Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Ecuador’s Economy Under Rafael Correa: Twenty-First Century Socialism or the New-Extractivism?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, July 12, 2010

Ecuador’s Economy Under Rafael Correa: Twenty-First Century Socialism or the New-Extractivism?

from Unside Down World.

This is an interview with Alberto Acosta, ex-Minister of Energy and Mines, and ex-President of the Constituent Assembly [Ecuador], in his Quito office on July 8, 2010. In the interview he makes some very interesting comments about the dependence of his country and others to sell their resources on the world market. I'm inclined to think that he is correct when he states,

Socialism of the twenty-first century has absolutely no meaning. It has no meaning. We need to rescue socialism from the errors of the last century, but we can’t do this by promoting some kind of “new age” socialism. For me, twenty-first century socialism has no meaning, it is pure rhetoric.

It appears to me that leftist leaders of South America are following the lead of China and Brazil by instituting more government control over their capitalist economies to serve national interests instead of merely the Empire's, and providing some concessions to minority participation in decision making.