Re: [Marxism] El Sal. Pres-elect sets cautious course; faces strong violent right

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It occurred to me that when I submitted my last post under this heading,
people might assume that I was disparaging the possibilities for 
El Salvador to fully join the revolutionary process in Latin America and the
associated changes taking place in Central America.

In fact, my real implied point was the NECESSITY of a cautious policy under
the circumstances of the armed power of the landlords and capitalists and
landlord-capitalists, and the strong desire of the most oppressed sections
of the population to avoid a repeat of the civil war and the Farabundo Marti
rebellion of 1931 which (unless you have a highly developed sense of
history) did not concretely gain them much. 

The slogan of "reconciliation" in my opinion is not aimed primarily at the
right, but at the common people who, today at least, are much more eager for
progress than revenge. (By the way, I don't recall any trials under Chavez
for the murderous crimes committed by the army and government -- but not
those who looked to Chavez -- during the Caracazo in Venezuela.)

Unlike Chavez's electoral victory, Funes' trumph was relatively narrow. What
is least known about the election in these parts is the role of the masses
in preventing determined efforts by ARENA to steal the election. Mass
mobilizations and blockades of the working people block some attempts and
more importantly in demoralized the ARENA forces and making them inclined to
think that giving way -- for now -- was the best option.

Still, even if all vote stealing had been defeated, I doubt that Funes'
victory would have constituted a wipeout of El Salvador's deeply
historically-rooted right wing.

The key to advance and the possibilities of revolutionary development in El
Salvador lie in this Telesur summary of Funes' comments as the vote swung
his way.

"I want to appeal to the other political forces to work toward unity," Funes
said, as he promised to carry out "preferential actions" to benefit the poor
rather than the rich, in order to solidify an efficient and competitive
economy and a broad business base."
>From a March 15 Telesur dispatch translated by Yoshi Furuhashi:
http/mrzine.monthlyreview.org/funes160309.html.

and competitive economy and a broad business base.

This is the essential programmatic plank on which Chavez was elected
president. Including the procapitalist framework, the appeals to
collaboration with Washington, the willingness to live with unfair
US-sponsored trade agreements and so on. The plant was simple: benefit the
poor at the expense of the rich to strengthen the country.

Actually making gains in this direction is what forged the full-scale mass
movement around Chavez, and opened the road to everything that has come
since - renationalization of oil, Latin American integration, direct
challenges to imperialist domination, and the adoption of a socialist
perspective.

Do I think this is guaranteed under Funes? Not at all. Do I think it is a
living possibility. Yes. It depends on whether he goes forward as promised,
whether his party is willing to reach out broadly beyond traditional
boundaries to mobilize the masses to defend such measures, to what degree
the masses mobilize to defend the measures, and, all in all, how the
relationship of forces evolve.

There are certainly no guarantees, and I think the counterforces are quite
strong. El Salvador is a country with a strong revolutionary tradition, and
perhaps -- until now -- an even stronger counterrevolutionary tradition.

In my opinion, what has happened in El Salvador is the most important
victory so far in Central America for the Latin American revolutionary
process.

I fear he could be an Allende -- I hope he has learned the lessons of that
experience (Allende's martyrdom is not worth much if people don't do that)
but I am confident he is no Duarte.
Fred Feldman






March 11 , 2009

Blaming Chávez 
The Death Cries of the Salvadoran Right 
By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF 

Facing a serious electoral debacle in advance of Sunday?s presidential
election, and recognizing that it cannot win the election based on practical
ideas, the right-wing ARENA (or Nationalist Republican Alliance) party has
launched an ugly campaign to link leftist FMLN (Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front) candidate Mauricio Funes with Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez. 

There are many similarities between ARENA?s position and the Republican
Party prior to the November, 2008 election.  Like the GOP, ARENA has now
been entrenched in power for a long time.  To many Salvadorans, ARENA seems
like a colossal dinosaur mired in the past.  Founded by right wing death
squad leader Roberto D?Aubuisson, held to be one of the instigators of the
assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980, ARENA is still fervently
anti-Communist.  ARENA, whose colors are red, white and blue, models itself
on the U.S. Republican party but is even more explicitly nationalist.  The
hymn of the party touts El Salvador as the tomb where ?the Reds will die.?

While such heated rhetoric may have appealed to some in the midst of the
country?s bloody civil war between the right and left in the 1980s, ARENA
now looks increasingly bereft.  Salvadorans want practical solutions to the
country?s intractable social problems and are hardly in the mood for more of
the same anachronistic Cold War rhetoric.

Even if ARENA were to run a novel and innovative campaign however, the party
would still face a huge uphill battle.  ARENA has been in power now for
twenty years.  During this time the small Central American nation has
descended into violent lawlessness with robbery and homicide rates flying
off the charts.  ARENA candidate Rodrigo Ávila, the country?s former head of
national police, has pledged to combat violent crime.  Only Funes however
has said he would purge elements of the police force linked to organized
crime.

Adding to Ávila?s worries, ARENA has mismanaged the economy.  In recent
years, the party has eagerly followed Washington?s dictates by privatizing
social services and public utilities.  The outgoing administration of
Antonio Saca signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with
the United States, but the deal has not led to social harmony.  The country
is still plagued by extreme inequality while 37 per cent of Salvadorans live
in poverty and can?t pay high food prices.  This fuels the crime wave which
has proven so worrying to poor Salvadorans.

Funes is hardly what one might call a fire breathing leftist.  A former
media commentator, he seeks to remake the FMLN into a pragmatic political
party.  At rallies, he doesn't sing the party's anthem or wear its
traditional red colors, preferring to campaign in a crisp white guayabera
shirt.  It?s a symbolic move designed to contrast himself with many in the
party who still wear fatigues and brandish pictures of Che Guevara and
Soviet flags at campaign rallies.

Meanwhile he has bent over backwards to placate the U.S. and has met with
State Department officials as well as members of Congress, reassuring them
that he is no radical.  In addition, Funes has declared that El Salvador
should not scrap use of the dollar by returning to its previous currency,
the colón.  Funes says that ?dollarization? and the adoption of the Central
American Free Trade Agreement in 2006 have had negative effects such as
inflation and unfavorable competition for small-scale farmers but that it is
too late to scrap these policies.

To listen to the Salvadoran right you?d think Funes was leading El Salvador
on the march towards Stalinist dictatorship.  While campaigning near the
Honduran border recently, Ávila claimed that the Funes campaign was being
funded by Venezuela?s Hugo Chávez.  ?There's a saying that ?Whoever pays the
mariachi decides what song is going to be played,?? Ávila remarked.  ?And
that's going to happen with them,? he added.  ?No matter what they say, what
they do, their campaign is being financed by Venezuela.?

Funes himself denies having any political links with the Chávez government
and has said that Venezuela will not meddle in Salvadoran internal affairs
if he wins the presidential election.  Furthermore, the FMLN leader has
distanced himself from some of the more enthusiastic pro-Chávez members of
his party.  Despite Funes?s disavowals however, ARENA has continued to press
on with its hysterical red baiting even though the rightist party has no
proof that Funes has received financial support from Chávez.

Both Funes and Chávez, said outgoing President Antonio Saca, were trying to
spread ?totalitarian projects? and wanted to ?stick their noses? in
anti-democratic practices.  It was ?no secret? Saca added hyperbolically,
that the FMLN received ?its ideological nourishment from Havana? and its
economic nourishment ?from some other place.?  In yet another ridiculous and
over the top aside, Saca declared ?I am sure that there?s some kind of
working group in Venezuela which seeks to take over El Salvador.?
            
As evidence of the supposed Chávez-FMLN conspiracy, ARENA points to Chávez?s
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (known by its Spanish acronym ALBA).
The plan, initiated by Chávez several years ago, seeks to counteract
corporately driven free trade schemes backed by Washington and to promote
barter trade and solidarity amongst left wing Latin American countries.
Chávez himself has been a rather bombastic critic of CAFTA, remarking that
ARENA was ?making deals with the devil, the devil himself.?

As a party, the FMLN has historically opposed CAFTA and U.S.-backed free
trade while approving of Chávez?s barter schemes.  El Salvador does not
produce oil, and in 2006 FMLN mayors set up a joint venture energy company
with Venezuela called ENEPASA.  The initiative is designed to provide less
expensive fuel to El Salvador?s drivers.  The oil is sold by gas stations
bearing a special non-corporate, ?white flag? emblem.

When FMLN mayors signed the agreement in Caracas, Chávez suggested that
money the Salvadoran municipalities saved on energy could be used to
subsidize public transport and food prices.  Under the terms of the
agreement, cities pay 60 per cent of their fuel bill within 90 days.  The
rest may be paid in barter for agricultural and other locally made products
or in cash over a 25-year period. 

While it?s certainly true that Venezuela has increased its diplomatic and
political visibility in El Salvador over the last few years, ARENA?s claims
about Chávez?s insidious designs are uproarious.  Since the inception of the
ENEPASA deal, Venezuela has only sent modest amounts of diesel to El
Salvador.  Moreover, it?s not clear whether Venezuela can continue to sell
discounted oil to the FMLN.  In years past, Chávez has been able to increase
his geopolitical standing throughout the region by providing cheap oil to
poor and impoverished nations.  But now, with world oil prices falling,
Venezuela may be forced to curtail its ALBA program. 

As an issue, Venezuela is a red herring in Sunday?s Salvadoran election.
But that hasn?t stopped ARENA from launching a full frontal assault on Funes
for having alleged political ties to another foreign power.  It?s a sign of
political desperation from a party bereft of any coherent ideas about how to
solve El Salvador?s enduring social and economic problems. 
                       
Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of
the New Left (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008)




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