Mutual aid in El Salvador

El Salvador is a country which was ravaged by a brutal civil war for twelve years, ending in 1992. During the civil war, the United States government backed the right-wing government, who in turn backed death squads which killed scores of leftists and others who posed a threat to the status quo. Nowadays, the people are still oppressed by the government, although the death squads aren't so active. Instead, we merely see unequal allocation of resources by government to the wealthy and those with political connections instead of those who truly need it (remind you of anywhere else?), the government being controlled by the same right-wing party since 1989. Since CAFTA (the Central American "Free Trade" Act) went into effect in mid-2006, the quality of life has suffered for small farmers and workers in the United States and, much more drastically, in El Salvador. This is what happens when capital is allowed to flow freely from country to country without labor being allowed to flow freely as well (not to mention government subsidization of long-range transportation and a host of other market distortions benefiting the capital-owning class).

However, within this dark ocean of misery is a shining pearl of mutual aid in action (Via Alexandra Early, "Report From El Salvador: Why They All Keep Coming," CounterPunch):

With hard-earned dollars from the U.S. [from Salvadorans working in the U.S. to their families at home] flowing to so many lower-income families and communities, there’s far less pressure on the government to tax the rich or corporations to pay their fair share of the cost of schools, roads, solid waste disposal, health care, and other public services. In another town in Usulutan that I visited, a group of farmers proudly showed me the recently improved road connecting their fields to the closest markets; tired of waiting for public works assistance from the government, they had taken matters into their own hands and, with their own labor and funds – from children, siblings and others working in the U.S. – had done the necessary construction themselves.

That's what I like to see, people taking their fate into their own hands! Keep it up, Salvadorans. However tragic it may be that government facilitates the transportation of capital across borders without helping poor farmers build roads, at least one glimmer of hope appears in the darkness on occasion.