Carlos Aznárez

Insurrection has always been a weapon of humble peoples, those wretched of the earth of which Frantz Fannon spoke. It is a necessary alternative and a mirror in which one must obligatorily look at oneself, when the moment comes when the possibilities of dialogue with those above are exhausted, and the one below moves from the left. One fine day, the humiliated and dispossessed stand up and shout a forceful “enough is enough” and from that moment everything becomes possible, right up to the seizure of power.

In terms of political practice, it also means that the class struggle occupies a preponderant place and no matter how much one wants to conceal it, it explodes with all its strength and moves the foundations of the “winter palaces”. That is precisely what is happening in Ecuador today. No more cold compresses, excuses and lies with which the government of Lenin Moreno attempted to “buy time” while preparing the package of measures imposed on it by the International Monetary Fund. And that signified that when the time came, those to whom the soul was sold demand that a toll be paid, and that there be no hesitation in implementing what had been agreed. Kneeling, submissive and shamefully removed from his principles (if he ever had them), Moreno executes whatever Washington orders him to do, and if he has to kill, he kills with total impunity. Sometimes they do it with bullets (Haiti is an example) and other times, as in Argentina and Brazil, the agony provoked by unemployment, extreme poverty, loss of sovereignty is added.

However, the Ecuadorian people are a tough nut to crack. Because of events like these that are happening today, Ecuador has toppled several governors, just as corrupt and criminal as Moreno. The last of them was Lucio Gutiérrez, who for submitting to the empire and its dictates, lost the possibility of leading a workers’, indigenous and peasant revolution, and abruptly ended his administration, as a lackey of the bourgeoisie, in the middle of a great popular uprising that provoked his climbing into a helicopter and escaping forever through the rooftop of the Government Palace. This is something that Moreno must surely have in his memory, when he abruptly decided to move the Government House from Quito to Guayaquil, in the heat of the advance of demonstrators who began to surround the Corondelet Palace.

Now, the die has been cast for this bad governor, as tens of thousands of indigenous people, workers, students, will be occupying Quito and Guayaquil as well, demanding not only the repeal of the monetary fund package, but also the departure of the person who ordered opening fire on the people, who ensured the impunity of the police who threw three young demonstrators from the bridge of San Roque, in the historic center of Quito. That man who came to government through the ingenuity of Rafael Correa and then betrayed him as a vulgar Judas.

The popular uprising and the consequent indigenous-peasant march has generated a current of sympathy in all the towns through which it passes. So much so, that even the most timid or uncommitted, take to the streets to demonstrate that they are willing to be protagonists of this historic moment. They do so with the joy that comes from joining their peers, chanting the slogans of the moment and demonstrating to each other that “the people united will never be defeated”. But also, with enough anger to enable them to be convinced that it is time to put an end to those political supporters of bourgeois democracy who deceive them every four or five years.

For this reason it is not surprising that the Conaie Indians and the FUT workers, in their chants, add the well-known “Let them all go”. In order for this to really happen, it is necessary to have alternatives that do not lead to an eventual victory at a dead end, where those who do not represent their interests remain – as has happened so many times – with the victory of many struggles and sacrifices, or to place on the discussion table their loss of freedom and deaths due to repression. These and similar issues, are probably being discussed now in the negotiations of this gigantic country where the legacy of the authentic Lenin, the illuminator of so many battles of the universal proletariat, and also that of Commander Guevara, can be instrumental in defeating this caricature of a Cipayo ruler who not only was unfaithful to his name, but whose greed and submission to the Empire, would condemn his people to misery, causing them the greatest possible suffering.

Translation by Internationalist 360°