The National Teachers Union (UNE) went on strike May 15 to demand a minimum monthly wage of US$100, in order to keep up with inflation, and to reject an education bill now before Congress that would undercut public education. Tens of thousands of public employees and hospital workers also launched strikes against the government's economic policies.

The centerpiece of the government's economic plan is what is known as dollarization--replacing the sucre with the U.S. dollar as the official currency, at a fixed exchange rate of 25,000 sucres to the dollar.

The consequences of dollarization are contributing to the devastation of the livelihoods of the vast majority of the people in this Andean country. Prices for many essentials, from food staples to public transportation, have skyrocketed as the government cuts subsidies. Starting next month, gasoline prices are expected to shoot up.

Two presidents in Ecuador were brought down in the last three years, each time when working people took to the streets to reject drastic austerity measures decreed by the government to resolve the economic crisis to the benefit of imperialist investors and domestic capitalists.

In 1997 Abdalá Bucaram was removed from power by Congress after 2 million people mobilized in the streets.

On January 21 of this year, President Jamil Mahuad was ousted during a popular rebellion led by indigenous organizations, which over the past several years have commanded increasing authority among working people in the countryside--and now more and more in the cities. Mahuad's efforts to impose the dollarization policy sparked the uprising.

The revolt led to a short-lived governing triumvirate made of Antonio Vargas, president of the Indian organization CONAIE; an army colonel; and a former supreme court president. The military then maneuvered to hand the government over to Vice President Gustavo Noboa, now the president. The new regime is now prosecuting the lower-echelon army officers who took part in the rebellion.

"Since January 21, however, the current government has not changed the economic policies. It has continued with dollarization and taken no action against government corruption," said indigenous leader Blanca Chancoso in an April 27 interview in Quito.

"We have been open to dialog with the government, but it has not responded to our three points. These are: freeing the colonels and other detained military officers and dropping charges against them; showing a willingness to combat corruption; and withdrawal of the dollarization measures and unfreezing people's bank accounts."

Chancoso, like Vargas, is a leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).

"The new government has taken even more drastic economic measures against the people, said Chancoso. "It raised bus fares by 100 percent. It has instituted a court-martial against the colonels [who joined the revolt]. And it signed the standby loan agreement with the IMF, which worsens the economic and political crisis in the country. Ninety percent of the loan money goes toward rescuing the banks, and the other 10 percent amounts to charity measures, instead of funding real development programs that are needed."

"Since the IMF's loan, the foreign debt has increased. Today, 54 percent of Ecuador's national budget is used to pay on the foreign debt. The debt should be canceled."

As a result, antigovernment protests did not take long to resume. On May 1, the international working-class holiday, more than 50,000 people marched in Quito voicing their opposition to dollarization, the sell-off of state-owned companies, and the U.S. military base in the coastal city of Manta.

High school and college students, who played a visible role in the January 21 uprising, have not stopped protesting near the Central University campus against the hike in bus fares.

"Students had begun to mobilize in 1996 under the government of Abdalá Bucaram, after a period of retreat," said Jorge Luis Reinoso, 22, president of the of University Student Federation in Quito. "In 1997 the movement grew, and it was from this Central University that up to 25,000 students mobilized to declare that things were not going well. The austerity measures imposed by the [Bucaram] government were the last drop--that's when the students regained confidence and we realized, as students, that protests, struggle, and mobilizations give us results."

"If the government continues with its economic measures, it could unleash civil disobedience that could start before July, said Chancoso. The regime is set to lift subsidies and jack up prices in July. "This attitude will force an uprising, a mobilization throughout the country if there is no response to our demands. Its term will be over."

The Noboa government has responded with typical ruling-class contempt for the Indian population, an estimated 40 percent of Ecuador's 12.4 million people. "They want power? Participate in the election campaigns like everybody else in Ecuador--there is no preference or privilege for any Ecuadoran," Noboa told El Comercio in a May 12 interview. He called CONAIE leaders "rude" for standing up to the government's demands.

Chancoso pointed out the realities of Ecuador's "democracy." "We are almost half the population," she said, "but in Congress we only represent 3 percent. Of 120 congressional deputies, there are four who are Indians."

CONAIE vice president Ricardo Ulcuango, speaking to international reporters May 12, stated, "We do not want to take power--at least for now--but we are struggling to end corruption." He said Indian organizations were participating in the May 21 state and municipal elections.

In 1995, after a series of mass meetings and debates, indigenous groups decided to take part in election campaigns through a political organization called Pachakutik, a Quichua word meaning "To come back to the world."

Over the past several years, Indian organizations have initiated bodies known today as Parlamentos del Pueblo, or People's Parliaments, made up of a broad of mass organizations in cities and the countryside. Traditional bourgeois parties are excluded from these bodies. While some CONAIE leaders emphasize that the purpose of these formations is not "the traditional form of power," they have been vehicles for political debate and have encouraged the process of political organization and mobilization against the government's anti-working-class and anti-peasant policies.

During the January 21 uprising, a body made up of representatives of Indian groups, unions, and other mass organizations briefly took power in Guayaquil, the country's largest city.  
 
Fight against U.S. military base
Indian organizations are also fighting for the removal of the U.S. air base in Manta, established last year under an agreement signed by the U.S. and Ecuadoran governments. It was established as a supposed center for Washington's "war on drugs." This base is now being expanded. It will receive seven U.S. warships over the next month as part of beefing up Washington's military presence under the cover of fighting drug trafficking and "illegal immigration." A floating dock may also be built for these U.S. military operations.

Asked about U.S. military moves in Ecuador, CONAIE leader Chancoso replied, "There is a real militarization of the Amazon region. In the indigenous communities in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana, on the border with Colombia, the 5,000 U.S. military personnel already there carry out joint exercises with the Ecuadoran army."

The CONAIE leader told reporters that the May Day march was a prelude to future demonstrations and protests. Answering the government's propaganda against the "radicalized Indians," she stated, "We don't create chaos, as they claim. It's the government that forces working people to protest."

Freddy Congo, a youth leader of the National Federation of Peasant, Indian, and Black Organizations (FENOCIN) and a Black farmer who grows tomatoes in the northern province of Carchi, said his groups expects a national strike. After the May 21 elections a new round of mobilizations will be launched, he reported.  
 
 
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