INTRODUCTION

The birth of what is called the “21st Century Socialism” has different shades worldwide. But, what do this and the concept of ‘New Left’ mean to our societies? Did the fall of the Berlin Wall destroy all the ideas of Karl Marx? And, what are the implications of these new political trends in the daily lives of our people? We need answers to these doubts; but the most important thing for the future of humanity is to never stop seeking and inquiring how to improve living conditions for all humans.

“We have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity,” said the Insurrectional Proclamation of La Paz on July 16th, 1809. Of course it was so and we have kept that silence for almost two centuries. During all this time, our countries have accepted as true the statements that the Established Order issued for us. We didn´t search for our own answers. But Latin America is now facing the opportunity of waking up from historical blindness which has obstructed us and kept us from struggling against an unfair and unequal political and economic system. So, let’s ask ourselves: Are Latin Americans ready to confront this challenge? Are the political actors of the left parties prepared to assume power?

According to the World Bank, the global crisis forced 6 million Latin Americans to fall from the middle class to poverty during 2009. The United Nations established that 70 million people from this continent live in extreme poverty; this means that 13% of our population has an income of less than 2 dollars per day. Those are some of the unfortunate statistics that Latin American societies generate and, because of this reality, we now doubt that capitalism and the free market economy are the only alternatives for development.
Consequently, another important question for us is: what kind of development do we need to guarantee better living conditions for our population? People are witnessing how the Earth is being devastated; we are witnessing a global warming, weather changes, and pollution as a result of wild capitalism and irresponsible industrialization. So, the next doubt we have to resolve is if our present system of production is the right one to improve environmental management. What will happen if we continue using natural resources the way we have done until now? These are other questions that the New Left and the 21st Century Socialism should answer.

The explanation for the Spanish Conquest of the Incan Empire was summarized by the ancient cultures of the Andes with this phrase: “The day turned dark at noon.” That statement became the reality of our nations. Even though we can remember the exploitation and plundering in the city of Potosi, Bolivia, during Colonial times, we now know that Evo Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia; that his popularity is over 60% and that putting aside the critics to his policies, Bolivia, for first time in its history, has a fiscal surplus because of the nationalization of their natural resources.

Since 1990, our nations started searching ways to struggle against the Established Order. The Colombian experience taught us that political agreements are possible and, after their Constituent Assembly, which also incorporated former members of the M-19 guerrilla movement that laid down the arms in 1990, they wrote one of best constitutions of Latin America. Subsequently, other countries followed Colombia in the attempt to change the structures of power by legal means. Nowadays, the Colombian people prefer to practise their democracy with a conservative president but, as never before in our region, many Latin American countries have turned to the left trying to achieve a new way of development.

Ecuador has had a very complex social process and came to accept the necessity of political and constitutional reforms, as well as of conceiving a new way of development. This process started with social indignation when we, the citizens, refused to continue tolerating political degeneration, corruption, and endless deception caused by politicians. The “Revuelta Forajida” of April, 2005, was an attempt to promote this process. On this occasion, the people of Quito didn´t protest because of unemployment or the lack of food, we fought for our dignity; we protested against a shameless government, against a congress which did not represent us but became the center of the political mafia. We wanted to start again. On September 28th, 2008, Ecuadorians approved a New Constitution proposed by the Constituent Assembly of Montecristi, through a referendum. The Sumak Kausay, which means “good living” in Kichwa, is one of the principles from the Constitution of Montecristi and one of the ideas it provides is that social development has to be fulfilled in harmony with nature; and that the main objective of that development is to give people dignified living conditions.

Dignified human living conditions have to be the main objective of the New Left in order to achieve the development that we deserve. This is why this paper was not prepared as a research: it is a political proclamation that tries to inspire the roads that Latin America is looking for. The Left was not destroyed by the fall of the Berlin Wall; some of their ways failed, but its principles and aspirations to achieve social equality and justice are a fundamental quest to be achieved in our times. Socialism exists; it is being developed and consolidated as a global system.