Estela Hernandez, a member of El Salvador's national assembly and social movement leader, talks about a radical vision and practice of direct, participatory democracy by the citizens in the government of the Farabundo Martà National Liberation Front, or FMLN.
"Human rights are not respected at all in this country. The weakest members of society are arrested, they're pushed off their lands and out of their homes. Police beat them, destroy their belongings, and put their lives and the lives of their families in danger." - Community organizer and rights defender Jackson Doliscar
"We're talking about creating the conditions for people to have a decent, dignified life, with their health and education needs covered. Before, all that was marginal for the population." - Social Movement Leader and Parliamentarian Estela Hernandez
The names and stories of a slew of recent victims of extrajudicial executions, such as Eric Garner and Michael Brown, and the exoneration of their killers, have become widely known through the blowback of public fury.
October 16 is World Food Day. To ensure that there is food for the world, and that it is not controlled by corporations, small farmers and allies across the globe have also named October 16 the Day of Action for Food Sovereignty and against Transnational Organizations.
The mentality of destroying the natural world and saying, "Screw the next generation," can't continue. We have to think of all this communal wealth as something that's here for those of us who are alive today, for the future generations who will live here tomorrow, and for non-human beings as well.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019