SOLIDARITY FOREVER
Dear John,
Your comrades from CISPES and the Central America solidarity movement present you with this album of solidarity in recognition of your crucial contributions to the cause of freedom, justice and democracy from Chalatenango to Chicago.
You could be counted on for every critical conjuncture, decisive moment and final offensive. Starting with the solidarity committee in Madison, Wisconsin, continuing on with the CISPES national office in Washington, D.C. and moving on to New York City CISPES you helped build a strong and dynamic movement, the most effective solidarity movement in the history of the United States.
At the CISPES national office you helped spark organizing on college campuses coast-to-coast when you coordinated the nationwide tour of student leaders from El Salvador and South Africa in the spring of 1986. You organized grassroots pressure campaigns aimed at rabid Republicans and death squad Democrats, pushing for an end to all U.S. aid to El Salvador’s military-backed governments. You coordinated CISPES’ 1987 national convention, ensuring that the organization engaged in wide-ranging debates on political strategy and organizational development. The CISPES model of grassroots organizing and democratic decision-making was firmly established at that convention, laying the foundation for organizational successes that continue today.
In the late 1980s you helped remake New York City CISPES, building what may well have been the largest, most militant and active chapter in all of CISPES. From protests at the Salvadoran consulate to the battle for free speech on the New York subways to leading delegations into El Salvador’s war zones, you were always at the forefront of history.
We have all learned and benefited from your unwavering commitment to justice, your political vision and your skills as an organizer and activist.
With Love and Solidarity from all your Comrades.