13.02.1997

Strike throws Ecuador government into crisis

Juan Ponce of Poder Obrero calls for workers’ independence in Ecuador

On February 5-6 a massive general strike occurred in Ecuador. The country was completely paralysed. Two million people, out of a population of 12 million, took to the streets. As a consequence, the Ecuadorian Congress voted on February 6 to remove President Abdala Bucaram from office and named Fabian Alarcon as interim president.

The crisis was far from over however, since Bucaram refused to step down and vice-president Rosalia Arteaga issued a proclamation naming herself president. Thus for two days Ecuador had three civilians claiming to be president.

In the last two decades Ecuador has experienced 20 general strikes. The latest one was convened by the Workers United Front (FUT), the Coordinadora de Movimientos Sociales and the Confederation of Indian Nations. All the opposition parties, the mayors of the three main Ecuadorian cities and several business and professional chambers supported the strike. Curiously, the previous four Ecuadorian presidents - themselves opposed by general strikes during their governments, backed February’s stoppage.

The demonstrations in Ecuador have escalated since early January because of opposition to price increases for electricity, phone and other basic services. The unions were also protesting against privatisation and the new currency convertibility plans. The bourgeois opposition tried to divert the movement and to transform it into a protest against the ‘concessions’ to Peru, the extreme corruption and the ‘madness’ of a president who likes to sing in pop concerts and lead a football club.

The neo-liberal right did not like this populist president who did not want to implement more radical privatisation. The union bureaucrats wanted to create an anti-Bucaram bloc between the right and the left. They organised a ‘Patriotic Front’ which demanded a “provisional government”.

Ecuador’s constitution is vague on who replaces a sitting president, although Congress’s power to remove a president from office is clear. By citing Bucaram’s “mental incapacity”, only a simple majority approval in the 82-seat Congress was required, avoiding a lengthy impeachment process.

Bucaram declared a state of siege and mobilisation in response to his removal by Congress. With that the state have the right to arrest anyone or to confiscate property. He also announced that all the latest price increases were to be annulled and wages increased by 25%. Nevertheless, he received no support from the people or the army.

Workers in Ecuador have to maintain their class independence and opposition against all the different bourgeois factions and presidents. The labour, Indian and poor people’s organisations need to create their own ‘parliament’. A national workers’ and popular assembly needs to be launched, based on delegates elected and recallable in rank and file assemblies.

Such bodies could herald a real dual power situation by creating their own self-defence militias. Instead of trying to build an anti-Bucaram ‘patriotic’ popular front, the workers’ and peasants’ assemblies need a national strike committee to lead the struggle in a more democratic and militant way.

The demand for a constituent assembly is on the agenda. However, the left have to distinguish themselves from the right, who also want constitutional changes with the aim of facilitating the privatisation process. A constituent assembly is no more than a more democratic bourgeois parliament. We are in favour of it because the proletariat needs to win the battle for consistent democracy.

However, our main task has to be to transform the strike and Indian committees into soviet bodies and to develop the self-defence groups into militias.

The workers and peasants’ organisations have to take power and establish a proletarian republic. The self-determination of the original nations and the solution of the boundary problems with Peru can only be achieved in a socialist federation of Latin America.

Recently the Latin American bourgeoisie has been trying to implement a neo-liberal model through stable and militarised democracies.

It is the first time that a general strike has brought down a newly popularly elected government.

The Latin American working class is recovering from heavy attacks and it could start to change the balance of forces in that hemisphere.