2015 26th April - Ecuador’s Citizens’ Revolution
Ecuador’s Citizens’ Revolution
From neo-liberal failure to the "Ecuadorian miracle” of the inclusive development model
On Sunday April 26th Viva! Bradford welcomed Fidel Narvaez from Ecuador to the Kirkgate Centre. Over 30 people attended the meeting, which began with the AGM.
Fidel's presentation can be downloaded here.
Ecuador is being today transformed by progressive policies that put people first. Challenging the ideas behind austerity economics, a huge programme of public investment is driving Ecuador’s strong economic growth, delivering free healthcare and free education, tackling poverty and creating a more equal society. Ecuador is reducing inequality faster than any other Latin America country in recent years. As a result, the United Nations ranks Ecuador as one of the countries in the world that has most advanced human development in recent years.
Fidel Narváez is currently First Secretary at the Embassy of Ecuador in the UK. He was previously the Consul of Ecuador in London for 3 years; Technical Secretary in Ecuador of the Inter-American Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development; and leader at the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights in Ecuador. Fidel has a degree on International Trade from the International Relations Faculty at the University of Economics, Prague.
The Hague Rules against Chevron in Ecuador Case
A waste pit filled with crude oil left by Texaco drilling operations years earlier lies in a jungle clearing near the Amazonian town of Sacha, Ecuador.
The international court ruled in favour of Ecuador in its case against the U.S. oil giant for causing one of the world's greatest environmental disasters.
The International Court of Justice (CIJ) on 12 March 2015 upheld a ruling by an Ecuadorean court that fined the U.S.-based oil company Chevron US$9.5 billion in 2011. The money will benefit about 30,000 Ecuadorians, most of them indigenous.
Trades Unions
Since the introduction of a law demanding companies pay their workers a living wage before they are allowed to declare profits, the minimum wage has more than doubled. Unemployment has been reduced to the lowest level in Latin America. Outsourcing, previously a huge barrier to workers’ rights, has been banned. Domestic workers, 95% of whom are women, now have the right to the minimum wage, paid leave and social security.
The right to organise has also been advanced, with the right to strike and form unions guaranteed in the constitution. A new national trade union federation (CUT) has been formed which will play a key role in developing new policy, as well as unionizing sections of the workforce which have never previously been organised.
The Ecuadorian challenge: Free university… for all!
This is the opinion of Guillaume Long, Ecuador’s Minister Coordinator of Knowledge and Human resources since 2012, in charge of co-ordinating Education and Higher Education. He has been at the centre of an educational earthquake in Ecuador which was so strong it produced numerous threats against him while it was taking place. Long says that “education is not the goal” but “a means to transform the productive capacity of the country and give us a second emancipation from the international system.”