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Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 16:37:35 -0400
To: •••@••.•••
From: •••@••.••• (Jan Slakov)
Subject: rn: Rebellion against IMF in Ecuador!
Dear RN,
Here is important news we are unlikey to get via the mass
media. It's the first I have heard of this uprising, so I
will want to get more news in order to understand better
what it is all about.
In the meantime, I would like to quote to you a UNICEF
figure, which shows us how serious things are in what the
West calls the "Third World":
"In 1981, the net transfer of resources from rich to poor
worlds was over $40 billion. By 1985 the position had been
almost reversed." I am not sure what the figures are now,
but I am quite, quite sure that the net transfer would still
be in the bank/corporate/"First World"'s favour.
all the best, Jan
PS For those who would like more information, there is a
message in French and Spanish which I could forward to them.
********************************************************
From: •••@••.•••
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 19:11:59 GMT
To: •••@••.•••
Subject: (en) Equador -- Revolta contra FMI / against IMF
Cc: •••@••.•••, •••@••.•••, •••@••.•••,
•••@••.•••
From: "Nathan Newman" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: FW: Insurrection in Ecuador -- first news
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000
Doug, I received this, so I'm forwarding it. -- Nathan
========================================
Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2000 4:41 PM
Subject: Insurrection Against Neo-Liberalism in Ecuador
PGA Action at WTO Seattle - http://members.aol.com/pgacaravan
-- please spread widely --
Dear All,
I just received this fwd message coming from Ecuador saying
that there are currently mass protests going on against the
dramatic situation in a country that has suffered neoliberal
exploitation and that "the revolution is starting".
I was sceptic, so I picked up the phone and phoned an
organisation called "Accion Ecologica" whose phone number I
had just received recently. I had the chance to speak to
someone who is the representative of this organisation at
the alternative parliament who is currently debating a
strategy for the coming days. He said that the mobilisations
have started progressively in the last days already and that
several cities are already "taken". He said the large
mobilisation for Quito (the capital) is going to be for
Monday and Tuesday. He said at least 40.000 indigenas are
expected to come into the city, but the mobilisation involve
many sectors of society. He said also that international
observers are expected to come in the next days and that
they hope that from then on the news will be spread
internationaly. So far the state controlled media has been
promoting non stop lies about how wonderful the neoliberal
policies have been in the last years. Nobody believes it
anymore. As I asked him if this was a struggle for power,
for taking control of the governement, he said no, it's a
Poeples Power, there is a Poeples assembly who works in a
complicated system of representation [I didn't understand
everything in this short phone call].
Infrastructure for communication is being set up, there is a
press commission that has been created (comision de prensa)
by the Peoples Assembly. I asked him also if they were
afraid of repression and he said he hoped the international
support would be able to avoid it. We are likely to get more
information in the next days and clarification on what kind
of "revolution" this is. So stay tuned ! Most of the
information is likely to be in Spanish, so if there are
people willing to help doing spanish-english translations
(or spanish to any other language) please contact me:
•••@••.•••
and also
e7888@risc_usfq.edu.ec
Hasta la victoria !! Our resistance is as transnational as
capital !!
Luciano
The following is - a fwd letter sent by Spanish students
currently in Ecuador. This is a rough translation I did,
feel free to correct the English. - an pasted article from
August 99 which gives a good insight into the situation in
Ecuador
To everyone getting this information:
This is a text that was fwd by companher@s from Barcelona
which are currently in Ecuador for motives related to their
studies and are currently assisting to probably one of the
most encouraging news of the millennium. Please distribute
this message as wide as you can and organise yourself to
find ways of supporting peoples struggle in Ecuador.
REVOLUTION BEGINS IN ECUADOR !
Dear companher@s
Ecuador is very close to a national revolution - it is
currently necessary to do solidarity actions in support of
this peoples movement who aims to put an end to neoliberal
economic exploitation which has lead to the current crisis.
We are some students from UAB (university) in the country y
we see the urgent necessity to create a platform of
international support in order to prevent a indiscriminate
repression of this popular movement.
We ask you:
1.- to spread this information through as many ways as
possible
2.- that you send us contacts for the spreading of further
communiques to: e7888@risc_usfq.edu.ec
3.- That people take initiative to coordinate platforms at
continental and national level
4.- it is necessary to create a network that will reach mass
media and alternative media. It is possible that United
States may react with repression in case this popular
movement succeeds in his attempt to overthrow the power
5.- We are currently waiting for a document with the
strategy that is discussed at the Parlament of Ecuatorian
People (a rebel parlament), which will be a document of
international strategy addressed to all movements of the
world, NGOs etc. We ask you to create the necessary
conditions for such a network to function.
General Situation in the Country
The economic, social and political crisis that Ecuador has
been going through in the last years has been worsening
dramatically in the last months.
As a matter of fact since Jamil Mahuad came into power, the
sucre (national currency) has only been losing acquisition
power compared to the dollar: the price of the dollar has
doubled since 1999 (is it 25000 sucres for a dollar now) For
the minority of people, those who have acquisition power and
a bank account, this means that their bank accounts have
been frozen. They cannot withdraw money from their accounts
for the banks not to collapse.
And for the majority of people who live in misery, this
means that basic good of consumption have become very
expensive. Besides that the social conditions have never
been so restricted, there is basicaly no kind of social
service. As a response to this situation the government of
president Mahuad opted for a dollarisation of the economy.
Peoples reaction is lead by the movement of the indigenous
people and several unions [and students - editor] that want
a total change in the structure of the State. They want to
get rid of the three powers of the State and put a Peoples
Governement in place (Gobierno Popular).
There has been a call to popular insurrecion and a national
strike which will start on the 15th January with a take over
of Quito (the capital). Meetings in the Parliament of
Ecuadorian Peoples have been going on for three days.
This alternative parliament includes representatives of many
(not all) social movements of the country (indigenous
movement, church, unions, etc.) and is currently defining a
new policy for the country in all fields.
They pretend to reinitiate national production, cancelling
the external debt and stop the neoliberal exploitation of
the resources, etc..
end of message
The following website willbe available for more information
http://conjuntos.es.fortunecity.com/social/6
**********************
04-AUG-1999
Four Hundred Arrested, Thirteen Shot: IMF and Ecuadorian
government provoke violent reaction
Four months after a crisis provoked by an IMF inspired
structural adjustment plan, the country is again in the
grips of the multi-lateral organisation. This time the
social convulsions, which were provoked by a another rise in
fuel prices, have been confronted in repressive fashion.
Five more people were shot yesterday as they tried to march
from Guallabamba, a small town 40 kilometres north of Quito,
to the capital to protest the impacts of the economic
measures introduced during the past six months. In
Latacunga, a town of about 500,000 one hour to the south of
the capital, indigenous groups which had been closing roads,
charged a military vehicle full of troops on Saturday night.
The vehicle turned tail and fled. On Sunday the native
people were not so lucky, eight were shot as they confronted
the military attempting to keep the road open. One later
died. The protests and the indigenous uprising have been
brought about by the severity of the economic measures taken
to supposedly pull Ecuador out of its economic plight. The
now discredited IMF recipe of provoking inflation and
removing subsidies in order to balance the budget has been
applied without relief since the effects of the global
economic crisis hit Latin America late last year. The dollar
has risen by almost 100% against the local currency, the
Sucre, since beginning of the year, food costs have risen by
about 70%, gas, electricity, gasoline, diesel, and water
costs have all risen substantially, and all this before the
latest round of transport fuel cost rises, provoked by
indexation to the dollar. In the meantime the basic salary
(a form of minimum wage) has been raised by an insulting
30%.
The taxi drivers hit back first, blocking roads and
demanding that fuel prices be reduced to their pre- June
levels and frozen for two years. They blocked roads and
brought the cities to a standstill. Indigenous groups
throughout the central mountain region have joined them in
an uprising which has blocked roads, occupied state
electricity offices and taken control of communications
towers. Indigenous areas are amongst the poorest in the
country and the native population, which has been badly
affected by the privatisation and globalisation agenda, is
calling their actions a fight for life, and against hunger.
Meanwhile, teachers and medical workers who have not been
paid in months have also joined the strike, along with
banana workers, bus and transport workers and even informal
sellers. Whole neighbourhoods have taken over roads in an
attempt to convince the government to change course. And in
the latest of a series of actions, the offices of the
Catholic Church, criticised as pro-government, have been
occupied by a number of social groups intent on emphasising
their demands that the neoliberal policies being applied to
the country be changed. Ironically, the police, charged with
repressing the demonstrations, also find themselves unpaid
and without funds to ward off their own creditors.
Part of the government's answer has been to declare a
general state of emergency, endowing the President with
extraordinary powers to control the state budget, and to
order military intervention wherever and whenever he
pleases. Congress, in which the government does not have the
majority, is outspokenly opposed and will probably fight the
measure, although it should be pointed out that the majority
of members are also neo-liberals (or at best the more
apologetic Blair style third wayers) and simply jockeying
for power. The other part of the strategy has been to
create diversionary tactics. Jailing a corrupt banker and
paying the people whose savings were locked up in the now
officially bankrupt bank (one of Ecuador's largest). On the
other hand an overwhelming silence has surrounded the
accusation that the majority of high government officials
took their money out of the country (apparently some $200
million) a little while before all bank accounts were frozen
in March of this year.
Whether these officials, and other corrupt bankers, will
ever be investigated and brought to trial is a major
question. But perhaps more important in the long run, both
for Ecuador and other countries in the region, is whether it
will be possible to find a way out of the neoliberal export
lead growth trap in which Ecuador finds itself, given that
this model favours the governing elite which controls almost
all political parties. The fact that it needs to is not in
question. The country has only gone backwards in economic
terms since the debt crisis of the early eighties, and finds
itself porting increasing amounts of primary material, only
to watch prices fall or at best fluctuate wildly on markets
over which it has no control. The cost in terms of
concentration of land, power and wealth is huge. The cost in
terms of the environmental and social impacts related to
finding and pumping more oil, growing more flowers, farming
more shrimp, and growing more bananas are devastating a
country which is defined by its cultural and natural
diversity. (spanish)
<snip>
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