Anarchism in Bolivia has a relatively short but rich history, spanning over a hundred years, primarily linked to syndicalism, the peasantry, and various social movements. Its heyday was during the 20th century's first decades, between 1910 and 1930, but a number of contemporary movements still exist.
History
The first recorded anarchist movement in Bolivia was the Unión Obrera Primero de Mayo in 1906, in the small southern town of Tupiza. The organization edited the newspaper La Aurora Social. Other contemporary libertarian publications were Verbo Rojo, El Proletario and La Federación, published in the cities of Potosí, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, respectively. Several minor trade unions came together to form the Federación Obrera Local (FOL) in 1908, and in 1912 the Federación Obrera Internacional (FOI). They adopted the red-and-black flag of anarcho-syndicalism. In the city of La Paz, FOL maintained the periodical Luz y Verdad, while FOI published the Defensa Obrera, which launched a campaign for an eight-hour day. 1918 the FOI was renamed the Federación Obrera del Trabajo (FOT), which moved ideologically towards marxism.
During the 1920s, the presence of anarchism within the labor movement was at its highest point, with anarchist participating in the struggles of the Bolivian miners. Many strikes - such as in Huanuni in 1919 - were started to demand an eight-hour work day. The anarcho-syndicalist FOL, later associated with the international Asociación Continental Americana de Trabajadores confederation, published the weekly newspaper La Humanidad. Numerous anarchist movements were active in La Paz, such as the Centro Cultural Obrero, the Centro Obrero Libertario, the Grupo Libertario "Rendición", Sembrando Ideas, Brazo y Cerebro, and the group La Antorcha (founded in 1923) led by Luis Cusicanqui, Jacinto Centellas and Domitila Pareja. Other groups elsewhere in the country were the Centro Obrero Internacional in Oruro, the Escuela Ferrer i Guardia in Sucre, and the newspaper Tierra y Libertad.
Women had a prominent role in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. In 1927 the Sindicato Femenino de Oficios Varios was founded. Also founded in 1927 was the Federación Obrera Femenina, a branch of FOL and merger of several other all-female unions. Among female anarchist activists were Catalina Mendoza, Petronila Infantes, and Susana Rada. During the Third National Workers' Congress in 1926, the Bolivian communists proposed that the labor organizations should affiliate with the Third International, an idea which was rejected by the anarcho-syndicalists. The FOL was also present in the agrarian peasantry, organizing the Federación Agraria Departamental (FAD), which later disappeared due to intense government repression.
Bolivian anarcho-syndicalism had a strong presence of foreign activists, many of which had fled their countries due to political persecution. Among them were one Fournarakis, an activist of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA) sent into exile, Armando Treviño who was a Chilean cobbler belonging to the Industrial Workers of the World, the Peruvian Francisco Gamarra and Paulino Aguilar, and the Spanish Nicolás Mantilla and Antonio García Barón, the later who came to the country in the 1950s.
In 1930, encouraged by the Argentine FORA, the Confederación Obrera Regional Boliviana was founded. The organization, which lasted only two years, published La Protesta. In the 1930s the group Ideario emerged in Tupiza. It published La Voz del Campo. At this point the anarchist movement was in decay, having faced growing government persecution. The Chaco War also caused many problems. Later, anarcho-syndicalist unions saw themselves forced to join the Bolivian Workers' Center to survive. Some anarchists tried to influence the BWC from within, among them Líber Forti. In 1946 the Núcleo de Capacitación Sindical Libertario was formed. Unlike its mother organization FOL, the Federación Obrera Femenina weathered the interwar period, surviving until 1964.