The Liberals and labour

Introduction

Of the Latin American republics, Bolivia's working class is one of the most indigenous in its composition. Foreign investment was confined to the mining industry and the railways, hence the demand for manual labour was easily met from within the country. The Bolivian proletariat has always been recruited from two main sources: the peasantry, who live in conditions of extreme poverty and who have progressively been displaced from the best lands, and the impoverished sector of the petty bourgeoisie. This second group, especially the artisans among them, have experienced a process of economic decline which has been much too rapid to be offset by Bolivia's industrial development, and our factories have been insufficient to absorb all the sectors of the population displaced from other economic activities. The growth of industry in the main cities was initially accompanied by the proletarianisation of women and children, so the budding labour organisations added to their programmes demands for special treatment for these sectors of the working class until gradually the number of women and children in mining work was reduced. The rhythm of proletarianisation in Bolivia has been slow compared with other countries, and for this reason it has been unnecessary to resort to immigration as a source of working class recruitment. The dispossessed who cannot find employment in industry live in ever-increasing poverty.