The Catavi massacre was a massacre of striking miners by Bolivian government forces at the Catavi mine on 21 December 1942. The official report indicated that there were 19 deaths and 400 wounded, while estimates by the workers themselves reported up to 400 deaths. [1]
The workers' movement made some nominal political gains in the late 1930s as a result of the political shift after the Chaco War of 1932–1935. Left-wing political parties took the place of some of the traditional conservative forces in the Bolivian Congress, but the government of President Enrique Peñaranda continued to adhere to conservative policies. [2]
A law establishing the right to collective bargaining had been passed by the Germán Busch government, but the government's perceived shift on labor issues remained untested until the 1942 miners' strike. [1] Bolivia had formally entered World War II on the side of the Allied Powers after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and the Peñaranda government held that wartime strikes represented an unacceptable disruption of Bolivian production for the United States.
When Siglo XX and Catavi mine workers presented a petition demanding a 100% increase in wages in 1942, management refused to negotiate and the miners' union leaders called for a strike. The government then arrested all union officials and killed seven miners protesting the arrest of the union officials. [1] In response, 7,000 miners went on a five-day strike from 15 December 1942 to 20 December 1942. [1] When the mine workers proceeded to march toward management offices on 21 December 1942, the Bolivian military surrounded the crowd and fired for six hours. [1]
The official report was that there were 19 deaths and 400 wounded, while estimates by the workers themselves reported up to 400 deaths. [1]
The massacre resulted in an open rupture in the already deteriorating relations between Peñaranda and the moderate and radical reform parties within the Bolivian Congress. The Congress initiated a censure motion after the Catavi Massacre. The motion failed by a single vote. [2]
The Ludlow Massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War. Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colony of roughly 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Approximately 21 people, including miners' wives and children, were killed. John D. Rockefeller Jr., a part-owner of CF&I who had recently appeared before a United States congressional hearing on the strikes, was widely blamed for having orchestrated the massacre.
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Gualberto Villarroel López was a Bolivian military officer who served as the 39th president of Bolivia from 1943 to 1946. A reformist, sometimes compared with Argentina's Juan Perón, he is nonetheless remembered for his alleged fascist sympathies and his violent demise on 21 July 1946.
The Syndical Federation of Bolivian Mineworkers 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 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 the 29th vice president of Bolivia between 1960 and 1964.
The Revolutionary Left Party was a communist party in Bolivia. It was founded by Dr. José Antonio Arze and other Bolivian intellectuals on 26 July 1940 during a left-wing congress held in Oruro.
Siglo XX is a tin mine in Bolivia. It is located in the city of Llallagua in the province of Bustillos, Potosí Department. Along with the Catavi mine, it is part of a mining complex in the area.
Catavi is a tin mine in Bolivia, near the city of Llallagua in the province of Bustillos, Potosí Department. Along with the Siglo XX mine, it is part of a mining complex in the area.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is a mainly mining industry related trade union, an organisation of workers with common goals through organised labour, in South Africa. With a membership of 300,000 as of 2014, it is the largest affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
Enrique Peñaranda del Castillo was a Bolivian general who served as the 38th president of Bolivia from 1940 until his overthrow in 1943. He previously served as commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces during the second half of the Chaco War (1932–1935).
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The SouthAfrican Mine Workers' Strike was a labour dispute involving mine workers of Witwatersrand in South Africa. It started on 12 August 1946 and lasted approximately a week. The strike was attacked by police and over the week, at least 1,248 workers were wounded and at least 9 killed.
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The history of Bolivia from 1964 to 1982 is a time of periodic instability under various military dictators. On November 4, 1964, power passed from the elected leader of the Bolivian National Revolution, Víctor Paz Estenssoro to a military junta under vice-president General René Barrientos. Barrientos was elected president in 1966, but died suspiciously in a helicopter crash in 1969 while touring the countryside visiting the indigenous people of Bolivia. This led to a coup in September 1969 by General Ovando, who was overthrown in October 1970 by General Rogelio Miranda who was overthrown a couple of days later by General Juan José Torres, who in turn was overthrown in August 1971 by Hugo Banzer Suárez. Banzer ruled for seven years, initially from 1971 to 1974 with the support of Estenssoro's Nationalist Revolutionary Movement. In 1974, impatient with schisms in the party, he replaced civilians with members of the armed forces and suspended political activities. The economy grew impressively during Banzer's presidency, but demands for greater political freedom undercut his support. He called elections in 1978 and Bolivia once again plunged into turmoil. Juan Pereda ruled for only four months in 1978, but his ascent to the presidency marked the beginning of an even more unstable period in Bolivian history, with nine civilian and military presidents in little over four years (1978–1982). 1982 marked the return to a democratically elected government, with Guido Vildoso as president.
Anti-union violence is physical force intended to harm union officials, union organizers, union members, union sympathizers, or their families. It is most commonly used either during union organizing efforts, or during strikes. The aim most often is to prevent a union from forming, to destroy an existing union, or to reduce the effectiveness of a union or a particular strike action. If strikers prevent people or goods to enter or leave a workplace, violence may be used to allow people and goods to pass the picket line.
Domitila Barrios de Chungara was a Bolivian labor leader and feminist. In 1975 she participated in the International Women's Year Tribune put on by the United Nations in Mexico. She died in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on 13 March 2012 of lung cancer.
The Bolivian Revolution of 1952, also known as the Revolution of '52, was a series of political demonstrations led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR), which, in alliance with liberals and communists, sought to overthrow the ruling Bolivian oligarchy and implement a new socioeconomic model in Bolivia. Its main leaders were the former presidents Víctor Paz Estenssoro and Hernán Siles Zuazo. The MNR government after this Revolution lasted from 9 April 1952 until the coup of 4 November 1964. In these twelve years, there was a co-government and at the same time a power struggle between the party and the labor unions.
Anti-union violence in the United States is physical force intended to harm union officials, union organizers, union members, union sympathizers, or their families. It has most commonly been used either during union organizing efforts, or during strikes. The aim most often is to prevent a union from forming, to destroy an existing union, or to reduce the effectiveness of a union or a particular strike action. If strikers prevent people or goods to enter or leave a workplace, violence may be used to allow people and goods to pass the picket line.
The San Juan massacre is the name given to an attack by the Bolivian military on miners of the Siglo XX-Catavi tin mining complex in Bolivia. The attack occurred on 24 June 1967, in the early hours of the traditional festival of the Night of San Juan which is a winter solstice festival in the Southern Hemisphere. The army was acting under the orders of President René Barrientos.
The Government Junta of Bolivia was a civil-military junta which ruled Bolivia from 20 December 1943 through 5 April 1944. It consisted of representatives of the armed forces through the Reason for Fatherland (RADEPA) military lodge as well as members of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR). The President of the Junta was Colonel Gualberto Villarroel who came to power after a coup d'état which overthrew the government of Enrique Peñaranda. Immediately upon its inception, the junta faced a diplomatic blockade by the United States who viewed the MNR as sympathetic to the fascist powers of World War II and as such led the rest of Latin America in refusing to recognize the new regime until all members of the MNR were removed from the administration. After months of attempted negotiations and the removal of several cabinet ministers, the government finally relented and dismissed all remaining MNR members, dissolving the junta and entrusting Villarroel with the provisional Presidency of the Republic on 5 April 1944.