An uprising without revolutionary orientation, without workers’ demands, and marked by reformist aspirations for improvements within capitalism

The National Strike in Ecuador, which revived the mass protests of 2019 and 2022, lasted for approximately 31 days, beginning in September 2025. The strike was called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the United Workers’ Front (FUT) against the decision of Daniel Noboa’s government to eliminate the diesel subsidy. The measure, which caused a sharp rise in fuel prices, particularly affected transportation, agricultural production, and rural areas, where a large part of the indigenous and peasant population resides. Mobilization and the closure of access roads in different regions were the main forms of protest.

On Wednesday, October 22, CONAIE announced the end of the national strike, the clearing of roads, and the withdrawal of its supporters to their territories. The government maintained its policy of dismantling the fuel subsidy, acting decisively in repressing the protests, taking advantage of the state of emergency decree initially approved to deal with criminal groups involved in drug trafficking. The government, in its narrative, has promoted the opinion that social protest is linked to the activity of transnational criminal groups, describing the protest actions as acts of “terrorism”. The entire police, military, and judicial apparatus in capitalism is designed to repress the working class and any oppressed social stratum, and this will not change within the framework of bourgeois democracy, even if governments change, including a hypothetical government supported by CONAIE.

CONAIE leader Marlon Vargas said the decision was “difficult but necessary” and was made hours after President Noboa threatened a “stronger decision” to “open all avenues”. The main reason was the need to “protect his people” in the face of intensifying government repression.

The mobilization left a tragic toll of three community members dead and hundreds injured (figures vary between 200 and 300), in addition to more than 200 detained.

The government decided to increase the price of diesel from $1.80 to $2.80. With this decision to eliminate the diesel subsidy, the government seeks to reduce the fiscal deficit and fulfill commitments to organizations such as the IMF. This measure triggered the protests, as the rise in fuel prices directly impacts transportation costs and, therefore, the price of basic goods, but also impacts the costs of various economic activities carried out by farmers and merchants (many of whom are of indigenous origin) and even those engaged in “artisanal” and illegal mining.

Based on its multi-class approach, CONAIE (and workers’ organizations such as FUT, which joined the movement) focused its list of demands on:

Repeal of Decree 126 (elimination of the diesel subsidy), defense of public health and education, and rejection of neoliberal policies.

Demanding attention and reparations for the victims of repression, the release of detained protesters, and an end to the criminalization of social protest.

Rejection of new mining and oil concessions and their environmental impact on the Amazon (which also has a significant impact on Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela).

Neither the FUT nor CONAIE demanded a wage increase. The Unified Basic Wage (SBU) has remained low ($460 in 2024), which contrasts with the high cost of the Basic Family Basket, which far exceeds the minimum income. The situation is aggravated by unemployment and growing informal employment, which makes jobs precarious, and the difficulty of accessing formal employment.

The CONAIE strikes, which the FUT has always joined, have been dominated by a multi-class approach that practically ignores the demands of workers. We cannot continue to repeat uprisings without revolutionary orientation, without workers’ demands, and restricted to reformist demands for improvements to bourgeois democracy within capitalism. These strikes have essentially served as escape valves for social pressure, facilitating the continued domination of the capitalists, who extract surplus value and profits from all their businesses (including the drug trade) by exploiting wage labor.

A new path is being proposed for future struggles

The only way to advance in the conquest of socio-economic demands (despite their short-lived duration) and to confront the root cause of the evils suffered by the working class and the oppressed in general (capitalism) is through class struggle. In Ecuador and throughout the world, it is necessary that the struggles for different demands be placed within the framework of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

Regardless of ethnic origin (Mestizo, Montubio, Indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian, White, or other), workers must join genuine class-based unions that embrace the strike as their main form of struggle and reject electoralism and the pursuit of seats in parliament. Grassroots organization should aim to establish workers’ assemblies and committees in different localities, integrating workers from different trades and branches of economic activity, without excluding any ethnicity or nationality, including the unemployed and day laborers, “self-employed” or informal workers.

It is important that the movement unite around a list of demands, which should include:
     - Demand for a significant increase in wages, pensions, and retirement benefits.
     - Rejection of lower wages (for equal work) for ethnic minorities. Equal work, equal pay, regardless of gender and ethnicity.
     - Demand for compensation payments for the unemployed.
     - Opposition to overtime work.
     - A working week of 30 hours or less.
     - Health and safety at work.
     - Opposition to the repression of workers’ struggles.

A key factor in the movement in Ecuador taking a revolutionary course is the integration of the most advanced fighters as militants of the International Communist Party, to give the local movement a communist focus and an international projection.