Too often it seems these days that those who spend time trying to challenge the power of corporations and the financial institutions that stump for them rarely draw attention to the insurgent efforts around the global that have achieved small victories. In reading Cochabamba, not only did I enjoy reading the story of how Bolivian citizens kicked out a corporate demon like Bechtel, I discovered that there was a years in the making popular movement.

In this book, Bolivian activist Oscar Olivera tells the story of how after years of top down neo-liberal economic policies had devastated the economy people began to organize new forms of civil society. In many ways the massive demonstrations that sent Bechtel packing from were just the most visible manifestation of how many Bolivians have organized their brand of resistance. Long before the State granted Bechtel the rights to privatize water, Bolivians were responding to the oppressive consequences of neo-liberal economics.

The result of grassroots organizing has led to what are known as the Constituent Assemblies (CA). The CA is a forum of governance that is more democratic than many of the previous popular movement institutions throughout Bolivia. In some ways the CA is similar to what were called the Aguas Calientes in Chiapas by the Zapatistas, and are now known as the Carracoles. The similarity resides in the fact that they do not seek to take over the government, rather to "create space where people can decide their own future." The CA has come about in part, due to the lack of authentic representation or democracy in other political organizations, particularly political parties. We would do well in the US to heed these words "The Constituent Assembly is a form of recovering and exercising political sovereignty, that is, of gaining the capacity to make and to execute public policy. This capacity is currently mortgaged to the system of political parties."

Those involved in developing the CA have commented that the neo-liberal policies have actually had a great deal to do with creating this alternative system of organizing and resistance. This according to Olivera is crucial, since in the end popular resistance can not last if it is just reacting to narrow campaigns like that which responded to Bechtel.

More importantly, this resistance must lead to other forms of social organizing. This book not only is a powerful anti-corporate globalization testimony, it is a lesson for where the rest of us might invest our energy in future organizing.