olivian Maoist organizations.
The CSUTPB was the expression of the radicalization taking place among the peasantry. It did not recognize the ArmyPeasant Pact. It adhered to the Theses of the COB and the perspective of an alliance with the working class and the students, accepting the leading role of the in the revolutionary
Along with this, radical political organizations appeared among the peasantry, such as the Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Katari (MRTK), which is a member of the Union Democratica Popular (UDP), which was formed in 1978, and the Moviemento Indio Tupac Katari (MITKA), which was officially founded in 1978, but in fact arose in the mid-
The political evolution peasantry was also reflected by the vote gotten both by the MIR and the PS-Uno (Socialist Party, No. 1, a broad leftcentrist formation) in the spring 1970 parties, along with the MRTK and the MITKA, got a majority of the peasant votes, displacing the MNR and the other formations historically influential in the countryside. This marked a still partial but important break of the peasants from the traditional bourgeois forma-
At the first congress of peasant women organized under the auspices of the CSUTB in January 1980, the need for independence from the bourgeois government was stressed, along with the need for fighting for national liberation and based on an alliance of the workers, students, and peasants.
Subsequently, the peasants played a very important role in the struggle against the dictatorship established by the military coup of July 17, 1980. This involved hunger strikes, blocking roads, the fight for fair prices for agricultural products. The convergence of peasant actions with workers mobilizations in the last phase of the dictatorship in fact marked a historie turning point.
Of course, the development of conuneven. The most advanced experiences
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came in the northern part of the departments of Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, and La Paz. The workers and peasants alliance took an active form in the mining areas during the strikes there.
When strikes broke out in the mines, the military's standard procedure was to encircle them, cut off the water and electricity, and stop food from going in. This was aimed at starving out the miners who often sealed themselves in their mines where it was difficult for the military to get at them.
In the recent mine strikes, the peasants brought food to the miners and thereby broke the military blockade. So, there