CISPES - Solidarity with El Salvador - Ayuda Material para El Salvador

Material Aid

CISPES 2010/2011 material aid docket

Wednesday, 25 de August de 2010

For Social Transformation and Resistance to Corporate Globalization

In this historic era of El Salvador’s first left president, the social movement and FMLN are beginning to construct a new, just El Salvador, moving away from the impunity, poverty and forced displacement cultivated under decades of right wing rule. CISPES is proud to support the important work of our partners in El Salvador who are implementing new models of social and economic development and people-centered governance in El Salvador. Please join us in working toward our commitment to raise $10,000 in support of women-led, worker-led and community-based organizing.

FMLN National Women's Secretariat: $4,500

Women constitute the majority of the population in El Salvador and live with the problems of marginalization, violence and socioeconomic exclusion. In this context, the FMLN’s National Women’s Secretariat organizes women to strengthen their political leadership and participation, mobilize political pressure for government policies to end discrimination and violence against women, providing public education on gender and women’s rights, and promoting policies within the FMLN that encourage women’s political leadership. The Women’s Secretariat will bolster women’s political leadership by organizing regional and national assemblies of women elected officials to coordinate local actions and trainings on gender analysis and strategies to fight discrimination.

Industrial Water Workers’ Union (SITIAGUA): $2,500

For over five years, the Public Water Workers’ Union (SETA) has led the battle against the privatization of El Salvador’s water, organizing hundreds of community water forums to educate rural residents on the risks of water privatization and pushing legislation to make water a human right. A key aspect of SETA’s plan to directly confronted the piecemeal water privatization schemes carried out by past right-wing administrations has been the formation of an industrial water workers’ union, to unite workers across the private-public line in defense of their rights and to defend affordable access to water for the entire country. In early 2010, SETA finally achieved the formation of the industrial water workers’ union, SITIAGUA, that will continue to organize more workers and more local unions at private water companies into 2011. SITIAGUA will also mobilize the local water defense committees that were formed by the community water forums to demand a law that guarantees water as a public right and returns the municipal water systems privatized by the ARENA government to public control.

Youth Project of Mejicanos: $2,000

The National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining in El Salvador (the Mesa) will direct CISPES funds to support on-the-ground mobilizations in Cabañas, the rural center of the Salvadoran anti-mining struggle which has endured multiple assassinations of local activists. Grassroots environmentalist, community, youth, and religious groups in Cabañas have been instrumental in organizing the resistance to Canadian company Pacific Rim Mining and its proposed cyanide-extraction gold mine. With massive marches, rallies and vigils, roadblocks and teach-ins, community organizations effectively pressured the Salvadoran government to deny extraction permits and prevented the company from mining a single ounce of gold. As the Mesa presses for a national ban on metallic mining and supports the Salvadoran government’s legal battle against the $100 million lawsuit filed by Pacific Rim under the “investor protections” chapter of the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement, the local organizing and mobilizing done by local grassroots organizations will be crucial to keeping mining out of Cabañas and out of El Salvador.

Strategic Organizing Fund: $1000

The Strategic Organizing Fund is disbursed to organizations that find themselves in urgent need of funds for mobilizing or organizing an action. In the past, this fund has helped university organizations mobilize for marches, anti-mining organizations mobilize following assassinations of activists, etc. Priority is given to organizations that have limited access to funds from other sources as well as to women and LGBT organizing.

CISPES 2008/2009 Material Aid Docket

Thursday, 20 de March de 2008

download material aid docket flyer

FMLN National Women’s Secretariat: $5,000

Women constitute the majority of the population in El Salvador and live with the problems of marginalization, violence and socioeconomic exclusion. For this reason, it is of primary importance for the FMLN Women’s Secretariat to support and strengthen spaces, methods, policies and strategies that foment the leadership of women in the solving of their own problems. The main goals for the Women’s Secretariat are to promote the participation of women in defending their right and access to vote and to continue empowering women to assert their rights in the broader society. This work will be formulated in a series of leadership trainings and local assemblies that will serve to build a class and gender consciousness based on analysis of women’s own experiences. These trainings will cover subjects like the state’s structural violence against women, political and ideological formation, alternative and popular communication, etc.

Public Water Workers Union (SETA): $4,000

The water worker’s union (SETA) is at the forefront of the fight against water privatization, which will determine whether water is regarded as a public, human right for Salvadorans or as a source of profit for corporations. SETA members plan to continue their organizing and mobilizing efforts to form a united bloc against water privatization. The current Salvadoran government is making normative and institutional changes in its administration of water that will affect the majority of Salvadorans who are poor and will not be able to afford water service provided by private companies. SETA’s struggle against the privatization of water involves the creation of Public Forums on the Defense of Water. Another component to the water forums is the creation of permanent local committees in defense of water. The committees count on the participation of local authorities such as municipal governments, community organizations, and water boards. Their main goal is to permanently monitor and denounce the steps taken to privatize the water of Salvadorans.

Youth Project of Mejicanos: $3,000

The government of the city of Mejicanos has prioritized creating positive and recreational spaces for youth in order to prevent and minimize the levels of violence in Salvadoran society. The majority of the youth in Mejicanos are under great risk given the context of poverty which generates frustration, violence and insecurity. All of this is aggravated by the anti-crime policies imposed by the central government that are repressive and mainly result in incarceration and further exclusion of youth. High levels of crime are intimately related to the lack of recreational and cultural spaces especially for youth. Therefore, as a concrete step towards benefiting the youth of Mejicanos, the municipal government built a Youth Center last year. For 2008, Mejicanos has planned to strengthen this space by creating a cultural program for children and youth in the arts, sports, and language and computer areas. The municipal council has prioritized the strengthening of the Youth Center by supplying it with the basic equipment to offer the planned artistic and sports activities for youth. In addition, providing technical training for youth is also important as it may result in better opportunities for youth and their families.

Strategic Organizing Fund: $1000

The Strategic Organizing Fund serves the important role of allowing CISPES to respond to the immediate needs that arise for the Salvadoran social movement. In the past this fund has been used to finance emergency mobilizations, strikes, protests, picket lines and other mobilizations that are not included in the rest of CISPES’s docket. With the increase in state repression, attacks on the FMLN, social movement leaders and activists, and the recently passed “Anti-terrorist Law”, government authoritarianism and human rights violations are expected to rise. This emergency fund will support mobilizations and resistance to these attacks. This fund will prioritize projects that are women-led or have an element of gender consciousness, and in cases where organizations are proposing actions that might not get funded by more mainstream sources.

SETA - Organizing to Defend Citizen�s Right to Water

Monday, 19 de March de 2007

SETA - Organizing to Defend Citizen‘s Right to Water

The water service workers union SETA, including their rank-and-file leadership, has been doing the important work of organizing at the community and municipal level around the right to water. The union holds public forums raising awareness about the citizen‘s right to water as well as denouncing the government‘s plan to privatize water.

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