WEBVTT - Anarchism in Central America feat. Andrew 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:07.480 Al the media. Hello, and welcome to Happen here. I'm 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:11.399 Andrew Siege. I'm also andrewism on YouTube, and I'm here 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:12.400 once again. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.440 With Garrison Davis. Happy to be here. 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.239 Happy to have you, and we're going to continue our 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:22.440 journey through Latin American anarchisms and their histories. We've already 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:29.320 discussed Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, Paraguay, Cuba, uapouch Struggle, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.520 and Venezuela, and so there are just a few territories 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.800 left that are considered Latin America. So just before we 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:40.239 get to Mexico and Uruguay and possibly even Quebec, I 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:42.839 want to round up all the anarchist histories in the 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:44.320 smaller states. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.280 You're not wrong, but it still is funny. 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.160 Yeah, Quebec. I mean, honestly, you could say the same 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.920 for like Haiti, Guadeloube, Martinique. 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:58.360 Yeah yeah, I mean there's even a lot of anarchists 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:03.480 in Montreal today as a booming anarchist movement, but it 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:05.320 still is a little funny. 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.000 Right, Yeah, yeah. I actually wanted to include explorations of 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:15.039 Haiti and in Guadelupe and Martinique in this episode, since 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.000 it's you know, fairly small anarchist movements there. But I mean, 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.080 I suppose I could just summarize it one time, which 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.920 is that Martinique had a section of the International at 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.600 one point in eighteen ninety five. There was also a 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.679 branch of the International in eighteen sixty six in the 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.920 island of Guadeloup, And it's very difficult to establish whether 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:40.319 there were any anarchist groups in Heati. Ever, from my 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.080 research there there was an appearance of socialism more broadly 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:48.400 as part of the struggle against domination and taking place 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.680 in the country. But the dictatorships of Haiti have made 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:57.800 those kinds of movements very difficult to spring out and thrive. 0:01:58.200 --> 0:01:59.480 Yeah, I can see that. 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.400 But today we're going to be focusing on the anarchist 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:05.960 histories and the rest of the smaller states of Central 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.160 America and the Caribbean. So we'll be covering the sparks 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:13.160 of anarchism in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvor, Guatemala, 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.960 Dimerican Republic, and Puerto Rico. And as with previous episodes, 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.280 this is all possible thanks to Health Capitalet's exhaustive work 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.680 titled Anarchism in Latin America. But let me set the 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:28.200 scene first and foremost across the lush rainforests and turquoise 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.280 seas of Central America. Historically, there were several indigenous peoples 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.480 that have called it home, and that home was violated 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.600 in the nearly sixteenth century as Spanish conquistadors carved bloody 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.760 paths through the region, replacing the ones vibrant pre colonial 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.960 societies with the feudal like arrangements of the incomeenda system, 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.760 which forced indigenous peoples into labor under Spanish landowners. The 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.520 colonial eras of the rise of vast plantations for cash 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.600 crops like cocoa, indigo and later coffee in Richina small 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.880 elite while indigenous and after descendant population endured brutal oppression 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.120 over the centuries. Fast forward to the early nineteenth century 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.920 and the wave of independence sweeping Acrosslast America reached Central America. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.880 In eighteen twenty one, the region officially threw off Spanish rule, 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.840 and in eighteen twenty three, Central America gained its independence 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:19.160 from the Mexican Empire. For a fleeting moment, from eighteen 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.400 twenty three to eighteen thirty nine, Central America united as 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.839 the Federal Republic of Central America modeled after the US 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:31.000 Constitution and encompass in modern day Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.280 and Costa Rica. Why eighteen thirty eight, the cracks in 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.280 the federation would become in too large to ignore. I mean, 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.600 for most of its existence, the capital of the country 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.520 alternated between Guatemala City and San South Law, so they 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.120 couldn't even decide on that. Liberals and conservatives were also 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.520 split on the economy, centralization versus decentralization, and the role 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.520 of the Catholic Church, and Guatemala was kind of resented 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.200 by the other states because it had such disproportionate influence. 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.600 So political infight and regional rivalries eventually caused the union 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.480 to splinter. Each state went its own way. But the 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.520 collapse of the federation wasn't the end of the story, 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.600 as seas of resistance would sprout across the former territory 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.920 of the Republic, and among those seeds with the anarchists. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.360 Let's start from Costa Rica and head north. In nearly 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.640 nineteen hundreds, in Costa Rica, you had libertarian newspapers popping 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.280 up all over the place as usual. 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:30.040 And when you say libertarian, You don't necessarily. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.640 I mean anarchists. Yes, yeah, I refuse let them appropriate 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:39.360 that to it. Yes, so you had names like Eleora 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:43.039 social Eldra Bajo, and Raluca, which would echo in the 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.640 struggles of local workers and the cross continental knowledge of 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:52.000 international discourses. But even before these publications, which you believe, 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.000 there was enough anarchist danger to still up the establishment. 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:59.520 A very little anarchist danger is enough anarchist danger history 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:00.800 of the tablished. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.520 No, but to tell you how how unsettled the establishment was. 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:07.960 So you know we're recording this a couple of weeks 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:09.320 before Christmas. 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:10.680 Right, Yes, this is going to come out I think 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:12.400 right after New Year's okay. 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:14.440 And I don't know if you've gone to chooch for 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.360 Christmas before. If that's the thing that you've done, okay, 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:24.680 I have as well. And imagine eighteen ninety two, go, 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.560 it's Christmas time, you go into church, you sit down 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:30.440 to get your little you know, you're supposed to keep 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.400 the sermon short and sweet, let people get home to 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.600 do what they have to do, right, But in eighteen 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.800 ninety two, Bishop thil decided to use his Christmas sermon 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:42.200 to one against anarchists. 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:44.760 That that's pretty funny. 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:46.760 Like imagine you just trying to go home at each 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:48.680 of Christmas lunch and you have to listen to this 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.120 guy preach against like these radical anarchists who come in 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:53.799 to rest up the country. 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.919 They're giving out food, they're healing the sick, they're doing. 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.920 I mean to be fairly because at the time were 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.840 generally a threat to the to the clerical establishment. 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.880 Sure, of course, as was our Lord and Savior Christ 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.760 Jesus age Christ Jesus and his affinity group of twelve 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:16.200 traveling around the countryside, stirring up all kinds. 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.760 Of trouble, indeed indeed. 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:23.000 Seeding revolt against the Roman Empire. We got to stop them. 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.080 Yeah, I mean, gosh, that's the whole kind of roombs 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:27.200 I could have got into right there. 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:29.839 Sure is. 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.920 Yeah, I mean, I mean, seriously, Christianity went from being 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.039 a response to the Roman Empire to be in the 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.960 Roman Empire, and that is like one of the biggest 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:41.320 downgrades of the millennia. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.159 Yeah. No, it's a super successful recuperation. And that's why 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.600 I do find as much as it has some problems, 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.240 Liberation theology, especially the version in the South to be 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.480 kind of compelling. I wouldn't consider myself a Christian necessarily, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.200 but as of like a religious sect goes, I am 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.440 interested in in what liberation theology kind of does and 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:06.760 how it tries to reradicalize forms of Christianity. 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:11.720 For sure, for sure I have some concerns about it. 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:16.600 Another strands of Christian anarchism, same as somebody who grew 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.840 a Christian. Yeah, same, But of course this is not 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.360 the place to like ask about that toffic as we 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.760 do have quite a few countries to cover. So because 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.040 three can anarchists were not just being called out by 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:36.040 the bishops bishops, you know, and they were also struggling, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.200 you know, print eight our work day, such as with 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.800 the beaker strike in nineteen oh five, and they would 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:45.800 also demonstrate against the assassination of anarchists educator Francisco Frere Nice. 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.800 They would also found the Centauri Studio Socialist Criminal, which 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.080 was a collective of intellectuals and workers who focus on 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:56.960 study and expanded upon anarchism at A nineteen eleven, and 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.360 they woul launch the journal Renovacion, which a sid and 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:05.440 impressive seventy plus issues. They helped organize Costarica's first May 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.080 Day celebration in nineteen thirteen and he results. As in 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.680 nineteen twenties, groups explicitly formed for libertarian action, but unfortunately, 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.880 the anarchist influen wouldn't be as impactful in the country 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.760 heading into the mid twentieth century, as the country faced 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.800 two dictatorships. However, the defeat of the latter in nineteen 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.280 forty nine actually ushered in the most peaceful and stable 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.440 political situation in all of Latin America. I suppose that 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:34.239 might be because the democratic government that followed didn't transgress 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.560 US interests. They do have a US military base in 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:41.920 the country, after all, But let me not speculate too much. 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.959 Look who doesn't have a US military base these days? 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.200 Come on, cut them some sack. 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:55.280 That's right, that's right, Andrew. I thought you were pro internationalism, 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:56.520 but here we go. 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.560 Yeah, yeah, look at this, Look at this, this this 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:04.200 perole ko backwards regressive. You're telling me you don't want 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.840 boots on the ground in your country. 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:25.040 Globe aboji in bio version of internationalism. 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.320 So moving on north to Nicaragua. The spark of labor 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.920 organization began to flicker in the early nineteen hundreds, but 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.720 there's little evidence of any anarchists specific influence. In nineteen eighteen, 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:41.400 in the Federals Nicaraguenes or the fo N, emerged and 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.640 pulled together various mutual societies from across the country, from 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:49.480 shoemakers to baker's to telas, from Leon to Managua. But 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:54.160 this federation wasn't anarchist and character both conservative and liberal 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.400 elites actually tried to use these workers groups with their 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.720 own ends. Within the fo N, the group of Socialista 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.079 ended up emerging as a rebel force to challenge these 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.080 elites and the influence and the workers' movements. But even 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.040 that rebel group was a performist in nature. Now it 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:14.520 is possible that libertarians from Spain in Mexico played roles 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.920 in the Stevedore strikes of nineteen nineteen in Corinto, which 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.720 was nicragu was major port city, but a caste for Shure. 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.680 For my research, we do know that at least one 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.960 influential person was perhaps inspired by anarchism, and that was 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:32.199 Augusto Sandino, the leader of the Sandinista rebellion against the 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.280 US occupation of Nicaragua. Sandino worked alongside anarchists during his 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:40.120 time in exile in Mexico, Juni's revolution, and the red 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.760 and black of the Sandinistas actually came from that anarchist influence. 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.640 By the nineteen thirties, after the US withdrawal, the labor 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:50.840 movement had to navigate a somewhats of family dictatorship, which 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.520 was marked by the severe oppression of anything that even 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:58.720 smelled red. Even in the face of state violence, unions 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.960 and workers groups continue to organize, laying the groundwork for 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.800 future resistance, including the eventual Sandinista revolution that overthrew the 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:10.240 Soumotzas in the late seventies. Some social progress was then 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.800 possible in the country, but it was still marred by 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.200 corruption and authoritarianism, made worse by the re election of 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:20.080 Daniel Rodegger in two thousand and six. He still holds 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.079 the presidency in nicarat War to this day. Managine to 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.360 stave off this swell of protests against him between twenty 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.280 eighteen and twenty twenty, of which anarchists, however small number 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.480 did indeed take part if returned to Honduras. Now, this 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.200 not too much to say about anarchists so again, but 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.880 Honduras did have a vibrant labor movement. In eighteen ninety, 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.760 La Democracia, one of the country's first mutual aid societies, 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.640 emerged with a cooperative spirit that laid the foundation for 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.920 was to come. By the early twentieth century, the workers 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.480 move when in Honduras had begun to heat up even more, 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.199 particularly among miners and banana plantation laborers, two groups that 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.960 were central to the country's economy. In March nineteen o nine, 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:04.600 miners struck against brutal conditions and poverty wages. The response Garson, 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:09.760 maybe you can guess bad things, violent, brutal repression, ding 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:10.480 ding ding ding ding. 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.199 Yeah, that is, that is you know what I was assuming, 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:15.960 but I didn't want to, you know, make a fool 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:16.720 out of myself. 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:22.000 Nineteen sixteen banana plantation workers at the Quama Food Company. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:22.960 What was their. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:27.319 Response, Oh, violence, murder, I assume. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:32.040 Ding ding ding, ding ding. Four hundred strikers were four 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.960 hundred strikers were arrested and imprisoned in the infamous Castillo 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.400 der Moor. I didn't see any evidence of mass deaths 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:40.720 in this particular case. 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.280 Which is honestly progressive considering the time. 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:48.040 I don't know, mass incarceration not really that much better. 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:53.640 I mean, they literally got imprisoned in this castle, dungeon jail. 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.280 Not not something I would want to be. Rats nibbling 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:00.040 at you tools and stuff like that. You know, no, 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.880 no so. Following these early twentieth century strikes, workers gradually 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.320 began to build some momentum when they're fired for rights, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.920 but circularly during the nineteen fifty four general strike against 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.600 the US banana companies. This strike led to significant gains, 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.360 including the legal right to organize and the emergence of 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:21.400 a more unified labor movement. Now will anarchists involve these movements. 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.240 It's possible, as movements do bear much of the language 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.960 and hallmarks of the anarchist Cynicolus thoughts at the time, 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.960 but identify specific names as difficult, and there doesn't seem 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.600 to be any evidence of specifically anarchist groups in the 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.480 early labor history of the country. As in other parts 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.480 of Central America, it appears that Marxists had a bit 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.880 more influence in their struggles. In response to the workers' gains, 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.679 the US backed military coups of roles to counter that progress. 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:51.559 The nineteen sixty three coup against President Harmone vieda Morales 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:55.199 usher in decades of military rule, which stifled labor movements 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.920 and pasiant movements, often violently. Due to the nineteen seventies, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.440 Campesino or peasant land struggles intensified as the people demanded 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.960 redistribution and reforms. They did get some reform under General 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:13.480 Zuldo Lopez Ariano, but these reforms were limited and met 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:17.040 with the usual repression. In transition in to a civilian 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:21.040 government in nineteen eighties, Honduras remained under heavy US influence, 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.840 serving as a base for anti communist activities and Central America. 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.200 Then neoliberal policies in nineteen nineties eroded many of the 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.520 hard won social and labor rights, as privatization and austerity 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.360 measures deepened the inequality in the country. Two thousand and 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.920 nine coups against President Manuel's Liar marked another turning point 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:44.160 in modern hundred resistance. Slaia's progressive policies, including raised in 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.720 the minimum wage and considering a Greeran reform. Imagine you're 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:53.600 considered progressive, even considering a greering reform. But for that 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.000 thought crime of considering a Greeran reform, he was alienated 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.640 by the business elite and the US aligned military and 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.160 thus could and this triggered, of course, a wave of 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:08.160 militarization and repression, and protests were met with violence and 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:11.600 human rights abuses usual in the years following the coop. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:15.800 Movements like that Resistentsia unified a broad coalition of workers, 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:20.400 indigenous grows, feminists, students who were all demanding systemic change. 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.600 But the issues persist and Dorus continues to face crises 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:30.560 of poverty, violence and migration, but Grassts organizing continues. The 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:35.560 ground there is indeed fertile for an anarchist resurgence, and 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:40.160 then we come to the Salvor. Anarchists, both local and international, 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.720 played a key role in shape in the early labor movement. Spanish, 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:47.120 Mexico and Panamanian anarchisynicalists work with them ideas of collector 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.720 resistance and workers' autonomy. One of the earliest milestones in 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.480 the country was the Union Operetra Savagorinia, founded in nineteen 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.480 twenty two, which united workers under the principles of mutual 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:03.440 aid and direct action. Nineteen before the Ferracri Theravadores Salvador 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.920 or FRTs emerged and was initially steeped in anarchist cynicleust 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.280 ideas before shifting towards Marxism in the late nineteen twenties. 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.040 In the nineteen thirties, the anarchist Centro Synical Libretario was 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:19.360 founded and operated in San Salvador. Unfortunately, for pretty much 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:24.320 everybody in El Salvador, nineteen thirty two happened the devastating 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.200 La Mantaza of nineteen thirty two. To be specific, this 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:31.360 was a massacre that was orchestrated by the dictatorship of 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.360 General Or I shouldn't have told you. I should have 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.680 asked you what you think to la matanza means un 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:39.240 as you've be brushed up in your Spanish. 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:44.400 Unfortunately. No, my Spanish is actually quite famously bad. I 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:45.760 really should work on it. 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.640 I'm sure you're envying my my stumbling through the all 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:51.520 these Spanish names throughout this series. 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.720 See, that's usually me. I'm just happy to have it 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.840 be someone else, so James doesn't laugh at me for 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.960 reading too many books but not practicing saying things out 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:02.960 loud as a kid. 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.119 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel you. I mean for me, 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.479 I think one of the difficulties I have been in 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:13.280 the Spanish like all my life. Yeah. The difficulty is 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.199 when you're speaking at a momentum in one language, at 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.159 least in my experience, it's really difficult to switch the 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.600 patterns of pronunciation to the other language. You know, the 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.160 way that Spanish like reads vowels is different from how 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.440 English reads vowels, so it's hard to like quickly switch 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:31.200 in and switch out. 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.600 Yeah, that's that has always been my struggle is reading 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:40.920 their vowels like my vowels, and it produces some sometimes 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:46.080 quite quite comical pronunciation which is really really my bad. 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:51.119 I can imagine, but yeah. The La Matanza of nineteen 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:55.399 thirty two was a massacre orchestrated by the dictatorship of 0:17:55.520 --> 0:18:01.800 General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez that aimed to crush the peasant 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.280 u prize in that was sparked by systemic poverty and 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:10.840 landist possession. Tens of thousands were slaughtered, many of them 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.760 indigenous people, and the anarchists and labor movements in the 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.760 country suffered immense losses as activists were either killed or 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.640 forced underground. This marked the beginning of decades of military 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.280 rule designed to protect the interests of the land owned 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.879 in oligarchy, the fourteen families that practically owned everything in 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:33.679 Al Salvor. But despite this repression, radical organizations have persisted. 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:36.480 The mid to lay twentieth century, so the rise of 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:40.040 armed revolutionary groups, culminating in the salvadorra In Civil War 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.760 from nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety two. The war 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.399 pitted the primarily marx Lenists and socialist factions against the 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.920 US backed salvador And military dictasership. The Marxists transitioned into 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.760 a political party after the nineteen twinety two peace Accords, 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.440 which ended the war but left many systemic inequalities unresolved. 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.879 In the twenty first century, labor struggles have continued amid 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.920 new liberal economic reforms and international financial pressures. While the 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.560 left wing fml AND won the president seems those nine 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.440 and held power one until twenty nineteen. His tenure was 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.840 criticized for failing to sufficiently addressed issues plague in the country. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.320 Recent years under President Abukele have seen the construction of 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.159 a proper mass casseral police state while we were going 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:27.280 to struggle against privatization and austerity measures. By the way, 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.040 the rise of Achille is just really fascinating to me, 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:36.159 particularly from a Trindardy in context, because we have a 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:39.800 pre surveyor murder rate situation going on. Our murder rate 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.800 has been rising steadily in the past two decades, and 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.280 there's just been in general a lot of crime issues 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.600 lately and the response a lot I've seen a lot 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.560 of Trindadians have toward the rise of Auchilli and a 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.600 Salvador is literally like, we do that too, We need 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.040 to do that too, like we need to you know, 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.760 institute like a mass cossus as well. And I feel 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:06.440 like I'm fighting a wave. I'm like talking to a wall. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:08.879 Like really, it's really difficult for me, I think, to 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.480 challenge that because I know some people's frustrations, but to me, 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.000 my mind is just boggled at it. You know, like 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:19.480 you really think we we complaining about corruption all the time, right, 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.879 Like it's very openly nepotistic and corrupt in this place, 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.680 people who are like either political party that is presented 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.919 to us as the options. And yet people are so 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.520 thinking about the crime situation that they're willing to put 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.240 that much power in the hands of the government to 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.560 make that judgment. That's the thing is, we know that 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:40.840 they are innocent people in for killer's prisons. You know, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.760 we know that journalists haveing locks of criticizing the government. 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:48.240 We know that all people are locked up without charges, 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:53.240 without rights, without anything. And what's crazy to me is 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:57.400 that like people are like cheering it on until it's them, 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.200 until you happen to be unlucky enough to have a tattoo. 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:03.760 I mean, yeah, as long as it's someone else, then 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:04.879 it's not them. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.200 Yeah exactly. It's like it's fine as long as somebody else. 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.920 But like, let's say you have a tattoo or I mean, 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.840 the thing is the police. I'm sure it's the case 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.040 in Saba as well, because the police are themselves a 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.440 gang pretty much anywhere in the world, but the police 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.760 and should not literally connected in some cases with with gangs. 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.560 In fact, there's some gang members who end up like 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:27.800 joining the police force later on in their lives. And 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.159 so to just give that kind of policy that, you know, 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:35.239 let's say you criticize an officer, you say something they 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:37.320 were like, and then before you know it, you're the 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.480 one behind boss as well. I understand the frustration, I 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.280 don't understand the response, and it remains to be seen 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.800 how Pikuli's policies continue to play out in the country. 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:52.399 I feel like it's a disaster wayson to happen. In 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.000 many ways, it is already a disaster. But you know 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:57.159 there are people point to oh, look, I'll see if 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.560 things have got no But I don't know how long 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:05.280 that will last, especially when the families that are responsible 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:09.359 for so much of the disparity in the country are 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:13.240 still in their position of power. But I digress. The 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:17.040 spirit of mutually direct action and anti Thoritain resistance still 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:20.160 has a potential to persist in the country without Salbado. 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:31.879 At last, we've reached Guatemala. The nineteen twenty sixth, the 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:36.680 publication Orientacition Syndical started circulating in Guatemala calling for the 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:39.639 kind of direct, grassroots union action that went around or 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:44.200 even opposed fiscal parties as obstacles liberation. Meanwhile, the Marxists 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.720 in the country had a different vision. They pushed for 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.159 the formation of the Federaci Jianalo Verradia Guatemala and with 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:54.040 that the launch of fan Gardia Proletaria, a communist led 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.160 people that aim to rally the working class behind Marxist ideas. 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:01.040 At the same time, Spanish and Peruvian workers alongside Quatemalan 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.320 students and workers came together to form the Committee Proxy 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:08.480 and Sindical, which was the space where anarchistyndicalism truly found 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.520 its voice in Quatemala, Guds. You can probably guess the 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:13.119 powers that be weren't going to let this kind of 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:17.600 antical action stand. In nineteen thirty a military dictatorship spread 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.080 swept into the country and in the committ Dae, effectively 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.040 silence and anarchistnicalism in Quatermala and set in the stage 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:27.320 for years of political oppression as the state worked tirelessly 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:30.679 to suppress any form of workers self organization, often with 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:35.080 the back end of the one and only us say 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:41.080 us say us say. The mid twentieth century marked a 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:44.800 period of extreme violence against workers movements, passive movements, and 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:49.240 leftists movements, especially after the nineteen fifty four CIA backed coup. 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:53.720 Despite these setbacks, workers and political movements really never stopped fighting. 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:58.360 In the nineteen sixties and seventies, thriller movements gainablemental inspired 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:02.240 by Marxist and anti imperialist side urologies, and although these 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:04.520 movements were frequently crushed with state violence in the Fourth 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:07.680 massacres and disappearances, they persisted until the end of the 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:11.600 Civil War nineteen ninety six. Still, social inequality and economic 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:15.680