Ecuador: MASSIVE MAY DAY MARCH IN IBARRA

We hereby share an unofficial translation of the report of 1st of May in Ibarra, Ecuador, by the Defense Front of the Workers Rights in Imbabura.

May Day in Ibarra demonstrated, once again, that not all of the labor movement or the organization of workers, peasants, and the masses is tainted by the rotten leadership of revisionism and opportunism; much less devoured or absorbed by the official narrative.

It must be firmly emphasized that the mobilization was united in character. It was not an isolated or “sectarian” march, as those who sought to impose their electoral and bureaucratic positions were shouting. More than two thousand demonstrators attended; various organizations that, aware of the situation facing our people and the country, decided to come together on a simple, dynamic, and combative platform of struggle, with clearly defined objectives: to combat imperialism, the fascist, criminal, and sell-out government, and any expression that pushes the masses to continue down the bureaucratic path; that is, no recalls, ballot boxes, elections, or any slogan or purpose that leads the people away from the path they must necessarily follow.

In this context, the Defense Front of the Workers Rights played a significant role as a space for coordination and a local reference point alongside the Open Assembly, the Imbabura Popular Front, and the Imbabura Workers’ United Front. Its presence helped to politically organize the participation of labor and popular sectors, preventing the march from becoming fragmented.

In this context, the Defense Front of the Workers Rights in Imbabura played a significant role as a coordinating body and local point of reference for the Open Assembly, the Imbabura Popular Front, and the Imbabura Workers’ United Front. Its presence helped to politically organize the participation of labor and popular sectors, ensuring that the march was not reduced to a merely symbolic expression, but rather laid the groundwork for proposing an organization willing to fulfill the mandates of the working class and the people in the streets.

Peasant and popular organizations added a deeper dimension to the mobilization. Their presence served as a reminder of the events of the last indigenous, peasant, and popular uprising, which put Noboa’s comprador regime in check. Undoubtedly, in Imbabura, the masses are brimming with optimism and a determination to fight. The province has become one of the regions most committed to the demands of workers, poor peasants, and also ordinary small and medium-sized producers, merchants, and popular sectors who see imperialism as a cancer that erodes the daily efforts of those seeking to sustain and revitalize the popular economy.

On that basis, an ANTI-IMPERIALIST REVOLUTIONARY BLOCK is taking shape, which helped elevate the political significance of the day. The march not only denounced the immediate problems facing workers; it also brought to the forefront the need to confront the country’s subjugation to the voracity of imperialism; the criminal militarization, political persecution, electoral opportunism, and false institutional solutions that seek to divert the popular struggle onto paths controlled by the State itself.

In this vein, May Day in Ibarra sent a clear message: the defense of workers cannot be separated from the struggle against imperialism, against State repression, and against opportunist leaderships that seek to turn popular discontent into a panacea for their own shadowy interests. The day demonstrated that there is a willingness to fight, but also the need to provide it with direction, organization, and political perspective.

The Great United March in Imbabura, together with the popular and anti-imperialist organizations present, now faces the challenge of turning this event into a mobilization of forces against imperialism and against Noboa’s puppet government. This task must be carried out in the streets, in the countryside, in the communities, through organization and struggle; no recall referendums, ballot boxes, or strategies created and reproduced by certain “caudillos,” [Translators note: A reference to different opportunist, union and electoralist leaders] who seek only to tame the combative will of the masses and push us to repeat the history we have lived through after every uprising or day of struggle: betrayal in the electoral sewer.

May Day in Ibarra has taught us some important lessons. Firstly: that it is possible to forge alliances with sectors that are increasingly taking clear, objective, and class-independent positions. We salute this effort to carry out a mobilization aimed at uniting those organizations and individuals capable of standing, marching, and fighting together. Secondly: that workers, poor peasants, and the people in general have sufficient reasons to fight, but that struggle requires correct ideological leadership and strong mass organization; and finally, that in the face of the entire international and national scenario: IT’S RIGHT TO REBEL!

Today, labor, peasant, and popular organizations have taken a significant step forward. They have been united under the banners of anti-imperialism, and that is important, because it is on the basis of the struggle against criminal imperialism and abject Zionism that we can frame the struggles for national sovereignty, against the precariousness of labor, against State-sanctioned violence, against the Noboa government – one of the most reactionary, anti-popular, repressive, mafia-like, and sell-out regimes that the country’s recent history has known; and, obviously, against opportunism, the inseparable enemy of every truly popular struggle.

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