A good conduct award

About the statutory changes in the FMLN

From the perspective of the statutes, the FMLN is the most democratic political party of the country. It is the only one that elects its leaders through a universal and direct secret vote of its followers. In this sense, if the parties are defined in terms of “socialization forms”, in the sense of “a process in which the people acquires certain political behavior patterns and values”, it can be said that the left-wing political institution “socializes” its members with a the maximum Occidental democratic criterion: The free election of its leaders.

Is this criterion enough for the democratization of the national political life? The answer is definitively negative. The election of the representatives (what some people call the formality of the representative democracy) has revealed its errors. If we consider the multiple organization problems that the FMLN faced in its last internal elections, or the fraud accusation of a certain sector of the party, this matter gets even more complicated. Anyhow, lets say that for the purposes of the present analysis, that it can be a good starting point (the direct election of the leaders by the base) to evaluate the rest of the national parties. The Salvadoran society, and the political sector in particular would be interested to encourage the FMLN to improve its process of internal election to democratize the main organ of the political participation that the citizenry has.

Do the last news about the possible statutory changes in the FMLN obey to this interest? To speak with the truth, the objectives of the journalistic articles are not clear.

Apparently, the newspaper is concerned because the Political Commission of the FMLN pretends to -according to La Prensa Gráfica- “propose and filtrate candidates into popular election positions”. That would be, to the eyes of the journalists, a maneuver of the political leadership to reduce the power of those affiliated in the electoral process. This insinuation means that the political commission intends to be replaced at the base of the party. That is a backward movement for the democratization process inside the national parties. With this, a national crusade would be justified to stop the backing down process of the left-wing party.

It is odd, however that the numerous news about the alleged anti-democratic statutory reforms in the FMLN never made a reference about the general political environment of the local parties governed by small leaderships, completely disconnected with any of its followers. It turns out that the journalists of La Prensa Gráfica are extremely worried about the next confiscation of the FMLN’s powers, without realizing that this is a fact (since along time ago) in the other parties. This does not mean that we have to approve the backward movement –in case it existed per se-, but that it simply explains the journalists’ hypocrisy for the internal democratization issue of the Salvadoran political parties.

However, in fact, a series of statutory reforms were announced in the FMLN. Their exact content has not been revealed yet –since they have to be approved at the National Assembly-. The need to avoid the chaos that was observed during last year’s internal elections (November 25th ) has been discussed, among other issues. Back then, the journalists themselves spoke about certain annoying procedures in which each voter had to choose between some 300 candidates. This turned the elections into a slow, complex and boring process. They also spoke about the need to simplify the procedures. One of the conclusions at the time was that if the internal electoral process was not correctly administrated it could cause a wear-and-tear process inside the left-wing party, and undermine whatever was left of its internal cohesion.

If the former ideas are correct, they do not only justify the journalistic attack against the FMLN’s reforms, but, on the contrary, it would help to stabilize the left-wing party’s life and at the same time they would be a contribution to the democratization of the internal policies of the national parties. In this sense, what is presented as an “objective” press article, in the end it is nothing but a maneuver to keep discrediting the campaign against the FMLN, which started along time ago and it has been performed by the right-wing leaders.

The representatives of the right-wing did not fairly value the importance of the step that the FMLN was taking about the election method of its leaders, and about the selection of its candidates for the national elections. Any kinds of names, based on the critical organizational deficiencies of the last internal elections, were used to discredit and innovative proposal for the national political context. That is why now they insist to demonstrate that it was not just the wrong decision, but that it technically did not give any results at all. They insist to demonstrate that the FMLN is trying to turn back time to detangle their mistake. With this, the right wing would be encouraged to keep the same vertical structure of its electoral machinery. However, it still is hypocritically disguised with a false preoccupation about the alleged loss of power that the left-wing’s base suffered.

Even if it is right to suspect about the sudden preoccupation of the right-wing for the democratization of the FMLN’s internal political life, there is no doubt that this is still an important issue, and that it has to be discussed as such. It is necessary to denounce the lack of democracy of the national political parties. They have an enormous responsibility when it comes to support the process of the democratic openness of the entire political life. While they do not put themselves at the height of the circumstances, they will become obstacles to reach the democratic objectives of the society.

The democratic process inside the FMLN has not ended despite of all the efforts. It is necessary that the democratic discourse is closely related to their activities. It is necessary that the statutes represent this issue, but it is also extremely necessary that they have an effective performance in that sense. The most important leaders of the FMLN must be compromised with that objective, and feed their relation with the bases over this principle.

In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to any reversion of the FMLN’s internal process. It is necessary to acknowledge the presence of many negative incentives in the air that do not necessarily push towards the establishment of horizontal relations between the elites and the bases. There is not only the danger of turning the party into a structure of officials and bureaucrats, but also, as Otto Kirchheimer reminds us, “a party has a tendency to accommodate itself at the successful style of its contenders because it expects to obtain results in the elections, or because it is afraid to lose voters”.

In this sense, it is probable that the FMLN is tempted to use the winning formula of ARENA. It has imitated many things from this party if it conceives itself as a simple propaganda machine. Is it interested in deceiving the population during the electoral periods? It might also be possible that it feels inclined to copy the vertical and the anti-democratic structure of its leaders, who impose to the base the “ideal” candidates for each election. This is the danger people has to pay attention to in order to face the statutory changes that have been announced for the next General Assembly.

The maquila, once again a polemic issue

It is no secret that the labor conditions at the textile maquila do not favor the dignity of its workers nor the respect to the labor rights. Frequently, there are maquilas that are suddenly closed down and leave without paying what they owe to the workers. There are also other companies that have a strict discipline (almost a military one) that turns into abuses of all kinds against the employees.

What has not been frequent, until last June 5th , is the massive intoxication of the workers, since, even if there are some records, these were never so regular or close between themselves. In a period of only four days, two cases of massive intoxication have been registered, one on the already mentioned date and another one on July 8th , in which approximately 300 and 214 workers have been affected, respectively. These events have become a public polemic that questions its possible causes: while the governmental officials assure that it is all about a collective hysteria case, and/or a “sabotage against the maquilas” the rescue teams and the affected workers insist that there are signs that there has been a Clorox spill, and that the symptoms have been real –which has been confirmed by the doctors who have taken care of the affected ones-. The negligence of the maquilas’ supervisors is also news, they refuse to pay immediate attention to the case, and they did not adopt measures such as the evacuating the industrial buildings.

The events make it necessary to examine different aspects related not only with the labor safety, which appears as the most evident subject, but also with the international polemic underneath the proliferation of the maquila: the overprotective posture of the government towards the sub-sector and the implications that the presence of the maquila industry has in the country, in terms of the expenses and the benefits that it generates.

In El Salvador, just like in most of the countries looking for a development process, it is evident that there are no policies to regulate the different social risks: delinquency, disasters, epidemics (such as dengue), and even labor accidents. The fact that two consecutive intoxications have been registered reveals that, despite the first signals that showed that there were risky situations at work, these were not properly discussed. The result: a new intoxication that could have been prevented if the necessary measures would have been taken. Neither the installations were clean, nor the contamination sources were eradicated.

The statements that the governmental officials have made are even more surprising. They suggest that the second case of intoxication could have been “a collective hysteria” deliberately caused by the workers who took pills which induce vomit, and create suspicion among the other workers. This idea came from the declarations of governmental officials such as Juan Llort, from the Legal Medicine Institute; and Jorge Nieto, Minister of Labor.

This argument includes hypothesis which suggest that there is a sabotage campaign going on against the textile maquila. This defamation campaign would be intending that The United State’s government withdraws the duty related preferences that make the foreign investments in this sub-sector profitable and possible. Certainly, there is a certain pressure, but it is not a sabotage, it is an informative campaign about the Salvadoran labor reality.

In fact, it is evident that the textile maquila, emerged under the shadow of the Initiative Of the Caribbean Basin (ICC, in Spanish), has its detractors among the workers’ ranks and the syndicates of The United States, and this is something that has been taking place for more than ten years (See Proceso 535). Fundamentally, the American unions question the migration of the closing factories from The United States to the beneficiary countries of the ICC, where they pay low wages, they are submitted to minor social and environmental regulations, and even receive a preferential treatment from the hosting governments.

In the end, globalization implies a higher capacity to take the “competitive” advantages, as the minimum wages that go under the line of poverty that prevails in the ICC’s beneficiary countries; but, at the same time, it implies a migration of the investments of the developed countries, in which job positions with higher salaries are lost. Consider, for example, that in El Salvador the salary per hour is not even $0.70 cents, while in The United States this amount can easily become $5.00 per hour.

This conflict of interests has turned into an evident confrontation between the representatives of the American syndicates and the representatives of the government and the maquila. In the past, they were even talking about “boycotts” against the maquila, although now the accusations point out even to a murder attempt.

The ARENA governments have been brave defenders of the investments in the textile maquila, but the most recent statements seem completely unbelievable because they discard, without further explanations, the most evident hypothesis. Why is it so difficult to believe that what happened was a common accident of a Clorox spill, and that, in addition, no one took the necessary precautions to avoid new accidents and intoxications? After all, this would not be anything odd in El Salvador, where industrial accidents of this kind, even if they are not frequent, they are well-know: Remember for example an accident with cobalt in 1987; the petroleum spills at Acajutla in 1994; the later Clorox spills also at the Acajutla and the Soyapango areas; and the annual explosions at the fireworks’ factories.

The maquila is not the only working place exposed to technological accidents, but that does not mean that the businessmen and the government can pretend that nothing happened when these events take place. It is convenient to remember some of the benefits and the costs that the investments in this sectors have for the country. In the first place, the amount of jobs generated by this sector is considerable, and it is estimated that it generates approximately 90,000 jobs, which is an equivalent number close to a 4% of the Economically Active Population ( PEA, in Spanish). The same can be said about the gross exportations, which represent 58% of the total number of exportations, although -if the considerable importations that the sector makes are deducted- the net amount of exportations made by the maquilas only reaches 17% of the total exportations.

On the other side of the coin, there are aspects such as: The exemption of taxes they enjoy, and the limitations that this imposes to the tax collection system of the central and the municipal governments; the demand of services and infrastructure that it generates; the low (poverty) wages that it offers, and the conditions that it imposes to the governmental salary policy.

However it might be, the fact is that the maquila is the clearest materialization of what the globalization process has to offer to countries such El Salvador, where the labor is underpaid and where the governments behave with an excessive pragmatism. Without denying the need for the foreign investment, it must be said that the maquila’s activity (including its impact over the labor) obliges to consider the need to redefine the strategy to attract investments in three senses: to offer a qualified labor, promote investments on its use, and base the competitive advantages on the accumulation of human resources (and not in the lack of it).