[Cispes-update] Salvadoran Labor Front Defends the Right to Organize; FMLN Celebrates National Convention

[CISPES National Office]

Salvadoran Labor Front Defends the Right to Organize; FMLN Celebrates
National Convention
CISPES update
November 12, 2007


FSS defends the right to organize

Under pressure from ARENA,  the Salvadoran Supreme Court declared on October
31 that agreements 87 and 98 of International Labor Organization ( ILO) were
³unconstitutional.² These agreements grant the right to organize and hold
strikes to workers in the public sector, yet the Supreme Court declared that
allow for strikes to occur in the public sector would cause suspension of
³essential public services.²

One immediate reaction from labor organizations was to present a resolution
to the Legislative Assembly demanding the removal form office of Labor
Minister Jose Roberto Espinal for his role in this decision. Meanwhile the
Salvadoran Union Front (FSS) is focusing its organizing efforts to defend
the worker¹s right to organize as declared by the constitution and by the
previously approved ILO agreements 87 and 98.

The General Health Workers Union SIGESAL recently announced a series of
protests against the Supreme Court¹s decision, declaring their right to
organize as a union. SIGESAL representative Mario Arevalos, stated that
³This decision has clear political connotations; the government fears that
our right to organize will complicate the electoral panorama that is coming
up.²  The FMLN criticized the decision of the Court and warned that the
decision was a political maneuver through legal avenues.

 FMLN celebrates National Convention and Mauricio Funes Visits 70
Municipalities

On Sunday November 11th, the FMLN celebrated their XXIII National
Convention. The date was chosen to commemorate the historical Final
Offensive of 1989 and for the ratification of popular journalist Mauricio
Funes and historic leader Salvador Sanchez Ceren as the FMLN presidential
candidates for the upcoming 2009 elections. On Sunday the National
Convention celebration brought together more than 60,000 people at the
Cuscatlan Stadium in San Salvador, and involved the participation of
international delegations from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and the
United States, as well as the participation of the newly elected President
Alvaro Colon of Guatemala. The National Convention was broadcasted live on
radio stations, local TV channels, and around the world via the internet.

The ratification of the presidential candidates brought great excitement to
the social movement, the FMLN, and the population in general as Funes¹ and
Sanchez Seren¹s candidacies were endorsed by many sectors as the winning
combination for an FMLN triumph in the electoral process. The presidential
candidate, Mauricio Funes, returned to his political work last week and is
dedicating his campaign effort (and possible triumph!) to the life of his
son, 27 year old son Alejandro Funes, who died last month.

Currently, Funes is visiting 70 municipalities in a national tour, during
which he will lead the FMLN¹s ŒOpen Dialogue¹ (Dialogo Social Abierto) that
will allow Salvadorans to help to define the governmental platform of the
FMLN.  The tour has already begun in municipality of Soyapango, where
hundreds gathered to hear Funes. In his speech, Funes asked the population
to ³defeat ARENA¹s terror campaign² by unveiling the truth behind ARENA¹s
usual ³warnings² on the dangers of communism and the damage to the US-El
Salvador relations as the result of a possible FMLN victory.

 ARENA¹s TPS Immigration Tactic Failing

In recent months ARENA has announced the granting of the Temporary
Protection Status (TPS) to Salvadorans who immigrated to the United Stares
after the 2001 earthquakes.  The move is seeing  as part of ARENA¹s
electoral campaign and not as an immigration policy that benefits all
Salvadoran. Last week, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service wrongly
declared that it had received 195,000 applications for TPS extension, when
the number has only been 126,000 (according to El Diario de Hoy.)  TPS only
benefits a fraction of Salvadorans living in the United States, as well over
2 million currently reside in the U.S..

TPS also fails to address the larger issues around immigration to the U.S.
because it does not address the conditions that force Salvadorans to leave
their country in the first place: the number of lives lost in crossing the
U.S. border, conditions in the U.S. that discriminate against immigrants,
the vast amount of deportations of Salvadorans from the U.S. back to El
Salvador daily (amounting to 30,000 so far this year).  According to some
figures, 700 Salvadorans leave El Salvador for the U.S. every day, fleeing
the repressive economic and political situation, and deportations in 2007
have already amounted to more than 30,000 Salvadorans.  Both the Saca and
the Bush Administration have failed to fully address the dire situation of
immigration. 


 

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