Trans “Nationalism” and Cooperative Mining in Bolivia

• In Event: Mining, the State, and Emerging Collectivities in Bolivia

Abstract

In Bolivia the emergence of cooperative mining is complex and recently gaining a central role in mining politics. Yet, their political positioning juxtaposes historical and more recent nationalist sentiment with regards to resource extraction. Following the destruction of the State Mining Company Comibol, and as a result National Federation of Miners (FSTMB) with Supreme Decree 21060 the cooperative sector has become a powerful representational voice for the mining sector, and yet their positioning has tended to be one that supports, rather than opposes, foreign investment. I argue that the historical development of cooperative miners, coupled with their experiences of poverty and exploitation, has shaped their experiences with, and thus reactions to, foreign investors. I use the case of the partnerships between cooperatives and the transnational Coeur Mining as a way to demonstrate how these agreements within the private sector are in turn (re) producing increased political and economic precarity, on local and national scales.

Author

• Kirsten S Francescone, Carleton University