FENOCIN
From NativeWiki
FENOCIN (Federación Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas Indígenas y Negras or National Federation of Indigenous, Peasant, and Black Organizations) defines itself as a multi-ethnic peasant-Indigenous organization constituted by local and regional unions throughout Ecuador. More than 1250 base organizations make up FENOCIN. They have worked intensely for the acquisition of land, water, agricultural credit and also for the full recognition of the political, social, and economic rights of the poorest sectors of the rural Ecuador population.
[edit] History
FENOCIN has its roots in the Federación Ecuatoriana de Trabajadores Agropecuarios (FETEP, Ecuadorian Federation of Agricultural Workers), founded in 1965 at the Eighth Congress of the Catholic labor organization CEDOC (Confederación Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Sindicales Cristianas, or Ecuadorian Confederation of Christian Syndicate Organizations). FETEP’s original stated purpose was to assist agricultural workers in the transition away from the huasipungo system. The Catholic Church sought to form a parallel organization to the communist-affiliated FEI. FETEP eventually drifted in a leftward direction, coming under the tutelage of a progressive tradition within CEDOC and the Catholic Church.
At its third congress in November 1968 FETEP transformed itself into the Federación Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas (FENOC, National Federation of Peasant Organizations) as it broadened its mission to address other issues facing rural communities. In 1972, FENOC began to present itself as a classist peasant organization interested in issues of land and agrarian reform.
Reflecting a growing importance of ethnicity to peasant movements, in 1988 the organization changed its name to FENOC-I (Federación Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas-Indígenas or National Federation of Peasant-Indigenous Organizations) and finally in the late 1990s to FENOCIN (Federación Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas Indígenas y Negras or National Federation of Indigenous, Peasant, and Black Organizations). By the end of the twentieth century its visibility was overshadowed by the CONAIE, but in rural communities in Ecuador it remained an important and powerful force for social justice.
