The defeat of Bolivia's left is a warning for South Africa

It carries lessons for liberation movements when they don't 'renew', leaders refuse to step down and corruption goes unchecked

- Imraan Buccus

The loss of Bolivia's Movement for Socialism (MAS) in the election of 17 August was long anticipated. Its fall speaks to corruption, division and a failure to renew and it offers sharp lessons for South Africa.

The MAS's defeat was expected and is the culmination of years of division and drift. For those who admired the MAS and its achievements, the task now is to draw lessons, both for Bolivia and South Africa.

The MAS was not just another political party. It was an extraordinary experiment that combined Marxism with indigenous worldviews, uniting miners, campesinos, coca growers and left-wing intellectuals into a formidable force.

Álvaro García Linera, Bolivia's brilliant former vice-president, described the MAS's approach as a synthesis of Indianismo and Marxism, an ideological fusion that enabled the movement to speak to Bolivia's indigenous majority while mounting a powerful critique of capitalism. This intellectual depth, combined with the grassroots power of peasant federations and trade unions, gave the MAS its distinctive character.

The movement rose out of the ruins of neoliberalism in the 1980s and 1990s. Structural adjustment imposed by international financial institutions led to privatisation, unemployment, inequality and the enrichment of a small white elite. Indigenous communities and workers bore the brunt of this assault.

Out of this discontent came waves of protest, including the famous Cochabamba Water War in 2000, when communities resisted privatisation. It was in this context of mass mobilisation and resistance that the MAS formally took shape in 1997.