Two Universities square up to the future
- 21 Mar 06, 06:00 PM
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA. I don鈥檛 know if there is a word for 鈥済ilded youth鈥 in Spanish but if there is, a fair selection of them are here tonight at the Catholic University of La Paz. They鈥檝e called a conference about the role of youth in the forthcoming Constituent Assembly, which will rip up 50 years of traditional governance and hand power to Bolivia鈥檚 regions, workers and peasants. 鈥淲hat will it mean for you?鈥 I ask Mariane Balderrama, one of the student TV team covering the event. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know 鈥 that鈥檚 why we want to hear this guy: we know nothing about what鈥檚 going on鈥...
The guy they鈥檝e come to hear is vice president Alvaro Garcia Linera: a suave, grey, former guerrilla leader who, in prison under the old regime, used his time preparing to become the Marxist brain behind the MAS.
Here in the airconditioned modernity of one of Latin America鈥檚 top colleges, the MAS and its programme are creating an intellectual buzz. But the day started out at a very different kind of university where the appeal of the MAS is visceral, and about race and class.
The Public University of El Alto is three miles away and 500m higher. It is a complex of shabby breeze-block buildings, unmade roads and graffiti. The departments are flagged up by home-made signs that look like the ones you see in primary schools: the words 鈥渁rchitecture鈥 and 鈥渃ivil engineering鈥 spelled out in floral lettering in the way you would expect to see 鈥渘ature table鈥.
We went with Abram Delgado, a member of the radical Aymara group 鈥淢ovement of the Youth of October鈥, locally known as the Taliban. Abram showed us where they piled up rocks during the overthrow of the Sanchez de Lozada regime; and piled them up again two years later during the overthrow of Carlos Mesa:
"At night we went to the oil and gas refineries that are located in the southern part of the city. There, we organised blockades in order not to let any products enter or exit the city of La Paz. We had a confrontation with the police and almost got caught but we managed to escape. Afterwards, we linked up with the peasants鈥 movement, the indigenous and social movements. We coordinated with our forces to use explosives and stuff - but in a more coordinated way than in 2003. For example, by using mobile phones we called to each other to say: you do this, you do that鈥︹
That was last year. The students of El Alto are used to fighting. They had to fight to set the university up as a breakaway from La Paz University; and they had to fight to get their degrees recognised. Even now the whole place looks like it has been in a fight.
The student population, like the El Alto population, is overwhelmingly Aymara. They are, like Abram, small, dark and poor. Since the election of Evo Morales there has been an increase in Aymara speaking on campus. This is the first generation of Aymara to go to university; their parents were the first generation to move from the farm to the city. The total separation, physical difference, contrast in levels of poverty and public amenity between these students and the students of La Paz remind me, if not of apartheid, then the racial divide I saw in Louisiana around the time of Katrina. Interestingly this modern Aymara generation does not wear traditional dress: they wear jeans and trainers 鈥淏ut the face is still the same,鈥 says Abram.
The privations of El Alto are legendary. As the city grew from nothing to a million people on the the airless plain above La Paz, the shanty dwellers found that the government could not provide them with water or gas. Nor could it provide health and education. So they provided it for themselves. El Alto is run by a network of neighbourhood assemblies known as FEJUVE. At the assemblies they discuss topics as varied as which street should get the next water main, and what date Evo Morales has to nationalise the gas companies by, in order to stave off a further uprising by El Alto.
Aymara democracy works through consensus: it can be a long process but it means that if the consensus is to go on the streets with rocks and dynamite you have to go 鈥 even if you are a top-notch engineering student with a great career ahead of you, or a successful wheeler dealer at the El Alto market.
The Constituent Assembly will put more power in the hands of the people of El Alto and therefore, since there is only so much power, remove it from the hands of those at the Catholic University. Twenty years ago the La Paz students could have expected to grow up to be part of the ruling elite: there was political consensus around the privatisation, free trade, coca-eradication and a pro-US foreign policy. Evo鈥檚 election victory has turned all that round 180 degrees.
Now there is apprehension among the white middle class: 鈥淎m I scared? Sure I am scared, a little bit. They hate us: everybody hates everybody else鈥, says Mariane at the Catholic University. Nothing in the political science books at this or any other university has prepared them for the actuality of Evo鈥檚 regime. The theoretical possibility, sure: you could do essays on Aymara nationalism just like you could do essays on the rise of the anti-globalisation movement: but to have, effectively, both of these political forces now ruling your country鈥檚 destiny is a shock the middle class is still coming to terms with.
Which makes tonight鈥檚 turnout interesting. The audience to hear Alvaro is packed to overflowing with preppy white kids in high-fashion clothes. Evo Morales scored 54% in the election 鈥 stunning himself as well as the world 鈥 precisely because the young, white liberal middle class was prepared to give him a chance.
鈥淲hen I came back from America I was saying: no way am I going to vote for this guy鈥, says Mariane. 鈥淚t will be like Venezuela 鈥 they鈥檒l abolish the dollar and so on. But you know what after a while I thought, no, I am going to vote for him.鈥 The kids here are probably more influenced by Catholic social teaching than by anti-globalisation, but either way they have had enough of the oldsters who ran the country for decades - and the endless low-level rioting and blockading that came with the package.
Within the government it is Alvaro鈥檚 job to keep middle class support on board. Evo is the populist, appealing to the workers and the poor; Alvaro the intellectual, appealing to the middle class and handling backroom negotiations with the US State Department.
For the balancing act to succeed, they have to deliver to El Alto without completely losing the educated youth and liberals of La Paz. It will be hard. Abram Delgado, who calls himself a "revolutionary Indianist" and wants a "return to before 1492", warns:
鈥淎t this moment there is an Aymara ruling the country. But Evo is still not an Indianist, he is an indigenist populist with traces of Marxism because his advisors are Marxists, socialists. If in fact an Aymara were to rule the country, but with an indianist ideology, there would not be a capitalist economy, a mixed economy or a planned economy: we would implement an Ayllu economy.鈥
The Ayllu economy, which has survived among the Aymara peasants despite 400 years of colonisation, is based on barter, clans and communal property. I don鈥檛 think that would go down well at the Catholic University of La Paz, or for that matter with vice president Alvaro Garcia Linera.
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