They complain about some corruption, also not surprising in this difficult economic time, when a lot of reconstruction money is floating around, and few people have the necessary administrative or bookkeeping skills. And yet in this generally gloomy picture, there are rays of hope. There is imaginative work organizing women into small co-ops and promoting women's leadership in all areas of social life. The labor movement, always very militant, but never very large in El Salvador, seems to be on the verge of potential growth, especially because of organizing in the maquilas. If serious gains are made there, we may see growth in a militant and democratic national labor movement.
Environmentalists offer another hope.
There are developing programs in appropriate technology, effective and viable farming, and other areas that unite environmental and economic interests of the poor, and look at the connections between development and the environment. Probably the most important area of organization are numerous decentralized economic and community organizing projects. Some projects are run by current or former FMLN activists, some are aided by professionals from the cities, some are promoted by progressive people in the churches. These projects are not yet providing a living to many people, but they hold promise of doing so. If a new vision of a path towards true economic, social and political justice and democracy can be forged in El Salvador, it will be done in the cauldron where the communities and the issue-oriented movements come together.