Where COP Fails, Ecuador Leads: The General Strike in Defence of Nature
As the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) concluded in Brazil, offering the world its 30th helping of hollow promises and business-friendly targets, a small country on the opposite side of the continent delivered a verdict of its own. On 16 November, the people of Ecuador overwhelmingly defeated a referendum that sought to supercharge the president’s aims to create a neoliberal and extractivist “New Ecuador”.
This was not a victory handed from above by a global gathering of well paid “experts”, greenwashing politicians and fossil fuel lobbyists, but from the working classes of Ecuador organising en masse. Against the current brutal and violently oppressive regime, the working classes recognised this attack on their material conditions and refused to sacrifice their livelihoods and environment on the altar of neoliberalism. A victory for real climate justice was won in the streets.
The Rights of Nature concept
Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet. It is home to four incredibly distinct biomes, with the most plant and animal species per square kilometre in the world, and with the Galapagos Islands off the coast, an area of rapid evolution. In many ways the same can be said of its politics. The country has gone through drastic changes since my earliest memories, and is now politically unrecognisable from where it was even 10 years ago. But the real power in Ecuador – people power – has only grown and sharpened in the past few decades. In 2008, Ecuador, home to 14 million people at the time, became the first country in the world to recognise the Rights of Nature as part of its newly drafted constitution, shaping discussion for years to come.
Brought about by the result of new political representation of indigenous groups, a timely left-wing government and decades of struggle, Ecuador made history by constitutionally recognising that nature has legally enforceable rights “to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles”. For many, this legal concept resonated with the worldview of ‘Pacha Mama’, Mother Earth, a Kichwa (indigenous peoples of Ecuador) term for a ‘cosmos where humans, animals, plants, and mountains are deeply interconnected, and damage to one component inevitably affects all others’.
After some teething problems, this new precedent was successfully used to help prevent several mining and polluting projects in the courts in following years. Predictably, however, the constitution that enshrined it has come under major threats ever since. The Rights of Nature framework itself has also faced significant challenges, from legal battles, to state reluctance to fully enforce its principles. This all points towards a valuable reminder, that more important than the legislation or legal particulars itself, the means by which it entered the conversation from the ground up speak the loudest. It has proven to be not a conclusion, but a tool in the arsenal of people power, one that turns the ownership of natural resources on its head. Ecuador, with a history of colonisation we here in Ireland can relate to, had taken a first step in a direction to challenge that history, and in doing so, set far-reaching precedents.
The United States and neoliberalism in Ecuador
Like most of Latin America, Ecuador is no stranger to US attempts to destabilise and force regime change. This included coups in the 1960s, as well as decades of economic pressure. Indeed, Ecuador officially replaced its own currency with the US dollar in 2000. Following this, three personality-driven presidents were ousted in the space of ten years.
Then, in 2006, Ecuador had its own expression of the pink tide – a period in which left-wing leaders were voted in across Latin America, promising a rejection of neoliberalism and US influence – with the election of Rafael Correa. An ally of Hugo Chavez, Correa’s term in office saw improvements in healthcare, literacy and infrastructure. Further, the 2008 constitution protected indigenous rights, making Ecuador a plurinational state, and it prohibited foreign military bases, a move which saw the US Military removed from the country. However, despite left aesthetics, Correa’s project lacked critical political foundations, and ultimately turned its back on anti-extactivist promises; an approach that would lead to further contradictions, a fracture in the left and aid its downfall down the line.
In 2017, after Correa’s three terms, his vice-president and successor, Lenín Moreno, lunged their platform sharply to the right, betraying and persecuting Correa, allying with the nation’s economic elites and the IMF, and embracing austerity. The privatisation of healthcare in Ecuador, enabled by Moreno, greatly contributed to the horrific scenes during the COVID pandemic, and Ecuador’s perception as one of the safest countries in Latin America has heartbreakingly been turned upside down since. Subsequent neoliberal governments have deepened their offensive, undoing a lot of the social reforms and whipping up a “narco” crisis to justify a greater US role and a full-scale assault on social and ecological rights.
The October 2019 Rebellion
The extent of the neoliberal embrace by the Lenín government set the scene for the rebellion of October 2019, a defining moment for modern Ecuador. The uprising exploded onto the streets in response to IMF-mandated austerity, starting with Moreno’s elimination of fuel subsidies. Led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), tens of thousands of Indigenous people, unions, workers, and students across Ecuador mobilised. They rallied, marched and occupied the capital Quito and key infrastructure, eventually bringing the country to a standstill.
One of the most prominent leaders of this uprising was the ecosocialist and Marxist, Leonidas Iza, (now president of CONAIE), someone who has encouraged direct political confrontation with the neoliberal government from the streets to the government Assembly, and who has led major national strikes, paro nacionals, since this 2019 explosion. The state’s response to the 2019 uprising was brutal, deploying military and police who used tear gas and lethal force, resulting in deaths and over a thousand injuries. This ferocious class struggle culminated in a decisive victory for the people, forcing Moreno’s government to fully reinstate the fuel subsidies. The success of the uprising galvanised the power mass mobilisation had in rolling back neoliberal attacks and reinvigorated Indigenous and working-class movements as the central force of resistance in Ecuador.
2022 Strike and the Yasuní Victory
Despite an unprecedented surge for the indigenous political party in the 2021 elections, a Left split over Correa lines led to the election of banker Guillermo Lasso, who was quick to ramp up further neoliberal policies in a country devastated by the pandemic. Once again led by CONAIE, but with wide union backing, huge crowds were mobilised onto the streets in response, and an 18-day national strike ensued. The government crackdown was similarly brutal to 2019, again resulting in several protester deaths and human rights violations, but it was no match to the masses united.
To end the strike and protests, Lasso was forced to accept a reduction in fuel prices and agree to no mining on indigenous land, along with other demands for the working class, like job security. The indigenous-led united front had combined demands for economic justice and environmental justice, and this same unity between anti-austerity and anti-extractivist policies would prove a vital foundation for the fight against extraction going forward.
Ecuador, already devastated from decades of oil exploration by multi-national corporations like Chevron-Texaco, was in danger from Lasso’s rampant capitalist policies. He bet hard on extractivism, aiming to make billions from mining and oil in the Chocó Andino, a key water source for Ecuador, and the biodiverse Yasuní regions. For a decade, campaigning and petitions had taken place to protect these areas, with nearly a million combined signatures collected. A strike in 2022 supercharged these efforts, with rallies and marches leading to a national referendum that decisively won at the ballot box.
Despite the overwhelming attempts to discredit and smear the campaigners from the fossil fuel industry, Ecuador had become one of the first countries in the world to clamp down on resource extraction through democratic vote – a vote first secured then subsequently won through mass mobilisations from below.
The Cuenca Victory and 2025 strike
The referendum, like the Rights of Nature before it, would meet a tough setback with the surprise 2023 election of Daniel Noboa. Noboa, tech-bro son of a billionaire banana magnate, ran on a “tough on crime” platform against a still-disorganised political Left. Parroting Western-style scaremongering, he quickly moved to deepen the Ecuadorian alliance with international capital and the United States, and perhaps nowhere greater was this emphasised than Noboa enlisting paramilitary Blackwater (of Iraq war infamy) to his campaign. Bolstered by the likes of Donald Trump, Noboa began another attempt to eliminate fuel subsidies, and put forth his referendum “La Consulta” in September 2025.
This sweeping neoliberal package sought to open Ecuador to foreign military bases under the guise of fighting drug trafficking, and as well as the 2008 Constitution with a pro-business charter. Crucially, this also threatened to undo the Rights of Nature legislation and in a direct attack on democracy, threatened to stop public funding of political parties too. In response, CONAIE began a national strike, which saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets across Ecuador in what would be the third national strike in six years. Noboa, son of the wealthiest family in Ecuador, used unprecedented military force to clamp down on protest, shooting and killing several unarmed protestors and cementing a dangerous new alliance between the economic elite and the military in the process.
Alongside the strike, one of Ecuador’s largest marches in history took place on 16 September in Cuenca. Noboa’s government was co-operating with Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals (DPM), and its planned mine was to be in an area of precious wetland that supplied water to many communities. The “March for the Protection of Water” brought around 100,000 people onto the streets from all over the country, with an ultimatum to the government that if the license was not revoked, an uprising would take place. Off the back of years of persistent on-the-ground organising of the masses, and a clear political enemy and demands, the march was victorious in tipping the scales with the Ecuadorian government revoking the license to DPM several weeks later.
Despite the violent clampdown on the 31-day National strike, struggles like the DPM victory helped ensure political momentum didn’t dissipate. The Ecuadorian public voted a resounding No to all four items on Noboa’s “La Consulta” referendum – with two-thirds of voters against – in a stunning rebuke to Noboa’s perceived influence. This indigenous-led resistance provides potent examples of cultivating community and respect for the land, while organising around the disciplined tactics of workers’ power: general strikes and mass marches. Hope to fully overthrow the neoliberal establishment in Ecuador may be on the horizon if the right lessons are learned and if the momentum is kept up.
Together, class & climate struggle can win
Recent victories protecting Ecuador’s Rights of Nature, just weeks before world leaders assembled at COP30, is of more than just local importance. While indigenous voices and the communities most affected by climate change and harmful policy are ignored at COP, Ecuador contains vital strategic lessons for the global climate movement. Recent years have demonstrated unequivocally that the fight for a livable planet is inextricably linked to the class struggle. Many of the politicians and leaders at COP30 are not part of the solution but key to the problem, and unless directly challenged, may succeed with their sleight of hand in the face of global climate crisis.
In 2021, Derry City & Strabane council became the first government body on these islands to pass a motion recognising the Rights of Nature, brought to council by People Before Profit Councillor Maeve O’Neill, taking inspiration from cases like Ecuador with help and support from environmentalists across the north. The concept has gained momentum, culminating in a Citizen’s Assembly in the South of Ireland recommending the Rights of Nature. To the surprise of no-one, the right-wing Irish Government has not acted upon the recommendation – it is clear that a political people power approach will be necessary here too.
In recent years, the Save Lough Neagh campaign and along with groups like Friends of the Earth and The Gathering have protested and called for ‘rights of nature’ status for Lough Neagh, a demand made by Gerry Carroll MLA in Stormont on behalf of the campaign. Lough Neagh, one of the largest freshwater lakes in Europe, has been plundered via extractivism in the form of sand dredging, legalised by the SDLP in 2020, and subject to long colonial history, with the absentee landlord, the Earl of Shaftesbury, making money for every tonne extracted. From gold-mining threats in multiple counties, to the establishment push for Liquefied Natural Gas terminals in the South, Ireland becoming the first country in Europe to include the Rights of Nature in its constitution could prove a valuable tool in our efforts to protect one of the most over-exploited regions of Europe.
The struggle in Ecuador contains countless examples of how real climate justice is won through organised struggle that directly challenges the power of capital, proving that the power to defend the people and planet lies not in the decision made from above, but in the feet on the street and their ability to engage politically and take on the state head on.
In a disturbing parallel, the Ecuadorian government’s collaboration with Canadian mining company DPM mirrors the threats of mining here in the North from the Canadian company Dalradian. They have been offered licences by the ‘open for business’ Stormont government, with US lawmakers making threats should it not proceed. From the state-sponsored pollution of Lough Neagh via neoliberal policies like Going for Growth fuelling the likes of serial polluter Moy Park (owned by an Amazon-deforester), to the public funding of F-35 engineering factories complicit in genocide, the connections are clear: this system extracts harm, both abroad and at home, while our material conditions are sacrificed. Our liberation depends not on appealing to this system, but on building power from below, forging the kind of mass, organised movements that can take over the streets, challenge our government, and ultimately, force a future where both people and planet can thrive.
