Can we say that what started as "war for gas" has grown into a fight for power in Bolivia? Can we say that a revolution has started there? If that is the case, what classes and class alliances are the driving forces of it?
Yes, the conflict as it stands now has placed a discussion around political power on the order of the day. The refusal of Sánchez de Lozada to step down reflects the lack of alternatives within the ruling class, the lack of a coherent political bourgeois alternative for power. The battle in defense of gas has provided a platform for the mass movement to raise a whole set of structural demands, which were either simmering or else emerged locally; now they have spread across the nation. In fact, in the war for gas there are a number of elements that have provoked the current uprising; we see class demands being raised along with ethnical demands, as a result of the brutal oppression endured by the aboriginal peoples, both on a local and regional level. From this point of view, and considering the new situation brought about by the uprising in El Alto, we can say that there is a revolution under way now in Bolivia, although we have not yet seen the revolutionary fall of the government. The developments have witnessed the emergence of a class alliance between the proletariat, which is intervening with a very clear profile, especially the Huanuni miners and another contingent of miners now on their way to La Paz; the peasant movement of the highlands and the valleys; the coca planters; the urban poor and the semi-proletariat; the employees of the leather mills, the workshops, transport workers, shopkeepers, etc. Finally, the university students have also played a significant role.
What was the meaning of events of October 12 in El Alto? How did the masses get organized for the uprising?
We have a discussion on whether it was an insurrection or else a semi-insurrection. Contrary to what happened in the city of Cochabamba back in 2000, during the "war for the water", which we called a semi-insurrection, the demands being raised now in El Alto were of a clearly political nature, i.e., the scrapping of the Fuel Act, which entails the re-nationalization of fuel; the industrialization of gas and especially, a demand for Sánchez de Lozada to quit. Anyway, if we are talking about a semi-insurrection in both cases, because both of them lacked a clear leadership and spontaneity prevailed through and through, we also have to say that this one was clearly superior to the one in Cochabamba in 2000, with an ampler consciousness. And it was truly this insurrection that provoked a turn-about in the situation, posing the question of power in a more open fashion.
With regards to the organizations of the mass movement, these were the Juntas Vecinales (neighbors" juntas) in the main, a widespread form of organization in all the country. In El Alto there are roughly 500 juntas. These have come together in the FEJUVE (Neighbors" Juntas Federation), which along the Central Obrera Regional -COR- (Regional Trade Union Federation) gave the lead to the struggle —under the discipline of the COB. Right now, as a result of the vicious repression, those neighbors" juntas, at least in those quarters that have been hit the hardest, have just passed resolutions dictating the creation of self-defenes committees. Today, a Community General Command has just sprung up in this city, made up of the COR, FEJUVE and the CSUTCB (Union Federation of Bolivian Rural Workers), as coordination body that should deal with the military question, according to declarations made by Mallku.
However, on October 12 and 13, the resistance to the vicious crack-down unleashed by the police and the military took place in a spontaneuos manner, with no previous organization of any kind, which is a most telling evidence of the paralysis of the existing organizations. By and large, the mood among the grassroots tends to outdo both the policies and the vacilations of all the leaderships, both on a national and o local level. In fact, some leaders tried to open up a dialogue with the government and were severely reprimanded, or else forced to toe the line when threatened with lynching.
Why has Sánchez de Lozada remained in place? What class sections and parties are supporting him?
He is being supported by all the international institutions, starting with the American embassy, the American States Organization, the Andes Pact and several international bodies that regard his toppling as a very dangerous scenario for the whole region. After 20 years of a bogus, racist, classist and repressive democracy, the whole range of traditional bourgeois parties are undergoing a serious crisis. Hence, the support coming from the MIR and the NFR, as well as the bosses, the bankers, the church and all of the bosses" organizations. On top of them, the top tiers of the middle class, especially in the last few days, have embraced brazenly Fascist views: a protester blockading a street was killed by a seventeen year-old in a bourgeois district, or else the threats launched by Nación Camba against those blocking the roads in the province of Santa Cruz.
However, if Goni still remains in his post, this is due to the strategy pursued by the leading echelons of the mass organizations such as the MAS, the MIP and also the COB. Their agenda has just boiled down to exerting pressure so as to "convince" the government, first that it should issue a statement saying who the actual owners of gas were, whether it was the Bolivians or the multinational corporations. After that, when the mass movement clearly spoke its mind on October 12 and 13 in El Alto, they just switched to try and convince the government to quit. Actually, it still remains in place because of this halfway measures; we"ve seen "hunger strikes" being staged as a way of conciliation. Meanwhile, the COB Plenum was just called off, and the participation of the vanguard in them was very restricted as well, because, they said, "there were security issues at stake". Finally, they tried to hold down the "direct action" of the mass movement all the time.
What "institutional changes" could the regime try and implement and who are the people behind them?
In the first place, the government is placing all its bets that it will hold on to power, wearing out the protests and resorting to an even more violent repression. As a matter of fact, the amount of casualties and injured protesters is proof positive of that -7o people have been killed and more than 400 injured. There have also been attempts at muffling the media and a number of leaders and activists are about to be arrested. However, in the face of a likely radicalization of the current struggle, the government is also trying to put together an institutional reshuffle. In this scenario, vicepresident Carlos Mesa would take charge of the government, or in case he quits, it would be left to the head of the Supreme Court to take office, so that they would be able to uphold the whole set of institutions and all the current legislation as well. This is just an attempt to derail the grandiose fight being waged by the toilers of the countryside and the city, a bogus change with the aim of preserving the present statu quo.

 
"Get self-organized to fight"
In a word, what is the main thrust of the policy raised by the LOR (CI) in the face of the current events?
I"m going to tell you the main axis of our intervention during these four weeks of struggle, because as developments changed, we were also forced to change our policy accordingly, almost on a daily basis. We even issued our leaflets with the corresponding date and the time, in an attempt to keep the pace with the vortex of the events. So, in the main, we have fought to furnish the mass movement with forms of organization and self-organization to further their struggle. Thus we first raised the need of a National Coordinating Body of struggle, to coordinate the protests and relying on accontable delegates. We said this form of organization should be spread locally and on a regional and a national level. By the same token, we deemed that the emergence of bodies for coordination and organization on a loca level was highly progressive, such as those in the city of El Alto, sponsored by both the COR and the FEJUVE. With a view to that goal, we have also accomodated ourselves to the changes within the various organizations of the mass movement, raising the perspective of National Committee of Strike and Mobilization, to the effect of enhancing the participation of the vanguard at the COB plenums.
On the other hand, there was an urgent need to build self-defense committees, a motion that had already been raised and had gained a mass appeal in section of the mass movement, although no consistent steps have been taken so far in this direction. Right now, we are entangled in a fierce combat with the whole of the left within the COB —the MAS, the Stalinists, the Social Democrats and even those who claim allegiance to Trotskyism, such as the POR. We are taking issue with the proposed hunger strikes, which are just a detour in the road leading this struggle to victory. Instead, we raise the need to develop sef-defense committees and make them grow stronger, with a view to building genuine workers", peasants" and popular militias. We believe that the only way to bring in government of all those sectors is on the basis of organs of direct democracy with roots in the mass movement.