On April 4-6, CISPES was honored to accompany Dr. Carlos Anibal Monge from the Salvadoran Union and Social Front (FSSS) as an international guest to the 2014 Labor Notes conference in Chicago. It was only fitting that the “instrument of struggle for the Salvadoran working class” (as the FSSS calls itself) should represent the Salvadoran labor movement at Labor Notes, which is celebrating 35 years of “putting the movement back in the labor movement” by promoting rank-and-file leadership and union democracy.

Dr. Monge is a physician who got his start in the social movement when, as a medical student, he joined the successful strikes to stop health care privatization in El Salvador (2001-2003). In Chicago, he represented the workers’ union at Salvadoran Institute for Teacher’s Well-being (SITISBM) and the Federation of Public Sector Unions (FESIPAES), both of which were formed in recent years with the support of the Salvadoran Union and Social Front (FSSS). Dr. Monge joined union leaders from Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico for a panel on “Labor Struggles in Latin America,” where they fired up participants with a clear-eyed and withering analysis of neoliberalism’s attack on the working class and the planet. Looking at the hemisphere, El Salvador – where public sector unionism has blossomed since 2009 when the FMLN was first elected – was in many ways a bright spot. The audience was moved by the struggles and courage of workers in Colombia, where the murder rate of unionists remains highest in the world, despite the labor “accord” established by the Obama administration as a flimsy justification for going back on his campaign promise to oppose a free -trade agreement with Colombia. When asked what US allies could do to support their brothers and sisters in Latin America, the panelists all agreed: dedicate yourselves to changing US foreign and economic policy.

During “Global Struggles against Privatization,” Dr. Monge spoke alongside a formerly-jailed leader of the Bus Drivers’ Union from Tehran, Iran and a leader from the Postal and Communications Workers in France who helped spearhead a national referendum against the privatization of postal services. Across different governments and across the world, one thing was clear: privatization, a massive transfer of public goods and wealth to private hands, hurts us all (well, all of us who don’t own transnational corporations, that is!)

Dr. Monge laid out a pattern that the Salvadoran people have learned to watch out for when a government is preparing to turn a public resource over private hands, which starts with public agencies starting to badmouth the service they provide. “Imagine a hospital director bemoaning the quality of care they provided to patients!” he said. Heads nodded around the room, especially from members of the Chicago Teachers Union, who stood up to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to decimate the Chicago public schools with their inspiring strike in 2012.

Throughout the conference, CISPES was happy to see many old friends who have continued their commitment to international solidarity as they help build a militant, class-conscious labor movement in the US, as well as many new friends, including several participants on recent CISPES delegations. Many thanks to Labor Notes for the invitation and for helping spread the news from the Salvadoran social movement, whether it’s the on-going fight against US-backed privatization or the first unionist to be elected President in El Salvador. (Check out some highlights of the conference from its rabble-rousing speakers.)