Nicaragua: four years of revolution
Socialist Action1980sPhil HearseTranscribed or corrected by hand from the printed page.
A TINY COUNTRY of just three million people has become a focal point in world politics.
Four years ago this week the people of that country, led by the revolutionary Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) overthrew the pro-American dictator Somoza, and swept out his murderous National Guard.
Four years have brought immense gains to the people of Nicaragua as the revolution has deepened and consolidated. But in July 1983 the Nicaraguan revolution is under siege — not from the people but from the remnants of the Somoza's national guard, from the Honduran army and above all from the United States.
The US knows full well that the example of the Nicaraguan revolution has spurred the revolutionary process throughout Central America. Reagan is determined to destroy it.
Here, PHIL HEARSE looks at four years of the Nicaraguan revolution.
Anastasio Somoza turned Nicaragua into his personal fiefdom. His family ruled the country from 1936 — he took power after the death of his uncle in 1967.
But post-war economic growth and partial urbanisation created new working class and middle class forces which felt constrained by the personal rule of the Somoza dynasty and his praetorian National Guard.
After the earthquake in Managua in 1970 Somoza stole virtually all the aid funds. A new middle class opposition crystallised around the Democratic Liberation Union (UDEL) in 1974. The assassination of opposition leader Pedro Chamorro in 1977 led to an explosive growth of opposition.
From the beginning of 1978 the FSLN began armed actions against the regime. The FSLN's final offensive took place between March and July 1979.
The National Guard mounted determined resistance. The fight for power was completed by a week-long insurrectional uprising in Managua, which Somoza's troop resisted by indiscriminate bombing raids against the working class barrios. Tens of thousands were killed.
Armed
The FSLN formed a 'Government Junta of National Reconstruction' (JGNR). While the FSLN were in a small minority in the Council of State, they held sway in the government 'junta', despite the presence of bourgeois opposition figures like Violetta Chammorro and Alfonso Robelo.
Among the first acts of the revolutionary government was the creation of huge public sector of the economy. Decree no 3 of the JGNR decreed nationalisation of the finance system and in mining, fishing, industrial, agricultural and commercial enterprises belonging to the Somocistas.
But a large private sector was allowed to stay in existence. The FSLN attempted to use the private sector to re-build the economy, while keeping the bourgeoisie under supervision and control.
At the top of the Sandinistas' agenda has been the re-modelling of the state apparatus, basing their authority on an organised and armed people.
In addition to the half-million strong Sandinista militia, led at the time of its founding by Eden Pastora — who has now deserted to the counter-revolution — the government created the CDSs, the Sandinista Defence Committees.
Literacy
Based on the local network of organisations created during the fight against Somoza, the CDSs are responsible for the organisation of local security, organisation, education, propaganda, health, community work and so on.
In addition the Sandinistas created a network of other mass organisations, the most important of which were the Sandinista Workers Federation (CST), the women's organisation (AMLAE) and the Sandinista Youth Movement.
In the spring and summer of 1980 the FSLN launched the Literacy Campaign. One hundred thousand volunteer youth and students were sent to the countryside in an attempt to wipe out illiteracy. Apart from literacy being an immense aid to economic reconstruction, the campaign was a huge process of politicisation and self-organisation.
Despite aid cut-offs, despite cut-backs in quotas of Nicaraguan imports by the US, and despite the cost of financing of Nicaragua's huge foreign debt, great social progress has been recorded.
Food consumption has increased by 40 per cent since Somoza's time. Illiteracy has fallen from over 50 per cent to around 12 per cent. Free public medical and dental care is available to those who need it.
Nonetheless, the economy is still beset by problems. The first problem which the Sandinistas had to confront was sabotage by the private sector of the economy.
During the first two years of the revolution immense amounts of currency were illegally sent out of the country. Industrialists and farmers refused to invest, or to maximise cultivation of the land. The FSLN has been forced into harsher and harsher measures to stop these abuses.
As the revolution has gone more and more in a socialist direction, sections of the bourgeois opposition to Somoza have gradually split away from the government, going increasingly in a counter-revolutionary direction.
The first defection came in March 1980 when Robelo and Chammorro left the government. This was the response of sections of the bourgeoisie to the laws against economic sabotage and decapitalisation.
In April 1980 the FSLN announced that it would take a working majority in the Council of State, to ensure revolutionary hegemony in the state apparatus.
Crisis
Robelo's MDN (Nicaraguan Democratic Movement) was trying to break any alliance between the Sandinista and sections of the bourgeoisie. Despite these events, the employers federation, the COSEP, took its seat in the Council of State in May 1980.
Throughout the summer of that year, the anti-Sandinista bourgeois intensified its campaign. It culminated with a series of anti-Sandinista demonstrations in November, supported by the MDN, the Church and the COSEP.
Robelo planned a mass demonstration in Managua on 9 November which was banned by the FSLN. MDN offices were sacked by Sandinista youth. On 12 November the bourgeois representatives left the council of state.
The crisis reached its crescendo on 17 November when Jorge Salazar, COSEP vice-chairman, was shot dead by Sandinista police while trying to smuggle arms into the country. Two days later, in response to an FSLN appeal 100,000 people took to the streets of Managua. Mass mobilisation defeated the counter-revolutionary campaign.
Aid
The last two years of the revolution have been characterised by a deepening class polarisation, further inroads into the power of private capital, and above all the massive escalation of the imperialist build up against the country.
Nicaragua has far from overcome the consequences of 'under-development'. The imperialist economic squeeze on the country and the huge foreign debt have made the development of industry very difficult.
Nicaragua needs massive foreign aid to sustain the investment process — so far only Cuba has given substantial aid.
But here and now, the vital question is the very survival of the revolution. After the devastation of the war waged by Somoza against FSLN, Nicaragua faces a war with Honduras — backed by the United States.
Despite all the difficulties and setbacks the Nicaraguan people know that the revolution has taken them a giant step forward. Its gains will not be surrendered to an invader without a bitter fight to the end.