[NYTr] Ecuador: Toward a Citizen's Revolution - Correa's 21st Cent. Socialism

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Progreso Weekly - Nov 1, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=209&Itemid=1


Toward a ‘citizen's revolution’: 

President Correa's 21st-Century socialism 

By Hernando Calvo Ospina

On Sept. 30, elections were held in Ecuador to elect the people who
will draft a new Constitution. The Alianza País organization, led by
President Rafael Correa Delgado, won more than 70 percent of the votes;
the runner-up received barely 7 percent. It was an overwhelming
triumph, something never before seen in the history of Ecuador. 

With 80 of the 130 representatives, Alianza País will have an absolute
majority in the Constituent Assembly. With that advantage, the chief of
state will be able to "refound the republic" and initiate a model of
development that will break away from neoliberalism.

Economist Alberto Acosta, former Minister of Energy and future
president of the Assembly, says that Alianza País began to toddle in
August 2005 "without being enlightened." The party "fed from the
struggles and efforts of many social and political sectors. It was not
the exclusive creation of Correa, who had just resigned from the
Ministry of the Economy."

In the November 2006 elections, Correa was elected president. In
January 2007, the economist and lecturer took office. "We went from
being specialists in protests to introduce proposals. With the
presidency came the duty to build," Acosta says.

And the foundations for that construction will be "21st-Century
socialism." It is a type of socialism that, according to Acosta, "it is
not the socialism that had rooted its responses in manuals. We don't
start from dogmatic visions. If we write a manual, it will be for the
purpose of changing its pages every time we need to. It will be
corrected constantly, because we do not believe in a definitive truth.
Our task will be a permanent construction of democracy. That's how
21st-Century socialism must be constructed."

In his simple office in Carondelet Palace, the colonial building that
is the seat of government, President Correa explains what 21st-Century
socialism is, "when applied to the particularities of Ecuador." 

"We favor a citizen's revolution, with a radical, profound and swift
change in the political, social and economic structures," he says.
"This country's political institutionality has run out of steam. A
Congress that, according to polls, has a 3-percent credibility rating,
is not representative. The groups that still call themselves 'political
parties' are only feudal, caudillist organizations without the
slightest ideology.

"This country cannot continue to live within the economic standards of
the past 20 years, caused by the policies imposed by Washington, which
have been disastrous for Ecuador and Latin America. Among other
effects, in our country those policies have translated into more than 2
million émigrés in recent years," the president says. And he goes on.

"I couldn't care less how the government of the United States, the
Europeans or any other country view our changes. I care even less what
the transnational corporations think. What's important to me are the
Ecuadorean people, the rulers and owners of this country. I hope that
no nation, no matter how powerful, will try to dictate what policies we
must follow.

"Nor shall we accept that the Colombian government continue to fumigate
forests along our border, because that is noxious for our citizens,
plants, animals and water. And don't try to draw us into the
fratricidal internal conflict afflicting that sister nation. We refuse
to get involved in that problem, but if we can in any way help to solve
it, we'll be ready.

"We have said clearly that the Plan Colombia, a strategy devised by
Bogotá and Washington, is militaristic and violent; that it has been
incapable of ending the war. We are the recipients of the negative
effects of that plan, beginning with the large number of Colombians who
are obliged to seek refuge in our territory. 

"I continue. To advance that citizen's revolution, we need a
21st-Century socialism. Many people told us to call it 'humanism.' We
said no, because we are not impressed by that word. It is through
socialism that we shall seek justice, equity, a productive economy that
generates jobs.

"Our project is called that because it coincides with the scientific
socialism of Marx and Engels. For example, here, the people must rule,
not the market. The market must be a good servant, not the master. The
human being can no longer be treated as just another tool for
production, for the purpose of accumulating capital.

"The market economy has emphasized the creation of merchandise and its
value. It cares not for the needs of the human being, or the price to
be paid for the environment, etc.

"The importance of collective action is another point of coincidence
with classic socialism. We must overcome the fallacy of individualism
as an engine of society, where, by an act of magic, [the capitalists]
turned selfishness into a slogan of social virtue and competition as a
way of life.

"That's how they forced us to compete, even among the nations of the
so-called Third World. That's absurd. It forced us to cheapen our
export products, but to do so we had to lower the working conditions,
accept labor flexibilization, reduce wages, etc. So, who came up the
winner? The so-called First World: foreign capital.

"We differ from classical socialism. For example, today it is very
difficult to talk about the nationalization of all the means of
production. But we do have to democratize them. Yet, it is necessary to
nationalize the means of production that are strategic to the nation's
economy and therefore must not fall into private hands.

"One of the worst mistakes of classical socialism is that it was not
very different from the concept of development espoused by capitalism.
It offered us a faster, more equitable road, but that road reached the
same concept of industrial development and increased production. Look
at the competition between the Soviet Union and the United States, as
to who produced more.

"However, it gave us a different alternative for sustainable
development that considered other dimensions, such as articulation with
nature. That's one of the challenges of 21st-Century socialism: to
submit a different proposal for development.

"Another difference will surely shock several traditional socialists.
We must talk about principles, not about models. In this, classic
socialism was overbearing and arrogant. It always sent us to look at
such-and-such a page in our search for truths and solutions. It gave us
a catechism. And that's a grave error.

"We must adapt to the situations of each country, without
pre-established models. I say this as an academician. I believe that
any attempt to pigeon-hole within simplistic laws processes as complex
as the advancement of society is bound to fail.

"We have the great advantage and obligation to build as we advance,"
Correa concludes. "We cannot allow a resurgence of indisputable
definitions or dogmas. We must not lose the essence of our strength --
creativity." 

[Hernando Calvo Ospina, a special correspondent for the monthly Le Monde
Diplomatique, conducted this and other interviews. Based on them, the
magazine this month will publish a wide-ranging report on the political
situation in Ecuador. It will be available in the various international
editions of Le Monde Diplomatique:
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/int/ ]