INDIGENOUS peoples in Ecuador have been at the forefront of popular mobilisations in recent years. Their grievances are common ones ranging from fair wages to bilingual education.
Land ownership is extremely unequal. In the highlands 1.6 per cent of farms occupy 43 per cent of the land and on the coast 3.9 per cent of the farms occupy 55 per cent of the land.
In 1994 the Ecuadorian Congress passed a bill called the Agrarian Development Law which sought to reform landholdings by eroding communal ownership in favour of private property. This would have accelerated the concentration of land.
Indigenous groups and peasant farmers led mass protests against the new law forcing the government to make some significant concessions.
In the Amazonian region of Oriente, indigenous groups have been protesting for decades about the invasion and despoliation of their lands by oil companies.
At the end of the 1980s it was estimated that 450,000 barrels of crude oil had been spilled or leaked on the soil and into waterways.
While the main culprit was the US company Texaco, the state owned PetroEcuador is no better.
The oil industry has deforested one million hectares of forest, introduced disease and eroded indigenous culture.
It is now being confronted about this within Ecuador and abroad, in the forests, on the streets and in courts of law.
The invisibility of the indigenous is being challenged and Ecuador is faced with demands for ethnic and cultural diversity and a pluralistic state.
These communities have become political actors in a system which has historically excluded them.
BEVIBUS
astation taces millions of people. clearer, the task of creating new leaderships remains ahead. democracy world wide. wage slavery and national oppression. ment of crisis. IN THENINETIES, millions of women and men have taken part in mobilisations against the evils of capitalism and the bureaucratic dictatorships. This reflects the fact that humanity faces widening dangers. Ecological, military, social and economic devMany more people recognise the barbaric nature of capitalism. In a situation where the inability of the social democratic and communist parties to provide socialist solutions is becoming Socialist Outlook is written and sold by socialists committed to this struggle. We are the British supporters of the world-wide marxist organisation, the Fourth International. We stand for the revolutionary transformation of society and a pluralist, socialist The overall goal which we pursue is the empancipation of all human beings from every form of exploitation, oppression, al¡enation and violence. Socialism must be under the control of ordinary people, democratic, pluralist, multi-party, feminist, ecologist, anti-militarist and internationalist. It must abolish The working class is the backbone of unity among all the exploited and oppressed. The working class and its allies must uncompromisingly fight against capitalism and for a clear programme of action in order to gradually acquire the experience and consciousness needed to defeat capitalism at the decisive moThe movements of women, lesbians and gay men and black Political thriller with no politics: Eastwood in Absolute Power