AMNLAE leader hails gains of revolution

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Margaret Mora, a member of Socialist Action, has recently returned from Nicaragua where she interviewed Rosamaria Mendoza, a member of the Zonal Executive Committee of the Luisa Amelia Espinoza Nicaraguan Women's Association (AMNLAE). An abridgement of that interview is published below.

In Masaya we met with Rosamaria Mendoza, who described the AMNLAE organization to our group. AMNLAE work committees exist in the barrios, factories, and hospitals. There may be anywhere from 50 to 200 members, depending on the size of the barrio.

AMNLAE is an autonomous organization, Mendoza told us. It has relations with the Sandinista Defense Committees, Fetsalud, ANDEN (the national teachers' union), and the FSLN. Women from parties other than the FSLN can participate.

There are members from the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, and the Conservative Party, for example. It doesn't matter what one's political affiliation is as long as it is understood that the main reason for this organization is the struggle for the rights of women.

Mendoza argued that women's rights can only be won within the overall struggle for liberation taking place in Nicaragua. One important arena in the struggle is the labor movement. AMNLAE attempts to make union leaders more aware of the needs of women and to convince the unions that it is in their interests to fight for the rights of women.

To achieve this goal, AMNLAE knows that it will also have to convince women to become participants in the unions. They know that to change old «Women make up over 70% of militias in Nicaragua"

customs and sexist attitudes is a long process. Nevertheless, the feeling is that women have advanced substantially and that everyone's consciousness is broadening in terms of the role women are playing in the revolution.

To demonstrate these advances, Mendoza told us that 60 percent of the literacy-campaign workers were women. Eighty percent of the healthcare workers in the hospitals during the course of the revolution were women. Women make up 70 to 80 percent of the militias.

According to Mendoza, AMNLAE has successfully promoted the implementation of laws that benefit women in regard to marital relations, maternity leave, and legal rights over children. Women should control their own bodies In regard to contraception and abortion Mendoza told us that AMNLAE supports the idea that women should control their own bodies. A major problem, however, is the lack of supplies like contraceptives. Because of the U.S. blockade, these supplies do not reach women who would be interested in using them.

The AMNLAE representative pointed out that her group does not advocate contraception to limit population since the country is sparsely populated, especially on the Atlantic coast. AMNLAE is more concerned with women giving birth under better conditions than with the question of birth control.

We were told that at this time abortion is considered a personal matter, but it is still prohibited by a law left over from Somoza's time. The anti-abortion law and many other laws were not overturned, according to Mendoza, because moving too fast would have caused anarchy in the country. If Nicaragua were not under fire, the people would have time to analyze some of these laws and transform them.

The question of the military draft was raised. Someone in our group wanted to know if the draft should apply to women in order to promote equality. Mendoza explained that when the Sandinista army presented the proposal for the military service law, AMNLAE demanded the right of women to participate in the military.

After all, women had not just participated, but had led in combat during the struggle to destroy the Somoza dictatorship. The law therefore reflects the sentiments of AMNLAE, and the "voluntary registration" of women is sanctioned.

The AMNLAE representative went on to explain that some things cannot be "Nicaragua: No Pasaran." seen as only black or white. For example, only men between the ages of 17 and 24 are drafted, even though the law calls for all men to be drafted. The customs of the people, as well as the division of labor must be taken into consideration.

In organizing the defense, the productive areas have to be affected as little as possible. There are tasks that women can organize better—the local militias, for example. We were also told, however, that there are also large numbers of women organized in the military defense, in the reserve, in the Ministry of the Interior, and in the Sandinista police.

Mendoza concluded by urging that Americans be made aware of the fact that part of their tax money is used to kill Nicaraguan people. She pointed out that the uniforms of the mercenaries have labels that say "Made in the The rifles and explosives that are captured say "Made in the U.S.A."

She assured us, however, that the Sandinista Front has always tried to point out to the people that the U.S. government is not the same thing as the American people.

For our part, we left determined to justify this faith in the difference between the government and the people. It is the American people who must build a strong anti-intervention movement in the United States to stop the murder of the Nicaraguan people.