The growers went on strike August 16 in El Oro province to protest the payment by some exporting companies of as little as 60 cents per box--less than one-quarter the price of $2.90 fixed under law. They backed up their stoppage by blocking highways in the area. Four days later bananeros in Guayas, Los Ríos, and Cotopaxi provinces joined the action, organizing sit-down strikes and preventing trucks from transporting the crop. On August 27 the government promised to guarantee the payment of the full price.

The New York daily El Diario newspaper reported that lost earnings from the strike amounted to more than $30 million. Next to the oil industry, the banana trade is Ecuador's biggest export earner. The international trade in bananas from Latin American countries is dominated by U.S. corporations like Dole and Chiquita.

Social struggles in this country of some 12 million people have mounted in recent years, especially in response to government attempts to slash price subsidies and to implement other austerity measures demanded by International Monetary Fund officials on behalf of the imperialist powers.

Around 41,000 public workers organized a protest strike in mid-July in support of demands for wage increases. The action was organized partly in solidarity with 16,000 doctors in state hospitals, who had stopped all but emergency services two weeks earlier. The president of the National Doctors Federation, Héctor Jarrín, explained that doctors receive between $52 and $280 each month--insufficient, he said, "to live with dignity."

The government of Gustavo Noboa has been working to cobble together an agreement with leaders of indigenous peoples organizations, in fear of further protests by these working people, who have already helped to spearhead an upsurge which forced the resignation of his predecessor.

Meanwhile, Noboa and economy minister Jorge Gallardo have announced a new package of "reforms" designed to "end the country's tradition of lax fiscal discipline," according to the Financial Times. The government claims it will use oil export earnings to reduce the national budget deficit and public debt. "Having dollarised its economy last year, Ecuador's maintenance of a low deficit is more important than ever, because it can no longer issue money or control exchange rates," noted the big business paper.

In a country where 70 percent of the population live under the official poverty line, some 1,400 people leave each day "in search of work and better conditions of life," reported the EFE news service on August 20. The total exodus amounted to 243,000 people over the last three years. Most travel to the United States, Italy, and Spain. Remittances from workers overseas exceeded $1.3 million last year.  
 
 
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