The 1952 Revolution

by José Villa

A shortened version of this article by José Villa was published in the special Bolivia issue of Revolutionary History Vol.4, No.3 Summer 1992, pp.58-85, with the title A Revolution Betrayed: The POR and the Fourth International in the Bolivian Revolution. The full text is now available here for the first time. It provides access to a great deal of important material not otherwise available in English on one of the key historical moments in Trotskyism.

The textz by José Villa (Poder Obrero – Bolivia) is from Bases no.5 Autumn 1992. The text was translated by Mike Jones. Cde Jones expressed his criticisms of Cde José ‘s text in the form of a letter to Revolutionary History Vol.4, No.4, Spring 1993.

Revolutionary History would be grateful to be informed of any corrections to spellings of proper names, or other Spanish words in this article. (Any such problems arise while preparing this material for the website, not of course from Mike Jones’s translation.)

Finally, Revolutionary History is painfully aware of thepoor quality of the HTML in this document, for which we apologisein advance to readers and Cde José. We will improve on this when time permits. We thought it desirable to release the document in its present form, as it has taken too long already.

The 1952 Revolution

How the 4th International and the POR betrayed the revolution which could have carried Trotskyism to power.

by José Villa

Chapters

  1. Introduction
  2. The Menshevik Positions Of The POR And Of Lora In April
  3. International Repercussions Of The Interview With Lora
  4. Rebelión Against The Permanent Revolution
  5. The POR Supports The Bourgeois Government
  6. Co-Government
  7. The POR Seeks To Enter The Bourgeois Government
  8. The Collaborationist Programme Of The POR
  9. The POR Did Not Struggle For The Occupation Of The Enterprises
  10. All Power To The COB!
  11. Turn The COB Into A Soviet!
  12. The MNR-POR Government
  13. All Power To The MNR Left Wing!
  14. The POR Adapts Itself To The MNR Left.
  15. The POR Believed That Paz Would Be Able To Create an Anti-Capitalist Government
  16. The Nationalisation Of The Mines
  17. The Disintegration And Reorganisation Of The Armed Forces
  18. The Desire To Transform The MNR
  19. The Peasant Uprising
  20. The Opportunist International Orientation Of The POR
  21. The Leadership Of the 4th International Identifies Itself With This Menshevik Policy
  22. References

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Updated by ETOL: 27.10.2003