Jan
works as community artist with CTDU and when she returned to Scotland
after her first trip to Ecuador in 2002 she was involved in an awareness
raising with CTDU active citizens who then went on to make two banners.
The banner were inspired and motivated by two things: footage of the
May Day rally in Guayaquil, Ecuador and the violent attack on the peaceful
strike of workers on the Los Alamos plantation, owned by Ecuador's richest man, Álvaro
Noboa Pontón, who was running for president of Ecuador that year. full story
The
active citizens made one banner for awareness raising in Scotland and
another to send to Ecuador so that the following May, workers' organisation
FENACLE (Federation of Agro-industrial Workers, Small Farmers and Indigenous
Peoples of Ecuador), could carry the banner on the march in Guayaquil.
In
November 2002 Guillermo Touma, President of FENACLE visited the CTDU
as part of a Banana Link speaker tour where he was presented with the
Spanish version of the banner.
The
banner was subsequently displayed at the CEOSL (Trade Union Congress)
conference in Quito, Ecuador and the biannual
COLSIBA
(Confederation of Latin American Banana Workers' Trade Unions) conference
in 2003. Workers also carried it on the 2003 and the 2004 Mayday marches
in Guayaquil.
In
December 2002 CTDU held a fundraising event, Noising It Up, where they
launched the Scottish Banner.
