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

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sean Andrews quoted Rod Holt:
> Correa has called opponents of the law "fundamentalists" who
> would leave Ecuador as a country of "beggars sitting on a sack of
> gold."

Sean commented:
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.

Fred comments:
Sean has a point here, in my opinion.  Still, I think Correa should bow to
the self-determination of the native people at this time. This is partly a
product of the process being led by someone whose heart is in the right
place, I think, but who does not have deep enough roots and ties to the
movement that is transforming Ecuador. He is a well-intentioned individual
who was carried into the presidency by the popular movement but not quite an
organic part of it like Chavez or Morales (not to mention the Castro
brothers).

But I tend to reject charges that his policy is "neoliberal."

This has become another reason why I think, and have for a while, that
Ecuador needs an indigenous president and an indigenous-centered government
(even though they are not the majority of the population as in Bolivia as
far as I know). This is the kind of government best qualified to determine
how to make use of these resources, and to learn by experience whether the
position that arises out of the experiences of the indigenous movement needs
modification or not. 





________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu