Around midday on October 15th -one of the key days of the uprising- the miners and the peasants together are fighting back the military in the locality of Patacamaya, between Oruro and La Paz. The air is fulled with stones, dynamite, tear gas and bullets. A commentator says that "The tanks advance and block, for some time, the march of the 2,000 Huanuni miners (...) heading for La Paz. Fifteen minutes later, the miners put the military in retreat, by using their dynamite. Around midday, two miners have already been shot dead and a number of them have been injured". (Econoticias Bolivia)
Huanuni is the home to one of the biggest tin mines in the world and its record goes back well beyond the foundation of the Republic of Bolivia. It is the land of the brave, of workers who took part in many revolts and rebellions. A daily recounts the following story "The eight-hour working day back in 1919, the foundation of the Miners Union Federation of Bolivia in 1944, the consolidation of a unified trade unionism back in 1959, the handover of the tin mines back to the hands of the state last year and the ousting of the mayoress this year" are some of the feats performed by the Huanuni miners throughout their history.
Bolivia has also a rich tradition of revolts staged by the aboriginals, the peasants and the workers against the ruling powers. The miners have been the mainstay of the working class, bringing inspiration to the people through their protracted history of sruggle and heroism. But their revolutionary mood can be also measured up in the advanced class consciousness. The Pulacayo Thesis adopted in Catavi in late 1946 -at the behest of Trotskyist militants of the time- called to fight against class collaboration, imperialism and fascism. It raised a set of transitional demands, the most important of which are: for a minimum wage; sliding wage scale; 40 hour-long working week; occupation and nationalization of the pits; union independence; workers control of the mines and the arming of the workers.
In April 1952, revolution would sweep across Bolivia, sending shock waves across the region, too. Back then, the armed miners along with the people of La Paz smashed the army and imposed the nationalist government of Víctor Paz Estenssoro, whose victory at the election had been overruled. Huanuni was poised to play a major role on that occasion as well.
The international working class movement wrote in that revolution one of its most glorious pages: "The shots ring on every street (...) The tactical troops roaming through El Alto and into the neighborhoods of Munaypata and Villa Victoria are annihilated by the revolting workers (...) the miners at Milluni are armed with lethal dynamite, and its loud explosions echo all around the city; they seize the air base in El Alto and attack the armes forces from the rear (...) combats also flare up in Oruro. Bands of rebellious men take over the military dictrict and arm 200 fighters with automatic weapons and abundant supplies of ammunition. Other military headquarters are taken over. The miners from San José and Huanuni are at the head of the struggle, and new detachments arrive later on from Catavi and Siglo XX, sieging the barracks of the "Camacho" regiment. The military have to break through the back walls of the barrack in order to be able to reach the roads leading to La Paz, to reinforce the regiments led by Torres Ortiz. But in Papel Pampa, them, along with two other regiments -Ingavi and Loa- are decimated by the working population in a dramatic man-to-man fight (...) The insurrection has lasted for three days (...) Hernán Siles Suazo is occupying the Palacio Quemado surrounded by armed workers, which is the new power propping up the regime". ("Bolivia: la revolución desfigurada", Historia del movimiento obrero, CEAL)
October 2003: the various governments presiding over a bourgeois democratic regime have eroded the forces of the working class, which has lost some of its structural weight —today it is far cry from what it used to be back in 1952 or at the time of People"s Assembly in the 1970s. But its tradition and political influence remain key levers in the Bolivian scene. Once again, the miners have taken to the streets along with the population, and dynamite remains one of its main weapons. Today, like in 1952, workers" ad peasants" militias are needed to drive out Goni the murderer. As people say in Bolivia "The time has come now".