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This article recently appeared in FREEDOM (anarchist fortnightly) FREEDOM carries at least a page in every issue of international news of interest to the anarchist movement around the world. For a free trial edition write to: FREEDOM PRESS IN ANGEL ALLEY 84B WHITECHAPEL HIGH STREET LONDON E1 7QX Ecuador: the struggle continues... More news is reaching us from Latin America about activities and struggles over the past few months. With the continuing revolt in Chiapas, struggles in Guatemala and the activities of the Indian groupings in Ecuador a new force for change is emmerging in Latin America which is challenging the institutions of power. Here we bring you an update on the evolving situation in Ecuador and the press release for anarchist groups which has recently been sent out by the Brazilian Anarchist Information Agency. Recently 300 Indians marched under the banner of the huipala with the seven colours of the rainbow (symbolising the unity of indigenous peoples before the conquest) and the two black flags of Ruminhaui (legendary leader of the auchtonomous movement) and Atahualpa (the last Inca) through the town of Canar, Ecuador. Nearby a soldier filmed them from a jeep. The march reached what had been the community centre Nukanchic Huasi (Our House) - a burnt out shell with only one remaining building with all its windows smashed. The local inhabitants looked on unsympathetically. .. NUKANCHIC HUASI Throughout their history the Indians of Canar have seen their land seized by the big land owners. In the early 1960s they formed the Provincial Union of the Peasant Communes of Canar (UPCCC). With the support of Belgian and Norwegian NGOs the UPCCC they set up their own community centre - a library with some 60,000 books, recording facilities, computers, workshops, a health centre, education etc.... all in all 20 years work. But unfortunately Canar is a stronghold of the landowning class and they didn't look too kindly on such developments. It was the uprising in June 94 which sparked off, literally, the reaction. 300 Indians were inside. No matter. They torched it. 35 injured and an activist and a child were never seen again. 'They have burnt wood, they have burnt roofs, they have burnt stones,' said one of the Indian community, 'but they will never burn away our spirit. With the power of the smoke we will continue our struggle'. Immediately the Indians set up their own tribunal to judge the agrarian law they were opposing and which had started the whole affair. Self sufficient at the start of the 60s Ecuador today imports food to feed her population. The agrarian laws aim to submit agriculture to the exclusive logic of the market. It is the 'lack of productivity' of the Indian way of farming which is singled out for attack despite the fact that the 'efficient' farming techniques of the banana, cocoa and flower plantations just happen to occur in areas where the best land is. In fact 80% of food production occurs on areas of land no bigger than 10 hectares. So who is feeding the country? STATE OF EMERGENCY As reported in Freedom the law was passed on June 13 1994 and was immediately met with an uprising which successfully sealed off parts of the country. The Confederation of Ecuadorian Indigenous People (CONAIE) called for a 'mobilisation for life'. Against them was the president Sixto Duran with his landowning political base and of course the World Bank which had 'tied' aid to the condition that his agrarian law was enacted. An unequal balance of power. On 21 June a general state of emergency was declared. The military were called in to clear the roads and seize the means of communication that the Indians were using. The telephone lines of many organisations were cut off. The private militias of the big landowners were let off their leash with predictable results, 'But we have an enormous advantage,' declared one militant, 'In the mountainous provinces like Canar, Cotopaxi, Pichincha and Chimborazo much of the road network is under our control. With or without an army presence, it is not hard to cause a landslide, cut trees, day and night...' The movement could not be squashed without all out civil war and Chiapas was breathing down their necks and the mess that is Peru was looking at them from over the years. After two weeks the government caved in. Claiming that the Indians had never fully understood the law they took it upon their noble shoulders to explain it a little more clearly and after this benevolence they explained that the Indians had accepted it. In fact of the original act only six articles remain intact - forty have been modified. On the crucial question of water privatisation Nina Pacari of CONAIE declares, 'We have ensured that water does not pass under the control of the big landowners'. Anarchists will see the possibility of a dangerous complacency here and a looming sleight of hand which will put the state back in the driving seat but CONAIE is not regressing into triumphalism, 'We have not satisfied all our aspirations. We have gone as far as we can in the current political context,' they claim. Social, cultural and ecological questions now have to be faced, 'We wish to show that the neo-liberal development route is not the only one. We have proposals for another way of development.' One spokesman Jos? Ruminui put it this way when speaking of the Peruvian guerrilla movement, 'So much violence and for what? Marx, Lenin, Mao left wing political dogmas don't work. Our future is with us.' Information from Le Monde Diplomatique Nov. 94