Echoes of the Water War

Oscar Olivera
Prologue by Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar
With Contributions by Raul Zibechi, Massimiliano Tomba, Nelly Perez, Marcela Olivera, Stefano Archidiacono, and Alexander Dwinell

Ecology / Latin America / Social Movements

Lessons from one of the greatest people’s victories against corporate neoliberal capture.

Water is life! From the frontlines of one of the greatest popular rebellions against the privatization of natural resources comes the triumphant grassroots struggle that transformed ordinary people into water warriors. The “water wars” in Cochabamba, Bolivia between December 1999 and April 2000 were a series of protracted struggles for direct democracy and defense of the commons, which won popular control of water supply and defied all odds by driving out the transnational corporation that had stolen their water in the first place.

Oscar Olivera, a trade union machinist who helped shape and lead a movement that brought thousands of  people to the streets, powerfully conveys the perspective of a committed participant in a victorious and inspirational rebellion. Alongside Olivera’s hard-won political savvy, Echoes of the Water War presents leading voices on Latin American movements, including Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, Massimiliano Tomba, Raul Zibechi, Marcela Olivera, Stefano Archidiacono, and Alexander Dwinell. Together they reflect on major themes that emerged from the battle over water: the fear and isolation that Cochabambans faced with a spirit of solidarity and mutual aid; the challenges of democratically administering the city’s water supply; the impact of the water wars on subsequent resistance, and its legacies twenty-five years later.

Echoes of the Water War brings us to the heart of a movement, chronicling how the people organized an opposition and the dramatic struggles that eventually defeated the privatizers. Twenty-five years later, Cochabamba teaches us that the real issue is not the capture of state power, but the creation of new commons from the grassroots up and with it, the capacity to govern ourselves.