Ecuador: Workers rebel vs. capitalist crisis

Quito, Ecuador, October 9–Workers’ anger and frustration exploded in Ecuador, paralyzing the country from Quito, the capital city, to the Pacific coast, storming and occupying the parliment  building and sending President Lenin Moreno into hiding. These protests come after Moreno unveiled plans to impose austerity measures that threaten to plunge workers further into the abyss of poverty and capitalist exploitation. These massive protests across Ecuador demonstrate what the bosses fear most: workers, when organized and angry, have the power to bring the capitalist system to a screeching halt. However, absent communist politics and leadership, which Progressive Labor Party (PLP) strives to bring to these and all workers’ struggles around the world, workers will be trapped in a revolving door of dead-end reforms that bring with them more economic crises and swindles from liberal politicians.
Workers halt business as usual
The unpopular measure, a $4.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which many refer to as “el Paquetazo” or “Big Package,” includes a demand to end fuel subsidies. Gas prices have already soared to US$2.39 per liter from US$1.85, with diesel prices seeing a whopping 123 percent increase. The measures would also bring additional attacks on workers ranging from one days’ work without pay for all public employees, to staggering price increases for basic necessities such as food and clothing (Reuters 10/4).
The agreement sparked protests, which began with strikes from transportation workers. The protests spread like wildfire across the country, mobilizing thousands of indigenous groups and students and bringing business as usual to a standstill.
Workers violently clashed with cops, set tires and state property ablaze, staged work stoppages and suspended schools and municipal services. Workers are calling for a resumption of the subsidies and the end of the Moreno government. The police, whose job is to protect the bosses and their system, responded by attacking protestors, resulting in 477 arrests and one death (Telesur, 10/6).
Splits in Ecuador’s ruling class
The developments reflect the splits within Ecuador’s ruling class. When Rafael Correa, the previous president, came to power, he was able to pacify workers with limited reforms funded by oil revenue. Like the situation in Venezuela, when oil prices crashed in 2008, the illusions that the fake leftists like Correa and Chavez had built a workers’ paradise came crashing down – with help from U.S. foreign policy which sought to remove them. Unlike Maduro, who followed Chavez and moved to tie Venezuela’s economy closer to Chinese imperialists, Moreno’s response to the crisis has been to move closer to the U.S. This past May, he signed onto the Pacific Alliance, which Correa refused to join, locking arms with other faithful U.S. allies such as Colombia, Peru, and Mexico (Reuters 5/19). Meanwhile Maduro and Correa are calling for Moreno’s ouster.
Reject Ecuadorian Nationalism
Ultimately Ecuador’s ruling class is one of many pawns in the arena of inter-imperialist rivalry between U.S. and China, both of whom sought to buy allegiance from disparate sections of the Ecuadorean ruling class (and ruling classes throughout Latin America) through investments. Between 2005 and 2013, China accounted for 57 percent of all foreign investment in Ecuador (NYT, 7/15). As we have seen in neighboring Venezuela and in countries worldwide, choosing sides in the battle between rival capitalists, be they small-time local bosses or imperialist powers, is a deadly mistake for workers. Neither Moreno nor Correa, Maduro nor Guaidó (the U.S. puppet in Venezuela) represent a real, lasting solution for workers.
Turn reform into revolution
We salute these workers who bravely challenge the exploitation and oppression that capitalism has wrought upon them. Their militancy
and willingness to battle against the police and army is an inspiration to workers everywhere. Yet, these battles are for reforms—to return the country to a Correa-style social democracy. But we must realize that the shaky ground on which these reforms are built. When the economy crashes, as it always does under capitalism, the reforms vanish. We have seen it over and over again.
PLP seeks to take the fighting spirit so valiantly on display in Ecuador (and among auto workers in the U.S., and youth against climate change, and more), and combine it with communist politics and leadership. This is the key to the liberation of the workers of the world. Join us!