Popular Insurgency and Social Revolution in Central America

Abstract

This essay discusses certain aspects of the revolutionary process in Central America-the social transformation in Nicaragua and the struggle for the conquest of political power in Guatemala and El Salvador. It focuses on the problematic of the actual protagonists. The first section affirms the multiclass nature of these processes, in their insurrectional stage as well as in the initial stages of revolutionary transformation. In the second section, it is argued that this complex social profile is the result of the type of capitalism that has developed in the region, which is characterized by a slow and problematic proletarianization of the labor force. In the third section, we discuss the importance of the political project of these revolutions, in order to arrive at the class character of the leadership of the national popular bloc. Finally, in the fourth section we focus on the internal differentiation that occurs within the national popular bloc as the revolutionary process proceeds from the struggle for the liquidation of the oppressive state to the stage of political, social, and economic transformation. We also touch upon some of the contradictions that occur within this process. Although the main point of reference for this essay is Central America, we have included illustrations from other revolutionary processes when they contribute to a clarification of the arguments presented. Social revolutions always fuse together a multiplicity of questions and objectives. The transformation of the economic structure and the construction of a new kind of political power involve efforts of a varied nature and diverse range: the development of the productive forces