The Indigenous Movement in Ecuador between Ethnic Identity, Eco-Social Struggles, and Class Alliances

The indigenous movement in Ecuador changed during the 1970s, leading to demands around a strong concept of territory as the basis of material and cultural reproduction of indigenous nationalities. Territorial autonomy became a central element of the discourse of the movement, amplified into the demand for a plurinational state since the 1980s. While this renewal was at first connected to the Catholic Church, the biggest national indigenous organization, CONAIE, focused on the double dimension of the problems of indigenous nationalities: as oppressed people and exploited class. This allowed to widen alliances with other social movements, since the 1990s, to NGOs, and finally to environmentalists. Since the 1990s, a part of the discourse of the movement has been shaped to embrace ecologist ideas, presenting indigenous peoples as allies in the fight to protect the environment. With this, the insistence on territorial autonomy acquired an anti-extractivist touch that had been initially absent and still contested within the movement.

The 1990s saw the strongest indigenous or even social movement on the continent, paralyzing the country several times between 1990 and 2001. But shortly after, the movement entered a long crisis, deepened by the government Correa (2007-2017). During this time, most major movement actions happened in cooperation with environmentalists. As a result, anti-extractivism was strengthened and the fight for water protection and rights became central. Thus, the relative weakness of environmental demands in the uprisings of 2019 and 2022, marking a revival of the movement, is so surprising. Instead, alliances with the urban poor seem to become more relevant.

This presentation will trace the changing role of eco-social struggles and alliance politics of the indigenous movement in Ecuador since the 1970s, with a focus on the renewal of the movement since 2019.