Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 44 No. 5. March 30 1981
The Peasants' Role
The Peasants' Role
The guerilla groups work mainly from their base amongst the peasantry. Because most of the land originally owned by peasant communities has been expropriated, especially the fertile central region, the peasants are forced to leave their villages for several months of the year to work on coffee plantations or in cotton fields. They work for a pittance of only $3 per day. This forced yearly movement is the only way they can survive but even so, the food intake of peasant families is the second lowest in Central America. A real problem associated with this mobile existence is that of organising, as the communities are constantly being split up. This is aggravated by the terror tactics of the fascist army and private militias of landlords.
But even under these harsh conditions, two peasant organisations have been set up - the Salvadoran Christian Farmers Association and the Union of Farmworkers. These now have a combined membership of 250,000, and are active in the struggle.
The creation of a common market in Central America in the 60s, between El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, opened up a market of 12 million inhabitants, thereby allowing a certain degree of industrial development.
The United States, which was behind the creation of the common market, built ties with the Salvadoran oligarchy to exploit the local manpower, the cheapest in the region.
Fleeing the misery of the countryside, many peasants flooded into the cities. The working class grew from barely 12 percent of the active population in the 1950s to 25 percent in 1975 - the largest percentage in Latin America.
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Salvadoran guerillas.
As well as having strength in numbers, the working class was relatively concentrated. Industries set up by imperialsts employed hundreds and sometimes over a thousand workers. They were generally concentrated in industrial zones which was conducive to organisation and discussion.
From 1975 on, when the world economic crisis hit, many foreign investors withdrew their investments and local businessmen put their money into speculation. Unemployment skyrocketed and now stands at 50 percent in the cities.
Workers fought back by occupying plants and striking against layoffs and wage freezes. Today the unions have joined the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the junta.
The working class plays an important role in the FDR through its organisations like the Federation of Revolutionary Unions (FRS) and FENASTRAS (National Federation of Salvadoran Workers Unions).
These two major groups, the industrial workers and the peasants, are assisted in their struggle by all the other groups making up the FDR and will eventually succeed just as the nearby Nicaraguan people succeeded.
Geoff Adams