| Equador, Quito, Diverse tactics of people struggle Date Fri, 24 Aug 2001 A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E http://www.ainfos.ca/ >From IMC Weekly Print http://print.indymedia.org/ - Ecuadorian general strike against repression by Global IMC On August 8 and 9, Ecuadorians converged on key cities, the capital Quito, the port of Guayaquil, and Esmeraldas in the west, using diverse tactics such as blockading roads and marching in front of government buildings, in order to voice their opposition to Noboa regime policies. Activists expressed opposition to the government's: IMF-backed structural adjustment policies; bailout of the corrupt banking sector; privatization of the electricity sector; "restructuring" of the social security system; building of a new oil pipeline despite the opposition of local communities and environmentalists; impoverishment of the population; cooperation with the US-backed "Plan Colombia"; dollarisation of the Ecuadorian economy; neglect of native peoples; and, the US military presence in Manta. The mass-mobilization followed weeks of civil disobedience actions, protest marches, and work stoppages across this small Andean country of 13-million people during which doctors, teachers, farmers, natives, environmentalists, leftists, labour unions, students, women, the retired, the poor and the oppressed sectors of the country marched to press their demands against the government. On July 28, as police attempted to disperse a doctor's march, security forces fired tear-gas near a hospital maternity ward which resulted in the deaths of 2 infants. In February, four unarmed native protesters were gunned down while staging a roadblock during a nation-wide mobilization aimed at bringing down prices for fuel and transportation. Ecuadorians will continue their opposition with a National People's Assembly of Ecuador on August 18, 2001 in Quito. Protecting the rich from justice eyewitness account and editorial by Kole for IMC-Global (GUAYAQUIL) - While the specter of army and "security" forces in the streets of a Latin America city like Ecuador's Guayaquil might seem cliche, the use of armed guards to protect downtown businesses is another matter. What was most shocking were the smartly dressed men in Burger King, KFC, and Kodak uniforms standing in front of these symbols of global corporate greed, with their company logos firmly embedded on their caps and guns strapped to their waists. Yes, this is the Wild West of Capitalism in the 21st century, as banks and corporations throughout the global south find it necessary to "defend" themselves from the "unwashed masses" by armed force. While poor barrios lack the basic necessities of life, while 70% of Ecuadorians live in abject poverty, the government is spending money (ie, allocating resources) according to the dictates of the IMF and the US government. As a result, government funds are channeled into salvaging a corrupt banking sector and towards beefing up the country's security forces. In a society as polarized as Ecuador's, it is not difficult to recognize the classic guns-and-butter trade-off decisions of the Noboa government, services vs resources, in favor of protecting profit and extraction of resources over providing access to basic services. How many tankers of fresh water could be bought for the price of that one machine gun being wielded by the gray-camouflage-clad Special Operations Group (Grupo de Operaciones Especiales, GOE) officer guarding the Central Bank? How many low cost houses could be built for the one armored car used to put down the peaceful demonstration in front of the provincial government building of Guayas? Of course, the rich and powerful can never spend enough money suppressing the legitimate grievances of the poor and oppressed, to protect their own interests. To this end the armed guards in front of Burger King and KFC in Guayaquil are only a small symbol of the extent to which the neoliberal system will impose on the rest of the globe its politics of starvation in the pursuit of profit. But then again, if the money spent by the neoliberal elite on armed guards were instead redirected towards education, social programs, health care, and the strengthening of genuine people's organizations, there would probably be no more Burger Kings to defend! Organizing the barrios: A model for the developing world by Kole, Global IMC (GUAYAQUIL) - In major cities across Ecuador, such as Guayaquil, Esmereldas and Quito, the urban poor are often self-organized in barrio committees to better press their demands for greater rights. The problem of urban poverty throughout the global South has been growing ever since uneven development strategies and the implementation of Green Revolution technologies displaced many farmers in the 1960s and 1970s. The problem is further exacerbated by growing disparities in development between countries. For instance, in Ecuador, Guayaquil has quickly become the country's largest city as a result of its growth as a major port and financial center in the country's increasingly globalized economy. The results have been predictable: shanty-towns known as suburbios, or barrios, have rapidly grown around the outskirts of Ecuador's biggest city. Travelling with a CUBE activist, referred to here as G, I had the opportunity of visiting two Guayaquil barrios, Guasmo and Isla de la Trinidad. CUBE is a volunteer collective of barrio organizations organized by local peoples to press for greater rights. What I witnessed in Guasmo and Isla de la Trinidad can only be described as first rate examples of grassroots democracy in action. In both barrios, meetings were convened by the president of the barrio committee to discuss the day's events, people's needs, and how to go about meeting them. In Isla de la Trinidad, the committee also discussed the blockade they had organized to protest government policies, and how they would continue pressing the district prefect for access to potable water. At both meetings G, the CUBE activist who served as my guide, gave impassioned speeches on the importance of maintaining unity and drawing links between government corruption and the people's poverty. Not only was I witnessing an incredible example of self-organizing to better defend rights, I was also witnessing an incredible example of the activism of empowered women. In both barrios women were presidents of their respective committees, and the overwhelming majority of committee members at the meetings were women. The sad reality is that barrio women bear the hardest burden of Ecuador's impoverishment. In Guasmo, half the women belonging to the barrio committee were single mothers presiding over small shacks housing up to 17 children. The needs of these organizations are huge. In Isla de la Trinidad, the biggest problem is lack of potable water. The poor are forced to BUY their water from private companies at 57 cents a tanker, which is a prohibitively high price for families not ¨fortunate" enough to work on the docks at the nearby port, as informals working in the gray economy, or as maids for relatively better-off families. Access to schooling and health care facilities is deplorable, and the rates of infant mortality and illiteracy are the highest in the region. In Guasmo, I was told that there isn't a single thing that the barrio doesn't need: windows, roofs, and doors were missing from most houses. These facts are made even worse when one considers that in winter, rising water levels flood the barrio and spread unsanitary conditions. Even houses built by the government-funded MINDUVI project were more often than not incomplete. As the primary vehicle for channeling foreign aid to the poor, MINDUVI consumes considerable resources, yet only about 30% of this organization's funds actually make their way to benefiting Ecuador's poorest. The rest is appropriated by the Ministry of Social Wellbeing and its functionaries. A logical strategy for foreign governments would be to directly fund the barrio committees, but this would mean supporting groups that insist on actively promoting a cooperative and anti-establishmentarian mode of living, and that are far more loyal to radical anti-poverty groups like CUBE than to the government. Ecuador silences dissent By Kole, Global IMC Across Ecuador, a new government campaign has left its mark on the walls and hallways of government public offices. Posters for the new "The Law is the Law" campaign are popping up everywhere. This is essentially designed to place limitations on dissent, and to punish activists for various transgressions of "public order". For example the staging of road blockades can land a person in jail for three years, while the organization of land occupations (popular in rural areas to protest the plight of poor farmers) can result in six years of imprisonment. The posters list six offenses such as road blockades, land seizures, unauthorized protests, congregating in large groups, and other standard practices of dissent and democratic citizenship rights, which risk disproportionately large prison sentences. In a recent example, government security forces raided the university in Guayaquil after students clashed with police, entering classrooms and lecture halls to round up activists. In other parts of the country these powers were used to detain activists who had blockaded roads with trees and burning tires, a technique used here to disperse tear-gas. This Orwellian twist in the drama of the Ecuadorian people only indicates the true extent to which the government is desperate to crush broad-based opposition to its neoliberal policies. The fact that the OAS, or the Democratic Charter of the FTAA haven't been activated to condemn these decidedly anti-democratic practices is further proof of the hypocritical nature of these pan-American institutions. Ecuador Teachers Fight Privatization of Education By Kole, Global IMC Teachers of the Unión Nacional de Educadores (UNE) assembled in Guayaquil last week with national President Aracelly Moreno. The assembly called for coordinated actions of teachers throughout the country to work together with other popular sectors to stop the spate of privatizations in the country and the servile attitude of the government towards the dictates of the International Monetary Fund. In an impassioned speech to UNE activists, Ms. Moreno called on grassroots membership to prevent privatization of the last non-privatized education system in the whole of South America. Ecuador, she said, is the last bastion of accessible education in South America, and the Law Decree 200 that was fought for by teachers should be defended from neoliberal reforms at all costs. The assembly voted to extend the strike for an indefinite period, and to work more closely with other sectors - especially parents with whom the UNE is set to hold a national assembly for August 30 - in order to strengthen support for the UNE´s demands: 1) a halt to the government's plans to privatize education, 2) a salary and income increase for teachers so that they can meet the estimated cost of an average basket of goods, and 3) for the maintenance and improvement of access to education. Government response to these demands thus far has been to stone-wall UNE and to call instead for further dialogue. The teachers, for their part, have responded that they do not trust dialogue with the government, pointing to other groups who decided to talk to the government but where forced to return to the streets because they got nothing from those talks. The Assembly also called on UNE members to congregate on August 11 in Guayaquil at the grave of Rosita Perez, a teacher who was assassinated on August 11, 1973, by state security forces during similar anti-government protests by the teachers' union. "Her memory should serve as a reminder as to how far we are willing to go to secure free, public and accessible education for the children of Ecuador," concluded Ernesto Castillo, regional president of UNE. UNE President Moreno was arrested and imprisoned last year in a violent police raid on organization offices. - end | |
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