The Making of an Indigenous Movement: Culture Ethnicity, and Post-Marxist Social Praxis in Ecuador

Abstract

The 1990 Indian Uprising staged by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) forced indigenous issues into the national political discourse of Ecuador through the activities of a post-Marxist, progressive social movement. The formation of CONAIE, in 1986, and the 1990 Uprising were the culmination of an organizational process that began in the 1970s with indigenous regional organizing as a reaction against Marxist/mestizo/ integrationist leadership, repression of traditional leftist organizations, and increasing pressures placed on indigenous communities through Ecuador's heightened position in the capitalist world-economy. This organizational process clarified to indigenous leaders a new vision of progressive social praxis based upon ethnic and cultural claims, rather than the strictly economic demands of the traditional left. This paper documents the organizing process as a significant historical development in the emergence of post-Marxist progressive social movements.