Anarchism in El Salvador

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    Anarchism in El Salvador reached its peak during the labour movement of the 1920s, in which anarcho-syndicalists played a leading role. The movement was subsequently suppressed by the military dictatorship before experiencing a resurgence in the 21st century.

    History

    Following the independence of El Salvador, power and property began to concentrate in the hands of an oligarchy, as the country's economy became centered around the production and export of coffee. In 1871, the ruling conservative government of

    Santiago González, who completed the country's transformation into what has been described as a "coffee republic".[1] Liberal rule was eventually consolidated by the military
    , with a liberal military junta holding power continuously and each president officially designating their successor.

    Early anarcho-syndicalism in El Salvador

    By this time, anarchism had already been spread to El Salvador by the French individualist anarchist Anselme Bellegarrigue, who had fled there from the repression of the Second French Empire, beginning the dissemination of anarchist ideas throughout the country during the latter half of the 19th century. In 1904, the lawyer Enrique Córdova published La perspectiva teórica del anarquismo, becoming the first known Salvadoran anarchist, himself inspired by the works of Peter Kropotkin and Leo Tolstoy.[2] At the turn of the 20th century, an organized labour movement had arisen in El Salvador, forming an opposition to the country's ruling oligarchy,[3] and anarcho-syndicalism began to develop among Salvadoran workers.[4] Anarchist publications subsequently spread throughout the country, with the Ritos being first published in 1908 and the Renovación being first published in 1911.[5]

    Eventually, the tensions between the workers and oligarchs boiled over in 1913, when president

    Marxist in 1929.[11] This caused a split within the FRTS, after which the Centro Sindical Libertario was established in 1930, becoming the first specifically anarchist organization in El Salvador.[12]

    When the Great Depression brought with it a collapse in coffee prices, the country's economy became unable to sustain itself through its one main industry.[13] In the aftermath, the country's first free and fair elections were held,[13] in which the Labor Party candidate Arturo Araujo was elected as President of El Salvador.[14][15] Although he had progressive ideals, having promised food, clothing, work and housing to every Salvadoran, Araujo was himself a landowner and took power in the midst of massive labor and student strikes. He declared martial law to suppress the strikes, but the military soon turned on him too. Supported by the country's oligarchy, Araujo was overthrown in a coup d'état led by the Civic Directory, which established a military dictatorship.[16][17]

    Under the military dictatorship

    Under the rule of

    1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising, driven by communists, anarcho-syndicalists and indigenous peasants.[20] However, the revolt was brutally suppressed by the government, killing tens of thousands of people, most of whom were indigenous Pipil people.[21][22] As a result, the Salvadoran anarchist movement, including the Centro Sindical Libertario, was largely dissolved or driven underground.[23] The government subsequently pursued a brutal campaign of repression until 1944, when Salvadoran students organized a general strike which resulted in the overthrow of the Martinez regime.[24][25]

    However, the overthrow of Martínez did not bring the end of the military dictatorship, which continued to rule the country under a series of right-wing parties, supported by the

    forcibly disappeared.[27][28][29] With the ratification of the Chapultepec Peace Accords
    in 1992, the FMLN disarmed itself and the country's left-wing organizations were once against legalized. Soon after the FMLN became one of the country's largest political parties, forming the Salvadoran government from 2009 to 2019.

    The contemporary anarchist movement

    Since the end of the civil war, the Salvadoran anarchist movement slowly began to re-emerge, as counter-cultural Salvadoran youth movements took up anarchism to criticize the country's politics, from outside any political parties. In 2002, the hardcore punk scene of

    veganarchist Célula de Liberación Animal (CLA) came together to form the Libertarian Action Collective (KAL), dedicated to the publication of anarchist and vegan ideas through literature, music and direct action. Other anarchist organizations also began to emerge around the capital, including the Anarchist Social Action Collective (KASA), the Salvadoran Anarchist Revolutionary Circle (CRAS) and the Kolectivo Resistencia Libertaria (KRL). Acción Directa (AD) also arose as a result of a libertarian split from the FMLN's youth bloc. From 2006, efforts were made to strengthen ties between the various anarchist organizations in El Salvador. This culminated with the above groups coming together to participate in a coordinated large-scale action at the May Day celebrations of 2008, under the banner of the Coordinadora Anarquista (CA). The work continued in an attempt to unify and support the various groups as part of a horizontal organization.[30]

    In 2015, the Agrupación Conciencia Anarquista was established and began publishing the anarchist magazine Aurora, forming the Salvadoran chapter of the Anarchist Federation of Central America and the Caribbean (FACC).[31]

    References

    1. ^ Federal Research Division Library of Congress (1990). Haggerty, Richard A. (ed.). El Salvador: A Country Study (PDF). Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress. p. 9-10. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
    2. ^ Argueta, Ricardo (2014). "El primer pensador anarquista en El Salvador (1904)" (in Spanish). Análisis sociológico boletín. pp. 3–14.
    3. OCLC 600810176
      .
    4. ^ Launed, Carles (1978). El anarcosindicalismo en el siglo XX. Colección de formación e interpretación libertaria (in Spanish). Barcelona.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
    5. OCLC 7197984
      .
    6. ^ Kuny Mena, Enrique (11 May 2003). "A 90 años del magnicidio Doctor Manuel Enrique Araujo" [90 Years after the Assassination of Doctor Manuel Enrique Araujo]. Vértice (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
    7. S2CID 252914247
      .
    8. OCLC 5547311486
      .
    9. OCLC 491060228
      .
    10. OCLC 988746727
      .
    11. OCLC 159854916
      .
    12. ^ Tercena Arriola, Arturo (1990). "Un salvadoreño en la historia de Guatemala: Entrevista con Miguel Ángel Vásquez Equizabal". Boletín del Centro de Estudios del Movimiento Obrero y Socialista de México (in Spanish). Memoria. p. 19.
    13. ^ a b Federal Research Division Library of Congress (1990). Haggerty, Richard A. (ed.). El Salvador: A Country Study (PDF). Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress. p. 14. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
    14. S2CID 146607906
      .
    15. ^ Nohlen, Dieter (2005). Elections in the Americas: A Data Handbook. Vol. 1. p. 287.
    16. S2CID 146607906
      .
    17. ^ Federal Research Division Library of Congress (1990). Haggerty, Richard A. (ed.). El Salvador: A Country Study (PDF). Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress. p. 200. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
    18. ^
      JSTOR 466334
      .
    19. ^ Lungo Uclés, Mario (1996). El Salvador in the Eighties: Counterinsurgency and Revolution. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 114.
    20. OCLC 493045652
      .
    21. ISBN 9780803207943
      .
    22. ^ Federal Research Division Library of Congress (1990). Haggerty, Richard A. (ed.). El Salvador: A Country Study (PDF). Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress. p. 16. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
    23. OCLC 493045652
      .
    24. ^ Ackerman, Peter; Duval, Jack (2000). A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict. New York: Palgrave. pp. 241–265.
    25. ^ Parkman, Patricia (1988). Nonviolent Insurrection in El Salvador: The Fall of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
    26. OCLC 711902901
      .
    27. ^ Report of the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador (Report). United Nations. April 1, 1993.
    28. ^ "'Removing the Veil': El Salvador Apologizes for State Violence on 20th Anniversary of Peace Accords". NACLA. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
    29. ^ "El Salvador's Funes apologizes for civil war abuses". Reuters. 16 January 2010. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
    30. ^ Ortiz Díaz, Wilfredo Salvador (2 August 2009). "Breve bosquejo histórico del anarquismo en El Salvador". Anarkismo.net. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
    31. ^ Elisa (18 January 2020). "El Salvador: An Anarcha-Feminist Perspective". The Final Straw Radio. Retrieved 18 February 2021.

    Bibliography

    • Cappelletti, Angel J. (2018). Anarchism in Latin America. Translated by Gabirel Palmer-Fernández.
      OCLC 1044939183
      .

    External links
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