Abstract

Bolivia - the Facts

For the actual facts of the Catavi massacre of December 21, 1942, the labor movement is indebted to the courageous and outspoken report filed by Martin C. Kyne, vice-president of the United Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Employees of America, the C. I. O.'s representative on the recent commission to Bolivia. Kyne's separate report fills the gaping omissions in the official one, which skirted around the tin strike, though the strike was the actual reason for sending a commission to Bolivia at all. Workers in the rich Patino mines, averaging 70 cents a day and suffering from inflated food costs in the company stores, asked for a 100 per cent raise in wages last September. Management refused to reply, and the Ministry of Labor waited forty-five days before it even acknowledged receipt of the union's demands. The government lined up immediately with the mine owners.