Labour Party MP Jeremy Corbyn discusses the upcoming elections in Bolivia with the country’s former vice-president Álvaro García Linera, as well as the future of the international left.

Following years of struggle by indigenous, peasant and working-class movements, Bolivia voted for Evo Morales’s Movement to Socialism (MAS) in 2005. By nationalising the country’s gas and utilities, expanding public investment and redistributing wealth, the MAS achieved major reductions in poverty and inequality, as well as expanding the role of indigenous people in public life.

In 2019, the country’s elite removed Evo Morales in a coup justified by baseless allegations of electoral fraud, introducing an authoritarian regime which has committed flagrant violations of human rights and reversed the progressive policies introduced previously. Since then, the social movements that brought the MAS to power have been leading resistance to the regime through a succession of strikes and blockades in protest against ongoing attempts to postpone elections, as well as corruption and its inept response to Covid-19. With elections currently scheduled for 20 October, the MAS are leading in the polls.

This unprecedented discussion between Alvaro Garcia Linera, who served as Vice-President of Bolivia under Evo Morales, and Jeremy Corbyn, until recently leader of the Labour Party, focuses on their experiences of building socialism in the face of elite resistance, and will discuss how the Left can rebuild following defeats. The discussion is chaired by Mariela Kohon, Senior International Officer at Britain’s Trades Union Congress.

This event was held as part of The World Transformed 2020.