

The Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares is a political institution of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico. It was founded in 1943 and has historically served to represent the middle and lower classes within the party organization. Although a major sector of the PRI, it has been less studied that the worker and peasant sectors.

Workers Revolutionary Current Political party in Spain

The Workers' Revolutionary Current is a Trotskyist group in Spain.

Cabinet of Néstor Guillén Bolivian presidential administration and ministerial cabinet in 1946

Néstor Guillén assumed office as the interim 40th President of Bolivia on 21 July 1946, and his mandate ended on 17 August 1946. A magistrate of the Superior District Court of La Paz, Guillén was chosen to lead an interim junta in the absence of the President of the District Court Tomás Monje, who was ill at the time, in the wake of the violent demise of President Gualberto Villarroel.

The Government Junta of Bolivia, officially known as the Honorable Government Junta, was a civil junta which ruled Bolivia from 21 July 1946 through 10 March 1947. It consisted of labor, teacher, and student representatives as well as magistrates of the Superior District Court of La Paz. The President of the Junta was Superior District Court President Tomás Monje who was appointed following the violent overthrow of President Gualberto Villarroel on 21 July 1946. As Monje was ill at the time of Villarroel's death, Néstor Guillén, the Dean of the Superior District Court, took charge for the first 27 days before delegating command to Monje on 17 August 1946. As President of the Junta, Monje acted as a neutral figure heading the transition back to civilian government. The junta was dissolved on 10 March 1947 when Enrique Hertzog, winner of the January general election, took office as president.

References

  1. ↑ Impasse in Bolivia, Kohl & Farthing, ISBN   184277 759 9, p.149.
  2. 1 2 García Linera, Álvaro; Chávez León, Marxa; Costas Monje, Patricia (2004). Sociología de los movimientos sociales en Bolivia: Estructuras de movilización, repertorios culturales y acción política. La Paz, Bolivia: DIAKONIA, Accion Ecuménica Sueca. p. 50. ISBN   99905-0-623-X.
  3. ↑ García Linera, Álvaro; Chávez León, Marxa; Costas Monje, Patricia (2004). Sociología de los movimientos sociales en Bolivia: Estructuras de movilización, repertorios culturales y acción política. La Paz, Bolivia: DIAKONIA, Accion Ecuménica Sueca. p. 56. ISBN   99905-0-623-X.
  4. ↑ "Eligen a Guido Mitma como nuevo ejecutivo de la COB". Correo del Sur (January 24, 2016 ed.). Retrieved 2016-06-21.
  5. ↑ García Linera, Álvaro; Chávez León, Marxa; Costas Monje, Patricia (2004). Sociología de los movimientos sociales en Bolivia: Estructuras de movilización, repertorios culturales y acción política. La Paz, Bolivia: DIAKONIA, Accion Ecuménica Sueca. p. 86. ISBN   99905-0-623-X.
  6. ↑ "Montes se queda hasta mayo de 2012". Los Tiempos. 2011-07-30. Archived from the original on 2012-10-06. Retrieved 2011-07-30.
  7. ↑ "COB ratifica que no asistirá a Cumbre de Cochabamba y decide construir su propia propuesta". Los Tiempos. 2011-12-12. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  8. ↑ Donoso, Yuvert (2012-01-23). "Trujillo, el nuevo líder de la COB, ofrece diálogo". La Razón. Retrieved 2016-06-21.
  9. ↑ "COB eligió a nuevo comité Ejecutivo liderado por Mitma y Ancieta". Erbol Digital. 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  10. ↑ "El minero Juan Carlos Huarachi es el nuevo secretario ejecutivo de la COB". Agencia de Noticias Fides. 2018-02-25. Retrieved 2018-03-26.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.