Nicaragua sticks to its guns against contra terror

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Worker Chinandega asks questions to government leaders at "Face the People" TV session.

SOCIALIST ACTION • OCTOBER 1985 17 lated dramatically Sept. 13 with the gunning down of a Nicaraguan helicopter by six Honduran jet fighters. Honduras, which has been harboring the contras, has now put its U.S. military equipment and U.S.-trained pilots to full use against the Nicaraguan revolution.

The threats of further border provocations and of a full-scale war with Honduras are greater than at any time in the past.

To find out more about the current situation in Nicaragua, Socialist Action spoke with Brenda Bishop, a member of the New York chapter of the National Lawyer's Guild, who just returned from a two-week fact-finding trip to Nicaragua.

Socialist Action: How has the war against Nicaragua affected the daily lives of the people there?

Brenda Bishop: It has done this in many ways. Let me give you one example. As we were driving on the road to Esteli, in Northern Nicaragua, we had to take a huge detour because of the contra attack at La Trinidad [just south of Esteli] that took place Aug 1.

The bridge was down. On the side of the road we saw a burned bus which had been ambushed by the contras.

As we passed the burned bus, the driver of our government truck told us about the number of their trucks-nine so far this year-that had been attacked and burned. Many of these are new trucks from Japan.

On the same road you could also see the burned portion of one of the many grain silos that had been hit during the same attack. Silos are a classic target of the contras in the Northern region.

The contras were able to do a good bit of damage in La Trinidad, killing 17 people and burning down a healthcare center, the post office, and other buildings.

But they did not begin to get close their main target, which was the town Esteli.

S.A.: Why was that?

Bishop: Because of the deep opposition of the people to the contras.

I was told by someone in Esteli that as the contra forces were advancing toward Esteli, they realized they could not penetrate the Sandinista forces. They apparently sent word of this to their leadership, but were ordered to go ahead anyway.

In the space of a week, the contras actually lost 120 men, with another 80 wounded. So their losses far exceeded the losses of the civilians or the Sandinista forces.

S.A.: What is the mood of the people you talked to in Esteli?

Bishop: Surprisingly, although these attacks actually took place near the town, the mood was incredibly positive. One of the Sandinista fighters seemed to express the sentiment of the people when he said, "We're ready. Let them come and we'll beat them back and go after them."

Esteli is a stronghold of the revolution. It is known to be very heroic because of the three insurrections there prior to the overthrow of Somoza. U.S. citizens at regular Thursday demonstration against U.S. intervention at U.S. Embassy gates in Managua.

S.A.: What are some of the other effects of the U.S.-backed contra war?

Bishop: There are many hardships such as not finding toilet paper anywhere or having to wait forever to get a bus or a taxi-because they're falling apart and there are no spare parts. This definitely wears on people.

On the other hand, most of the people we spoke to understand that the U.S. embargo and the U.S. war are largely responsible for these problems.

They understand why 40 percent of the country's budget has to go to the military and they are willing to make these sacrifices.

So despite the hardships, Nicaragua is a very dynamic, vibrant kind of society. The people are moving ahead with reconstruction and are excited about the new constitution.

Cold War (continued from reported that despite the well-known ties of the CUS and CTN to the contras and to the CIA, these "unions" still manage to conduct their business openly and publicly. [See "Report of West Coast Trade Union Delegation to Nicaragua," Labor Network on Central America, November 1984.] Stop two: Minnesota On Sept. 22-24, the top labor officials took their tour to the Minnesota State AFL-CIO convention. But here they were not speaking to a few handchosen officials who, for the most part, already agreed with the State Department's policies.

Thomas Donahue, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, was dispatched to St. Paul, Minn., to present a resolution to this gathering of over 700 delegates. The resolution called on Nicaragua to "open a dialogue with its democratic opposition [i.e. the contras, whom the Sandinistas have vowed never to negotiate with-A.B.J and to implement a system of democratic pluralism as originally promised to the Organization of America States."

The resolution, to Donahue's great displeasure, went down to a resounding defeat. Moreover, resolutions demanding an end to U.S. military aid to El Salvador and an end to U.S. support for S.A.: Tell us more about the new constitution.

Bishop: The FSLN and the government are hoping to move their program forward with the new constitution.

The drafting of the constitution is a two-step process. The first step is the preparation of a draft that is scheduled to come out at the end of this year. Those involved in this stage in the process are the national leaderships of the mass organizations.

Then throughout next year, they are going to have hearings or open sessions all over the country. These will be open not only to the local and regional mass organizations but to anyone who wants to comment on the constitution.

S.A.: Do the people you spoke to think their views will be taken into account and incorporated into the final the contras were overwhelmingly approved.

The delegates to the convention, reflecting the sentiment of millions of working people in this country, were not afraid to buck the top AFL-CIO leadership and to say "no" to U.S. intervention in Central America.

Big rifts in labor The AIFLD/AFL-CIO "dog-andpony" show is likely to meet the same kind of opposition within the ranks of labor in other cities.

Over the past few years, opposition to U.S. intervention in Central America has grown tremendously. This is not the McCarthy era.

On the contrary, the rifts in the labor movement over Central America are becoming wider. For example, the National Labor Committee in Support of Human Rights and Democracy in El Salvador, which includes the presidents of 24 international unions, has issued various fact-finding reports opposing the official AFL-CIO position on Central America.

A recent National Labor Committee delegation concluded that "the human rights situation in El Salvador has not improved" "trade union and political rights in El Salvador are still being violated," and the "crimes of the past have gone unpunished and the repressive structures of Salvadoran society remain intact."

Regarding Nicaragua, the delegation document?

Bishop: Yes. People see this consultation much in the same way as they see the radio show called "Contacto SeisVeinte" on the Voice of Nicaragua. This program is on the radio every day for four hours. The whole show consists of people phoning in and complaining about the government-primarily the bureaucracy.

We heard a little bit of the show. The interesting thing is that immediately after the complaint is made, the interviewer calls up the government office or department to file the complaint and to ask what is going to be done about it.

People were very excited about this. They feel they have a chance to say what they want. They believe these mechanisms are legitimate and do give them some input.

recommended that the U.S. government "end all military support for the coun terrevolutionary groups ('contras') attacking Nicaragua from Honduras and Costa Rica."

Other signs of this increased opposition to the official AFL-CIO policies include the large labor participation in the April 20, 1985, antiwar events; the broad labor endorsement of tours of Central American trade unionists; and the impressive labor participation in the upcoming Nov. 2 antiwar conference in San Francisco [see page 3].

Organize broad speak-outs

The AIFLD/AFL-CIO International Affairs Department officials are painfully aware of this situation. Their fall tour is aimed at undercutting-and, if possible, reversing-this majority antiwar sentiment within the labor movement.

But, if the Minnesota AFL-CIO State Convention is any indication, their mission is destined to flop.

Still, their counterattack is very serious and must be answered energetically by all supporters of democracy and human rights within the labor movement.

Broad labor speak-outs against the U.S. war in Central America, such as the one on Nov. 2 in San Francisco, must and can be organized in other cities. Now is the time to prepare these events.