Edgardo García speaks: "The same people who attack us impose cutbacks in the U.S."

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.. Nicaragua mobilizes 8 SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1986 The following is an interview with Edgardo Garcia, head of the pro-Sandinista Rural Workers Associaltion (ATC), Garcia was one of the 12 recipients of the Carlos Fonseca Award at the Nov. 8, 1986, commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the FSLN. The interview was conducted in Managua by Jeff Mackler on Nov. S, 1986.

Socialist Action: What are the central problems facing the workers of Nicaragua as a result of the war that is being forced on your country by the U.S. government?

Edgardo Garcia: Nicaragua has suffered material damages estimated at $2.8 billion. Key areas of the economy have been affected. We have problems of transportation for lack of oil. There is an oil blockade and many of the oil depots and container ships have been destroyed.

There is a drastic shortage of spare parts for our industry and public transportation. The big cement factory, for example, only has one oven working, which means that it is running at about 40 percent of its capacity.

In agriculture we have a similar situation. We have difficulties keeping the farm machinery, working. We have problems in getting pesticides and fertilizers. All this is due to the U.S. blockade.

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levels, prices on virtually everything else are left to float according to the laws of supply and demand. This has fueled the inflation and shortages, contributing to the decline in the overall standard of living of the masses.

Trade unions

The strike is not the main weapon of the Nicaraguan trade-union movement. In fact there are few strikes and they are discouraged by the FSLN. Strikes are seen as an immediate threat to production and therefore a danger to the revolution. This is the case in the public and private sector.

When a conflict arises between the workers and the employer, the FSLN is seen as somewhat of a mediator which is "neutral on the side of the workers." Disputes are referred to the FSLN for resolution.

It is the great confidence the workers have in the FSLN-as opposed to their respect for the bosses bosses or FSLN coercion—which results in their most often accepting its decisions. But there is no doubt there are limits to this confidence, especially when it becomes clear that a sector of capitalists are prospering at the expense of the masses.

Views on U.S. politics Nicaraguans have a deep interest in U.S. politics. Edgardo Garcia, head of the Rural Workers Association (ATC), told me: "The same people who are conducting this war against the Nicaraguan people are the ones In a more general sense we have problems with the unfair international prices for our agricultural commodities. Take cotton, for example. Cotton used to be worth $60 per unit on the international market. Now it's only worth $28, less than half the previous price.

The U.S. war on Nicaragua has also left 18,000 Nicaraguans dead. Thousands more have been gravely injured-many of them permanently. Over 40,000 families—out of a country of 600,000 families-have been displaced from the war zones. This means that 8 percent to 10 percent of the population is without housing or basic services.

Unemployment is therefore a big problem. In fact, we have had to resort to the agrarian reform to resolve part of this problem.

The same people who are conducting this war against the Nicaraguan workers and peasants are the ones who are imposing austerity and cutbacks in the United States which have resulted in the growing unemployment lines.

S.A: How is Nicaragua going to solve all these problems?

Garcia: First, we have to survive the war. We have to defeat the contra incursions and repel the invaders. We must also confront all the military and diplomatic maneuvers and the slanders who are imposing austerity and cutbacks in the United States."

Garcia indicated great interest in the plans of the U.S. antiwar movement to mobilize in protest demonstrations in the spring of 1987 against U.S. intervention in his country.

He expressed his view of the major capitalist parties in the United States by comparing them to the two dominant capitalist formations which had existed in Nicaragua before the revolution: the Liberal and the Conservative parties.

"In my opinion, the Democratic and Republican parties don't represent the people. Our experience has shown us that both Democrats and Republicans supported Somoza." This idea was graphically expressed in an exhibit at the recently opened Museum of the Revolution, where a number of photographs of Somoza are displayed with U.S. presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Nixon.

Some I FSLN leaders I spoke with expected that the new Democratic Party majority in the U.S. Senate would result in a tangible change in U.S. policy toward Nicaragua.

Most Nicaraguans I met, however, were more skeptical, seeing no strategic differences between the two parties. On Nov. 5, the FSLN daily newspaper, Barricada, noted that, "Political observers consider that the victory of the Democrats will not lead to any substantial change in the foreign policy of the U.S. government because both parties, for example, in the case of Nicaragua, differ only in how to against the revolution. That's the first condition.

Once we eliminate the danger of U.S. military intervention we will be able to undertake the task of reconstructing our homeland.

S.A: How do you see a change in U.S. policy toward Nicaragua coming about? How do you view the Democratic and Republican parties? And what role do you think the working class and the unions must play in bringing about social change?

Garcia: As far as I'm concerned, the people are the ones who create social change. Real change occurs when the workers have an independent voice, when the peasants have their own voice, and when their demands and their rights are conquered and defended.

Today, the prevailing ideology in the United States is reactionary. It will be necessary for the American people to take an interest in politics beyond the period of elections and to begin to genuinely debate the problems that confront them and to analyze the interconnections with foreign policy matters.

S.A: Sandino, in the early 1930s, was fighting against the U.S. government. Just a few years later the American workers fought against the capitalists in their own country. They fought long and bloody implement war of our people."

The Nov. 9 issue of the daily El Nuevo Diario, in an article headlined, "Democrats will continue Reagan terrorism," stated: "Democratic Congressmen confirmed yesterday in Honduras that U.S. policy toward Nicaragua will continue along the same path even after the Democrats gained a majority in the Senate."

The article quoted U.S. Congressman Salomon Ortiz, who stated: "The change in the Senate and the control the Democrats now have in the Congress will in no way change the foreign policy objectives of the Reagan administration. The interests of the United States as a world power require that all sectors in the Senate and House of Representatives make every effort possible to support the policy objectives of the government."

Ortiz made this statement on behalf of a Democratic Party delegation that met with Honduran President Jose Azcona, who has harbored the contras and openly collaborated with the U.S. government in stationing U.S. troops in his country.

It is clear to everyone that these "policy objectives" include the destruction of the Nicaraguan Revolution by any means available. This, in turn, has stimulated an important discussion on what forces to look to outside Nicaragua as allies. Commander Tomas Borge, Nicaraguan Minister of the Interior, told a group of delegates on their departure from Nicaragua that he had great confidence in the capacity of the American people to mobilize against the U.S. war drive.

Legacy of underdevelopment Nicaragua still receives significant aid from capitalist nations in Europe, Asia, and ESEN battles to build their unions. The took on the National Guard and the police and they fought against all the laws that banned the unions. The American unions were built by struggleindependent of the Democrats and Republicans, who opposed them all the way.

Garcia: In my opinion, the Democratic and Republican parties don't represent the people. Our experience has shown us that both Democrats and Republicans supported Somoza.

In Nicaragua we had a similar situation prior to the revolution. We had the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party. They represented the ruling elite. Later they became the agents of Somoza and his cronies. They operated Somoza's courts and system against the Nicaraguan people.

This was the case until the poor and oppressed people, many of whom considered themselves Liberals and Conservatives, stopped relying on these parties and took their destiny into their own hands.

When these people came to the conclusion that their wishes and aspirations were not being responded to by either of those two parties, they were then able to build a mass popular movement, under the leadership of the FSLN, that ultimately paved the way for the revolutionary victory. the Middle East. It is clear, however, that decisive aid, even though in meager and insufficient amounts, comes from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

The Nicaraguans must pay a price for their still cordial, although cooling relations with capitalist governments. They must maintain their commitment to preserve a dominant sector of the Nicaraguan capitalist class in the framework of the mixed economy and abide