Young Salvadoran Activist Speaks about "Organizing in the New Era of Struggle"

On Friday, November 4th, the Evergreen chapter of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador sponsored a talk on campus by a young activist from El Salvador, Cristina Cornejo. Ms. Cornejo was representing the FMLN, (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front), El Salvador’s major left-wing party, which came to power after the country’s elections of 2009. She is a member of the FMLN’s Political Commission, and is a substitute deputy in the national Legislative Assembly. Her talk at Evergreen was part of a larger West Coast tour with stops in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, the Bay Area, Portland, Seattle and Olympia.

In her talk, Ms. Cornejo covered a variety of subjects. She began with a brief overview of the history of El Salvador and the FMLN. The group originally formed as a coalition between five different left-wing guerilla organizations in 1980 during the civil war in El Salvador between the American-sponsored government, its right-wing militias, and leftist groups. After peace agreements were signed in Chapultepec, Mexico in 1992 the FMLN became a political party. In the 2009 elections, the party won the presidency, most of the mayoral elections, and a significant minority of seats in the Legislative Assembly (similar to our Congress).

Ms. Cornejo also spoke about the government’s new programs for land reform and health care, about the fight against the exploitative Canadian mining corporation Pacific Rim--which has led to death threats against and assassinations of grassroots anti-mining activists, and the tragic disaster which recently occurred in her country. In mid-October, heavy rains killed nearly 100 people in Central America. El Salvador was hit the hardest, with thousands forced to evacuate and two million dollars worth of their annual coffee crop destroyed. However, as Ms. Cornejo pointed out, this was not simply a natural disaster; extreme weather has been increasing across the globe as climate change continues and small, low-lying countries like El Salvador are the worst hit.

The presentation finished up with questions from the audience, which included queries about the safety of union organizers in El Salvador after the end of the civil war, and what Americans can do to assist the people of El Salvador, both in recovering from the flood and in continuing their popular struggle.