The Local Workers' Federation (; FOL) was a Bolivian anarcho-syndicalist trade union federation, based in La Paz. Established in 1926 by anarchist trade unions from several sectors, it quickly grew to become the leading trade union organization in the Bolivian capital, attracting the adhesion of the city's predominantly indigenous working class. It established a Women Workers' Federation in 1927, led a strike for an eight-hour working day in 1928 and participated in the formation of the American Continental Workers' Association in 1929. By the time of the Great Depression, the FOL had gained the support of trade unions in Oruro, led the formation of a national trade union confederation and made plans to carry out a social revolution against the government, but each of these efforts were suppressed following the rise of a military dictatorship in the country.
The FOL was driven underground during the Chaco War, but reorganized shortly after the Bolivian defeat and participated in the 1936 Bolivian coup d'état, which established a socialist state in the country. Due to its anarchist orientation, the FOL quickly came into conflict with the new government. Following the 1946 La Paz riots, which the FOL took a leading role in, the anarchists re-consolidated their control over the city's labor movement. They also established the Departmental Agrarian Federation, which organized indigenous rural workers in the region and led a against large landowners and the government. The rebellion was suppressed and the FOL went into a decline. Following the Bolivian National Revolution of 1952, it merged into the Bolivian Workers' Center, which became the main trade union federation in the country.
Background The origin of the Bolivian labor movement dates back to 1848, with the rise to power of President Manuel Isidoro Belzu, who supported artisans' organizations and extended them protection. The modern labor movement emerged in the 1870s, with the establishment of the first benefit societies by workers in the country's mining industry. Following the Bolivian Civil War of 1899, the Liberal Party seized power and oversaw the rapid expansion of the country's tin mining industry, with backing from British and American investors. The Liberals also encouraged the formation of the country's first trade unions, which took shape in La Paz during the 1900s. By 1908, some of these trade unions had come together to establish the Workers' Federation of La Paz (; FOLP), which allied itself with the Liberal Party, and held the country's first International Workers' Day demonstration.
Some workers became disillusioned FOLP's alliance with the liberals, and in 1914, formed the rival International Workers' Federation (; FOI), which was influenced by socialism and anarchism. The FOI considered trade unionism to be a way for workers to organize against capitalism and achieve the unity of the working class. By 1918, most trade unions in La Paz had affiliated to the FOI, which reorganized itself into the Workers' Federation of Labor (; FOT). Initially influenced by a "curious mixture of reformism and anarchism", the FOT turned its attention to demanding the eight-hour working day and various human rights. However, it later fell under Marxist control, with the Bolshevist newspaper Bandera Roja being declared its official organ.
Working class opposition to the Liberal regime culminated with the 1920 Bolivian coup d'état, during which the socialist Bautista Saavedra seized power. Over the subsequent decade, trade unions throughout the country made a series of attempts to establish a national trade union federation, tentatively called the National Confederation of Labor (; CNT), but each of them were unsuccessful due in part to internal divisions. By the late 1920s, the Bolivian labor movement was split into Marxist-Leninist, socialist republican and anarchist camps.
Establishment Anarchism had been the dominant tendency among Latin American social movements since the beginning of the 20th century, with anti-authoritarian philosophy finding fertile ground among indigenous anti-colonial movements. Anarchist ideas came to Bolivia through Spanish literature, brought by workers from Argentina, Chile and particularly Peru. Political repression accelerated the spread of anarchist ideas and groups in the country, with the 1923 provoking the formation of an organized anarchist movement. Anarchist ideology gained support among Bolivia's indigenous and cholo population, who organized their own trade unions. Bolivian anarchists developed the concept of an "inclusive nation", based on cultural and gender diversity, which they aimed to establish through union organizing and agitation. They mostly organized among artisans, employees in small businesses, and street vendors. Left-wing intellectuals from the cities also began reaching out to the rural peasantry, offering them legal protection and helping establish Ferrer schools to educate indigenous communities. Anarchists in La Paz established mutual aid networks, provided legal aid to rural caciques and wrote to the foreign anarchist press to denounce the treatment of indigenous workers in Bolivia. After the repression of the Peruvian Regional Workers' Federation in 1924, its leaders, Francisco Gamarra Navarro and Paulino Aguilar, were deported to Bolivia, where they helped build its growing anarcho-syndicalist movement.
The anarchists soon became the predominant force in La Paz. There, in 1926, anarchist trade unions came together to establish the Local Workers' Federation (; FOL). They hoped it could form the basis for a national trade union federation and a libertarian alternative to the Marxist-Leninist FOT. The name was chosen to reflect its self-conception as the local Bolivian branch of the International Workers' Association (AIT). The FOL initially counted 12 trade unions, largely from the industrial and service sectors. It quickly grew to count 38 trade union affiliates – notably including the local carpenters', construction workers' and tailors' unions – making it the largest union federation in La Paz. Its affiliate unions outnumbered those of the local branch of the FOT by more than 3-to-1. Following a federative structure, FOL sections were considered autonomous organizations and maintained their own decision-making powers. It had a relatively young membership, with its members' average age being 30. It also attracted the affiliation of the anarchist group , but another, , remained independent from it. The FOL soon became the leading trade union federation in Bolivia.
The general secretary of the FOL was Luciano Vertíz Blanco, an anarchist who had been the treasurer of the FOT and a prominent advocate of the eight-hour working day during the early 1920s. Two delegates were elected by each affiliated union to form the FOL's governing body, while a separate Federal Council was formed by anarchist members to ensure the organization maintained its ideological purity; labor historian Robert J. Alexander compared the set-up to the relationship between the National Confederation of Labor and the Iberian Anarchist Federation in Spain. Alexander, who met leaders of the FOL in 1947, said that although they "were not too strong on anarchist doctrine, they did certainly stick to the main organizational principles of anarchosyndicalist unionism—avoidance of partisan political action and emphasis on direct action". The FOL upheld anarcho-syndicalist methods and anarcho-communist ideological principles. Following the founding principle of the First International, the anarchist FOL believed that "the emancipation of the working class must be achieved by the workers themselves". They aimed to abolish not only capitalism, but all forms of hierarchy and exploitation; their goal was to establish a decentralized political and economic system characterized by autonomy, liberty and social ownership, with workers' control of the means of production.
Although principally an anarchist organization, the FOL was also sympathetic to indigenism, due to its predominantly indigenous and cholo membership. The libertarian socialism of the FOL was attentive to both ethnic and class struggles, which together with its democratic and federalist organizational structure, made it particularly favorable to coalition building. Anarcho-syndicalism's emphasis on trade unions was woven together with indigenous ayllu networks, to form a counter to the Bolivian state and dominant society; Bolivian historian Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui referred to this synthesis as "ch'ixi anarcho-syndicalism". One of the organization's founders was the Aymara anarchist Luis Cusicanqui, a mechanic by trade, who often wrote about indigenous struggles against racism and landlordism. He called for urban and rural workers to join together in a revolution against what he considered to be a fundamentally racist state, led by a predominantly mestizo elite, and defined indigeneity in terms of political marginalization and oppression. Through Cusicanqui, the indigenous rights activist made ties with the FOL, having found allies among the anarchists against the white supremacist Bolivian elite, and helped to organize peasants' unions based on their traditional ayllu structures. Indigenous labor activist Toribio Miranda distrusted white leftist activists, who largely attempted to incorporate working class and indigenous peoples into political party structures, and instead built ties with the anarchists of the FOL.
Early activities The main focus of the FOL during the late 1920s was its fight for the eight-hour day. It united both artisans and wage laborers behind this goal; even some small business owners supported the movement, despite it being against their own self-interests, as they hoped to help end exploitation. In late 1928, Vertíz Blanco led a strike which forced the Bolivian authorities to grant workers the eight-hour day. The FOL also established spaces for self-education, knowledge sharing and socialising.
Women Workers' Federation Over time, the markets of La Paz had become a space for women workers to build solidarity with each other. Indigenous pollera women had first began involving themselves in protest and activism in the early 1900s, and during the late 1920s, began organizing women in the workforce into militant trade unions to demand full citizenship and equal rights. Anarchist ideology was appealing to them, due to its opposition to gender inequality and domestic violence. In April 1927, anarchist women established the General Women Workers' Union (; SFOV), which brought together women workers of various trades, particularly cooks and flower vendors, and affiliated itself with the FOL. As the SFOV grew, it was reorganized into the (; FOF), which remained affiliated with the FOL.
The FOF became the leading women's organization in La Paz, forming unions of women workers in the city's various markets. Members of the FOF rejected attempts by male anarchists to interfere in their autonomous organization, asserting that only women themselves could secure their own rights, educate themselves and their children, and ensure progress towards a "Fatherland worth living in". It organized childcare, cultural events, literacy education and library access for women, particularly from Aymara backgrounds. It agitated for women's rights, including the right to divorce, and equal rights for illegitimate children. It also protested against violence by the authorities against street vendors, who were often abused by police.