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Roots of Resistance to Urban Water Privatization in Bolivia: The “New Working Class,” the Crisis of Neoliberalism, and Public Services1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2007

Susan Spronk
Susan Spronk
Affiliation:
York University
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Abstract

This paper analyzes the roots of resistance to the privatization of public services in the context of the changes to class formation in Bolivia. Based upon two case studies of urban water privatization, it seeks to explain why the social coalitions that have emerged to protest the privatization of public water services in Bolivia have been led by territorially-based organizations composed of rural-urban and multiclass alliances rather than public-sector unions. It argues that protest against the privatization of water utilities in Bolivia must be understood within the context of neoliberal economic restructuring and the emergence of what has been termed the “new working class,” which is now primarily urban and engaged in informal forms of work.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , Spring 2007 , pp. 8 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The International Labor and Working-Class History Society 2007

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References

NOTES

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33. Author interview with Abel Mamani, El Alto, Bolivia, July 19, 2005.

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37. Author interview with Jhonny B. Vasquez, La Paz, Bolivia, April 21, 2005.

38. Carlos Crespo Flores, La concesión de La Paz.

39. “Bolivia perdería juicio por Aguas del Tunari,” Los Tiempos November 20.

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43. Crespo Flores, “Water Privatization,” 112.

44. For reasons of confidentiality, these individuals remain unnamed.

45. “Los trabajadores de Semapa paran rechazando un despido.” Opinión September 8, 2005.

46. When the interview was conducted, 3000 bolivianos was about US $375 and 2200 about US $275. Author interview with Oscar Olivera, Cochabamba, Bolivia, September 28, 2004.

47. See Olivera and Lewis, Cochabamba, 7, 118–25.

48. “Concejo retira cupo laboral del directorio de Semapa.” Los Tiempos October 6, 2005; “Semapa despide a 164 trabajadores pero promete comprar sus servicios.” Opinión October 20, 2005.

49. Olivera and Lewis, Cochabamba, 156–7.

50. “El Gobierno se compromete a condonar deudas de Semapa.” Los Tiempos February 4, 2006.

51. Pérez, Julián, “Social Resistance in El Alto—Bolivia” in Reclaiming Public Water: Achievements, Struggles and Visions from Around the World, 2nd edition (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2006). http://www.tni.org/books/waterelalto.pdfGoogle Scholar