Anarchism in Ecuador appeared at the end of
the 19th century.
At the beginning of the 20th century it started
to gain influence in sectors of organized
workers and intellectuals having an important
role in the General strike of Guayaquil on
November 15, 1922 in which around 1000 strikers
died.
== History ==
=== Origins ===
Alexei Páez in his book El anarquismo en
el Ecuador reports that "at the end of the
19th century and the beginning of the 20th
we find the first evidence of the existence
of a group that was a friend of libertarian
ideals".
This was a group that published a newspaper
called El Pabellón Rojo and its first edition
appeared in Guayaquil in 1899.
In this issue the authors defend French illegalism
and the events protagonized by Ravachol and
Sante Geronimo Caserio.At the beginning of
the 20th century the Ecuadorian worker's movement
was more combative in Guayaquil and the first
attempts at anarchist propaganda appeared
inside the workers movement.
"It has been noted the existence of certain
anarchist propaganda in the jamaican workers
movement who worked in the railroad in the
beginning of the century".
According to Paez "the railroad workers were
the most combative alongside the carpenters
and the workers on the cocoa fields, for the
age, being later the cocoa workers and the
railroad ones the best agitators for the founding
of the anarchosyndicalist Federación Regional
de Trabajadores del Ecuador (FTRE).In Guayaquil
"In 1910, the Center of Social Studies...distributed
La Protesta (Argentina), Solidarity (USA)
and Claridad (Chile), in 1911 in the catalog
of Liberia Española we could find texts of
important libertarian theorists such as: Bakunin,
Malatesta, Kropotkin, etc.
These are acquired and employed for the establishment
of anarchist groups which with the passage
of time will continue to clarify their ideas.
In 1920 there appears the Centro Gremial Sindicalista
(CGS), editor of El Proletario."
In El Proletario starts to write the important
Ecuadorian anarchist "José Alejo Capelo Cabello,
who with his example and tenacity collaborated
with the first anarchist groups and trade
unions.In Quito there is "a newspaper called
La Prensa which went on to be a part of the
diaries chosen by Max Nettlau in his book
Contribución a la Bibliografía Anarquista
en América Latina, since it allowed some
libertarian articles in its pages."
Another important libertarian media which
gave a lot of space to the International Workers'
Day was Tribuna Obrera, newspaper of "Ideas
y Combate", published by the Asociación Gremial
del Barrio del Astillero (AGA), an important
place of anarchosyndicalist activity.The anarchist
ideals had support in middle class intellectual
sectors which are the first effective organizing
sectors of anarchist and socialist positions.
The thinker and labor leader Juan Elías Naula
in Principios de Sociología Applicada manifests
a profound admiration for the positions of
Pierre Joseph Proudhon.
There also appeared the newspaper Alba Roja
which was published by the group "Verbo y
Acción" and it included Colón Serrano, Tomás
Mateus and Francisco Illescas".
On the arrival of anarchist positions in Ecuador
"the presence of some foreign elements who
lived in Ecuador" were considered important.
So the Chilean Segundo Llanos was responsible
for the edition of El Proletario.
Also the Spanish sailor from his travels brought
"newspapers such as La Protesta de Argentina,
Solidarity of the IWW (Industrial Workers
of the World)...and even spanish anarchist
periodicals.""Another tendency of the first
ecuadorian libertarian organizations was the
organization of feminist groups."
In Guayaquil there also appeared in 1910 the
Center of Social Studies who participated
in the International Workers Association congresses
of Berlin of 1922 and 1923.
=== The general strike of November 15, 1922
and the decline ===
"The original core of anarchism in Ecuador"
converged around the group that published
the newspaper El Proletario and it included
Manuel Echeverría, Justo Cardenas, Narciso
Véliz, Segundo Llanos y Alejo Capelo.In 1922,
the railroad employees in Durán went on strike
which, with the support of the Federación
Regional de Trabajadores del Ecuador, motivated
the other associations to join.
The government response produced around 1000
striker deaths caused by the army troops sent
to the zone and the persecution and dismantling
of the organizations that existed around that
time.In the following years, a tendency led
by Narciso Véliz took importance and it centered
on the group "Hambre", who published El Hambriento.
Between those in it there are Alberto Díaz,
Juan Murillo, Jorge Briones, José Barcos,
J. Villacís, Urcino Meza, Segundo Llanos,
Máximo Varela y Aurelio Ramírez.The anarchists
went on a period of recovery and in the end
of the 1920s there were 5 active groups in
Guayaquil, all of which were coordinated by
the Federación de Grupos Anarquistas ' Miguel
Bakunin '. They published the periodical Tribuna
Obrera and established the theater group "Ricardo
Flores Magón".
In Guayaquil inside the federation there were
active the groups Redención, Tierra y Libertad,
Solidaridad, Hambre and Luz y Acción.The
constant state repression sabotaged a lot
of these experiences and many of the main
anarchist activists wen on exile to the Galapagos
Islands.
The Chilean Néstor Donoso was deported to
his country after he was imprisoned.
The group Luz y Acción decided to establish
the Bloque Obrero Estudiantil Revolucionario
so it could act in the universities.In 1934,
the anarchosyndicalists decide to reorganize
the FTRE and after some failed attempts decide
to create another syndicalist organization,
the Unión Sindical de Trabajadores.
In that organization were militants such as
Alejo Capelo, Eusebio Moriel, M.E. López
Concha, Able Gonzáles and Alberto Diaz.
Around the time of the Spanish Civil War,
the Ecuadorian anarchists manifested their
solidarity with the CNT, which was a protagonist
of the Spanish Revolution.At the end of the
1930s, the rise of marxism helped the decline
of anarchism in the South American region.
Alejo Capelo and Alejandro Atiencia collaborated
in the Mexican anarchist newspaper Tierra
y Libertad.
Atiencia died in 1971 and Capelo in 1971.
== References ==
