On November 15, El Salvadoran health care unions announced a "historic victory" in their two-month strike against privatization and called it a turning point in the war against human poverty and environmental destruction. "Through struggle, the Salvadoran people have stopped the privatization of health care, and struck a decisive blow against the neoliberal model which strips us of our humanity," said Ricardo Monge, Secretary-General of the STISSS healthcare workers' union to a jubilant crowd of thousands.

The cause for celebration was a new law outlawing the privatization of health care, what union members call the "pay or die," program. The law against privatization was supported by all of the opposition parties in the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly. The legislators of President Francisco Flores' ARENA party were alone in opposing the bill, which overturned Flores's recent changes to the "State Guarantee of Health and Social Security." The changes were intended to open up El Salvador's health care system to investment by US HMO's and other for-profit organizations.

The new law emphasizes accessible quality health care for every Salvadoran, near their home and regardless of their ability to pay. It also prohibits the privatization, concession or transfer of any health care or support service to private companies, and calls for all current concessions to be canceled by the end of the year.

The strike has continued as workers press for reinstatement of their fired colleagues, payment of withheld salaries, and a guarantee of no reprisals against striking workers. Strikers have faced police violence, including attacks by riot police that have left dozens hospitalized. The government's Prosecutor for the Defense of Human Rights called the police attacks "a violation of the 1992 Peace Accords." Paramilitary death squads, which terrorized the country in the 1980s, made a reappearance during the strike, abducting and threatening union leaders.

The health care workers were joined in opposition to privatization by the electricity workers, who scored their own victory in November when the opposition parties in the legislature again united to defeat a proposal intended to open the way to electricity privatization.

These victories are threatened by the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the USA's extension of NAFTA to Central America. CAFTA would supersede national laws and require that health care, among other things, be opened to privatization. At the same time, these victories are roadblocks on the way to CAFTA and privatization. Salvadorans are holding the line and sending the neoliberal architects of privatization back to the drawing board.

More information can be found at www.cispes.org or via Seattle CISPES: 206-325-5494