Mine Worker’s Radio Stations - Bolivia

The experience started in the mid fifties, with one radio station located in the mining district of Catavi. In the next 15 years, other miner's unions took the initiative to do the same; they bought the equipment, trained young people from the miner's villages, and the workers themselves sustained the experience by giving a percentage of their salary to the radio stations. Some of the stations were very small, and some very powerful. Some had a theatre built next to them, so union meetings could take place and be transmitted through the radio. By the beginning of the 70's, there were 26 stations, all in mining district highlands of Bolivia.

Political Development, Rights.

During this time, miner's unions in Bolivia were very powerful and considered among the most important and politically advanced of Latin America. In times of peace and democracy, the role of radio stations was very important in connecting the community. In times of political upheaval the union radio stations would become the only trustworthy source of information. As the military took over journals , radio and tv stations in the capital and bigger cities, the only trustworthy information would come from the miner's radio stations. When the army penetrated the mining camps and attacked the stations, they were usually defended to the death by the union workers. As the importance of mining in Bolivia declined in the 80's, the unions were weakened and some of the radio stations disappeared along with the mining districts. "The Courage of the People", a film by Jorge Sanjines, reenacts the attack on one of the mining districts by the army in June 1967. "The Voice of the Mines" is a documentary film by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron and Eduardo Barrios about the radio stations made in 1983.