Date: Wed, 12 Feb 97 21:07:23    
Subject: M-G: General strike and crisis in Ecuador



ECUADOR: CONGRESS VOTES TO OUST PRESIDENT ABDALA BUCARAM


 On 5-6 February a massive general strike occurred in Ecuador. The
country was completely paralysed.  Around two million people, out of
the 12 million Ecuadorians, took the streets. As a consequence of it,
the Ecuadorian Congress voted on Feb. 6 to remove the President Abdala
Bucaram from office.  The president of Congress, Fabian Alarcon, was
named interim president of the country. The crisis was far from over,
however, since Bucaram was refusing to step down and Vice President
Rosalia Arteaga had issued a proclamation naming herself president. As
a result, Ecuador had at the same time and for more than two days the
unstable  situation of being led by three civilian presidents. In the
last two decades Ecuador experienced 20 general strikes. The recent
one was convened by the Workers United Front (FUT), the Coordinadora
de Movimientos Sociales and the Confederation of Indian Nations. All
the opposition, the mayors of the main three Ecuadorian cities and
several business and professional chambers supported the strike. In a
very curious act the last four Ecuadorian presidents - themselves
opposed by general strikes during their governments - backed the 5-6
February total stoppage.  The demonstrations in Ecuador have escalated
since early January because the population were against the increases
in electricity, phone and other basic services. The unions protested
against the privatisation and the new currency convertibility plans.
The bourgeois opposition tried to divert the movement and to transform
it in a protest against the "concessions" to Peru, the extreme
corruption and the  "madness" behaviour of a president who likes to
sing in pop concerts and led a football club. Bucaram was in Lima in
January as the first Ecuadorian president to travel to Peru on an
official visit.
 Ecuador and Peru were at war in 1941 and they had several military
 border 
clashes in the last 16 years -most recently in April 1995. Bucaram
said that he wanted to forbid the mistakes of both countries and to
achieve a final peaceful solution. This was put in question by the
opposition who said that Peru had taken a long piece of Ecuadorian
territory and that their 'fatherland has nothing to forgive' Peru for.
Bucaram's fall from grace in the short six months since he took office
has been described as a freefall as he has quickly alienated almost
the entire country. After campaigning on a populist platform, his
price hikes and other economic measures disillusioned the poor who had
backed him, while also angering business and civic leaders.
      The neo-liberal right didn't like a president who was very
populist and didn't 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. On February 6 Congress met in an emergency
session and voted 44-34 to remove Bucaram from office for "mental
incapacity."  Congress then voted Alarcon in as interim president and
called for new elections within a year. 
 Bucaram declared a 'state of siege and mobilisation'. With that the
state has the right to arrest anyone or to confiscate property. He
also announced that all the last prices increases were to be annulled
and wages increased 25%. Nevertheless, he didn't receive any support
>from the people or the army. The army declared that it will not
intervene in politics but it gave some backing to the vice-president.
A new deal was then arrived at. The congress accepted Alarcon as
president but only for a very short period of time until the
parliament has to decide on a new interim government which must then
call for general elections within a year. 	
 Workers in Ecuador have to maintain their class independence and
opposition against all the different bourgeois factions and
presidents. The labour, indian and poor peoples organisations need to
create their own "parliament". A national workers and popular assembly
needs to be launched and based in delegates elected and recallable in
rank and file assemblies. Such bodies should try to became a real dual
power with the possibility to have their own self-defence militias, to
unionise the troops and to control enterprises and urban and rural
areas. A limited general strike stopped a better fight. Instead of
trying to build an anti-Bucaram "patriotic" popular front, the workers
and peasants assemblies need a National Strike Committee to led 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 it from the right who also want
constitutional changes with the aim of helping 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
tasks have to be to transform the strike and Indian committees into
soviet-type 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
could only be achieved in a socialist federation of Latin America. 
 In the last years the Latin America bourgeoisie was trying to 
implement a neo-liberal model through stable and militarised
democracies. It is the first time that a general strike brought down a
newly popular elected government. The workers in other countries could
feel how powerful could be their actions. On Tuesday 11 the Colombian
state workers started an indefinite general strike. On March it is
probable that the Bolivian Workers Confederation (COB) will launch the
four indefinite general strike in four years. In Argentina there was a
series of national stoppages. The Latin American working class is
recovering from heavy attacks and it could start to change the balance
of forces in the entire hemisphere.   

 


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