Making Waves: Minors' Radio Stations
Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change
MINERS' RADIO STATIONS
1949 Bolivia
BASIC FACTS
TITLE: Radios Mineras
COUNTRY: Bolivia
FOCUS: Community organisation, solidarity
PLACE: Mining districts of Potosí and Oruro
BENEFICIARIES: Miners, Bolivian society-at-large
PARTNERS: Network of 26 community-based stations
FUNDING: Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia
MEDIA: Radio
Back to July 1980 General Luis García Meza's military coup succeeded two weeks earlier; people were killed or imprisoned, many others flew to exile. The army gained absolute control over the cities. Their first target was the media: all radio stations, television channels and newspapers were shut down. Some of them reopened only under military censorship. Wait a minute: not all radio stations. The network of nearly twenty stations located at the mining sites in Potosí and Oruro, in the highlands of Bolivia, continued their transmission under enormous pressure. People in Bolivia turned their dials to La Voz del Minero Radio Animas or Radio Pío XII to learn about what was really happening in the country since the coup. Even foreign correspondents in neighbouring countries would search for these radio stations to write their reports. But the army knew it, and day by day soldiers kept approaching the mining settlements, breaking the resistance of miners that tried to defend the stations with their own lives.
One of the latest radio stations to fall under military control was Radio Animas. Until the very last moment they transmitted in chain with Radio Pío XII and Radio Nacional de Huanuni. The following is an excerpt of their last dramatic live transmission: The army is now about five kilometres from Siete Suyos and very near from Santa Ana, so we are preparing to defend ourselves We know about 31 people detained, who have been sent to Tupiza. This is Radio Animas for all the south of the country. We are living crucial moments, we are all mobilised, even our women have contributed preparing the defense. Compañeros, we will hold until the last consequences, because that is our mission....
That was near the end. Minutes after, gunshots could be heard through Radio Animas. The last thing the announcer could send over the airwaves was a message to the other stations to take the relay and continue the transmissions of the "cadena minera" (miners' chain, the network of stations linked in times of crisis). Several did continue, indeed, until the army shut down the last one, destroying the equipment, and killing those that defended their right to communicate.
La Voz del Minero Radio Pío XII Radio Vanguardia de Colquiri Radio Animas Radio 21 de Diciembre Radio Nacional de Huanuni... these were some of the most important radio stations created, funded and managed by Bolivian mining workers. It all started in 1949, with one radio station in the mining district of Catavi. During the next 15 years, other districts followed: they bought the equipment, they trained young people from their villages, and the workers themselves funded the experience by giving a percentage of their salary to sustain their radio stations.
Most of the radio stations started small and precariously, only equipped by very simple means. A few of them managed to get foreign support and evolved into more sophisticated radio stations, with better equipment and installations. A few, even built a theatre next to the premises, so union meetings would take place and be transmitted live through the radio. Radio Vanguardia, for example, had a beautiful theatre decorated with large murals narrating the story of the Colquiri mining centre. One particular scene on the mural depicts the attack by Bolivian Air Force planes in 1967, when the country was under military rule.
In the early 1970s, 26 radio stations were in operation, all of them in the mining districts of the highlands of Bolivia. At that time the miners' unions in Bolivia were still very powerful and considered among the most important and politically advanced in Latin America.
In times of peace and democracy not very often miners' radio stations were integrated into the daily life of the community. They became the closest and most effective replacement for telephone and postal services.
People would get their mail through the stations and post messages of all kinds, which were read several times during the day: calls for a meeting of women from the Comité de Amas de Casa (Housewives Committee); messages from the union leaders about their negotiations with the government in the capital; messages of love among youngsters; announcing a new play by Nuevos Horizontes drama group (often staged on the platform of a big truck, with workers illuminating the scene with their own lamps); announcements of sport activities, burials, births and festivities.
In times of political upheaval the union radio stations would become the only trustworthy source of information. As the military captured newspapers, radio and TV stations in the capital and other cities, the only information available would come from the miner's radio stations. All of them would join the cadena minera until the army would penetrate the mining camps and assault the stations, which were usually defended to the death by the workers. A film by Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sanjinés, The Courage of the People, re-enacts the attack on the mining district of Siglo XX by the army in June 1967.
In times of political and social crisis the miners' radio stations would link to air reports on the political situation; they would also link for live transmissions when an important sporting or cultural event took place in the mining district. Other than that, each station had full independence from the next.
Certainly, miners' radio stations were important because miners were already important. But also, Bolivian miners were more influential than ever because during several decades they had powerful means to communicate their ideas. As the importance of mining in Bolivia declined in the 1980s, the unions were weakened and some of the radio stations disappeared along with the mining districts.
Even before Bolivia was a Republic, mining had a huge importance. When the Spaniard conquerors discovered silver in Potosí, they never thought there was so much of it under the cone of the silver mountain. Bolivia's exports were traditionally based on mining, first silver and later tin, until its economy changed during the last three decades of the 20th century.
During three centuries they took the silver to Spain, until the mountain lost its original shape and gradually collapsed. It is said that six million Aymara and Quechua Indians, and a high number of African slaves, died in the mines during that period. Potosí was by that time one of the dream cities of the world. In 1625 the city had a larger population than London or Paris, and more churches than any other city in America. Though isolated in the highlands at 4,200 metres of altitude, it was easy to find in Potosí the most luxurious items imported from Europe.
Since the independence of Bolivia in 1825 until the mid-70s, mining continued to be the principal income generating activity of Bolivia. Silver became less important, but the country became the 2nd largest producer of tin. In the mid-50s minerals amounted to more than 70 percent of total exports.
The few thousands of miners working in the twenty main mining centres were largely responsible for sustaining the economy of the country and its 5 million people. No government could afford to ignore their political opinions, moreover since the miners' unions were among the most democratic and more politically advanced in Latin America.
Radio stations played an important role to strengthen the social power of the miners' unions and to achieve unity. All unions were affiliated with the Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros deBolivia (FSTMB), which during four decades (1946 to 1986) had been the vanguard organisation of the powerful Central Obrera Boliviana (COB). It is not by mere coincidence those miners' unions and radio stations would be sharing premises in most mining districts, and that the Secretary of Culture of the union would generally be the director of the radio station.
The impact of miners' radio stations on social change is also important in terms of building cultural identity among miners' and nearby peasant communities. On a daily basis, the radio stations were permanently open to participation. Visits to the stations were very frequent, whenever people needed to express themselves on any issue affecting their lives.
The main innovations of the miners' radio stations concern community participation. As simple as it looks when we describe it,it was as revolutionary in the 1950s, as it is today: clearly, very few participatory communication experiences have reached the point of total ownership of media in terms of technology, management, contents and service to the community.
One of the most interesting aspects of social change is capacity building. The miners' radio stations have trained several generations of journalists. Training was done locally most of the time, in partnership with other organisations. Many local journalists and announcers that were trained to work at the miners' stations later became renowned broadcasters when they migrated to the cities.
Miners' radio stations formed the principles of participatory communication even before the term existed. At all stages of their development they were independent, self-sustained, self-managed and faithfully served the interests of their communities and the interests of the Bolivian society-at-large. In terms of ownership they symbolise the most advanced example of participatory media. They were planned and conceived by the miners, the equipment and infrastructure funded by the workers themselves, they were managed and technically run by the miners who learned how to do it, and the programming was created and produced locally.
There are not many examples in the world where media for democracy has played such an important role simultaneously at a local and national level. There are fewer examples of communication experiences totally under control of the community. If that were not the case, it wouldn't have been possible for the miners' radio stations to have such a political and social influence in Bolivia.
Although radio stations were driven by the ideology of the union, this was not an obstacle for democratic participation, because the union responded to the will of the workers. Traditionally, unions elected leaders from the various political parties and encouraged ideological alliances, which reflected in the radio stations programmes.
The real challenge for the radio stations was political repression, the same as affected the miners' community as a whole. Some of the stations were destroyed by the army six or seven times in their lifetime. A few chose to preserve the scars of resistance on the outside walls of their buildings: the holes of gunshots. New equipment was bought once and again because miners, as poor as they are, would give one day's salary for their station.
On a more technical note, radio stations suffered from scarcity of materials. Equipment was very basic though adequate for the job, but because of the scarcity of funds to pay the salaries of producers, not much was done content wise in terms of high quality production of educational programmes. Technicians were generally hired locally and were capable of repairing the equipment with few instruments and lots of creativity.
What really drove miners' radio stations off the spectrum in the 1980's was the abrupt change of the economy. Mining was no longer important in terms of exports, and the cost of producing tin was higher than the international price. As the government shut the state-owned mines, miners migrated to the cities leaving behind phantom villages. Miners' unions got weaker and less influential. Only a few radio stations survived towards the new the century.
Las Radios Mineras de Bolivia by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron and Lupe Cajías CIMCA, La Paz,1989.
The Voice of the Mines (film)directed by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron and Eduardo Barrios. UNESCO,1984.
Short essays: Las Voces del Coraje: Radios Mineras de Bolivia by F. Lozada and G. Kúncar (1984).In English: The Bolivian Miners' Radio Stations by Alan O'Connor (Ohio State University).
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