Transcript Some Theories: Ted Gurr: Relative Deprivation Defronzo

Some Recap:
•
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENTS IMPLEMENTED IN 1985
•
WAR ON DRUGS IMPLEMENTED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IN 1989
•
GROWING DISCONTENT ABOUT U.S., IMF AND WORLD BANK NEOLIBERAL AND CAPITALIST POLICIES
BY 2000, BOLIVIA’S GOVERNMENT HAD PRIVATIZED:
RAIL ROADS
AIRLINES
PHONE COMPANY
MINES
NATURAL GAS
IN FEBRUARY OF 2000: THE CITY OF COCHABAMBA PRIVATIZED THE WATER
Some Theories:
Ted Gurr: Relative Deprivation
DeFronzo: Mass Frustration
DeFronzo: Unifying Motivation
Chalmers Johnson: X-Factor
To make things rather interesting: The water supply
issue in Bolivia was the main theme of the James
Bond movie Quantum Solace.
However, DON’T try to use the movie as
Study guide, or you’ll get it all wrong!
Water War: January - April 2000. Slogan:
“Water is Life”

The Privatization of Water happened in the city of “Cochabamba”: Bolivia’s third largest city

After privatization took place, water prices increased by at least 100%

The broad nature of Law 2029 led many to claim that the government would require a license be
obtained for people to collect rainwater from their roofs
(HINT: BRINTON’s 4 Uniformity): gov’t doesn’t respond to the needs of the society

Protests, largely organized through the Coordinadora in Defense of Water and Life, a community
coalition constituted by Federación Departamental Cochabambina de Regantes (FEDECOR), made
up of local professionals, including engineers and environmentalists. They were joined by a federation
of peasant farmers who relied on irrigation, and a confederation of factory workers' unions.
HINT: This particular uprising doesn’t fit an actor-oriented theory, its structural (Social & economic
conditions + International) Remember Theda Skocpol “Structural forces create revolutionary situations
State of Emergency

On February 4, 2000, thousands marching in protest were met by troops and law enforcement
from Oruro and La Paz. Two days of clashes occurred with the police using teargas. Almost 200
demonstrators were arrested; 70 protesters and 51 policemen were injured.

President Banzer on April 8, 2000 declared a "state of siege". Banzer said, "We see it as our
obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a state of emergency to protect law and
order.“

The decree suspended "some constitutional guarantees, allowing police to detain protest leaders
without a warrant, restrict travel and political activity and establish a curfew.“ Meetings of over four
people were outlawed, and the freedom of the press was curtailed with radio stations being taken
over by the military and some newspaper reporters being arrested.

However, the more military force used by the government, the more the protesters
revolted.

What started in a city began to spread around the country…
The spark that unraveled popular
dissatisfaction in other areas

The coca growers of Bolivia led by
then-Congressman Evo Morales
(later elected President of Bolivia)
had joined the demonstrators and
were demanding an end to the
Unites States-sponsored program of
coca eradication of their crops.

Teachers of state schools in rural areas went
on strike calling for salary increases (at the
time they made $1,000 a year). In the capital
city of La Paz students began to fight running
battles with police. Demonstrators put up
roadblocks of stones, bricks and barrels, and
violence broke out there as well

People started questioning the efficiency of all privatizations that had taken place since the
implementation of the structural programs.

The unifying motivation that sparked the uprisings was the privatization of water, BUT another deeper
unifying motivation was forming through the country: Sentiment against neoliberal policies, the IMF,
the World Bank and the US.
Structural Conduciveness! : Mitigating Factor

Since the start of the demonstrations, the government had been incapable of stopping the chaos
through military force.

In order to prevent the further spread of protests around the country, on April 10, 2000, the national
government reached an agreement with the Coordinadora to reverse the privatization.
(This promise by the government became the mitigating factor that prevented a full revolution to form)

Although the protests had stopped, the Cochabamba’s water wars shed light to the country’s
dissatisfaction with neoliberal policies, and the government’s support for them.

The water war started a revolutionary situation that will become a revolutionary outcome in October
2003
 The

re-birth of social movements
In Washington, D.C. at the 16 April 2000 IMF and World Bank meetings, protesters attempted to
blockade the streets to stop the meeting. They cited the Water Wars in Bolivia as an example of
corporate greed and a reason to resist globalization. Oscar Olivera attended the protests, saying,
"The people have recaptured their dignity, their capacity to organize themselves - and most
important of all, the people are no longer scared.“
His actions in the Water Wars raised the profile of Congressman Evo
Morales and provided him with the path to the presidency in 2006.
His ability to organize people and to gather support from different social
classes (specially the indigenous population) will make him leader of MAS
(movement towards socialism)
He will become the central figure during the Gas War/Black October
(2003)