Nicaragua mobilizes to defend revolution

Scan page 7

Nicaraguans celebrate 25th anniversary of founding of FSIN.

SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1986 7 MANAGUA-More than 250,000 workers and peasants mobilized in this tiny nation's capital city on Nov. 8, 1986, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the leading party of the Nicaraguan Revolution.

The mobilization was a tribute to all those who died defending Nicaragua's sovereignty. It highlighted the life and contributions of FSLN founder Carlos Fonseca on the 10th anniversary of his death.

The U.S.-financed contra war, ever-present in the consciousness of this revolutionary people, required that the mobilization be limited to the city of Managua. Nonetheless, at the end of the five-hour rally, tens of thousands were still pressing to enter the jammed Plaza de la Revolucion, the site of the celebration.

A three-hour military parade was led off by a contingent of 44 proud veteran fighters from the army of Augusto Cesar Sandino, the revolutionary nationalist who inspired and organized the armed fight of the Nicaraguan people against a U.S. occupation force in the 1930s. These original Sandinistas were followed by more than 10,000 armed and uniformed soldiers, representing every sector of the Sandinista National Army, the organized militias, and the reserve.

This public demonstration of the power of a disciplined army and committed people was accompanied by scores of modern tanks, attack helicopters, transport vehicles, anti-aircraft guns, field artillery, rocket launchers, and a variety of other weapons. It was an unmistakable statement to the world that the Nicaraguan people are prepared to defend their revolution.

This was also the message of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in his speech to the rally on behalf of the nine top FSLN commanders.

Invited representatives from 180 political parties from 80 countries attended this event and a series of meetings between November 6-9 organized by the FSLN to report on the progress of the revolution and the major problems confronting it.

Four parties were invited from the United States: the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, Line of March, and Socialist Action.

U.S.-backed contra war

The backdrop to all my discussions with FSLN leaders during my five-day visit to Nicaragua was the U.S.-financed contra war. Virtually everyone in this small agricultural nation, which is compelled to divert nearly half its resources to military defense, believes that the U.S. government is fully committed to the defeat of the revolution—by direct invasion, if neces -sary.

Foreign delegates were invited to hear a report by Nicaraguan Commander Lenin Cerda detailing the human and material costs of the war. Cerda reported that 18,000 Nicaraguans, including 436 children, have been killed by the contras since 1981. An equal number have been wounded. Over 9000 children have been orphaned.

More than 40,000 families, almost 10 percent of the population, have been displaced by the contra war. This growing sector of the population is without housing and basic services. They comprise a huge portion of the unemployed who are more and more forced into the cities and compelled to survive by selling almost anything that is available.

The war has resulted in economic losses in excess of $2.8 billion dollars, a staggering sum considering the small resources of this overwhelmingly peasant nation.

Cerda reported 13,700 contras dead since 1981. This includes 3700 in 1986 alone. This figure is triple the yearly average of the past six years, another indication of the Socialist Action/Jeff Mackler escalation of the U.S.-sponsored war drive against Nicaragua.

Unresolved land reform

During the course of my visit I discussed a number of the key problems facing the revolution with representatives of the FSLN and the Sandinista unions and mass organizations. The issue of land reform remains a key unresolved problem in Nicaragua today.

In 1986, a new land reform law was enacted which for the first time gave the government the legal right to distribute productive land owned by Nicaraguan capitalists to landless peasants.

I discussed what had been accomplished under this law with Rafael Guerrero, a national director of the Ministry of Agrarian Reform. Guerrero explained that in 1986, land had been distributed "to respond to the increased mobilizations by the peasants."

Guerrero indicated that 15,741 families had received land titles in 1986, a larger number than in any previous year of the revolution. Most of these peasants opted to either join or form cooperative farms or to farm the land as small private owners.

Forty-six percent of the land distributed came from privately held capitalist lands which had been left uncultivated.

Forty-one percent of the land distributed came from the state sector, reducing this component of agricultural production to only 13 percent of the land, a figure which evokes serious concern among FSLN leaders.

A small portion, some 5 percent, came from lands reclaimed from the contras in the course of the war. This land is almost entirely cultivated by hand with no surplus product expected.

Only a tiny portion of the total land distributed came directly from the productive capitalist sector, which still represents the most important component of Nicaraguan agriculture. Guerrero told me that it was not the policy of the government to take land away from capitalists who were using it efficiently.

Since the 1981 Agrarian Reform law, more than 60,000 families have received land in Nicaragua. Another 64,000, according to Guerrero, desire land but have not yet received it.

While it is the intention of the government to distribute this land to the peasants over the next four years, it is clear that this cannot be done in the framework of the mixed economy presently defended by the FSLN. There is simply not enough land available to meet the needs of the landless peasants if the large capitalist landholdings are preserved.

This as yet unresolved contradiction continues to be at the center of the discussions within the FSLN and within Nicaraguan society in general.

There is additional pressure on the land from city workers, who increasingly look to the countryside to escape the severe economic problems found in the urban areas.

The grave economic diffi -culties—particulary the shortages—are obviously the product of the contra war. But the rampant levels of inflation and unemployment are also due to the speculation and profiteering by the private and "informal" sector of the economy.

Problems of the economy I discussed a number of these problems with Lucio Jimenez, head of Nicaragua's largest trade union federation-the 100,000member Sandinista Trade Union Federation (CST).

Over the past several years a growing sector of the population of Managua has become engaged in what is called the "informal" sector of the economy. More than one-third of this city's 900,000 swelling population earn their living selling every conceivable commodity from matches, chewing gum, and food to agricultural products and clothing.

In many of the city's parks and streets, I observed that one can buy almost anything for a price-often many times the official price established for the product. This is even the case in the areas immediately adjacent to the five major markets of Managua, where the government has attempted to regulate prices.

The extent of the problem posed by the informal sector was described by Lucio Jimenez in no uncertain terms. "A worker of the formal sector can go over to the informal sector and make 10 times more money. This informal sector to us is nothing more than a system of speculation. And this system is characterized by the working class as the enemy of the revolution."

A huge portion of the population is driven to this sector precisely because there is little control of the system of speculation, not to mention the small core of capitalists who are the main suppliers of the commodities sold:

Factory workers in the cities find they can earn a week's pay in a single day or less by selling trivial items on the street. Others have come to believe that a more secure life can be obtained by returning to the land to grow crops which can in turn be sold at inflated prices on the city streets.

At the level of the factory and in most unionized sectors of the economy, as well as in agriculture, the Sandinista govern -ment has been able to maintain a degree of control over capitalist profits. A chief mechanism for this is the state control of foreign commerce. Large capitalists must sell their crops to the government at fixed prices. Profits exist and are guaranteed, but they are modest.

The government, through its control of credit and interest rates, further reduces the immediate capacity of capital to profit excessively. A common saying in this regard is, "Some profits yes, regeneration no."

In this sense the FSLN considers its relationship to the capitalists as "an experiment under FSLN control." It is fast becoming clear, however, that at least in some sectors of the economy, the "experiment" is out of control.

While the main export crop prices are stabilized and the main food items-rice and beans—are subsidized at relatively low (continued on next page)