Download PDF of this full issue: v12n3.pdf (8.4 MB)

Hunger and Revolution: Central America

By Jack Elder

Hunger and its variations—malnutrition, pellagra, starvation—don't receive much attention in the news media. They probably aren't considered much of a factor either by the Pentagon and State Department in their analysis of the current crisis in Central America. And yet, the issue of hunger is at the very core of the crisis. Under ordinary circumstances, men and women don't leave their homes to go to the mountains to fight. But these are no ordinary times in Salvador and in Guatemala. It is hunger that finally has pushed increasing numbers of people into the ranks of the popular forces. And it is hunger that will finally break the iron grip that juntas have on both countries.

To understand the paradox of people starving in agricultural countries requires examining two concepts: land tenure and the export-oriented economy. From these concepts stem the major causes of hunger and therefore of revolution. In both El Salvador and Guatemala about 5% of the population controls 70% of the land. This translates into great tracts of productive land for the few fortunate farmers and no land at all for great numbers of agricultural day laborers (formerly farmers). The tragedy is that to deprive a farmer of his land is to take away not only his livelihood but also the relation he formerly had with his community. Without some land on which to grow subsistence crops, a family is essentially condemned to starvation. When the government aggravates this critical situation by razing villages and burning crops, the displacement of rural populations reaches disastrous proportions. And the guerrilla ranks swell.

If the present land tenure in El Salvador and Guatemala provides for unequal distribution of land, export-oriented economies similarly distort the distributions of the fruits of national production. While the rich bask in a life replete with European and U.S. vacations, condominiums, and "best" schools, and other trappings so characteristic of our own idle rich, the vast majority of people scratch out, as best they can, what is called "subsistence living." They tend the coffee plants and harvest the red berries each summer, they cut, wrap and load millions of boxes of United Brands and Dole's best bananas, they weed, spray and pick the cotton boll, and they watch over and care for great herds of cattle. The products of all these ventures are all exported. And, in one sense, the revenues are also exported. Profits which don't directly go to foreign investors, go to members of the upper classes who effectively keep their money from benefitting the workers. This double concentration of land and money in the hands of just scores of families results first in frustration, then desperation for the millions of poor who sink deeper and deeper into misery and hopelessness.

It was clear during Dewey Canyon IV that our (?) representatives (?) in Congress lack the guts to resist the Reagan Administration line that Central America is next on the Commies hit list. We need to educate ourselves and our representatives. We need to know the root cause of the struggle in Central America. Then we can recognize the Administration's bullshit for what it is and demand what really will help El Salvador and Guatemala—no U.S. aid, no U. S. intervention!

Jack Elder
San Antonio VVAW