It’s been a tempestuous month here. In Quito, Guayllabamba, Otavalo, Imbabura – all over Ecuador - people been protesting the TLC. The TLC is the Tratado de Libre Comercio, also known as the Free Trade Agreement.

Roads have been blocked, including the Panamerican Highway. Tires have been soaked with gas and set on fire. Indigenous women in lace blouses have seated themselves on wide, empty highways, with lines of cops a few feet away. Old ladies have swung sticks at young men in full riot gear. Tear gas has settled like noxious, low-lying clouds on the asphalt. People have chanted, marched, and read manifestos, underneath banners featuring Che and placards featuring upside-down American flags.

But the TLC negotiations go forward.

Recently, the Ecuadoran congress voted on a new “Hydrocarbon Law”, in which 60 percent of oil profits go to the government, while 40 percent go to the companies. This was like pouring oil on a fire, at the risk of igniting further metaphors. The oil companies objected strenuously, and the U.S. claims that this will derail the TLC negotiations.

More clearly than anything, this shows what it’s all about. Corporations come first. After all, what would the government do with that money? They might feed the poor, or perhaps build schools and hospitals. Even if some of the money was siphoned off by corrupt officials, there would probably be a few social benefits. The oil companies, on the other hand, can use it much more effectively, in drilling for new oil & transporting & marketing their product.

To me, globalization looks like a return to feudalism. In feudalism, you had a lord, who sat up on the hill in a fine house, the walls covered with oil paintings of himself. In globalization, you have the executive of a big corporation, sitting in a glass-walled office in a high-rise, the walls covered with photographs of him shaking hands with presidents. In both cases, way down below, people are working themselves to death – in fields, in factories - and trying to survive on the minimum allotted to them.

Democracy and globalization are mortal enemies. When Ecuador signs the TLC, it will be putting a great deal of the people’s power into the hands of corporations. In return for easier access to MacDonald’s, it will sacrifice some authority – especially when it comes to safeguarding the environment and helping the poor.

The people in the street are saying, “At least put it to a referendum. Let the people decide.” But Alfredo Palacio, the president of Ecuador, says that it has to be negotiated first, and then we’ll see. After all, too much democracy can be dangerous.

How many presidents have I seen deposed since I first started living in Ecuador, eight years ago? I’ve actually lost count. I think Palacio should be a bit more nervous.

I’m (very optimistically) hoping to see things go in that direction in the U.S., as well. In the Congress, a resolution to censure the president was introduced in March. And the impeachment inquiry, introduced in January, is still quite healthy. There are 33 co-sponsors now, and more all the time.

Removing Bush from office won’t halt the voracious growth of the corporate parasite, but it’s a good beginning. And since Saturn is hovering around George W’s ascendent, this seems like the time to do it. Saturn will go direct on April 5, and from then until June 1, I expect the pressure on him to intensify.

Saturn is the planet of retribution. Whatever you’ve done, it comes back to you, usually under a hard Saturn aspect. If you’ve owed something for a while, Saturn signals when it’s time to pay. If you’ve ignored a responsibility, Saturn prods you to get to it. There’s no avoiding it. And so I expect George W. to start paying his dues in the next month.

In April, the Libra full moon occurs on the 13th, and this brings up questions of fairness, justice and cooperation. In governments, democratic ideals will be tested. All of us will begin to examine our relationships more closely. Do they match our beliefs and principles? Do we treat each other fairly?

The full moon will also make a hard aspect to Mercury in Pisces, so communication issues will come up. Mercury in Pisces is all about instinct and feeling, while the Libra moon is more intellectual. Is there a division between the things we feel, and the things we believe? If we hold fast to certain abstract principles, do we sacrifice our inner wisdom? How do we reconcile these things?

The new moon in Taurus falls on April 27th, just a couple of days before the big peace march in New York City. It looks good for a big turn-out, since the new moon is almost exactly square George W. Bush’s ascendent. Taurus is an earth sign, so what could be better for a grass roots movement? And the sun and moon in Taurus are square Saturn in Leo, the sign of kingship.

There’s also a kite configuration at the new moon. With a watery great trine between Mars, Jupiter and Uranus, I expect a great outpouring of emotion and community feeling. Jupiter in Scorpio opposes the sun/moon, and this could mean excesses of all kinds. People do get a little carried away when they take to the streets. I expect to hear shouting and singing, and to see dancing and tears and hugs.

But what do we have, after all? We have the streets. And we have the rivers, fields, mountains and forests. Let’s keep them for ourselves and for all the humans who will come after us. Let’s not sell them to the highest bidder.

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