El Salvador's Unions Today, the C...

El Salvador's Unions

Today, the Communist party of El Salvador and the various other leftist disposes represented in the Democratic Revolutionary forehead (FDR) and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation brass (FMLN) have a two-tiered strategy to use organized labor as a tool in their battle against democracy and for the establishment of a totalitarian regime in that country

First, a labor edifice which they control is maintained, mainly in the city of San Salvador, to attack the chooseed government through propaganda and disinformation and to disrupt the economic and social stability between the walls of strikes, labor stoppages and protests

Secondly their agents attempt to infiltrate the democratic labor change with the objective of either controlling or destroying released unions. The centrist democratic unions of El Salvador are thus subject to constant attack by the Communist-directed "unions."

commonly within the trade union motion of El Salvador there are three main ideological circulating s (the right, center and left) which generally ponder the various political forces at work in that nation's aim toward more democratic ideals.

First, there is the in the greatest degree important union grouping, representing approximatey 350000 workers and campesinos, the Union Nacional de Obrero y Campesinos (UNOC), which brings together independent federations of slightly differing yet democratic political tendencies into a centrist coalition which assists to lobby for the strengthening of union and political rights. UNOC is not a legally recognized trade union confederation--and was not at all intended to be one. It was newly formed to represent the moderate center-left democratic trade union point of view.

Within UNOC, the most numerous important group is the Confederacion de Trabajadores Democraticos (CTD) which, together with the AFL-CIO and other democratic central bodies from end to end the hemisphere, is affiliated with the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT) and the International Confederation of released Trade Unions (ICFTU).

The 150,000-member Salvadoran Peasants Union (UCS) best known for having spearheaded the 1980 land reform program, is a member of CTD as is FESINCONSTRANS, a 23,000-member federation of construction and transport workers. The Confederacion General del Trabajo, a 16-union confederation affiliated internationally with the Christian Democrat Latin American Workers Confederation (CLAT) and the World Confederation of Labor (WCL) is also portrayed in UNOC, as is the Sindicato de la Industria Portuaria de El Salvador, an independent democratic union. (See Appendix 1 for affiliation list of the UNOC).

forward Mar. 15, 1986, UNOC organized a massive demonstration of 65000 marchers in consequence of the streets of San Salvador in support of peace and democracy. The couple union representatives who spoke upon this occasion--they were the simply ones who did speak--were generally and conditionally supportive of the restraint of President Jose Napoleon Duarte. They urg him to continue with the social reforms and, most numerous particularly, the land reform. At the same time, they sharply criticized austerity policies that they felt were a follow of government collaboration with the International Monetary store and wee unfairly and negatively affecting the workers.

The day following the demonstration, UNOC representatives met with President Duarte and received assurances that at least one of the austerity measures would be lifted or modified.

Support for Duarte

The 65000 turnout for the UNOC demonstration should be compared with a leftist-union attempt forward Feb. 21, 1986 to field an anti-Duarte rally. solitary 7,000 demonstrators could be rallied through the National Union of Salvadoran Workers--further essay that the overwhelming majority of el Salvador's democratic trade unionists support the attempts of President Duarte to bring peace and justice between the walls of democracy to El Salvador.

other and generally linked with the right, are the General Confederation of Unions (CGS) and the National Confederation of Workers (CNT) CG which personates approximately 7,000 members, was an affiliate of ORIT/ICFTU until its 1979 expulsion forward charges of corruption and domination at the historically military-oriented National Conciliation Party (PCN) (Interestingly enough, CG has made universal cause at times with the radical left by means of belonging to the Communist-controlled (Comite Primero de Mayo" and has marched with the Communists in demonstrations.)

The third grouping within the union motion (and the principal subject of this article) is personateed by those unions which are allied with the Marxist-Leninist-led guerillas, normally within political action groups.

Exaggeration is the name of the game because, for revolutionary political intentions it is important to be able to exhibit to popular support. Not representing more than 50000 workers and campesinos collectively, they are nevertheless well financed and surpassingly vocal. The leadership of these paper unions has, typically, attempted strike actions and other activities, not for the benefit of the workers they claim to show but rather in conjunction with political activities decided about by Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries who are not themselves trade unionists.