Re: [Marxism] Hints as to Correa's direction? Ecuador's New mining law

[Sean Andrews <cultstud76@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 13:47, Rod Holt <rholt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>   Correa has called opponents of the law "fundamentalists" who
>   would leave Ecuador as a country of "beggars sitting on a sack of
>   gold."

There is a sort of truth to this.  I mean the problem in the past
hasn't just been that there was environmental destruction, it was that
the proceeds didn't stay in the country and/or they only benefited a
select few, often not those who were near the site of the devastation.
 Since the Ecuadorian economy is basically going to be about resource
extraction or tourism until they are able to produce internally, I
don't think this can be an either or thing.  In other words, it isn't
about whether they extract the products from the mines, its what they
do with the capital, who benefits, etc.  I think the indigenous and
environmental groups have to keep his feet to the fire, but I don't
know what the alternative is--other than having the entire country
forcibly revert to an indigenous way of life.

I do see the point made by those indigenous groups who will be
affected that this is not a democratic process, however, and I wonder
what the other option is for how to raise capital.  He tried the
Yasuni route--getting the international community to pay them not to
extract oil--but that, so far, has yielded nothing.  He's defaulted on
some of the debt so the money made will more likely stay in the
country, but outside of this, I don't see what options he has for
macroeconomic policy.  Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture--or maybe
I'm assuming the picture is bigger than it is.

s

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