By Burke Stansbury, CISPES executive director

On a beautiful NewYork day this past August, a crew of volunteersshowed up at the CISPES Brooklyn office to help make our national office move areality.  27 years of solidarity files,folders, desks, posters, sweat and tears were crammed into a 36 foot U-Haul andsoon we were on our way.  It took usabout a year of planning and searching to settle on a new space in Washington, but just 14hours to pack up and replant ourselves firmly in a beautiful new office andcommunity. Though it was sad to move CISPES and our staff away from long-time New York friends, thelove and support we got all the way through the move confirmed that we had madethe right decision.

Having arrived in DC, we set out on the task of expandingour relations with the Salvadoran community, holding events in our great newoffice (which is shared with a host of dynamic community organizations) andsupporting the local FMLN committee in its work.  Though weve always had a great relationshipwith the small Salvadoran community in New York, the nearly half a millionSalvadorans that live in greater Washington DC provide an even stronger, moremilitant base for our solidarity work. At our first big event almost all of the 50+ participants spoke Spanish,a positive sign in our effort to expand our contact and solidarity withimmigrant communities throughout the U.S.

Meanwhile, our proximity to the nations capital has helpedus support a number of grassroots lobby days on trade policy, while bringingvoices from El Salvadordirectly to the U.S. Congress.  Though wehave no intention of ever becoming an inside-the-beltway lobby machine, thepresence of a radical national organization like CISPES in the belly of thebeast should indeed contribute to the contentious dialogues in Congress abouttrade, US intervention in Latin America, and our countrys support forrepressive institutions like the School of the Americas and the InternationalLaw Enforcement Academy (ILEA.)  In thelong-run were working to permanently alter the foreign   policy of the U.S. government towards LatinAmerica and the rest of the world, so setting up shop a mile from where thesedecisions get made seems prescient.

Weve also found Washingtonto be a great place to ride our bikes! In mid-October five CISPES activists joined 3 bikers from the Quixote Center in riding over 110 miles as afundraiser for the organization.  TheSolidarity Cyclers tradition promises to continue next year with a longer 3-4day ride for justice.  You can find outabout all the     exciting thingshappening with CISPES in WashingtonDC atwww.cispes.org/washingtondc.php