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Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 05:10 PM Oct 2015

El Salvador: In Power, Former Guerrillas To Hold First Congress

El Salvador: In Power, Former Guerrillas To Hold First Congress

By Federico Fuentes

21 October, 2015
Greenleft.org.au

Thirty-five years after its founding, El Salvador's historic Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) is set to hold its first national congress at the end of October.

The congress has been called to help re-arm the activists of the left-wing party that began life in 1980 as a front of revolutionary groups engaged in a guerilla war. Today, 13 years after peace accords ended the armed conflict, it is in government.

The FMLN has held national conventions to elect its leaders, but this is the first time the group is holding a congress to facilitate such a wide-ranging discussion. The gathering will debate three key documents looking at the social and economic structure of the country, the programmatic guidelines and general strategy of the party. It will also discuss measures to strengthen the party's structures.

Much has changed in the country since the 1992 Peace Accords that involved the FMLN laying down its guns and shortly after becoming an official party.

More:
http://www.countercurrents.org/fuentes211015.htm

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El Salvador: In Power, Former Guerrillas To Hold First Congress (Original Post) Judi Lynn Oct 2015 OP
Unfortunate use of the word "re-arm"... Peace Patriot Oct 2015 #1
We need radical change, in a hurry. Republicans have nearly destroyed everything. Judi Lynn Oct 2015 #2

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
1. Unfortunate use of the word "re-arm"...
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 06:25 PM
Oct 2015
The congress has been called to help re-arm the activists of the left-wing party that began life in 1980 as a front of revolutionary groups engaged in a guerilla war. Today, 13 years after peace accords ended the armed conflict, it is in government. (from the OP, my emphasis)


Awkward wording. This congress is political, not military--as the rest of the article makes clear--and its discussions will be about re-invigorating the Left as a political force (not re-arming guerrillas). Re-invigoration of the Left is possibly needed as a result of the past FMLN government's compromises over U.S. "free trade for the rich" and other US. corporate/military-induced problems (although neither the article nor the spokespeople say this). When the first FMLN government was elected, it featured Mauricio Funes as president. He wasn't even a member of the FMLN (I didn't know that), and was too young to have fought in the civil war, but was chosen as the best candidate to further the FMLN's social goals, and as to "electability" (I gather). He was elected in the midst of the Bush junta and, given El Salvador's close ties to the U.S., was possibly too cautious (my guess) about the FMLN's socialist goals, though he certainly did accomplish some of them. Now the country has elected an actual FMLN former guerrilla, Sanchez Ceren, as president, and (according to the article) Ceren's intends yet more progressive change.

The FMLN has never had a party congress before--a process and a general meeting--to hammer out policy. The policy will not be binding, merely guidance, but will emerge out of an enviable process of mass participation in smaller party meetings all over the country, thence to the general congress.

If Bernie Sanders accomplishes nothing else, I hope that he inspires such a congress, here, inclusive of all registered Democrats and perhaps extended to all progressives--independents, Greens, etc.--not just to discuss and formulate national and local policy but also to organize great numbers of people to hold our representatives accountable. Our party system here has not worked this way for a long time--inclusive and participatory.

Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
2. We need radical change, in a hurry. Republicans have nearly destroyed everything.
Wed Oct 28, 2015, 01:03 PM
Oct 2015

It only has to take a look around at cities, infrastructure to see how deadly the right really is.

Did want to mention Mauricio Funes brother was a rebel who was killed during their war. It was such a surprise to see the younger brother run for the presidency and win, considering how powerful the US-supported right-wing has been: "Arena," I believe.

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