Surviving a house fire and grateful for firefighters

Roscoe, our hero

Note: I've been up all night so this is a bit rushed but a personal account of a rather unpleasant experience.

Our little Jack Russell wouldn't stop barking this morning around 1 am. He hears people walk by sometimes and we had gone to bed late so we didn't pay too much attention to it.  I can't hear so well these days anyway but my wife thought she heard some sort of crackling noise and opened the hallway door to the living and dining room.

"There's a fire, there's a fire" she screamed.

I assumed she meant down the street so I got up and walked to the hallway door but as I peered in to the dining room I saw that the side of the house was ablaze along with the three huge shrubs that border it.

For a fleeting moment it entered my head to rush out the back and get a hold of the garden hose or the extinguisher that was in the laundry room but I could see that the blaze was advancing rapidly; this was serious. 

What met us as we walked in to the living room

The dogs were beginning to panic and headed toward the back in to the den.  But the back door was locked and even if we left it would be difficult to get out in to the street.  We called the dogs but they wouldn't come; they just stood at the back door.  The glass was beginning to melt or break out and the smoke was making it more difficult to breath so we rushed back and grabbed the dogs and headed for the door.  My wife called 911 as we headed out.

The flames were reaching over the roof by now and as I looked at it I felt sure that our home was going to burn to the ground.  But the fire department arrived and managed to subdue the fire, it didn't burn the house to the ground but our home is unliveable at this point and we have yet to figure out exactly what we have lost.

This is the third time in my life I have had personal connections to firefighters in the course of their work.  Once was when a tanker truck turned over and I was on the trouble truck working the midnight shift for my employer, the East Bay Municipal Utility District.  The firefighters were dousing this ticking time bomb with foam and flame retardant.  Before I left they were sending for a welder to cut in to the thing it was hard to believe but there are welders that can do that apparently.

I worked alongside them during the Oakland fire that destroyed some 4000 homes back in the early nineties, fireighters died during that catastrophe. I worked alongside them on other occasions when vehicles hit fire hydrants or during emergencies.  Imagine where we would be if such a service was left to market forces.  It is fashionable to attack firefighters and blame them for the economic crisis.  Right wing toadies often make remarks about them sitting around all day doing nothing etc. etc. These same people bootlick the likes of Rush Limbaugh and wasters like Donald Trump.  But firefighters provide a great public service and when they go out they more often than not risk their lives for our safety.  As we ran out they came to run in.

After they subdued the fire they walked us through our burnt out home, showed us what had been done and advised us on what we should be doing in the immediate term to set things in to motion.  They didn't ask us what our price range  was or what options we had, which plan would we like. They made sure they didn't leave until we had somewhere to go and felt totally comfortable with it.  They would stay with us if need be. I never dreamed we would be vitims of a house fire; it's a bit overwhelming.

When I was still active in my Union, I wrote two letters that the membership passed to the firefighter locals in NYC whose members responded to the attacks on the twin towers; we also sent a donation.  Next time you here these toadies attack firefighters, come to their defence; they are dedicated workers that provide a crucial public service; like the USPS, they are very efficient if you don't judge efficiency by how much profit the coupon clipeprs make.

I am grateful to the San Leandro fire department for their help last night. A friend from London who sent me an e mail pointed out that firefighters over there are facing the same attacks under the guise of austerity in hard times and the need for "shared sacrifice". An attack on public sector workers like the attacks on all workers is an atack on our communities and our well being. They bailed out bankers at our expense we don't need to cut services.

My neighbors also came out and stood with us as we watched this unpleasant event and, like the firefighters, you don't know how good neighbors really are until something like this happens.  The collective human spirit is a hard thing to supress.

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Stan Goff on what it means to join the US military

Sound advice from Stan Goff. This was recorded in 2007 but it's obviously still relevant and worth sharing. Stan Goff was a Master Sgt.in the US Special Forces.His website is http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/

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Australian Jews shaken by the Ben Zygier affair.

Writing in the Israeli paper, Haaretz, Chemi Salev states:

"Australian Jews love Israel. Many of them commit significant amounts of time, energy and wealth to promoting, assisting and defending Israel. They visit Israel frequently and they send their children for extended stays, usually temporarily, often permanently. On a per capita basis, they are the most generous Jewish community in the world, and they may very well be the most Israel-devoted Jewish community in the world."

"Most Australian Jews love Israel without any conditions, qualifications or reservations. They don’t think it is their business to censure Israel from such a great distance in public, even when they disagree with its policies in private. They tend to criticize and often ostracize anyone who thinks or behaves otherwise. In many ways, they are what many Israelis think a model Diaspora community should look like."

I've been on the receiving end of this pro-Zionist ostracism and criticism in the past.  I've had arguments with some American Jews who equate Muslim or Palestinian anger and at times hatred of Israel and Jews with the traditional anti-Semitism of the European variety.  In fact, it is more common than not that if a Gentile criticizes Israel they'll be accused of anti-Semitism and if Jews do it they are "Self hating Jews."

I am sure that if Australian Jews were targeted by some Palestinian faction or simply as an act of vengeance by a lone Palestinian who might have had their home bulldozed and land taken to make way for immigrants from South Africa, Europe, or perhaps some retired US businessman who believes this land was given to him by god, they would claim the motive was anti-Semitism.

The reason the issue of Australian Jews comes up is the death of a Jewish Australian, Ben Zygier who died while under arrest in Israel.  Zygier was recruited by Mossad in 2000 according to reports and he was an ardent Zionist like many Australian Jews.

The controversy deepens given that an Australian passport was used when the Mossad murdered Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 19 January 2010.  This caused considerable concern and Israel faced some open criticism for it.  There is speculation that Zygier, also known as Ben Alon knew too much about September 11th or the assassination of Al-Mabhouh but either way the affair has gotten Australian Jews real edgy as there is some anti-Israeli sentiment being expressed in Australia about the death of an Australian citizen in Israeli custody.  The other aspect of this is which country Australian Jews are loyal to.

Ben Saul, the director of the Sydney Center for International Law at Sydney Law School, accused Israelis of being "masters of all the dark arts: assassination, abduction, torture, violent interception of civilians at sea and colonizing foreign territory." but in the main Australian Jewish leaders have been fairly quiet about it all according to the press.

But when Haaretz writes that Australian Jews don't, "think it is their business to censure Israel from such a great distance in public, even when they disagree with its policies in private." It makes me wonder what the writer would be saying were someone to utter those same words about a country they didn't live in but that that they may have originated from or, as Zionists argue, was given to them by god, and that country was persecuting Jews, treating them the way the Zionist regime treats Palestinians.  What if we said the same about Apartheid South Africa?  And what if we said the same about the Taliban's treatment of women?  "It's not my business to tell them what to do."

If that is how Australian Jews think, and in my experience it's how a lot of Jews in the Diaspora think, criticism of Israel is off limits, then they must expect that anger or hatred of Israeli policies can be felt toward Jews outside of that country who say nothing.  To criticize Israel is not anti-Semitic.  I am not saying that anger at Israel doesn't spill over in to a general anger at or hatred of Jews, this happens in all such instances and would be anti-Semitism I suppose but not the same as that which occurred in Europe.   

Many Jews are involved in the struggle for Palestinian rights and have died for their beliefs, I think Rachel Corrie, the young American run over by a bulldozer as she defended a Palestinian family's home from being demolished was Jewish. By tying themselves to Israel especially being uncritical of the regime and its brutal treatment of Palestinians, Jews around the world set themselves up for criticism.  Norman Finkelstein is a frequent critic of Israeli policies and a heroic figure in my opinion.  He has been savaged by Zionists for his views. There is an excellent interview with him here: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/2011/04/2011412103819678591.html

While one can understand the popularity that Zionism gained among Europe's Jews after the experience of Stalinist persecution and then the Nazi extermination camps, the Zionist regime is anything but a nation offering a secure future for the world's Jews, it is an apartheid state that continues to be the major destabilizing factor in the Middle East and harmful to the security of Jews throughout the world.

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Spanish airline workers battle cops; fight for jobs

The strike by Spanish employers of Iberia Airlines got off to a violent start today as, to phrase it in media spin, “Striking workers clashed with police”. I may appear to be nitpicking to some readers but describing this as a “clash” doesn’t explain much which is why it is described that way. More accurately, the arm of the government we call the police, is being used (through whatever methods necessary including violence) to prevent workers from stopping the restructuring of the airline and elimination of jobs; profits must come first. Stopping production is economic terrorism from the bosses’ point of view. The media pointed out that some of the workers attacked their British bosses with chants of “British go Home” which is unfortunate as the crisis affecting all workers in Europe needs a Europe wide, in fact global response.

Not being on the ground, I cannot determine the depth of this nationalist expression and it could be very limited but it is an example of the Team Concept along national lines, siding with our national employers against foreign competitors. Both Spain and Greece have seen repeated strikes and protests (numerous General Strikes for Greece) against austerity measures without much success. General Strikes cannot go on indefinitely. A General Strike places the issue of state power on the table and at some point continued strikes with no resolution demoralizes workers and opens the door to right wing and fascist forces as we have seen in Greece with the growth of Golden Dawn. The vacuum has to be filled.  The European bourgeois were burned by fascism in the past which helps to keep it at bay, but will not hesitate to return to it if it appears they could lose all.

The strikes in Spain are expected to be in five-day intervals. Tourism is a major source of revenue for Spain at about 11% of economic output and the strikes will have a major affect in a country with a 26% unemployment rate. The stakes are high though and it is an absolute certainty that the state will respond with severe repression rather than allow the workers to dictate economic policy or infringe on the right of investors to rake in the cash at workers’ expense. Like Greece, though, the Spanish working class is not in the position to defeat what amounts to a global capitalist offensive in isolation. While the workers' leaders in Europe are definitely different than those here in the US, on the major issues they are the same; the market and capitalism must be bailed out at all costs-----the alternative is chaos.

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Ireland: Magdalene Laundries, rape and forced labor

We reprint the piece below from the Irish Journal as a compliment to the video above documenting the Magdalen laundries where young Irish girls and women were imprisoned and forced to do slave labor.  The tragic story of the woman in the piece who died there at the age of 49 and was raped while a prisoner there is not an isolated incident. The story is told by her child.  The Irish state and the Catholic Church are responsible for this atrocity and the crimes committed under their care.  Compensation is also due all the women whose unpaid labor brought considerable income to the Church coffers. The Irish government has still not apologized for its collusion with the Catholic Church in these slave labor schemes. If you haven't seen the Magdalen Sisters, it's a movie worth seeing.  

A Magdalene daughter shares her story
   
‘Margaret died of her slave-related injuries’:

“Margaret was committed to industrial school in 1954. She was 2 yrs 4 mths old. She left 49 years later in a coffin.” HER FIRST TWEET simply said: “My mother was Magdalene No. 322. Real name Margaret.” It was met by a number of reactions, including disbelief that Magdalenes were given numbers. “Yes,” replied Samantha Long. “I was looking over her records today and thought I’d share that. Awful.” The Twitter user was talking about her late mother, Margaret Bullen, a woman taken into the Magdalene Laundries system when she was just two years old. Just days ahead of the publication of a report into the level of State involvement at the now-infamous institutions, Long decided to share her family’s story.

There had been a campaign to get the hashtag #justiceformagdalenesNOW trending on Twitter to raise awareness last night and the Dublin woman’s provocative, powerful and heartbreaking tweets achieved that aim. READ: ‘A life unlived’: Margaret Bullen’s story With her kind permission, we have reproduced her timeline here: My mother was Magdalene No. 322. Real name Margaret Margaret was committed to industrial school in 1954. She was 2 yrs 4 mths old. She left 49 years later in a coffin. By the age of 5, Margaret was preparing breakfast for 70 children including herself from 4am. Child labour Margaret was noted in her records as “nervous, timid, fretful, a bed-wetter”. No wonder, she was never toilet trained Margaret didn’t know where she was from or when her birthday was. We told her when she was 42 At age 13, Margaret had her IQ measured. She was “certified” as fit for work, unfit for education. Labour camps.

Margaret never lived in the outside world, although she lived just off O’Connell Street in our capital city Margaret didn’t know how to handle money. She had none, and no posessions Margaret never went on a date, Never had a boyfriend. Never fell in love. But she was impregnated in care Margaret’s twin daughters were taken from her 7 weeks after she gave birth.When she saw us again we were 23 When we reunited at the Gresham, Margaret was 42. Not that you’d think it At The Gresham in 1995, Margaret was excited. Not just to meet us,but it was the first time she ever tasted coffee When I became a mother in 2004, it was the first time I allowed myself to grieve for Margaret’s life unlived, denials Margaret and my family enjoyed each other for a few years, hard to recreate deep love after so long Margaret died in July 2003, one day before her 51st birthday.

She died of her slave related injuries Six months after her death, her first grandchild was born. She would have loved her four grandchildren I hope for justice for Margaret and her friends on Tuesday. Thank you all so much for the support. I think she knows I am astounded at the reaction to my tweets about Margaret.Impossible to reply to all.Thank you,I am humbled Goodnight all,finally. Míle buíochas #justiceformagdalenesNOW Senator Martin McAleese’s report has been sent to Justice Minister Alan Shatter, who will publish it in full on Tuesday afternoon, following a Cabinet meeting. The long-awaited report has been delayed multiple times since the inter-departmental committee was established in response to a recommendation from the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT). That body said it was “gravely concerned” at the failure of the State to protect girls and women who were involuntarily confined between 1922 and 1996. Advocacy groups have called for a full State apology, as well as a proper, transparent compensation scheme for survivors. About 30,000 women were incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1996. TheJournal.ie has previously told Margaret’s story and that piece can be found here. Samantha Long has also written about both her mothers in this touching blog post.

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Obama to Pre-Schoolers: This Won't Hurt a Bit

In his State of the Union message earlier this week, Barack Obama announced his intention to focus on "improving" early childhood ("pre-K") education -- in much the way he and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, have "improved" K-12 education. Here's a poem by the writer Mark Naison, circulating on education activist lists, that gives a pretty good preview of what Obama has in mind:


On the President's New "Pre-School Initiative”
By Mark Naison

Test them in the cradle
Test them in the crib
Test them in the infant seat
And when they wear a bib
Test them eating baby food
And when they ride a bike
Test them when they fall asleep
Or picking up a mike
If you don't test your infants
They'll never get a job
Sorting shirts in Wal-Mart
They'll probably steal and rob
The entire US economy
Depends on taking tests
We'll never compete globally
And fall behind the rest

Illustration:
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=852

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Ecuador's balancing act on the oil pipeline

The oil industry's gift to Ecuador

My knowledge of the situation in Ecuador is limited but as I read this interesting piece from Professor James Petras, a couple of things stood out.  One is that it's quite clear that income can be wrung out of the global oil giants, something we in the US need to recognize. Correa has increased oil tax on multinationals from 20% to 85%, no small change,  and much of the added revenue has been used to improve social conditions for a large and diverse section of Ecuadorian society.  But this progress is entirely dependent on high oil prices and hardly stable as 50% of Ecuador's export earnings come from the sale of this one commodity.

But for now, Correa and others in the region have been able to "buy" a certain amount of stability.  However, this situation is a very precarious one, subject to global economic conditions and this deal with the global energy giants. I think the other issues are the inability of US imperialism to simply dictate policy in this region and especially to force policy through military or partial military intervention relying more on covert CIA type activities. The US is bogged down in the Middle East, expanding its role in Africa against Islamic forces and in Asia to contain China. The Chinese presence in Latin America has also changed the situation there. Then there is Venezuela and Bolivia.

I cringe when people like Prof Petras refers to groups like the FARC as "Marxist" as from what I know of FARC, their approach is more guerrilla based, but it is interesting as he points out that this deal with the energy giants has marginalized more radical social movements but will continue to create continued environmental disasters and clashes with the Indigenous Movement over land acquisition and pollution.
These scenarios have been played out many times before as individual nations under the yoke of imperialism and the global market try to find a national solution to a global problem and I would think that the revolutionary tradition of the Latin American masses will exert itself again in the period ahead. (RM)

Ecuador: Left-Center Political Regimes versus Radical Social Movements

 
James Petras :: 11.02.13

Introduction: On February 17, 2013, national elections will take place in Ecuador in which incumbent left-center President, Rafael Correa, is likely to win with an absolute majority against opposition candidates covering the political spectrum from Right to Left.

Since he was first elected in 2006, Correa has won a string of elections, including presidential elections (2009), a constitutional referendum, a constituent assembly and a ballot on constitutional amendments. Correa’s electoral successes occur despite the opposition from the main Indian organizations, CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) and CONFENIAE, the principle public sector teachers unions, environmental NGOs and numerous radical intellectual, academics and trade union activists. He also has routed the traditional pro-US right-wing and liberal parties, successfully defeated and prosecuted the subversive intent of the mass media moguls and survived an aborted police-military coup in 2010. Unquestionably Correa has demonstrated his capacity to win repeated elections and even increase his margin of victory.

The electoral successes of Correa raise fundamental issues which transcend the immediate context of Ecuadorean politics and reflect a general pattern throughout Latin America. These issues include: (1) the relation between mass social movements and left of center electoral parties and politicians. (2) The relation between pro-active extractive capitalist development strategies (mining, oil, agro-business), inclusionary social policies and anti-imperialist regional foreign policies. (3) The inverse relation between the growth and consolidation of a left-center regime and the decline and weakening of radical social movements. (4) The problem of the initial convergence and divergence between radical social movements and left-center political leaders; as they move from ‘opposition’ to political power. (5) The shifts in power between movements and electoral politicians, with the former exercising greater capacity to mobilize during the period of opposition to the Right and the latter dominating and dictating the political agenda subsequent to securing electoral office.

The Politics of Post Neo-Liberalism
Correa’s “citizen based” electoral movement, operates from positions in government and eschews any ‘class framework’. In fact in its broadest terms, it appeals to and directs government programs to both the urban poor and the big foreign petroleum multi-nationals; the small and medium size business people and the Guayaquil business elite; workers in the informal sector and the public sector professionals and employees, the returning immigrants from Europe (especially Spain) and the construction, real estate and communication elite.

In foreign policy Correa has supported and has the backing of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments and is a member of ALBA; it has received large scale low interest loans from China (in exchange for oil investment and trade agreements) and retains commercial ties with the US and EU. Correa has backed greater Latin American integration and signed off on major public-private petrol contracts with US and European oil companies. He claims to be a socialist but condemns the Marxist FARC and praises the Colombian regimes’ ‘neo-liberalism’; questioned the illegal foreign debt (lowering it by 60%) and at the same time retains the dollar as Ecuador’s currency and opens indigenous territories to foreign capital exploitation.
In a word Correa’s “post neo-liberal policies” combine ‘nationalist populist’ and neo-liberal policies more than a program for the 21st century socialism that he proclaims.

Perspectives on President Correa’s Government
The national-populist extractive policies and development strategy of the Correa regime has polarized opinion across the hemisphere and within Ecuador. On the extreme right Washington and its mass media acolytes view Ecuador as a radical ‘socialist regime’. They take at face value Correa’s embrace of “21st century socialism”, in large part because of his ties to Venezuela, membership in ALBA, renegotiation of the foreign debt and Ecuador’s giving political asylum (in its British embassy) to Julian Assange, the Wilkileak’s leader.

Echoing Washington’s ‘radical leftist’ label are the traditional and newly minted rightist parties (Sociedad Patriotica) who have been marginalized by Correa’s electoral successes. Their critique of Correa’s early nationalist policies, renegotiating the debt and prevailing oil contracts, is now tempered by his recent large scale, long term investment agreement with several foreign multinational petroleum companies. The Ecuadorean oligarchy while publically condemning Correa are privately busy negotiating public-private procurement agreements especially in communications, infrastructure and banking.

The Indian movement, CONAIE, peasants, the teachers union, the ecology-NGOs and some smaller leftist parties oppose Correa for his “sellout” to the big oil companies, his authoritarian centralized power, the expansion of exploitation in the Amazon region and territorial encroachment and threats to Indian lands, water and health.

In contrast to internal opposition from the social movements, the vast majority of leftist parties and center-leftist regimes in Latin America, led by Cuba and Venezuela, are staunch supporters and allies of the Correa regime based primarily on his anti-imperialist policies, support for regional integration and opposition to US interventionist and destabilization policies in the region.
Internationally Correa has widespread support among progressives in the US and Europe especially for his early policies questioning the legality of the foreign debt, his rhetorical proposal to conserve the Amazon in exchange for cash transfers from the EU/US, his renegotiations of the oil contracts and his anti-imperialist pronouncements. Most important, Correa has secured long term large scale financial aid from China in exchange for exploitation of its oil resources.

Buttressed by allies in Latin America and Asia, Correa has effectively resisted pressures from the outside from the US. Internally, Correa has built a formidable bloc of social and political forces which has effectively countered opposition from the oligarchical right as well as from the once powerful radical social movements. The sustained popular majorities backing Correa from 2006 to the present 2013 are based essentially on several factors - substantial increases in social expenditures benefiting popular constituencies and nationalist policies increasing state revenues. The entire Correa paradigm, however, is based on one singular factor – the high price for oil and the boom in commodity prices which finances his strategy of extractive capital led growth and expenditures for social inclusion.

The Social Bases of Correa’s Popularity
Correa’s electoral victories are directly related to his populist social policies financed by the substantial oil revenues resulting from the high prices and huge increase from the renegotiation of the oil contracts with the multi-nationals – an increase from a 20% to an 85% tax. Correa increased the health budget from $561 million in 2006 to $774 million in 2012, about 6.8% of the national budget. Clinics have multiplied, the price of medications has been reduced as a result of a joint venture with the Cuban firm Enfarm, and access to medical care has vastly improved. Educational spending has increased from 2.5% of GDP in 2006 to 6% in 2013, including a free lunch program for children. The regime has increased state subsidies for social housing, especially for low income classes as well as returning immigrants. To lower unemployment, Correa has allocated $140 million in micro credits to finance self-employment, a measure especially popular among workers in the “informal sector”. By effectively reducing the debt to foreign creditors by two-thirds (debt service runs to 2.24% of GDP), Correa has increased the minimum wage and pensions for low income retirees thus expanding the social security system.

Anti-poverty subsidies, payments of $35 monthly (increased to $50 two weeks before the Elections) to poor families and the disabled and low interest loans have allowed Correa to gain influence and divide the opposition movements in the countryside. Business elites especially in Guayaquil and the middle and upper echelon of the public sector especially in the petrol sector, have become important contributors and backers of Correa’s electoral machine.

As a result of State subsidies, contracts and the backing of business and banking sectors and the weakening of the opposition media elites, Correa has built a broad electoral base that transverses the class spectrum. The entire ‘popular alliance’ is, however, highly dependent on Correa’s pact with extractive multi-nationals. His electoral success is a result of a strategy based on the revenue from a narrowly based export sector. And the export sector is highly dependent on the expansion of oil exploitation in the Amazon region which adversely affects the livelihood and health of the indigenous communities, who in turn are highly organized and in a permanent ‘resistance mode”.

The Contradictions of Extractive Capitalism and Populist Politics: The Threats and Challenges to Social Movements
The oil sector accounts for over 50 percent of Ecuador’s export earnings and over one-third of all tax revenues. Production has oscillated around 500,000 barrels a day, with increasing shares sold to China and a decreasing percentage to the US. In February 2013 Ecuador signed contracts for $1.7 billion in investments to boost output in the Amazon fields with Canadian, US, Spanish and Argentine multi-nationals in association with the Ecuadorean state company Petroecuador.

The biggest oil investments in the history of Ecuador promise to increase the levels of oil spills, contamination of Indian communities and intensification of the conflicts between CONAIE and its ecological and movement allies and the Correa regime. In other words as Correa sustains and consolidates his majoritarian electoral support outside of the Amazon and adjoining regions with increased social expenditures based on rising oil revenues, he will further dispossess and alienate the movements of the interior.

Social inclusion of the urban masses and promotion of an independent foreign policy are based on an alliance with foreign extractive multi-nationals which undermine the habitation and economy of small producers and Indian communities.

The history of petroleum exploitation contamination up to the present day provides little evidence to support President Correa’s claims of environmental safeguards. Texaco/Chevron oil exploitation in the Amazon contaminated millions of acres, dispossessed scores of Indian communities and sickened thousands of inhabitants resulting in a judiciary award of $8 billion dollars in favor of the 30,000 indigenous people adversely affected.

Recently Correa’s proposed oil contracts with multi-nationals to exploit 13 blocks in the pristine Amazon region covering millions of acres and inhabited by seven Indian nationalities, without consulting the indigenous communities thus contravening his own newly written constitution. Powerful mobilizations, led by CONAIE and CONFEIAE (the Ecuadorean Confederation of Amazonian Indian Nationalities) on the 28th of November 2012 in Quito and in the regions targeted for exploitation, has caused several oil majors to delay drilling. In the face of determined Indian resistance, Correa has shown the authoritarian side of his regime: threatening to dispatch the military to occupy and forcibly impose a kind of ‘martial law’, raising the prospects of prolonged political warfare.

While Correa can and does win national elections and routs his electoral opposition in the big cities, he faces a resolute organized majority in the Amazon and adjoining regions. Correa’s dilemma is that unless he diversifies the economy and reaches a compromise via consultation with CONAIE, his dependence on new oil ventures drives him toward de facto alliance with the traditional export elites and greater dependence on the military and police.

The Latin American Context
Correa’s bet on an export strategy based on primary goods has created a potentially dynamic mega cycle of growth but it is increasingly dependent on high world prices for oil. Any significant decline in price would immediately lead to a precipitous fall in social expenditures, erode his social coalition and strengthen the opposition from the right and the radical social movements. Correa’s repeated electoral successes and his widespread support across the progressive and anti-imperialist political spectrum, has seriously weakened the radical social movements a pattern that has been repeated throughout Latin America.

In the previous decade, roughly the period of the 1990’s to the early years of the 21st century, the radical social movements took center stage in toppling rightwing, US backed neo-liberal regimes. Ecuador was no exception: CONAIE and its urban allies ousted the incumbent neo-liberal President Mahuad in January 21, 2000, and joined with Correa in driving the Lucio Gutierrez regime from power in April 2005. Similar mass struggles and social mobilizations ousted neo-liberals in Argentina and Bolivia, while movement backed center left politicians took power in Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru.

Once ensconced in power the center-left regimes adopted a commodity led export strategy, embraced partnerships with the MNC and built broad electoral conditions which marginalized the radical social movements; with the aid of increased revenues they substituted populist transfer payments for structural transformations.

Nationalist foreign policies were combined with alliances with big commodity based MNC. To the extent that class struggles emerged, the populist leaders condemned them and even accused their leaders of “conspiring with the Right” – thus questioning the legitimacy of their demands and struggles.

The post neo-liberal center-left regimes in Latin America, with their populist politics of ‘inclusion’ have been far more effective in reducing the appeal and influence of the radical mass social movements than the previous US backed repressive neo-liberal regimes.

Those social movements which opted to support and join the center-left regimes (or were co-opted) became transmission belts for extractive policies. Confined to administrating the regime’s anti-poverty programs and defending the extractive capitalist model, the co-opted leaders argued for higher tax revenues and social expenditures, and, occasionally, called for greater environmental controls. But ultimately the “insider strategy”, adopted by some social leaders, has led to bureaucratic subordination and the loss of any specific class loyalties.

Conclusion
National-populism is and will be challenged from within by its ‘allies’ among the MNC who will increasingly influence their ‘public sector partners’ and, from the ‘outside’, by the pressures from the world market. In the meantime as long as commodity prices hold and the nationalist-populist leaders continue their ‘inclusive’ social programs, Latin American politics will remain relative stable and the economy will continue to grow, but it will continue to face resistance from the alliance of eco-social and indigenous movements.

What lessons can be drawn from the past two decades of social movement – populist electoral party alliances? The message is both clear and ambiguous. Clearly movements which do not have an independent political perspective will lose out to their electoral allies. However, there is no question that because of movement action, the populist electoral class has legislated significant social expenditures benefiting the popular classes and pursued a relative independent foreign policy – an ambiguous legacy or unfinished history?

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