Lenin Moreno's victory in Ecuador: Solidarity with the Citizen's Revolution

Clara Sorrenti

On April 2nd 2017 the political landscape of Ecuador was shaken as Lenín Moreno was named President-Elect of Ecuador. Moreno garnered 51.16 percent of valid votes while opposition and ex-banker Guillermo Lasso garnered 48.84 percent, with 99.65 percent of votes counted, National Electoral Council President Juan Pablo Pozo said at a press conference. Due to Moreno’s victory, right-wing reactionary groups rioted in the streets. Lasso made fraudulent claims that the election was rigged and asked his supporters to riot in the streets demanding a recount. All this, despite the fact that Organization of American States election observers found "no discrepancies between the observed records and the official data" from the National Electoral Council.

Ecuador: between "The Matrix" and "Utopia"

Diego Bastidas

“The Matrix is a prison for your mind”

(Morpheus, The Matrix I)

“[…]From Cairo to Quito a new world is forming[…]”

(“Multiviral”, Calle 13)

“Utopia lies at the horizon.

When I draw nearer by two steps,

it retreats two steps.

If I proceed ten steps forward, it

swiftly slips ten steps ahead.

No matter how far I go, I can never reach it.

What, then, is the purpose of utopia?

It is to cause us to advance.”

(About Utopia, Eduardo Galeano)

Over the last two weeks we have been observing how the political situation in Ecuador has been changing as a consequence of the proposal of two Acts (click here for an accurate brief overview). The first Act is called the “Act for the Distribution of Wealth”, which aims to widen wealth distribution through a progressive tax aimed at the biggest fortunes in the country. Serious analysis shows that this is Act only going to affect  2% percent of the population, in other words, those with net worths over 2 million dollars. The working class will not be affected. The second Act aims to stop speculation on land prices, especially when the increase in price is caused by any kind of state action. For example, if the government builds a highway the owners of the land cannot obtain any profit from this decision, because that would be an unjustified enrichment at the public’s expense. The leaders of the opposition have kicked off a strong campaign against these two government initiatives, which have combined protest on the street, a  mass media strategy, threats from  corporations to divest and leave the country, violent acts against supporters of President Correa’s government, blockades of airports on Galapagos Island, and finally, the intention to  blockade Quito´s airport when President Correa arrived home from Europe last month.

The Ecuadorian people mobilize against latest coup attempt in South America

Rally welcoming Correa on June 15th

Drew Garvie

On June 15th, thousands of supporters of Ecuador’s “Citizens’ Revolution” convened outside the Plaza Grande in Quito to welcome Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa back to the country. The night before right-wing opponents of the Ecuadorian government made some attempts to block traffic from the airport to prevent Correa’s arrival in Quito. The President was returning from CELAC-EU meetings in Belgium.

Last week, a series of demonstrations occurred, spurred on by support from opposition politicians with ties to Ecuador’s old neo-liberal regime friendly to US interests. The initial pretenses for the protests, was a newly tabled “Wealth Redistribution Law”. The corporate media in the country claimed that the new taxes would negatively impact working class families and small businesses, however the new inheritance taxes being introduced will only have an effect on the wealthiest 2 percent of the population. Telesur has reported on the details of the proposed laws:

Fighting Chevron in Washington DC

Drew Garvie & Peter Miller

In late April, we, along with three other members of the Young Communist League of Canada, had the honour of attending a historic event in Washington DC. We were part of a caravan of buses leaving from Ontario to attend a rally and conference in solidarity with indigenous peoples in Ecuador fighting the oil giant Chevron.

The place and time of the solidarity events were chosen by Chevron. The corporation has been trying to avoid paying for one of the worst environmental disasters in history, that it created by dumping billions of gallons of toxic sludge in the Ecuadorean Amazon. In 2011, it was ordered to pay $9.5 billion dollars to clean up the mess. Chevron has yet to pay up. There is an ongoing case in Canada where the indigenous plaintiffs could receive justice through assets in Canada. What brought us to Washington, the heart of the leading imperialist power, was the result one of Chevron’s latest dirty tricks it is using to avoid cleaning up its mess. It has decided to take Ecuador to court through the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Anti-Chevron campaign wins key victory in lead up to Supreme Court appeal case

After Protests Canadian Bar Association Withdraws Intervention in Chevron Case

All pictures from Oct 9th protest outside Ontario Bar Association (Toronto):
Rebel Youth

From: Telesur English

Activists point to mobilizations as the reason why CBA choose to reverse course.

Facing a large backlash, resignations, and protests, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) has decided that it will not make an intervention at the Canadian Supreme Court in the case involving Chevron Corporation's contamination of the Ecuadorian rainforest.

In a letter sent to members, CBA president Michele Hollins stated “The [Legislation and Law Reform] Committee concluded that while the factum was well-drafted and of a high standard of quality, it did not meet the specific requirements of CBA’s Intervention Policy. Consequently, under the terms of the Intervention Policy, the CBA came to the conclusion that without the certification of the factum, the Intervention could not move forward and would be withdrawn.”

Although the previous letter to members made mention of opposition to the CBA intervention, this second letter did not. Santiago Escobar, a member of the Anti Chevron Committee of Canada, in an interview with teleSUR stated "The CBA won't admit this but they withdrew because of the protests they were facing, they knew that they couldn't be seen supporting a corporation that has negatively affected the lives of so many Indigenous people in Ecuador."

Video and final declaration: 18th World Festival of Youth and Students

 The 8000 of delegates of the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students who gathered from 88 countries in Quito, Ecuador, under the slogan “Youth united against imperialism, for the World of Peace, Solidarity and Social Transformation” declare the following:

We salute the people of Ecuador and its struggles; we express our solidarity in the struggle of the Ecuadorian people for popular conquests and radical social-political changes. With the support of the progressive and militant youth of Ecuador which in the past years have made important steps forward and achievements through its struggle through the process of the “Citizens Revolution” the international anti-imperialist youth movement constructed another important moment in the history of its organized struggle. We gathered in Latin America, a continent were the youth movement is steadily growing, once again for the biggest anti-imperialist youth event in the world to strengthen our common struggle towards our common goal: the overthrown of Imperialism.

Musician blocked from preforming at 18th WFYS at Miami airport

Reincidentes album cover

Music, song and dance was a dynamic backdrop to the political discussions which took place this December in Quito, Ecuador at the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students.

All that partying spirit wasn't without the interference of imperialism however.

Singer and bassist Fernando Madina of the Spanish punk-rock band Reincidentes was detained at Miami airport en route to the festival. The group was supposed to play a headlining act at the opening ceremonies.

Instead, the lead singer vanished. It took over 48 hours for his family back at home to finally learn what of his arrest after they reported his disappearance to the Spanish National Police as nothing had been heard of his whereabouts, according to the Spanish-language version of Rollling Stone.

Madina claims airport immigration officials also told his band members he was not detained and had probably gone sightseeing.

In fact, the lead singer had been handcuffed and shuttled out of the airport with twenty other people, to the neighboring Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on the charge of "drunkenness and disturbing public order." Madina was held in a cell with no access to a phone or translation. Detained Saturday, it took until Monday morning for a judge via video conference to exonerate him of any wrongdoing leading to his release.
The experience was much more like an arrest than a detention, Madina told the Spanish newsite TerceraInformación, saying that while he was animated when talking on the airplane he was not drunk and had only had a few beers on the long flight.

The band had a similar experience in October 2010, when guitarist Juan Manuel Rodriguez was supposedly confused with a narco trafficker and detained without explanation on a flight transfer passing through Miami for two hours.

Youth festival delegates learn about important international struggles

Rebel Youth's sister publication, People's Voice, sat down with Drew Garvie, co‑chair of the Pan‑Canadian delegation to the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students, held Dec. 7-13 in Ecuador, to talk about the experience.

So, finally, how many people attended? Was it a success?

            About 8,000 people attended from 88 countries, a very large number, although smaller than past festivals, because of the capacity of the Ecuadorian government. Overall, we would say it was a great success. Delegates got to learn about a host of struggles, ranging from the youth and labour fightback against austerity in Europe, the conflict in Syria, the occupation of Palestine and, in Africa, of Western Sahara, but especially the process of social transformation and battle against imperialism taking place in countries like Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba and, of course, Ecuador.

What were your impressions of Ecuador?

            One highlight was the chance to learn more and see first‑hand the political and social changes taking place in the country itself. The Ecuadorian government, led by Rafael Correa's PAIS coalition, calls this process the "Citizen's Revolution". They talk about applying the indigenous concept of "buen vivir" or "good living" as a way to change societies, thinking away from the individualistic values of capitalism and historic domination of the country by the United States, and towards more a social and pro‑people society, with sovereignty over its own affairs.

Case Against Chevron Highlighted at WFYS

Photo of a panel discussion at WFYS.
Photo by Mathieu Breton www.QuebecphotoMB.com

By Peter Miller

With Ecuador hosting the World Festival of Youth and Students, participants heard about movements fighting against imperialism and for social transformation. One movement highlighted was Ecuador's battle against the oil giant, Chevron.           

The festival had panel discussions about the importance of nationalization of energy and oil resources. Countries that use revenue from these resources to combat poverty and to develop infrastructure, health‑care, and education are much better off than countries that allow profits to go to shareholders of large corporations.

Youth gather in Ecuador for peace, against imperialism

As regular readers of our blog will know, young people from around the world gathered this past week of December for the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students. We will have lots more coverage over the next days; here is a sneak peak of the opening ceremonies from the organizers and hosts in Ecuador!

Ecuador's Citizen's Revolution

J. Boyden,
Rebel Youth Magazine

Delegates headed to the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students in Quito, Ecuador this December are being invited to learn about a “Citizen’s Revolution” in motion throughout the country.

At the centre of these major transformations are a comprehensive series of anti-poverty, pro-democratic, and pro-environmental measures which have not only begun to re-assert the Republic Ecuador’s sovereignty but also put the country on the map internationally as a key player in the struggle between the United States and the new Latin America.

If the motor of these changes has been the active support of a broad sweep of progressive Ecuadorian society especially the rural poor, urban workers, labour movement, and indigenous communities, the driver has come from perhaps an unlikely source, the “PAIS alliance” lead by an economist educated at an US Ivy-League school who speaks four languages including indigenous Quichua.

Organization grows for anti-imperialist festival

Peoples Voice
Youth Bureau

Drew Garvie is the acting co‑chair of the Pan-Canadian delegation to the 18th WFYS and a member of the Young Communist League of Canada. Drew sat down with People's Voice to talk about the organizing for the Festival.

So what is the festival in a nutshell?

The festival is basically the largest gathering of anti-imperialist and progressive youth in the world. Something like 12,000 to 17,000 youth are expected to attend from over 120 different countries!  The festival itself will be held in one of the hot spots of social change in Latin America today, the Republic of Ecuador, from December 7th to 13th.

Tell us the latest news.  

The Pan‑Canadian delegation continues to grow. Endorsing groups of the festival now include CUPE Toronto District, the Canadian Federation of Students‑Ontario, several Quebec student unions, the BC Federation of Labour, the Young Communist League of Canada, the Vancouver District Labour Council, the Kamloops Socialist Club, Occupy Edmonton, and others. The Pan‑Canadian delegation will be between 50 and 100 participants. The final size of the delegation really depends on the outreach efforts of the 10 or so local committees over the next couple weeks.

Rafael Correa Kicks Off Campaign Against Oil Giant Chevron

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa is calling out Chevron

Reprinted from the Morning Star

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa launched a campaign this week seeking a global boycott of oil giant Chevron over its refusal to pay up on a £11.8 billion judgement against it.

He visited a jungle waste site, stuck his hand in oil and lifted it for the cameras to publicise his campaign called "Chevron's dirty hands."

Mr Correa met his Argentinian counterpart Cristina Fernandez during a trip to Buenos Aires on Thursday amid concerns that his new campaign against Chevron could harm relations between the countries.

But Ecuador's president said such concerns were unfounded and Ms Fernandez would have acted exactly as he did if she had been Ecuador's leader.

However, hopes of collecting on the £11.8bn judgement by an Ecuadorean court against Chevron for contamination of the Amazon have suffered a setback.

A three-judge UN arbitration panel in The Hague ruled earlier this week that an agreement signed in 1995 by Texaco, which Chevron later purchased, released the oil giant from responsibility from any claims of "collective damage."

But the interim ruling by the permanent court of arbitration left open the possibility that Chevron could be liable for damage incurred by individuals.

Chevron has been fighting in courts on three continents against the 2011 judgment and award for contamination caused by a Texaco-led consortium in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest between 1972 and 1990.

Chevron says it will not pay, maintaining that Texaco addressed environmental problems before Chevron acquired the company in 2001.

Both sides have accused the other of fraud.

Chevron has no assets in Ecuador, so plaintiffs have sought to force payment in Canada, Brazil and Argentina, so far without success.

Chevron lawyer Hewitt Pate claimed that the new ruling "confirmed the fraudulent claims against Chevron should not have been brought in the first place."

But Ecuador Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino responded that "Chevron continues its campaign of lies" by claiming that the Hague tribunal absolved it of responsibility, which was not the case.

The next arbitration hearing in The Hague will address Chevron's claims that the judgement against it was fraudulently procured.

Upcoming World Festival of Youth and Students to Honor Chavez

With sources from Juventude Rebelde

From December 7th to 13th, Quito Ecuador will host the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students, where the participants will pay homage to Venezuelan late President Hugo Chavez Frias.

Read some fast facts about Ecuador and Quito here.

This was one of the top agreements taken yesterday during the final session of the first international preparatory meeting for the Festival held in Pretoria, South Africa, with the participation of some one hundred delegates from over 40 regional, national and international youth and students organizations.

Basic framework of the festival now established

The IPM, by R. Weldeab via Twitter

Juan Francisco Torres, chair of the Preparatory Committee of the host country, spoke about issues related to logistics and about how Ecuador and particularly its youth activists are getting ready for the meeting. Most of the Festival's locations will be in down town Quito, within about 20 minutes walk.

The delegations also approved the call to the world youth for the festival, as well as the topics for debates, and the slogan "Youth united against imperialism, for peace, solidarity and social transformation."

"In the past and present youth has always played a vital role in the struggle of all societies for progress and social justice. The youth was militantly present in the greatest struggles of the peoples for peace, solidarity and social transformation. In a world where imperialism presents itself as inevitability, the anti-imperialist struggle proves that the youth chooses its own future. The 18th World Festival of Youth and Students, which will take place in Ecuador, is the space for the young women and men of the World to unite their voices against imperialism," the call says.

The causes of Palestine, Western Sahara will also be emphasized at the festival. These issues "form a direct, precise, and clear view of imperialism ambitions and actions of destruction," documents coming out of the meeting agreed, stressing that "the festival shows different forms of struggle and one of which is solidarity against occupation and with peoples’ self-determination."

"Cultural and musical events must also be highlighted," an initial planning document said, noting that "Musical bands and cultural groups from different organizations must be encouraged to attend the festival."

The date and place of the next international preparatory meetings (IPM's) were also agreed on Tuesday: in Spain in June and in India in September.

At the end of the meetings, South Africa— former host of the 17th festival— pasted on the flag of the World Festival of Youth and Students Movement to Ecuador.

Honouring famous revolutionaries

Symbolically, the Youth Festival will also be devoted to Ecuadorian national hero Eloy Alfaro and to Kwame Nkrumah.

José Eloy Alfaro Delgado (June 25, 1842 – January 28, 1912) served as President of Ecuador from 1895 to 1901 and from 1906 to 1911. For his central role in the Liberal Revolution of 1895 and for having fought conservatism for almost 30 years, he is known as the Viejo Luchador.  His principal accomplishments include the introduction of the principle of secularism, constitutional changes allowing freedom of speech, the legalization of civil marriage and divorce, and the right to a free and secular education in Ecuador. 

Eloy Alfaro's memory was honoured in Canada last year with a guest lecture at the University of Ottawa. A statue to the man is also to be erected in Ottawa.

Kwame Nkrumah was the founder and first President of Ghana, and leader of Pan-Africanism, the half-a century movement for the defence of Africa’s independence and unity.  Nkrumah became an international symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule. As midnight struck on March 5, 1957 and the Gold Coast became Ghana, Nkrumah declared: "our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent."  

Deposed some years later in a coup, Nkrumah is still honoured around the world. (Kwantlen University in Vancouver, for example, organizes an international conference on Africa themed around Nkrumah).

OCLAE leader praises choices

In statements to the International News Agency, Ricardo Guardia Lugo, member of the Cuban delegation to the festival, said that Eloy Alfaro hero and Kwame Nkrumah are very well known by Cuban people since they are very close to that countries history.

Guardia is also a member of the National Secretariat of the University Students Federation (FEU), and works with the Continental, Latin American, and Caribbean Students Organization (OCLAE), a regional platform that brings together and represents more than 100 million students.

Lugo spoke about the close friendship which united Ecuadorian Eloy Alfaro and Cuban José Martí. Marti is a national hero of Cuba. He fought for the independence of that island country from Spain during the nineteenth century and won the support of Eloy Alfaro.

Kwame Nkrumah was also the first African president to meet with President Fidel Castro in 1960 at the Hotel Theresa in New York (when both were in the United States to attend the fifteenth session of the UN General Assembly). His country, Ghana, was just a year earlier the first sub-Saharan African country to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba.

What if Mother Nature had rights? She does in Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador

David Suzuki

In some of the poorest countries of Latin America, one can find a refreshing (and radical) departure from the conventional economic thinking entrenched in Canada and around the world.

It’s not often that people look to countries such as Ecuador or Bolivia as examples that might have something to teach Canada. And yet, when it comes to finding new forms of economic development that pay serious attention to the environment, this is exactly the case. And at a time when Canada’s oil sands production continues to grow despite climate science predicting even more alarming consequences, it’s high time we had a look at what’s going on in the Andes. As part of a documentary production for The Nature of Things, that’s exactly what I did.

And I was amazed.

Both Ecuador and Bolivia are embarking on new paths of social and economic development toward what they call “sumak kawsay,” or “living well.” This indigenous concept stands in contrast to the neo-liberal model of development that’s always about growth. The mantra is more productivity, more growth, more consumption of resources, ad infinitum. Ad nauseam!

In contrast, “living well” is about developing in harmony with nature, meeting human rights and satisfying basic needs for all, and living in balance.

Sure, it sounds nice on paper, but what does it mean in practice?

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told me that one example of this new vision of development is the fact that his country’s constitution is the first in the world to give rights to nature. In other words, trees, animals, rivers – entire ecosystems – have the constitutional right to exist and flourish. It’s a far cry from Canada’s “Ministry of the Environment,” which is more about managing human use of the environment than about Mother Nature herself.

In 2010, two American residents of Ecuador were the first to go to court on behalf of nature, over damage to a river caused by a provincial government road construction crew. The case was a first for Ecuador and the world, establishing a legal precedent we can only hope spreads around the globe.

Mr. Correa also told me that Ecuador’s attempt to marry ecology and economy has led to a radical proposal to not exploit 20 per cent of the country’s untapped oil reserves. Those reserves happen to lie under Yasuní National Park – a jewel of the Amazon rain forest thought to harbour the highest level of biodiversity on Earth. Scientists have found more species of trees in one hectare of this forest than there are in all of North America from Alaska to Mexico.

Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT initiative promises to leave that oil in the ground, to help combat climate change, but asks the global community to be “co-responsible” and contribute half of the profits the country would be giving up: $3.6-billion. So far, they’ve raised $300-million.

For a country whose economy depends on oil to propose such an initiative is remarkable. Nearly 30 per cent of Ecuadoreans live below the poverty line, yet the country is wildly supportive of the initiative. What’s Canada’s excuse? Surely we could afford to do something similar with the oil sands.

Another lesson Canada could learn takes place high in the Andes mountains, in Bolivia’s Uyuni salt flats. The flats are the fossil remnant of an ancient seabed containing more than half of the world’s lithium deposits. (Lithium is much in demand, and electric cars using lithium batteries are expected to play an increasing role in reducing our carbon footprint.) Heavy hitters such as China, Japan and the European Union are seeking new sources of lithium. But instead of exporting raw lithium to these industrialized nations for them to make the batteries, Bolivia plans to make the batteries itself and thus realize the real economic benefits of value-added products. There’s no doubt this is an ambitious gamble that could fail.

Yet, in Canada, we continue being “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” as we ship raw logs and raw bitumen elsewhere. At least in this respect, Canada could learn from Bolivia.

Of course, we’re not saying that Bolivia and Ecuador have all the answers, or that they don’t have environmental and economic contradictions to sort out. But they’re grappling with these issues and forging new paths toward a different kind of growth that’s attuned with nature – and that’s what makes them such exciting models. Which is more than anyone can say for Canada these days.

David Suzuki’s Andean Adventure airs on The Nature of Things, Jan. 10, at 8 p.m. on CBC-TV.

Reprinted from The Globe and Mail

World Federation of Democratic Youth meets in Ecuador and announces 18th World Festival of Youth and Students

 Special to Rebel Youth

From November 8th-12th, representatives from more than 40 different youth and student organizations descended on Quito, Ecuador for a General Council meeting of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY).  The main task of the meeting was to examine a proposal that made Ecuador the host of the next World Festival of Youth and Students.

Progressive and Communist organizations were represented from a geographically diverse range of countries such as Greece, Portugal, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Western Sahara, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Vietnam, India, Angola and Eritrea.

The meeting coincided with the sixty-fifth anniversary of the youth organization.  WFDY was founded in 1947 as a product of the anti-fascist struggles of the period, with its mandate being to unite youth for peace and against imperialism.

Sixty-five years later WFDY reiterated its anti-imperialist stance in the political resolution amended and adopted unanimously on November 10th; “Our choice, to stand for the needs and interests of the youth, derives from our founding principle: to struggle against imperialism”.

WFDY and its members dedicated themselves to fighting against imperialism’s increased aggressiveness, such as the creation of a bloody proxy-wars in Syria and Libya, the danger of intervention in Iran, the US backed campaign against the DPR Korea, continued occupations of Afghanistan, Western Sahara, Palestine and Iraq.

The Young Communist League of Canada’s representative to the General Council was Drew Garvie.  “The political choice to have the meeting in Latin America was a powerful one.  While capitalist governments are bringing in austerity policies to make the people pay for capitalist crisis around the world, the struggle in Latin America is giving rise to progressive policies and a process that is uniting the continent against imperialism”, Garvie said.

Ecuador is starting to become a leading protagonist in this transition away from over a century of domination by United States monopoly capitalism.  President Rafael Correa and his “PAIS” coalition were elected in 2006 after several years of mobilization by indigenous and anti-neoliberal forces.  Since then, Ecuador has kicked out a US military base from its territory, written a constitution that includes the right to the regeneration of the environment, eliminated tuition fees in public universities, joined regional progressive trading partnerships, refused to participate in any international meeting that Cuba is not invited to, and is currently shielding Wikileaks’ Julian Assange from extradition to the United States.

The Young Communists of Ecuador proposed the hosting of the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students in Ecuador in order to help “strengthen and radicalize the national democratic revolution”.  Several government officials, including the Governor of Imbabura province, a cabinet Minister of the PAIS coalition, and representatives from the Secretariat of the People, Social Movements and Citizens Participation, greeted the WFDY meetings.

The Ecuadorian delegation has proposed to mobilize ten thousand youth from Ecuador and invite ten thousand international delegates to participate in the 18th WFYS.  After hearing a comprehensive presentation, which included a political report and logistical details the international delegates adopted the proposal unanimously.

Drew Garvie was optimistic about the potential of organizing for the upcoming festival: “The overwhelming feeling of the delegates leaving the meeting was one of enthusiasm start mobilizing to build the Festival movement back home.  We know that the 18th WFYS comes at an important political time, when more and more youth are taking to the streets and starting to look for an alternative to the war, crisis and environmental destruction inherent in capitalism.”

 “Several delegates were very interested in the recent student strikes in Québec,” said Garvie.  In the Young Communist League of Canada’s intervention to the meeting, it was noted that sharing struggles like the victory of the Québec students is important at this time.  “Of course, we see the World Festival of Youth and Students as an excellent venue to come together and share our struggles, and build the necessary unity for the struggles ahead.”

YCL Canada sends delegate to Ecuador

The Young Communist League of Canada is sending a delegate to attend the initial planning discussions for the next World Festival of Youth and Students, which is expected to be held in Ecuador. The meeting is taking place in Quito, Ecuador. 

In a press release meeting organizers said that "issues such as the role of student movements in the social transformation, capitalism in crisis and the post-capitalist alternative, organizational experiences of struggle and resistance, as well as youth, State and Revolution, will be discussed.

"Other issues to discuss are youth solidarity and commitment for world peace, people's self-determination and the Citizen Revolution in Ecuador, as well as the creation of an anti-imperialist platform."

Below are photos by YCL delegate Drew Garvie showing, in order, the Communist Party of Ecuador building, a member of the Rafael Correa government addressing the meeting, Mountains in the region which boarders close to the headwaters of the Amazon, a view of Quito and the Presidential palace. Rebel Youth will carry a full report when Drew returns.

Five facts about the 'Republic of the Ecuator'

1. The capital of Ecuador is Quito, the highest capital city in the world and one of the largest, least-altered and best-preserved historic centers in the Americas, declared by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage site in 1978;

2.  The president of Ecuador is Rafael Correa, a progressive politician who fought for anti-poverty strategies and canceled Ecuador's debt, breaking with IMF policies and instead drew Ecuador into alliance with the Bolivarian Revolution and lead the re-writing of the Constitution of the country along more democratic lines. He is fluent in Spanish and the indigenous language of Quechua as well as French and English.

3. Since 2000, the currency of Ecuador has been the US dollar. The current administration is trying to break away from the dollar and is discussing a pan-Latin American currency. It also cancelled the contact for the major US military base in Ecuador, forcing them to withdraw.

4. Ecuador is about to sieze $200 million of Chevron assets because of pollution by that company in the Amazon.

5. Ecuador country has three main geographic regions, plus an insular region in the Pacific Ocean: La Sierra, ("the highlands") is the high-altitude belt running north-south along the centre of the country, its mountainous terrain dominated by the Andes mountain range; La Amazonía, also known as El Oriente ("the east"), comprises the Amazon rainforest areas in the eastern part of the country, accounting for just under half of the country's total surface area, though populated by less than 5% of the population; and The Región Insular is the region comprising the Galápagos Islands, some 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) west of the mainland in the Pacific Ocean.

WFDY on Ecuador

Solidarity with Ecuador!

The World Federation of Democratic Youth has received the news of the attempted coup d’etat that is taking place in Ecuador by the police forces, the air force and the patriotic forces lead by Lucio Gutierrez, attempting to defeat the process of change that has been taking place in the country.

We are facing an attempt to repeat what took place in Honduras and we are sure that it is the US imperialism, hand by hand with the submissive bourgeoisie of the country, that is behind all these maneuvers to destroy the process of change lead by President Correa.

WFDY expresses it total rejection and condemnation of this attempt of coup d’etat and underlines its full support to the Ecuadorian government, calling upon all its member and friendly organizations to join the worldwide solidarity and demonstrate in front of all Ecuadorian embassies in support of the Citizen Revolution lead by President Correa and the people of Ecuador that struggles to build a better society with wide participation of all!

Chavez Condemns 'Coup Attempt' On Ecuador's Correa

By Dan Molinski Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuela President Hugo Chavez on Thursday condemned a "coup attempt" on Ecuador President Rafael Correa and said the fellow leftist leader is being held against his will.

"Correa's life is in danger ... he's been kidnapped," Chavez said in a telephone interview on state television. "Venezuela is with him."

Officials in Ecuador said Correa is in a military hospital, after being affected by tear gas.

Chavez said he's been in communication with Correa by telephone throughout the day and said he and other South American leaders are "mobilizing" to reject the coup attempt. Chavez said he's spoken with Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentina's leader, Cristina Fernandez.

Venezuela's president said he was preparing to leave immediately for Buenos Aires, Argentina, where an emergency meeting of Unasur would condemn the actions in Ecuador. Unasur is a loose union of about a dozen South American nations.

Correa says the protests in Ecuador Thursday are an attempt by the opposition to destabilize his government.

The government declared a five-day state of emergency, mobilizing armed forces to guarantee order after protests and strikes led by police and some military officials. The protesters are unhappy with a planned cut in benefits.

Chavez' first public announcement on the unrest in Ecuador came via his Twitter account.

"They're trying to take down President Correa," Chavez said on the social-networking site, where he has about 900,000 followers. "Long live Correa."