Picture from the Museum of the Revolution, Perquin, El Salvador
Farmworkers, Ex-Guerrillas: A Life of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class
EL SALVADOR, November 1 —“I think I’m even crazier than sick and old. I continue to believe in communist revolution,” a farmworker comrade tells me, smiling. We were handing him several copies of Red Flag amidst the mountains, under a persistent rain. This revolutionary participated in building the FMLN guerrilla army in the 1970s. He fought against the army that defends the interests of the Salvadoran bourgeoisie. Today he continues to participate in the growth of the International Communist Workers’ Party.
“Take good care with the newspapers. The police and the soldiers are there,” he says. Passing through police and army checkpoints, we have managed to overcome our obstacles. We know that the fight to spread the ideas of ICWP is not easy, but stubborn love for our working class is stronger than fear of fascism.
“Sorry we couldn’t see each other. I was in the village where I was born. Cell phone signals don’t reach there. But this week you are going to bring me the newspapers, right?” another farmworker comrade asked. He also participated, from a very young age, with the Salvadoran guerrillas in the armed conflict from 1980 to 1992. He always gets several copies of Red Flag and calls to find out how the work of ICWP is advancing in the factories, universities and other places where we are developing the struggle to spread communist ideas. He wants to be part of the process.
Amidst mountains, paths and ravines we always walk towards communist revolution with ICWP and our newspaper Red Flag. The commitment of the farmworker comrades pushes us to continue in the struggle. We know how their ideological development has advanced. From the Christian structures through the “Theology of Liberation,” which led them to dispose of their material goods like land and cattle, sharing them with others. To joining a war, participating with a social democratic party. And now, with their practice and theory, they are an invaluable part of our communist struggle.
“And how are Enrique, Paola, Ernesto?” These comrades ask about the workers in the maquilas, since here we have cultivated the unity of the working class, rural and urban. But it is not unity for unity’s sake. Rather, it has been a struggle of ideas. Of how to fight for our emancipation from capitalist chains, wherever we are, and to build the communist solidarity that must exist.
Some comrades from different parts of the world like South Africa, Mexico, the USA, Honduras, and Spain, organized in the ICWP, already know part of these mountainous territories and their majestic rivers. They also know what it is to come and be part of the process of struggle with these comrades, the hours we travel to get to them. They know of and share the confidence that we have now as a Party which makes us sharpen the struggle to advance communist revolution.
At the end of the afternoon, and with the satisfaction of our duty fulfilled, we went to a village, carrying pork skin and bones. These we shared with the farmworker comrade, to add to the next day’s bean soup, which will remind us of our commitment to communist revolution.