Saturday, April 21, 2007

Editorial of En Marcha Resounding: Victory of the People and the Left in Equador

Resounding Victory of the People and the Left

Editorial of the weekly En Marcha, number 1355, organ of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador

The victory of the YES was crushing; 78% of Ecuadorians expressed their desire for change by opening the way to calling the National Constituent Assembly, which will now become the objective over which the various popular and political organizations will act.

Together with this victory of the workers and peoples of Ecuador, of the parties of the left and other emocratic and progressive forces that waged the campaign in favor of the Yes, came the defeat of the right represented by the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Party, Patriotic Society and the PRIAN, by the Chambers of Commerce and big communications media such as Teleamazonas, Telecentro, Gamavision, El Comercio and El Universo, who waged a widespread and aggressive anti-communist campaign. The right hoped at least, to win 20 to 25% of the votes in favor of the NO, in order to claim "victory" to minimize the legitimacy of calling the Constituent Assembly. Now, they cynically claim that they do not feel defeated and that they are part of the forces interested in change.

The people voted to put end to a Constitution that makes neo-liberalism the official "model of development"; but as soon as the results were known, the right said that it was necessary to reach a consensus among all the social and political sectors of the country to draft a Constitution that will take into account everyone's opinions, that is, that maintains the conceptions and juridical scaffold that defends the economic and political interests of the bourgeoisie and imperialism.

There can be no agreement or consensus with the bourgeoisie and the representatives of imperialism; the people have fought for change and now want the Constituent Assembly to draw up a political Charter that will create the conditions that will introduce profound transformations in Ecuador. Of course, for this to occur, the left-wing, progressive and democratic forces should form the majority representation in the Constituent Assembly and block the road to the right wing that also wants to have its representatives in the Assembly. The structure of unity lists, that will unite representatives of the movements, parties and organizations of the tendency that is fighting for social change, is fundamental. It would be a serious error if, with the crushing victory of the Yes, exclusivist positions would arise that underestimate the importance and force of unity, and that would fragment those who should march and act in unity in the next electoral contest and in the Assembly itself. We must face the right-wing united, and not think that the defeat they have now suffered means their final burial.

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