Roots of Resistance to Urban Water Privatization in Bolivia: The “New Working Class,†the Crisis of Neoliberalism, and Public Services1

This paper analyzes the roots of resistance to the privatization of public services in the context of the changes to class formation in Bolivia. Based upon two case studies of urban water privatization, it seeks to explain why the social coalitions that have emerged to protest the privatization of public water services in Bolivia have been led by territorially-based organizations composed of rural-urban and multiclass alliances rather than public-sector unions. It argues that protest against the privatization of water utilities in Bolivia must be understood within the context of neoliberal economic restructuring and the emergence of what has been termed the “new working class,†which is now primarily urban and engaged in informal forms of work.