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Bolivian Government Takes Control of Two Oil Refineries
The
struggle for genuine community control and worker management
continues
Bolivian
president Evo Morales
By
Roberto Antezana
On Saturday, May 12, Bolivian president Evo Morales officially
announced that the Bolivian government was taking full control
of two oil refineries, Gualberto Villarroel in Cochabamba and
Guillermo Elder Bell in Santa Cruz. Following weeks of intense
negotiations, the Bolivian government agreed to pay Petrobras,
a Brazilian state-owned transnational, $112 million for control
of the refineries.
After a transition period of 30 days, the Bolivian
state oil company, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales
Bolivianos (YPFB), will begin running the refineries. Overall,
the government
expects to earn $60 million per year by taking control of the
plants.
One
day later, Morales announced that the government would invest
$10 million in both plants to modernize them and increase
their output in order to satisfy both internal and external
demands for the gas, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, and lubricants
produced by the two plants.
The
purchase of the refineries is part of the broader “nationalization” of
the Bolivian hydrocarbon industry begun by Morales on May 1,
2006 in which the Bolivian government took a controlling share
of the hydrocarbon industry stocks and renegotiated more favorable
contracts with the transnational oil companies operating in
Bolivia.
In
his speech on Saturday in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Morales highlighted
the huge financial benefits of this hydrocarbon contract
renegotiation. In 2005, the government received a total of
$300 million in tax revenue generated by the hydrocarbon
industry. In 2007 (as a result of 2006 tax income), the tax
revenue increased more than five times over to $1.6 billion.
While
a lot of this increase is due to skyrocketing oil prices
over the last year, much of it is related to the contract
renegotiations which increased hydrocarbon royalty taxes
on transnationals to 82%. This is a huge jump from the just
over 50% guaranteed by previous contracts and an absurdly
large increase from the 18% charged by the neoliberal governments
before huge protests, centered around the call for nationalization
of the hydrocarbon industry, kicked out two neoliberal presidents
in 2003 and 2005.
This
rise in hydrocarbon industry-related income has had huge
benefits on a state and local level. In 2005, the Cochabamba
prefecture received $53 million. In 2007, it will receive
$211 million. The state university in Cochabamba has also
seen its hydrocarbon income skyrocket from $6.92 million
in 2005 to $48 million in 2007.
Citing
these figures, Morales announced plans to expand the “nationalization” process
in the near future, naming five companies in particular, four
of which are related to the hydrocarbon industry and one of
which is a telecommunications transnational. All of these companies
were privatized in the late 1990’s during the expansive
privatization process which took place in Bolivia during previous
neoliberal governments.
We
Need Democratic Community and Worker Control of the Refineries
Alternativa Socialista Revolucionaria (CWI-Bolivia) supports
the re-taking of the Gualberto Villarroel and Guillermo Elder
Bell refineries as a progressive change which can improve the
lives of the worker and peasant poor majority in Bolivia. Along
with the huge increases in revenue from the renegotiation of
the hydrocarbon contracts in 2006, the income generated can
be used to provide much needed improvements to the education
and health care system, jobs for unemployed workers, and tractors
and other farming equipment for indigenous campesino communities.
The
money should also be used to begin the important task of
further industrializing Bolivia’s hydrocarbon industry
so that all of Bolivia’s petroleum can be refined and
sold at higher prices instead of having to sell the majority
of their petroleum unrefined and at relatively dirt cheap
prices.
But
simply buying the refineries and putting them under the control
of the state-run oil company will not in itself solve
all of the problems created by the capitalization of the
refineries. Just before buying the refineries, Morales met
with the Petrobras workers’ union and guaranteed that
labor conditions would remain the same. This is good news
for the official Petrobras workers whose salaries start at
around 14,000 Bolivianos/month ($1750). It is bad news, however,
for the hundreds of contract workers who work in the refineries
under 2 year contracts and are not part of the Petrobras
workers union.
In
recent months, the 250 plus contract workers at the Gualberto
Villarroel refinery in Cochabamba began an organizing campaign
to fight for union recognition, higher wages, permanent contracts,
safer working conditions, and a full nationalization with
some form of worker and community control of the refineries.
They
were met with hostility from all sides: the official Petrobras
union refused to accept them and when they started their
own “mixed” union, six union leaders and 12 workers
were fired.
For
these workers, guaranteeing that labor conditions will remain
the same means that they will continue making 700
Bolivianos/month ($87.50), they will have no union recognition,
and no right to organize either.
In
the weeks leading up to the purchase of the refineries, after
trying unsuccessfully to solicit support from the Morales
government, the contract workers at the Gualberto Villarroel
refinery were planning to take direct action by occupying
the refinery and demanding that the fired workers be reinstated
and their demands be met. Now that control of the refineries
has passed into the hands of the YPFB, the workers are giving
the Morales government a chance to satisfy their demands.
If their demands are not met, they have promised that direct
action is inevitable including a possible factory occupation.
Alternativa
Socialista Revolucionaria, and the CWI internationally, support
the Gualberto Villarroel contract workers in their
struggle for higher wages, permanent contracts, the right
to organize, and a full nationalization of the industry under
worker and community control. Also, in order to prevent the
refineries from being bureaucratically run by a privileged
caste of government officials, the Alternativa Socialista
Revolucionaria proposes that the refineries be run by an
elected body made up of 1/3 state representatives, 1/3 community
representatives, and 1/3 worker representatives.
Only
with democratic community and worker control can we guarantee
that the production and income generated by the refineries
serve the best interests of the Bolivian people as a whole
(and not just a privileged bureaucratic caste) while at the
same time ensuring that all workers in the plant have a voice
in the production process and stable jobs with good wages,
safe working conditions, and the right to organize.
Why
Pay for Control of Our Own Refineries and Our Own Natural
Resources?
Alternativa Socialista Revolucionaria opposes the payment
of $112 million USD of the Bolivian peoples’ money
to take control of the refineries. These plants should be
expropriated
without payment.
It
is the right of the Bolivian people to take control of their
own economy, their own industries, and their own resources
and as a matter of principle they should not have to pay
to do so. Instead this money should go towards industrialization
projects and social services mentioned above.
Furthermore,
the refineries were undemocratically sold in 1999 by neoliberal
president Hugo Banzer to Petrobras for $102
million. There was no referendum, nor even a public debate
about the privatization of the refineries.
During
the last eight years, Petrobras has earned an average of
$70 million or roughly $560 million. They have already
been repaid more than five times over for their investment
and the Bolivian people should not have to pay any more.
Only
a Socialist Economy Can End Poverty and Inequality in Bolivia
As mentioned before, the renegotiation of the hydrocarbon contracts
have produced incredible results. But simply increasing tax
revenue from one industry is not enough to eradicate poverty
in Bolivia and guarantee a decent life for every worker and
peasant. For that to happen, we need to put all of the wealth
generated by the Bolivian economy into the hands of Bolivian
people and take it out of the hands of the wealthy elite, large-landowners,
and transnationals.
Organizing
and struggling for a full nationalization of the Gualberto
Villarroel and Guillermo Elder Bell refineries
under genuine democratic community and worker control would
be an important first step towards genuine nationalization
and worker and community control of the hydrocarbon industry
as a whole. This in turn could pave the way for an organized
struggle to nationalize the rest of the Bolivian economy
while also taking the land away from the large landowners
and putting it under the control of the indigenous peasant
population.
A
simple renegotiation of the oil contracts generated $1.3
billion in new revenue in just two years. Money that otherwise
would have gone to transnational corporations, instead will
go to the Bolivian people.
Imagine
the immense revenue that would be created by nationalizing
the Bolivian economy as a whole, by taking all of the wealth
that now goes to the Bolivian elite, the large landowners,
and the transnational corporations and instead using it to
industrialize the economy and satisfy the basic needs of
Bolivian workers and peasants.
This
is what a socialist Bolivia would look like, a Bolivia without
poverty and inequality, and that is what Alternativa
Socialista Revolucionaria and the CWI are fighting for in
Bolivia and around the world.
Roberto Antezana, Revolutionary Socialist Alternative (CWI-Bolivia). Petroleumworld
not necessarily share these views.
Editor's
Note:This
essay originally appeared in Socialist Alternative, on
Jun 8, 2007. Petroleumworld reprint
this article in the interest of our readers. All
comments posted and published on Petroleumworld, do not reflect
either for or against the opinion expressed in the comment
as
an endorsement of Petroleumworld. All comments expressed
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