Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE)
Contribution to the International Communist Seminar
"Imperialism, Fascisation and Fascism"
Brussels, 2-4 May 2000
Introduction
We are present here in the name of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE). We are members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations.
We support the revolutionary proletarian principles contained in the great contributions of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. We recognize the contributions of Enver Hoxha and of the several Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations who fought and continue to fight for the social emancipation of the proletariat as fundamental to Marxist-Leninist theory and practice. For us, also the contributions of other revolutionaries and anti-imperialists and of the various processes of national liberation throughout the XXth century are important, with special mention of those of Ho Chi Min and Che Guevara.
We affirm the validity of class struggle as the motor of history, and of the necessity to pursue this to the dictatorship of the proletariat, by means of the revolutionary violence of the masses.
We are convinced of the necessity of the unity of communists and revolutionaries, of workers and peoples.
We do not intend to impose our thoughts, but we do not renounce from the task to disseminate them, to debate on them and to win the working class, the popular masses and the revolutionaries for their cause. We are certain that the struggle for the revolution and for socialism requires combating revisionism and opportunism and exposing these before the workers. This is the only way to be able to stop their work of misleading and weakening the workers’ and popular movement. We invite the various parties and organizations who call themselves communists to deepen the theoretical-political debate, but above all to engage ourselves more firmly with the liberating process that is taking shape in all parts of the planet.Since the end of the 1980s Latin America has been a showcase of representative democracy. The military dictatorships, the fascist regimes were overthrown as a result of mass struggles, but also because of a change in the approach of imperialism.
This situation coincided with the collapse of "real socialism", with the defeat of socialism in Albania, with serious reversals in the armed revolutionary struggle — some of which were negotiated away — and with a general downward trend in the revolutionary struggle of the workers and the peoples.
Since 1979 military dictatorships in Ecuador have been a thing of the past, and representative democracy has been reinstated, for more than twenty years already, the longest period in the life of the Republic.
Apparently, bourgeois democracy enjoys complete validity in Latin America and in Ecuador. From the point of view of the existence of presidential governments, of holding elections, there is indeed a new situation in these countries.
This situation of "validity" of bourgeois democracy is formal. In Ecuador this reality has well-defined characteristics.
In no other previous period, not even under military rule, have the workers and the peoples experienced such a drastic curtailment of their trade union and political rights.
In the name of the modernization, the state obligation to take care of education, health and social security has disappeared. In the case of education, there is not only the desire to privatize it, but with all means, legal and others, they are trying to end lay education and impose religious education. Free health care has all but disappeared, and the hospitals and clinics are in dire straits. The social security system has been led to bankruptcy, and the final steps are undertaken to sell them to private enterprises.
In the name of progress and the expansion and improvement of the services, the telephone, electricity and petroleum are being sold, at ridiculously low prices; and the highways, ports and airports are being leased. This means that these services and oil products acquire international prices, making them inaccessible for the great majority of Ecuadorians.
In the name of the globalization and the interdependence of the States, in the search for competitiveness and for participation in the free market, labor flexibilization is pushed to the hilt. The rights to job stabilitiy, organization and strike are almost completely restricted.
In the name of good governance, political reforms are undertaken, through the Constitution and through reactionary laws. An antidemocratic election law has been established. It aims to install a bipartisan political system and to eliminate the possibility of representing minorities in parliament and in the municipalities. The mid-way parliamentary elections have been canceled. Congress has been deprived of the possibility to fix the wages and salaries, to present draft legislation with an economic character, to censure and dismiss ministers. Finally, the President has received extraordinary powers.
The police apparatus has been strengthened and the armed forces are geared towards internal security tasks.
In the name of peace and progress, imperialism has imposed the signature of a peace agreement with Peru. They are trying to have the armies of Peru and Ecuador available for a possible military intervention in Colombia.
In the name of the struggle against drugs trafficking, they have installed the military bases of Manta on the Pacific Coast and of Baesa in the Amazon. In reality, these are military enclaves aimed at quelling the revolutionary struggle of the workers and the peoples of Ecuador and they also constitute a part of the imperialist encirclement of Colombia.
In this period, and particularly during the last years (1998-2000), the organization and the struggle of the workers and the peoples, the organization and the militancy of the communists and other revolutionaries have been the target of an ideological and political offensive, aiming to dismantle them and to deviate them from their revolutionary course and objectives. They have been the victims of persecution, prison, torture and murder.
The strikes and rallies of workers, the important days of struggle of the workers, the peasants and the teachers, the general strikes; the actions and uprisings of the indigenous peoples; the protests and mobilizations of the secondary and university students, they have all suffered police and military repression. Hundreds and in some cases thousands men and women have been arrested and tried on the basis of the National Security Law. Tens have been injured in the battles and the strikes, in the city and in the countryside. Tens of fighters have been killed during street fights, by specialized organs of repression of the police and the army.
At the end of 1998 the Leftist trade union leader, comrade Saúl Cañar was kidnapped and murdered. In February 1999 they assassinated Jaime Hurtado, a PCMLE militant and congressman for the MPD, together with Pablo Tapia and Wellington Borja, in broad daylight and only a few meters away from the Supreme Court of Justice.
These are State crimes, meant to eliminate the leadership of the growing revolutionary movement, by ending the life of one of the best-loved popular leaders, and to sow terror and finally dispersion in the ranks of the communists and other revolutionaries.
It is clear that imperialism and the bourgeoisie show on the one hand the sugar-coating of democracy, of pluralism, of social peace, and exercise on the other hand a brutal offensive to curtail and restrict the political rights, the civil liberties and the human rights that the workers and the peoples of Ecuador had gained throughout the years, thanks to their struggle and their blood.
With the mask of democracy and "the end of ideologies", the social services are being transformed into business with high profits for the businessmen. It is also a case of increasing the profits of the native oligarchies and of the imperialist monopolies through privatizations.
In the name of freedom, the trade union organizations of the workers and the militancy and activity of the revolutionaries are persecuted and threatened with annihilation.
But the policies of privatization and the curtailment of civil liberties have failed to bring about a culture of silence and submission among the toiling masses.
Neither have the neoliberal policies and the globalization, with all what this means in the economic and political fields, been able to avert the crisis, as a result of which capitalism and imperialism are under discussion, and particularly the economy and the life of the country.
These years, Ecuador is experiencing the most important and significant struggles of the workers and other popular masses. The indigenous peoples are fighting, they are the protagonists of great days of struggle.
Mass struggles can be observed in the company strikes, the protests of the urban poor, the barricades of the youth, the teachers’ strikes, the people’s uprisings and the uprisings of the Indians. Starting March 1999, the People’s Congress is being built, and in 2000 the popular indigenous Parliament.
The struggles of the workers and of the peoples of Ecuador have the characteristic of becoming rapidly generalized, with hundreds of thousands or even millions of participants. They rapidly acquire high political connotations, they point at the government and pose the issue of its overthrow — which they caused on two occasions.
In January 2000 such an uprising went beyond overthrowing a bourgois government. The problem was put forward of constituting an alternative government of "national salvation", which it obtained for some hours.
Independent of the results, of its limits and weaknesses, the Marxist-Leninist communists of Ecuador, having actively participated in these actions, take stock of its positive elements, of its perspectives. We don’t forget about the problems, but we work to push forward and improve this great revolutionary mass movement that is growing in our country. And we have the intention to lead it to people’s power and socialism.
PCMLE
April 2000