Promoting Democracy. Manal A. Jamal
and the more sophisticated members wanted to increase their autonomy.”57 The leadership of the political organizations in exile did not control these associations, unions, and other mass-based organizations, though there was more interaction with the respective leaderships in the occupied territories.
Civic Traditions and Associational Life in El Salvador: From Charity to Revolution, and New Forms of Organizing
The transformation of associational life in El Salvador reflected political developments and attempts to cope with these changes.58 Following the establishment of charities and unions in the 1930s, there was a dramatic increase in the grassroots organizing by the Salvadoran Catholic Church. By the late 1960s, and throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, these organizations were predominately affiliated with the broader opposition movement, either with the PCS, the Christian communities, or later with one of the parties of the FMLN.59 Then, from the mid-1980s to the present, many of these organizations began to professionalize and rely on foreign donor assistance, but this would not undermine mass mobilization to the same extent as in the Palestinian case.
In the late 1960s, the Salvadoran Catholic Church, influenced by liberation theology,60 underwent a massive transformation, emerging as a radicalized force in Salvadoran politics; this transformation would have momentous consequences for Salvadoran political life in the 1970s. The Catholic Church in El Salvador came to be known as the Iglesia popular (Popular Church). At the parish level, priests initiated the mass popular organizations, or Comunidades Cristianas de Base (Christian base communities). The Christian base communities initially consisted of small groups organized by the parishes that would meet to discuss social issues and possible community strategies to address some of these daily challenges.61 The result was an explosion of community activity in rural areas, leading to the establishment of hundreds of Christian base communities. Although priests or nuns led the initial courses and sessions, the groups were encouraged to develop their own leadership. According to some estimates, the Church trained over 15,000 leaders during the 1970s.62
The Catholic Church also played an important role in forging alliances with other opposition movements. Most notably, along with other organizations, the Catholic Church in El Salvador played a critical role in the founding of the first mass-based organization, FAPU, in Suchitoto in 1974. By 1977, campesinos constituted most of the rank-and-file and much of the leadership of the mass movements, including the Christian base communities. FAPU had two factions, one oriented toward the RN and the other toward the FPL. The organization split in 1975, and activists founded a new organization oriented toward the FPL called the Bloque Popular Revolucionario (Popular Revolutionary Bloc). In 1978, ERP sympathizers founded the third of the popular organizations, Ligas Populares 28 de Febrero (28 February Popular Leagues, LP–28 1978). Finally, in 1979, the PRTC spawned the Movimiento de Liberación Popular (Popular Liberation Movement). The PCS had created the Unión Democrática Nacionalista (Nationalist Democratic Union, UDN) in 1967. The PCS also historically played a leading role in the teacher, student, and labor organizations. Although the UDN was not a formal mass organization, it played a comparable role in Salvadoran society.
The sectors affiliated with these mass-based movements included rural workers, teachers, students, women, and repopulated and war displaced persons.63 Despite the shared goals among the mass-based organizations and the level of coordination between these groups, important differences and disagreements existed. In particular, FAPU and the Bloque Popular Revolucionario differed regarding strategies, tactics, and the constituencies on which to focus.64
Similar to the Palestinian case, the degree to which the mass movements were autonomous is unsettled. Michael Foley, for example, argued that although there was considerable variation among the mass movements, “The logic of organization, especially once communities were reestablished in what were still combat zones, was ‘vertical,’ approximating a ‘war communism’ in which community decision-making, though founded on participatory principles, was subordinated to the exigencies of the war effort.”65 Mario Lungo Uclés, on the other hand, argued that an autonomous relationship does not mean complete separation, and that there was a mutually influencing relationship. Problems associated with vertical decision-making had more to do with individual leadership styles, according to him.66 In the latter part of the 1980s, there was growing autonomy of the mass movements from the FMLN because as the FMLN expanded its military influence from the “controlled zones” to the “expansion zones,” it loosened its control on organizations in the former. The FMLN also recognized that more autonomy served the mass-based organizations well.67 Although the degree to which these mass movements were autonomous is not settled, a sole focus on autonomy as the measure of associational efficacy obfuscates the real determinants of citizen participation and empowerment.
PLO- and FMLN-Affiliated Women’s Movements: Power in Numbers and Reach
The women’s sectors would emerge as integral sectors of the PLO and the FMLN’s mass-mobilization efforts. These sectors would share similar historical trajectories, goals, and objectives. Especially in the Palestinian case, the women’s mass-based organizations were careful to involve members in expressing their needs, and in establishing and running committees in the various locations. Much of these major achievements in the Palestinian case, however, would be reversed by the early 2000s.
Palestinian Women’s Organizing
The Palestinian women’s sector metamorphosed from a number of charitable societies founded in the 1920s,68 into an integral component of nationalist resistance during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and later to a community of institutionalized feminist organizations. In 1965, 139 women delegates convened and established the General Union of Palestinian Women, a mass-based organization affiliated with the PLO. After 1967, these societies expanded their purview from traditional welfare functions to place greater emphasis on education, health, and vocational training. These organizations were predominately run by middle-class Palestinian women and were located in Palestinian urban centers, and therefore inaccessible to the majority of Palestinian women who lived in the rural areas.69
By the early 1980s, the major Palestinian political organizations had established their respective mass-based women’s organizations. In March 1981, women affiliated with the PCP founded the Union of Palestinian Working Women’s Committees (UPWWC) with branches throughout the WBGS. Later that year, women affiliated with PFLP established the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC). In 1982, women affiliated with Fatah founded the Union of Women’s Committees for Social Work (WCSW). In 1989, the WWC was renamed the Federation of Palestinian Women’s Action Committees (FPWAC).70 The women who were involved in establishing the women’s committees were relatively young, educated, and activists in their own right. Many of them were also political cadres in their respective political factions. These women were committed to articulating women’s issues both in relation to and separate from the broader national movement.
Goals
For the most part, the women’s committees shared the same goals: to enhance the status of women by empowering them to improve their daily living conditions, and to lend support to the broader national struggle,71 though the WCSW was not as progressive as the others, and did not espouse an agenda of societal transformation. The founders of the committees were also interested in addressing women’s status in Palestinian society-at-large, including the promotion of women’s economic self-sufficiency.
Most of my interviewees, including founders of the women’s committees, talked about the increasing realization that women’s lives needed to be improved. Each committee wanted to increase support for its political faction, and eventually to recruit more members. In turn, by strengthening women’s role in the national movement, they hoped they would be able to realize women’s full potential in Palestinian society. The UPWWC, the UPWC, and the FPWAC stood out as more willing to address socially contentious issues relating to the status of women, such as early marriage and polygamy, and more willing to promote less traditional roles of women, including employment outside the home. But, generally, the committees focused on addressing women’s immediate practical needs, as well as their economic, political, and social consciousness, while providing them with greater economic opportunities by establishing self-help and productive ventures. There was also particular focus on addressing the needs of working women and women in rural areas.72
Organization,