Ecuador: The Attempt to shed itself of poverty

jacobinmag.com/Thea Riofrancos – In Ecuador, both left populism and anti-extractivism were forged in the crucible of anti-neoliberal struggles. In its drive to privatize and marketize social life, capital provoked a counter-movement that transcended defensive resistance and began to imagine a radically different world: communitarian, ecological, plurinational, democratic. This counter-movement drew its power from its unity across social divides.

INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED SPANISH VOCABULARY – READ THIS BOOK – AN INVALUABLE RESOURCE

Tragically, it was only after a left government took power that socialism became untethered from environmentalism and that the basic needs of the masses were counterposed to indigenous collective rights and an uncontaminated environment. This false dichotomy — the positing of socioeconomic and environmental justice as mutually exclusive — reflected historical circumstances but was not inevitable. Rather, it was shaped by a series of strategic decisions made by the Correa government and social movement leaders in the heat of political conflict.

In the face of gaping inequality and deepening ecological crisis, governing from the left is a daunting task. But continuing existing models of natural resource extraction won’t put us on the road to economic democracy and collective emancipation. Read Article