Rishi Sunak’s scandalous decision to go ahead with the exploitation of the Rosebank oil and gas field, alongside Keir Starmer’s cringe-worthy non-response – ‘yes, we’re opposed but no, we won’t do anything about it’ – has left the Scottish government and the SNP with an open goal. Unfortunately, Humza Yousaf and his Net Zero and Just Transition minister, Mairi McAllan, are being so careful not to blast the ball over the bar, they seem reluctant to kick it at all.

The desire seems to be there, sort of. After weeks of edging himself off the fence on the issue, the First Minister did say this was the wrong decision. Mairi McAllan said the same. The Scottish government’s Energy Secretary, Neil Gray, said, rather tamely, that the SNP administration was “disappointed” while pointing out, correctly, that Rosebank would not contribute to ‘energy security’, as most of the oil produced would be sold abroad. In fact, Equinor, the Norwegian state oil company that has been given the go-ahead to exploit Rosebank, was more forceful in its dismissal of the bogus argument about energy security used by the Tory government in London and the oil lobby in Scotland. It said if the UK wanted any of the oil it plans to extract from Rosebank, it would have to buy it on the open world market.

The sound of opposition from SNP ministers is a lot weaker than that coming from Caroline Lucas, still the only Green MP in Westminster, who called it “morally obscene” and “a climate crime”, or from the Scottish Green Party, the SNP’s partner in the Scottish government, whose spokesman, Mark Ruskell, called it an “utter catastrophe” that showed “total contempt for our environment and future generations”.

The day after the announcement, Mairi McAllan told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland that the Scottish government had had “long-standing concerns” about Rosebank and had been “calling for a very strict climate compatibility test, an evidence-led test, to be applied”. When quizzed on what evidence was needed, she said there were a series of things that needed to be evaluated: firstly, whether it was in line with both Scotland and the UK’s climate commitments, including to the Paris Agreement and its goal of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius; but also to things like energy security and the rights of workers in the northeast of Scotland.

We may agree these are vital concerns (although what exactly was meant by energy security could be controversial). However, insisting on them now seems pointless, unless it is just a rhetorical device to avoid saying clearly that no oil or gas should be extracted from Rosebank, or any other new field in the North Sea or elsewhere. We already know because we have been told, endlessly, by the scientists of the UN’s IPCC, by the International Energy Agency, and by Antonio Guterres himself, not to mention the climate justice movement across the world and thousands of representatives and experts from the Global South, that staying within the 1.5 limit is simply incompatible with any new oil or coal extraction, and that we also have to phase out, rapidly, the wells and mines that are currently operating.

Most recently and conclusively, we have also been told by the very oil company responsible (as we mentioned before) that Rosebank and any other new North Sea fossil fuel production will contribute more or less zero to any kind of energy security. And although there are many, justified fears among workers in the northeast, oil workers themselves have told researchers that they want to be involved in a just transition away from fossil fuels. Some of them have begun to push for that themselves and to design what it might look like, through the important Our Power campaign.

The SNP government’s problem is that it feels unable, or unwilling, to confront the oil lobbies or its right wing. It’s unclear if the suspension of the right-wing, anti-Green, anti-woke MSP, Fergus Ewing, might signal a small shift in this respect. But the roots of such reluctance run deeper. They flow from the party’s history and its character – as a nationalist party caught between its genuine, social democratic desire to build a fairer, more decent country, that seeks to combat poverty and exclusion at home and deal decently with migrants, the Global South and the planet, and its refusal to challenge or even query the iron laws of the market economy. The latter is cemented by its yearning to become a junior outpost of the supposedly progressive, European capitalist class.

This has been accentuated since the bruising leadership campaign at the beginning of the year, when Kate Forbes’ explicitly right-wing, business-first, climate-light campaign came within a whisper of beating Humza Yousaf as bearer of the legacy of former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.

The police investigation into the party’s accounts a few weeks later, with the formal questioning of Sturgeon’s husband and then herself, drove the process further. Whatever the reality, if any, behind the case, it was certainly used to try to discredit the SNP as a whole and to push the new Yousaf administration to the right.

Ironically, the central target of that campaign, Nicola Sturgeon herself, has come out more strongly against the Rosebank go-ahead than her proteges. She tweeted her agreement with Caroline Lucas calling the approval an act of environmental vandalism, and saying risks slowing the green transition that oil and gas workers need to happen at pace.

The fact is that a sizeable majority of people in Scotland want their government to take urgent action to combat climate change. And despite its constrained powers under devolution, there is a lot it can do too. Taking a clear, unequivocal stand against Rosebank and any other new fossil fuel projects in the North Sea would be a start. It would be one way of marking a clear difference with the pusillanimous position of Starmer’s Labour leadership and might even help win the crucial Rutherglen election.

More strategically, that stance against any new oil and gas needs to be clearly stated in the Scottish government’s long-overdue response to the public consultation on its seriously inadequate Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, and built into its new Climate Change Plan, due to be published in November.

It should look at how it can use its existing powers – in areas like planning, transport, and health – to wage a guerrilla campaign against the implementation of new fossil fuel extraction.

And it could put in serious doubt the long-term viability of investments like those of Equinor, if it promised that any government of an independent Scotland would make a priority of nationalising and closing down Rosebank and any other new fields, without compensation.

Such bold action may seem unlikely, unless there is some serious pressure pushing in this direction.

We could all take courage from the historic success of the Yes to Yasuni campaign in Ecuador, led by environmentalists and the powerful Indigenous movement, which persuaded nearly 60% of the population to vote in August in favour of mandating their government to leave the oil in the soil beneath the mega-diverse Amazonian rainforest.

Iain Bruce

28 September, 2023

Photo: Steve Eason

 

 

 

On 20 August, at the same time they elect a new president and a new National Assembly, Ecuadoreans will be voting in one of the most important environmental referendums of modern times. They are being asked if the government should leave the oil beneath the Yasuní national park in the ground, indefinitely.

As Iain Bruce reports, this was one of the key themes of a recent visit by Leonidas Iza, Ecuador’s main Indigenous leader, to Europe to launch the English edition of his book, Uprising: the October Rebellion in Ecuador.

Winning support

In a week of meetings and events in Madrid, Brussels, Paris, London, Oxford, Glasgow and Grangemouth, Leonidas Iza and his co-authors, Andres Tapia and Andres Madrid, won support from MEPs, British MPs, trade unionists, peasants, climate justice activists, academics, migrants and many others, for a Yes vote in Ecuador’s August referendum.

Leonidas Iza and fellow authors meet with Scottish trade unionists including STUC Deputy General Secretary Dave Moxham and Unison Scotland Depute Convenor Stephen Smellie in Glasgow during the recent tour to promote “Uprising: the October Rebellion in Ecuador”.

Iza was a central figure in the Indigenous-led uprising of October 2019, triggered by the removal of fuel subsidies and therefore a sharp rise in the cost of living. He was then elected President of CONAIE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the most powerful movement of its kind in Latin America. In that role, he led the follow-up national stoppage, or paro, of June last year. That closed down the country for even longer, 17 days in all, and expanded the list of demands. Alongside opposition to a broader range of neo-liberal policies, mandated by the International Monetary Fund, the Indigenous movement and its allies put at the centre of their struggle the need to halt oil drilling and mining on protected, sensitive and Indigenous land. On both occasions, they forced the government to negotiate and won significant concessions, but not enough.

Biodiversity hotspot

As Iza and his colleagues repeated many times on their European tour, the campaign for Yasuní is not just about saving one of the most biodiverse spots on the planet. Of course, it is that too. The Yasuni National Park comprises 9,823 sq. kms of rainforest (almost half the size of Wales) in the Ecuadorean Amazon, just 200 kms from Quito and bordering the eastern range of the Andes. Perhaps because it was one of the few places that never froze over during the last ice age, it is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, possibly the most biodiverse. Botanists have recorded 685 species of tree in one hectare of the Yasuni. That is more than in all of the United States and Canada. The same hectare also contains about 100,000 species of insects, again similar to the total number for North America. The Yasuni National Park is also home to Ecuador’s two Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane. The pressure from oil companies operating on the edges of their territory has already resulted in three massacres, putting their survival in jeopardy.

Climate Justice activists at Climate Camp Scotland in Grangemouth send a message of solidarity “Yes to Life, Yes to Yasuni” July 2023

A novel initiative for mitigation

Towards a global just transition

Uprising, the Yasuni ITT Initiative could have been an unparalleled example to other countries – an inspiration for how the global south and the global north, both producers and consumers of fossil fuels, could have engaged together in a just transition away from the carbon economy, in a way that would be fair for communities across the planet.

The latter had argued that the oil should be left in the ground, with or without the international financial contribution. Already by 2014, a campaign called Yasunidos, launched by the environmental NGO Accion Ecolologica, had collected enough signatures to trigger a referendum. But the electoral authorities refused to recognise hundreds of thousands of them, and for a number of years the Yasuni question all but disappeared from the political agenda.

The Yasuni returns

Yasuni, elections and beyond

7 August 2023

ecosocialist.scot is pleased to be working with Resistance Books, Anti*Capitalist Resistance, and other organisations to bring the authors of

Uprising: the October Rebellion in Ecuador

Leonidas Iza, Andres Tapia and Andres Madrid to Britain in July 2023.

PDF version of info below >>> here

Wednesday 12 July Grangemouth 8pm

The big public event will be at the opening session of Climate Camp Scotland at Grangemouth on Wednesday 12 July at 8pm.  (This is approximately four miles from Falkirk, 25 miles from Glasgow/Edinburgh, 50 miles from Dundee).  In order to attend this you will need to register with Climate Camp Scotland – details are >>> here

Wednesday 12 July Glasgow STUC offices 3pm-4.30pm

A meeting will also be held on Wednesday 12 July from 3pm-4.30pm at the offices of Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), 8 Landressy Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow G40 1BP (Google Maps).   Public Transport – nearest station: Bridgeton, 5 mins from Glasgow Central/Argyle Street; Bus 18, 46, 64, 263 (SPT Journey Planner).

This meeting is kindly hosted by STUC and will particularly focus on Trade Union Solidarity and Climate Justice issues.

Monday 10 July Online/London 7pm

The visit to Britain kicks off with a public meeting and book launch in London on Monday 10 July that will also be available to watch and participate online.  In person details:  Lumen Community Centre, 88 Tavistock Pl, London WC1H 9RS and on zoom https://bit.ly/ecuadorbkregister

Meeting sponsored by Resistance Books, War on Want, Global Justice Now, the Climate Justice Coalition as part of the We Make Tomorrow series, Plan C, and Anti*Capitalist Resistance

Buy the book >>> here

Organised by Resistance Books

About the book

UPRISING is a detailed description and analysis of the Indigenous-led uprising of October 2019 in Ecuador, written by three people deeply involved in the revolt. The lead author, Leonidas Iza, came to national prominence as one of the central leaders of the rebellion. On the final day of the paro, when the movement forced the government of Lenin Moreno to withdraw Decree 883 and accede to live televised talks with the leaders of CONAIE, the main Indigenous umbrella organisation, it was Leonidas Iza who tore apart the arguments of the finance minister in front of the nation, giving him a master class in the implications of neoliberal economics and the government’s deal with the IMF.

About the authors

Leonidas Iza is President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), and is the best-known of a new generation of Indigenous leaders in Ecuador. He emerged as one of the central leaders of the October uprising, when he was President of the Cotopaxi Indigenous and Campesino Movement.
Andrés Tapia is Head of Communications at the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuadorean Amazonia.
Andrés Madrid teaches at the Central University of Ecuador. He is the author of In search of the spark on the prairie. The revolutionary subject in the thought of the left intellectuality in Ecuador.

Contents

1. Foreword, Michael Löwy
2. Prologue, Leonidas Iza, Andrés Tapia, and Andrés Madrid
3. Preface: Back to October, Hernán Ouviña
4. Introduction
5. Imminence: Background, accumulated experience and rupture
6. Awakening, determination, struggle and resistance
7. Impact: lessons, debates and perspectives
8. Epilogue: Our day-to-day October
9. Appendix: Platform for the ‘Campaign of Escalating Struggle’

Recommendations

The October 2019 rising in Ecuador was a sign of things to come, as estallidos, or uprisings, erupted later in Chile and Colombia. They represented a “people in movement” – the construction of a new kind of power from below, the merging of new forms of popular resistance with historic expressions of indigenous rebellion, all reflected in the collective voice of rebellion which this remarkable book presents. In the course of those October days, as one speaker puts it, “the everyday became extraordinary”, and a different future beckoned. Mike Gonzales, Emeritus Professor of Latin American Studies, Glasgow University

 

This book is an account of a semi-revolutionary confrontation, written by one of its key protagonists, Leonidas Iza, who is now arguably the most important Indigenous leader in Latin America, and two of his comrades. It combines a detailed, first-hand account of what happened, with a profound, Marxist analysis of why and how, and what social movements and the ecosocialist left can learn from it. Unmissable! Iain Bruce, journalist and writer, former head of news at teleSUR TV

 

At Climate Camp Grangemouth community groups, local people, workers and climate activists will assemble for a people-powered ‘festival of resistance’.

ecosocialist.scot is holding an educational and discussion meeting in Glasgow and online on Wednesday 22 February 2023 7pm-9pm (19.00-21.00 GMT).  The leaflet for the meeting is available in PDF form here and reproduced below.  You don’t need to book to attend the meeting in person, just turn up!  But if you wish to join us online please use the Eventbrite link below to get the Zoom link.  As this is an educational discussion you may find it useful to consult the reading list on the link below.

ECUADOR: Behind the indigenous mass uprisings and ecosocialist struggles

Come and discuss with a feminist and ecosocialist activist from Ecuador (In-person Glasgow, online via Zoom)

Wednesday 22 February 2023. 7pm-9pm (19.00-21.00 GMT)
icafe (upstairs meeting room), Ingram Street, Glasgow G1 1EX
(5 minutes walk from Glasgow Queen Street/Central stations  Google Maps Link)

The Indigenous-led uprising in Ecuador in October 2019, and the similar national strike mobilisation in June 2022, have been two of the most dramatic, and successful, in a wave of big struggles and protest movements that swept the world in recent years – from Hong Kong, Iraq and Lebanon, to Chile, Colombia and now Peru and Iran. Thousands of indigenous people went onto the streets of Ecuador to demand reforms in agricultural payment, to tackle the cost-of-living and poverty, to defend indigenous communities and to protect the natural environment from destruction, exploitation and profit-driven extractivism. The indigenous movement marched on the national capital, winning support from workers’ organisations, from students and from the womens’ movement.

They forced concessions from a neo-liberal government and vowed to continue the struggle.

In some parts of Latin America the semi-insurrections have gone alongside, and partly encouraged, the return of progressive governments in much of the region including recently in Colombia and even Brazil. But the struggles have often gone far beyond the limits of reform-minded governments and posed even bigger questions about the global order. In Ecuador, especially, they have shown something that is also vitally important now to activists in Scotland and other parts of Europe: how an immediate struggle to defend communities against rising prices and an attack on their basic living standards, can both develop a dynamic that is clearly anti-capitalist, and connect with the national and international environmental struggles to defend our planet, our Pachamama.

Maria Isabel Altamirano is a sociologist, community organiser and ecosocialist who has been active for a number of years in Ecuador in the feminist movement and working in Indigenous communities in both the Highlands and the Amazon region. She was in the midst of the uprisings, both in 2019 and last June. She is now in Glasgow and will give a short introduction on what happened and its context, and then open up a discussion on what we can learn from the struggle.

This meeting will be held in Glasgow in person but also available can be joined online, with full participation and discussion including questions. (Please note the meeting will be in English but the speaker will speak in Spanish with translation – we are unable to provide simultaneous translation during the discussion).

Online: book through eventbrite link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/545187278827

If you wish to prepare with some reading, please consult our reading list at ecosocialist.scot (link) https://www.ecosocialist.scot/?page_id=1699

The 18 day mass strike and protest movement in Ecuador has ended after negotiations with the neo-liberal government resulted in a major victory for the indigenous movement that launched it. ecosocialist.scot activists report on the latest developments.

Negotiations were concluded on 30 June with significant concessions agreed by the government of right wing banker President Lasso. These were greeted with acclaim by indigenous protestors who returned from the capital Quito to be met with mass rallies and triumphant scenes in the areas of the country where they are concentrated (photos and videos above and below).

Their leader, Leonidas Iza, was greeted as a hero by the indigenous population.

Crucially the movement has given the government only 90 days to show significant progress on implementing the agreement – otherwise the strike will start again

On the price of fuel, one of the major demands, there was only a minor concession. The government agreed to a 15 cent reduction in prices while the movement demands 40 cents. There was debate amongst activists as to whether this meant the mobilisations should continue

However, the protests were never about one issue – the indigenous organisations had put forward a list of ten interlinked and radical demands covering a range of economic, social and ecological issues.

So the fact that Lasso has agreed to stop expansion of extraction of natural resources in indigenous community areas and to give their organisations real rights of veto of any proposed exploitation of the environment is very important. Two decrees were revoked that would have enabled more oil drilling in the Amazon and mining on indigenous and protected lands, as well as in areas that are important water reserves and of archaeological significant.

The government also agreed to increase investment in health and education that has been suffering from massive underinvestment in indigenous areas.

A series of joint commissions will examine other proposals, but the pause in the strike and protest actions is only temporary – in 90 days time the indigenous movement will review the situation, judge whether the government has moved sufficiently, and decide whether to resume the strike and protest action.

Mass protests rock Ecuador capital

The actions were led by the indigenous umbrella organisation CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) and two other allied groupings, FENOCIN and FEIN. The protest strike was huge among the mainly farming based communities, and many indigenous protestors poured into the capital Quito to rock it with mass demonstrations.

They faced severe repression, with six protestors killed and hundreds beaten and arrested by brutal state forces. On the second day of the strike the leader of CONAIE, Leonardis Iza, was illegally arrested, dragged away in handcuffs by armed forces of the state and held for 24 hours. A mass protest wave against his arrest, supported by worldwide solidarity statements, forced his release and he resumed leadership of the strike movement leading the negotiations with the government.

On three occasions, the government imposed temporary ‘states of emergency’ in different parts of Ecuador, but were forced to lift each of them as part of the negotiations with the indigenous organisations and as the National Assembly of Ecuador had begun to consider a ‘no confidence’ motion in the President and demands for negotiations.

The indigenous communities of Ecuador themselves represent only about 1 million people out of 17 million. However more than 60% of the population have some indigenous ancestry. This helps to explain how the movement was able to avoid the ever present danger of isolation. More importantly, however, the indigenous movement has long been seen as the point of reference for other social movements, regardless of region or ethnic identity. Some still remember the early years of the century, when the indigenous movement helped to bring down three unpopular governments. Above all, almost everyone carries fresh memories of the successful, indigenous-led insurrection of October 2019, which is also when the figure of Leonidas Iza first emerged at the centre of the movement.

From the beginning of this nationwide strike on 13 June, the mass protests in Quito began to attract sympathy and support from other workers, from the women’s movement, and from students and universities across the country. Perhaps most importantly, they drew support from the poor urban neighbourhoods of the capital and other cities – including a large-scale operation to collect food, blankets and other supplies for the protesters who had arrived from the countryside. For the right wing recently elected President Lasso there was the danger that the movement would spread and unseat him from power. The government therefore moved from initially resisting all the demands to agreeing major concessions.

A Global Climate Justice Movement

This must be regarded as a victory for the indigenous organisations, who emerged more confident and united from the struggle. Their ten point programme of demands must be seen as a model for the type of ecosocialist movement uniting opposition to ecological neo-liberal destruction that the entire world urgently needs.

Awareness is rising globally about the importance of not just the neo-liberal attacks on living standards and the poor, but also on the importance of protecting the natural environment from devastation. Indigenous communities are increasingly seen as in the front line of defence of the planet against rampant extractivism and the need to prevent climate change.

Leonidas Iza addressed last year’s ‘From the Ground Up’ online programme, organised by the UK COP26 Coalition, in preparation for the ultimately disappointing summit outcome in Glasgow. Indigenous activists were evident in the protests in Glasgow during the two weeks of COP26 last November when the city came alight with the global climate justice movement.

More recently indigenous communities in Brazil were praised in the normally silent mainstream British media over their unstinting efforts in exposing the brutal murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and his Brazilian collaborator Bruno Pereira – murders that were clearly directly related to Phillips’ exposure of massive commercial exploitation of Amazon rainforest areas that has the backing of Brazil’s right wing President Bolsonaro. The full story of Phillips’ murder needs to be uncovered.

Tremendous victory but ecosocialist struggle continues

While the concessions by the Ecuadorian government and the scale of the mass protests represent a tremendous victory, the struggle for people and planet continues.

ecosocialist.scot helped to launch a global petition in solidarity with the struggle in Ecuador in conjunction with organisations across Latin America and other allies. We thank everyone who signed this, including leading Scottish political figures who either signed or indicated they were supportive. Such public shows of solidarity particularly from the states of the ‘Global North’ helps the protest; but in the light of developments we are suspending the petition and will encourage everyone who signed to continue to back the movement in other ways, including supporting both protests in Britain against rising energy prices and for just wage and benefit rises and the struggle against fossil fuel extraction in the North Sea.

If the Ecuadorian government backtracks, then the movement will be back on the streets in a few months and worldwide solidarity will be more needed than ever. The result of the recent elections in Colombia and Chile give encouragement, as does the routing of Macron’s candidates and the election of a radical independentist to the French National Assembly from the South American colony of French Guiana. Many eyes will also be on the forthcoming election in Brazil and the potential defeat of Bolsonaro.

But the Ecuadorian indigenous movement has shown that comprehensive ecosocialist-based demands to confront the economic, social and ecological crises, supported by strikes and mass protests, also have a major role to play. ecosocialist.scot believes we need to build a movement in Scotland that supports those demands and methods, and links up with others across the world in supporting and encouraging a global movement for people and planet.

ecosocialist.scot editorial board
1 July 2022

Media and information

Video showing the reception to the victory in Cotopaxi and in the capital

Recibimiento en Cotopaxi. Viva la… – Conaie Comunicación | Facebook

#EnVivo 🇪🇨✊🏾 ¡Solo la lucha nos… – La voz de la Confeniae | Facebook

Ecuador Update! Indigenous communities in Chimborazo, in the central highlands, send reinforcements to the protests in the capital, Quito #EcuadorResiste pic.twitter.com/T3gSpMAUbB

— ecosocialist.scot #freepalestine#ceasefirenow (@ecosocialistsc1) June 26, 2022

#ParoNacional2022Ec
¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! esta tarde en Sangolquí, cantón Rumiñahui. #conaie #quito pic.twitter.com/AY7R8LqchZ

— CONAIE (@CONAIE_Ecuador) June 26, 2022

Articles about the struggle from International Viewpoint, online magazine of the Fourth International

New lessons from the popular struggle in Ecuador: preliminary ideas – International Viewpoint – online socialist magazine

Two projects confront each other once more – International Viewpoint – online socialist magazine

“We demand that the government responds to CONAIE’s 10 points and halts repression” – International Viewpoint – online socialist magazine

Stop the represion in Ecuador! Solidarity with the indigenous-led strike! – International Viewpoint – online socialist magazine

An open scenario, with nothing decided in Ecuador – International Viewpoint – online socialist magazine

Summary of the negotiation outcome (in Spanish)

***LATEST *** Thanks to the tremendous victory of the indigenous struggle in Ecuador in the agreement of 30 June, this petition is no longer being promoted.  Full details here: https://www.ecosocialist.scot/?p=1340 We thank those who supported it and will keep them informed of developments.  The article and updates will remain on our website as a historic record and background of the struggle.

ecosocialist.scot is launching a global petition (below) against the current repression in Ecuador and in solidarity with the movement of the indigenous people, other workers organisations and social movements for just demands in their general strike against the right wing government of President Lasso.   Early signatories include parliamentarians, political and climate activists, and workers’ leaders from across the world.

The general strike in Ecuador was initially called by the movement of indigenous people (CONAIE) and has been underway since Monday 13 June.  The strike and mass protests are growing in support among workers, but have been met by a massive wave of repression by the Lasso government including the illegal detention of indigenous leader Leonidas Iza, mass arrests and police brutality including the killing of an 18 year old indigenous protestor and at least four others (see below for Latest News and https://www.ecosocialist.scot/?p=1277 for background).

We are targeting this petition at both the workers movement and the climate justice movement.  The 10 demands of the movement relate not just to the harsh economic conditions of the people through rising prices of food and fuel while workers’ incomes fall, but are also against the exploitation of the natural environment and extraction of resources that has devastated indigenous people’s across Ecuador, the entire continent and the world.  The demands include opposition to privatisation of public services and the need for investment in education and health.

The petition can be found on the ipetitions website (link below) and can also be signed on a Google form.  ipetitions will display the total global signatories, but if you also fill in the form to share your details we’ll be able to publicise your designation and area of activity.  The list below will therefore extend.  We call on all activists in the workers and climate justice movement to both sign and promote the petition on social media and through your organisations.  The world needs to support the movement of indigenous peoples, workers and environmental activists in Ecuador in their hour of need.

LATEST EVENTS from our correspondents on the ground – updated 25 June 2022

The Ecuador National Assembly is debating online a motion of no confidence in President Lasso though it seems doubtful that it will be passed.  President Lasso has suspended the State of Emergency order, in a blatant attempt to try to void the no confidence motion.  But the repression against demonstrators continues, as show in videos below.  Many thousands more indigenous protestors have mobilised to reinforce those already in the capital, Quito.

Police brutality against protesters in Quito on Friday.

Indigenous communities in Chimboraza in the central highlands send reinforcements to the protests in capital Quito

Indigenous communities in Chimboraza in the central highlands send reinforcements to the protests in capital Quito (Facebook video)

Thursday 23 June report

Thursday, the eleventh day of the national strike in Ecuador, was a very intense day. It began with an important victory for the indigenous-led movement. Thousands of mainly indigenous protesters managed to reoccupy, entirely peacefully, the main cultural centre in Quito, the Casa de Cultura. This is where the indigenous movement has traditionally found shelter when it mobilises in the capital. It was their centre of operations during the uprising of October 2019. However, as part of its state of emergency, the government had sent the army and police to seal off the building and its grounds. This made it much more difficult this time for the indigenous contingents arriving in Quito to find shelter and have a coordinated logistical and symbolic centre. They had been more spread out around various university campuses that had partially allowed them in. Some were left sleeping out in the cold.

The fact that on Thursday, faced with a huge swell of protesters outside, the security forces simply let them in, was interpreted as a possible, significant concession by the government. A massive and euphoric rally of indigenous and other protesters took place in the main auditorium, addressed, in particular, by Leonidas Iza, the undisputed, central leader of the strike. There was talk of more concessions and the possibility of meaningful talks, with results, as the movement has been putting it, with the government.

However, a little later, part of the movement, led by indigenous women, began to march from the House of Culture to the National Assembly, to put pressure on them. There have been so-far unsuccessful attempts there to revoke the president’s decrees of a state of emergency. This march was met with very severe repression from the police and army, using tear gas, water cannon and live, buckshot, ammunition. At least one young man died after receiving multiple pellet shots in his chest and neck. As night fell, groups of police on motorbikes also attacked at least one of the humanitarian locations where people from the local community were distributing food to indingenous protesters. In one case the police fired pistols at the group as they ate, wounding at least one of them. There are reports of another death as well, taking the total so far to at least four.

Another worrying development is that sections of the middle-class, racist right in Quito have begun to mobilise against the protests. There are reports of groups of white-shirted young man driving around and abusing isolated individuals or vulnerable groups of indigenous protesters, shouting racist abuse at the “f****** indians” and telling them to go home. It is not clear if there have been physical attacks, but some of these vigilantes seem to be carrying guns. The right also mobilised a march of a few thousand towards the area where the protesters are concentrated, but they didn’t get very far and soon turned back to their base in the affluent neighbourhoods of north-central Quito.

Thank you for your support.

ecosocialist.scot

Link to Petition: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-the-repression-in-ecuador

Send us your details if you sign: https://forms.gle/jFzJ5T7a4VTDa2VL9

______________________________

Text of petition and signatories (English/Spanish)

Stop the repression in Ecuador, Solidarity with the Indigenous-led strike! / Alto a la represión en Ecuador, Solidaridad con el paro Indígena

To also have your name publicly associated with this petition, please complete the form here: https://forms.gle/jFzJ5T7a4VTDa2VL9 This petition was initially organised by ecosocialist.scot  / Para que su nombre también se asocie públicamente con esta petición, complete el formulario aquí: https://forms.gle/jFzJ5T7a4VTDa2VL9 Esta petición fue organizada inicialmente por ecosocialist.scot

 

STOP THE REPRESSION IN ECUADOR, SOLIDARITY WITH THE INDIGENOUS-LED STRIKE!

“The repression against the nationwide strike called by the indigenous movement in Ecuador has only increased since President Guillermo Lasso first declared a state of emergency and a curfew on Friday, 17 June. The police and army have been using brutal force, tear gas, stun grenades, pellet shot, to stop thousands of peaceful indigenous protesters from entering the capital, Quito. At least one protester has died, three are reported to be in a critical condition, dozens more have been wounded or arrested. The army and police have sealed off the House of Culture and several university campuses in an attempt to deny the indigenous protesters their traditional places of shelter in the capital. An immense citizen effort is underway, from students, women’s groups, neighbourhood organisations and the population in general, to collect food, blankets and basic provisions for the protesters who have made it into Quito.

Massive mobilisations and road blocks continue in indigenous territories across Ecuador. The local Governor’s offices have been occupied in at least three provinces.

Secondary school and university students, teachers, health workers, trade unionists, neighbourhood organisations and the feminist movement are mobilising in towns and cities.

Bus drivers, taxi drivers and truckers have either promised stoppages or already joined in the road blocks.

We the undersigned, demand an immediate end to the violent repression of peaceful protesters in Ecuador. We call on President Lasso and the government of Ecuador to lift the state of emergency, release those still in detention and drop all charges against the movement’s best known leader, Leonidas Iza, President of Conaie, who was illegally detained on 14 June and released 24 hours later, but who still faces charges that carry a possible prison sentence of 1-3 years.

In place of a military response, we urge President Lasso to engage in serious negotiations with the indigenous movement and other social movements, to address their just demands.

These include the 10 points put forward by Conaie – including fair prices for agricultural products; freezing of fuel prices because this generates price increases; respect for the collective rights of indigenous peoples and nationalities; a budget for health and education; an end to the voracious extractivism in indigenous territories; stop speculation and rising prices of basic food basket items; stop the privatisation of strategic sectors; public policies to curb the wave of violence.

These have since been enriched by other social movements incorporating their own demands, for example for public polices to curb gender violence and femicide.

The victory of Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez in the presidential elections in neighbouring Colombia, show that the people of the region want to turn the page on decades of neoliberal economic policies that only generate poverty, violence, racial exclusion and the destruction of mother earth. We stand in solidarity with all their struggles and with the indigenous-led strike in Ecuador.”

ALTO A LA REPRESIÓN EN ECUADOR, SOLIDARIDAD CON EL PARO INDÍGENA

“La represión contra el paro nacional convocado por el movimiento indígena en Ecuador no ha hecho más que aumentar desde que el presidente Guillermo Lasso declaró el estado de excepción y el toque de queda el viernes 17 de junio. La policía y el ejército han utilizado una fuerza brutal, gases lacrimógenos, granadas de aturdimiento y perdigones, para impedir que miles de manifestantes indígenas pacíficos entren en la capital, Quito. Al menos un manifestante ha muerto, tres se encuentran en estado crítico y docenas más han sido heridos o detenidos. El ejército y la policía han acordonado la Casa de la Cultura y varios campus universitarios en un intento de negar a los manifestantes indígenas sus lugares tradicionales de refugio en la capital. Está en marcha un inmenso esfuerzo ciudadano, por parte de estudiantes, grupos de mujeres, organizaciones vecinales y la población en general, para recoger alimentos, mantas y provisiones básicas para los manifestantes que han conseguido entrar en Quito.

Continúan las movilizaciones masivas y los bloqueos de carreteras en los territorios indígenas de todo Ecuador. Las gobernaciones locales han sido ocupadas en al menos tres provincias.

Estudiantes de secundaria y universitarios, profesores, personal sanitario, sindicalistas, organizaciones vecinales y el movimiento feminista se movilizan en pueblos y ciudades.

Los conductores de autobuses, taxistas y camioneros han prometido paros o ya se han sumado a los cortes de carretera.

Nosotros, los abajo firmantes, exigimos el cese inmediato de la represión violenta de los manifestantes pacíficos en Ecuador. Pedimos al presidente Lasso y al gobierno de Ecuador que levanten el estado de excepción, liberen a los que aún están detenidos y retiren todos los cargos contra el líder más conocido del movimiento, Leonidas Iza, presidente de la Conaie, que fue detenido ilegalmente el 14 de junio y liberado 24 horas después, pero que aún se enfrenta a cargos que conllevan una posible condena de prisión de 1 a 3 años.

En lugar de una respuesta militar, instamos al presidente Lasso a entablar negociaciones serias con el movimiento indígena y otros movimientos sociales, para atender sus justas demandas.

Entre ellas se encuentran los 10 puntos planteados por la Conaie, entre ellos, precios justos para los productos agropecuarios; congelación de los precios de los combustibles porque esto genera aumentos de precios; respeto a los derechos colectivos de los pueblos y nacionalidades indígenas; presupuesto para la salud y la educación; fin del extractivismo voraz en los territorios indígenas; freno a la especulación y al aumento de los precios de los productos de la canasta básica; freno a la privatización de los sectores estratégicos; políticas públicas para frenar la ola de violencia.

Desde entonces se han enriquecido con otros movimientos sociales que han incorporado sus propias demandas, por ejemplo, políticas públicas para frenar la violencia de género y el feminicidio.

La victoria de Gustavo Petro y Francia Márquez en las elecciones presidenciales de la vecina Colombia, demuestran que los pueblos de la región quieren darle vuelta a la página de décadas de políticas económicas neoliberales que sólo generan pobreza, violencia, exclusión racial y destrucción de la madre tierra. Nos solidarizamos con todas sus luchas y con la huelga liderada por los indígenas en Ecuador”.

Initial list of Signatories (22 June 2022/22 junio 2022)

Miguel Urbán, Member of European Parliament/Eurodiputado, Anticapitalistas (Spanish State/Estado Español)

Martín Mosquera (Argentina)

Senador Rafael Bernabe (Puerto Rico)

Luis Bonilla. Otras Voces en Educación (Venezuela)

Olmedo Beluche por el Polo Ciudadano (Panamá)

Josefina Chávez (México)

Eduardo Lucita , EDI, (Argentina)

Eric Toussaint, Portavoz de CADTM (Belgium/Bélgica)

Edgard Sánchez (México)

Manuel Rodríguez Banchs. Democracia Socialista (Puerto Rico)

Joao Machado Borges Neto (Brazil/Brasil)

Tárzia Maria de Medeiros (Brazil/Brasil)

Stalin Pérez Borges. LUCHAS (Venezuela)

Ana Cristina Carvalhaes Machado (Brazil/Brasil)

Fernanda Melchionna, diputada federal/PSOL Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil/Brasil)

Sâmia Bomfim, diputado federal/PSOL São Paulo (Brazil/Brasil)

Vivi Reis, diputada federal/ PSOL Pará (Brazil/Brasil)

Luciana Genro, diputada estadual/ PSOL Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil/Brasil)

Roberto Robain, dirigente del MES/PSOL /concejal de Porto Alegre (Brazil/Brasil)

Israel Dutra, Secretario general del PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Pedro Fuentes, dirigente del MES/PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Bruno Magalhaes, dirigente del MES/PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Philippe Pierre-Charles Groupe Révolution Socialiste (Martinique/Martinica)

Daniel Libreros. Movimiento Ecosocialista (Colombia)

Franck Gaudichaud France Amérique Latine (France/Francia)

Béatrice Whitaker (France/Francia)

Pierre Rousset, NPA, (France/Francia)

Richard Neuville, ENSEMBLE (France/Francia)

Renato Roseno, diputado de Ceará/PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Mario Barreto, presidente de PSOL Río de Janeiro (Brazil/Brasil)

Nadja Carvalho, Isabel Lessa y Fernando Silva del Directorio Nacional del PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Mike Picken, ecosocialist.scot (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Iain Gault, ecosocialist.scot (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Terry Conway, Anti*Capitalist Resistance (England/Inglaterra – UK)

Iain Bruce, journalist/periodista (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Frances Curran, Former member of Scottish Parliament/Socialists for Independence (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Jim Bollan, Councillor – West Dunbartonshire, (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

Stephen Smellie, Unison Scotland (personal capacity) (Scotland/Escosia – UK)

John Rees, socialist activist (England/Inglaterra – UK)

Barry Sheppard (USA)

Jeff Mackler, National Secretary Socialist Action (USA)

Mónica Baltodano,  Integrante de la Articulación de Movimientos Sociales (Nicaragua)

Oly Millán,  Integrante de la Plataforma Ciudadana en Defensa de la Constitución (Venezuela)

Tarcísio Mota, Chico Alencar, Monica Benício y William Siri, councillors/concejales/as de Rio de Janeiro (Brazil/Brasil)

Mônica Francisco, State Deputy /diputada de estado Rio de Janeiro (Brazil/Brasil)

Orlando Barrante, Movimiento de Trabajadores y camponeses – MTC (Costa Rica)

Luana Alves, City Councillor/Vereadora São Paulo, Executiva nacional do PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Humberto Meza, Comite Brasileño de Solidaridad con Nicaragua (Brazil/Brasil)

Fernando Carneir, city councillor/ vereador Belém-Pa PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Aurelio Robles, Coordinador del Movimiento Alternativa Socialista-MAS (Panamá).

Mariana Riscali, Nat Sec Finance/Secretária Nacional de Finanças do PSOL (Brazil/Brasil)

Monica Seixas, deputada estadual São Paulo (Brazil/Brasil)

Mariana Conti – City Councillor/Vereadora Campinas, São Paulo (Brazil/Brasil)

Fábio Felix, Dep. Distrital Brasília (Brazil/Brasil)

Josemar, City Councillor/Vereador São Gonçalo RJ (Brazil/Brasil)

Pedro Ruas, City Councillor/Vereador Porto Alegre RS (Brazil/Brasil)

Jurandir Silva, City Councillor/Vereador Pelotas RS (Brazil/Brasil)