[forcibly occupied the hramuarters of- With these words…]

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forcibly occupied the hramuarters of- With these words spoken to a meeting of hosatal workers in February 1980, Nicaraguan Ilos. The election mon gust and early Septen Comandante Tomas Borge captured the essence of Sandinista policy toward free trade 979 — la a letter to stance of Sundinista I unionism-join the government-spongored union, or else. This particular example of intimida. y of rebich mess put lation of trade-union tion was reported to the AIFLD by the Confederacion de Trabajadores Nicaraguenses (CTN). at armed membere CUS's participation i Now ine Sandinista government, with the hed of their support groups in the Unitea • bazaaring their -.. Angust 7,198 States. is trying to deceive the outside world about its repression of trade unions. thay comandon:

The AFL-CIO leadership and the American Institute Development (AIFLD), which is funded by the U.S. ment, have launched a full smear campaign against the Sandinistas.

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12 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1988 cycle is about to begin and the large producers are demanding credit to plant their crops.

"In order to meet the demand for credit, the government has announced it will put 10 million new córdobas into circulation. In the short and medium term, until the amount of new money in circulation finds its counterpart in commodities, more inflation can be expected."

Nonetheless, despite all the concessions made to them by the Sandinistas, the Nicaraguan capitalists are still not satisfied Doctor Manuel Callejas, leader of the UPANIC (the National Union of Agricultural Producers of Nicaragua, one of the largest bosses' associations), stated: "We have stated our proposals on various occasions: The only solution to the economic crisis it to give us back all the nationalized sector of the economy, i.e., to reprivatize the economy, because we are able to produce better than they [the state] can."

Problems of mixed economy Doctor Callejas's claim about the superiority of the private sector notwithstanding, it is a fact that the Nicaraguan capitalists have taken their government credits out of the country and have failed to invest their profits to maintain their productive capacity.

According to a report on the "Deb's Stabilization, and Adjustment: 1979-1986" published in November 1987 by the Regional Coordinating Council on Economic and Social Research (CRIES), the flight of capital by the Nicaraguan capitalist class was $535 million during 1977-79, the time of the heightened war against Somoza, and $540.8 million from 1979 to 1986.

"The anxiety of the capitalist class following the 1981 Agrarian Reform Law," the CRIES report states, "led the Sandinista government to decide in 1982 to implement a selective and implicit devaluation through the decision to raise the guaranteed price to the agro-export capitalists. But the response of the capitalists to this Program of Nicaragua lamber/October, 1984 TAKE-OVER OF NATIONAL UNION HEAD mama hour streame bo bali bernard ouar. that the large capitalists often engaged in the contraband of agro-chemicals, which they obtained at a subsidized price from the government. They would sell these chemicals abroad, obtaining dollars which they would later exchange at the black market rate.

The Sandinista government lost enormous amounts of dollars through the two-tier exchange rates to the "patriotic capitalists." The government also offered a guaranteed price to the exporters, even if the price on the world market of a given commodity went down.

Roberto Gutierrez, a high-ranking official in the government, stated that 63% of the government deficit for the first six months of 1987 was due to the foreign-currency loss, or 100 billion old córdobas. This loss was paid for by simply printing up more money—hence contributing to the incredible inflation that has rocked Nicaragua.

Daniel Ortega, in a speech printed in The truth behind This book contains the facts of the most audacious legal action ever undertaken: the Christic Institute lawsuit against the U.S. government's 'Secret Team.' 'Assault on Nicaragua' includes an introduction by editor Rod Holt; speeches by Daniel Sheehan, general counsel of the Christic Institute, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega; as well as an essay taries Jeff Mackler and Nat Weinstein on the meaning of the revela tions for the antiwar movement. A Revolution Betrayed;

MARCH 1996 mini. unitim. + hutco plem sbat riolated SANDINISTAS TO THE WORKERS: or Scately or seats bad every Or when it otter aly 1970 partieme election for Free Labor State Departwar. But another factor, which flows from policy choices made by the Sandinista government, is the decision to offer incentives and pay guaranteed prices to the agro-export capitalists.

Source of flagrant inequalities This incorrect policy, flowing from the Sandinista government's continued commitment to the "mixed economy," has fueled the deficit, the inflation (which affects the workers the most), and the process of decapitalization of the economy.

As Jean Pierre Riel so aptly put it in an article published in International Viewpoint (June 16, 1986):

"Economic conditions are made more difficult all the time because of North American aggression. But the source of the most flagrant inequalities lies in the compromises deemed necessary by the Sandinista leadership to maintain a mixedeconomy system.

"With a few exceptions, the antiSomozaist bourgeoisie, dispossessed from political power and from control of the state apparatus, have rapidly come to refuse to collaborate positively and actively in rebuilding the country, or to take their place loyally in the 'alliance for production' that they themselves proposed.

"Since 1980, the Nicaraguan private sector has received a larger slice of government credits (54%) than the public sector (46%). Certain enterprises have benefited, and continue to benefit from substantial tax advantages and even subsidies in dollars. But during this period the overwhelming majority of productive investments have been made by the public sector.

"Taking advantage of the declining effectiveness of the controls instituted by the statedue largely to the war—a number of the beneficiaries of these funds have injected them into speculative areas.

"The cost of this parasitic behavior and sabotage-encouraged daily "in the name of liberty" by the newspaper La Prensa or the independent radio station Radio Católicaadds expense to the defense effort. It is becoming constantly more intolerable economically, but also socially and politically.

"It is essentially the auto import and repair company in Nicaragua. It employs about 600 workers throughout the country in 13 plants. It is privately owned and controlled by a fiveperson board of directors, four of whom live in Miami.

On June 19, 1985, Nicaragua's Ministry of Labor took temporary control of the administration of seven of the group's companies.

The Ministry acted in response to the workers, who had faced a three-year union-busting drive by the owners. The government declared that the company was carrying out an "employers' strike" that affected the national economy and was damaging the interests of the workers. This was the first time the government had taken administrative control of a private company to stop a union-busting drive.

Specifically, the company had launched a campaign to divide and weaken the union, assigning work to those who opposed the union, while denying work to union activists. This was a big blow to workers' incomes because at that time automotive workers were paid on a piece-work basis with no guaranteed minimum wage.

In addition, the Julio Martinez group received scarce foreign exchange from the government to import auto parts because its repair operations were deemed vital to the economy. The union showed that the company had sold many spare parts on the black market, assigned the rest to non-union mechanics, and denied adequate supplies to union mechanics.

Since 1983, the union repeatedly filed complaints and petitions with the Ministry of Labor protesting the company's anti-union practices. In 1984, agreements were signed between the company, the union, and the Ministry of Labor, but the company violated those accords.

The union, the SUTRA-JM, is affiliated to the Sandinista Workers Federation (CST). On June 12, 1986, the CST led 300 workers from different plants and offices throughout Managua in a march to the offices of President Ortega to demand government intervention.

Harvey Mac Arthur described this mobilization in the July 18, 1986, issue of The Militant newspaper:

"For Julio' Martinez: Confiscation!" "National Directorate: Give the Order!" and "People's Power!" were the chants of the workers.

"There [at President Ortega's offices], the workers crowded into a meeting room normally used for press conferences by top government officials. There René Vallejos, vice-minister of Labor, said that the ministry had decided to take temporary control of the company if the management did not correct its actions by midnight.

"'If it does not change its attitude, we will prepare the technical plans to run the company, and put the administration in the hands of the workers,' Vallejos said. He added that the outcome of the Julio Martinez case should serve as an example for other private companies as well. Unions will not be destroyed here, Vallejos said.

"Ricardo Robelo, a regional CST leader, ended by his rousing speech with the call 13)

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The demands of the Nicaraguan capitalists include the separation of the armed forces from the Sandinista government and the dissolution of the Sandinista Defense Committees.

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for 'Confiscation!' "The next day the union called in the Sandinista police to guard the Julio Martinez warehouses after the company tried to remove large amounts of parts and tools. One week later, the Ministry of Labor took over the company's administration."

Workers left in the dark Beginning in September 1987, however, the government began negotiations with the Martinez family, which crystallized in the Dec. 22, 1987, decision to return five of the seven government-intervened plants to them by Feb. 28, 1988. The two other plants were nationalized, but the company was more than fully compensated for the seized property.

Julio Martinez workers, who had mobilized for three years for the confiscation of the plants under workers' control, felt dismayed. César Moya, the general secretary of the SUTRA-JM union, told the press:

"The Ministry knew that we would never be in agreement with this decision. That is why our union was isolated from the negotiations process. We did not participate in the negotiations. We were only called in at the last moment to endorse the previously worked out agreement." (quoted in Prensa Proletaria, January-February 1988)

Many workers complained that they had been left totally in the dark about the discussions underway.

In mid-January, the Ministry revealed that the government had paid the Julio Martinez group approximately U.S $600,000 plus an additional 1 million córdobas for the two nationalized factories.

In mid January, the bosses returned to the company offices at the Plaza Julio Martinez in Managua, declaring their intention to "work to maintain the prestige and development of the company and to cultivate dialogue and stable relations with the workers."

Francisco Rosales Arguello, a company director, said that the "Ministry of Labor came to the conclusion that the causes that motivated the intervention no longer existed." He said that the company would continue in the tradition of Julio Martinez Abarca, the deceased founder of the company, "who was ahead of his time with his social policies of participation."

Idermo Cuadra, the government-appointed administrator, said that by returning the factories to the Julio Martinez group, the "government acquires more credibility with the private sector. ... We need more investments and for this we have to create a climate of confidence for the private investors."

Cuadra said that the companies were in a shambles when they were taken over but that now they were solvent. Rosales, the company director, agreed and stated publicly that he would give Cuadra a diploma of honor and merit.

Unprecedented It is in the context of the increased working-class austerity and of the increased political and economic concessions to the capitalists that the recent wave of labor strikes must be placed.

Much has been written in the media about the three-month-long strike of the Nicaraguan building trades workers and auto mechanics, two categories of workers often examine the current strikes in greater detail than has usually been done by the mainstream or left media in this country.

The current strike by approximately 4500 building trades workers and 400 auto mechanics actually began as a strike of 70 auto mechanics at the VIMSA plant in early February. VIMSA is a mixed-capital auto repair shop specializing in Soviet Ladas and European models. The VIMSA workers' union is affiliated to the Sandinista Workers Federation (CST).

As of January 1988, there had been a series of work stoppages and disputes with management to protest the introduction of new production norms and wages which at the time only affected them. These new measures essentially cut workers' wages by 62.5%.

Whereas in the past the mechanics were paid on a piece-rate basis (they received 40% of what the client paid for repairing a vehicle), they now were to receive fixed wages of 1792.50 córdobas per month. This wage corresponded to level 12 of the National System of Wages and Labor called SNOTS (Sistema Nacional de la Organización del Trabajo y Salarios).

At an assembly of the VIMSA union, 80% of the workers voted to go out on strike, despite the objections of the CST leadership. The remaining 20% decided to stay on the job.

On Feb. 22, after the new monetary reforms were introduced, workers at five other medium-sized auto repair shops, three of them privately owned, and numerous other smaller shops also went out on strike, bringing the total number of strikers to about 400 workers.

Strike against austerity

Among the various provisions of the Feb. 14 government decree, it was stated that all workers would be subject to the SNOTS, the state's wage and productivity guideline. Until then, auto mechanics (and construction workers) had been exempt from the SNOTS-though legally they should not have been.

The reason for this exemption, according to economists interviewed by Socialist Action in Nicaragua, is that the government needed certain special government of the strike. Emilio Marquez Acuña of the Volkswagen union became the spokesperson for the strikers in negotiations with the government.

Then on Feb. 29, when the government announced the new wage and productivity scale for the building trades workers (Catálogo de Normas Compactadas), an estimated 4500 workers, led by their union, the SCAAS, also decided to go out on strike at 56 building sites. The SCAAS is affiliated to the Central Federation of Workers-Independent (CGTi), which is led by the other pro-Moscow Stalinist party, the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN).

The wages of the building trades workers, too, were drastically cut from an estimated 4400 córdobas per month to 1236 córdobas per month for a qualified worker and 780 córdobas per month for an assistant. Alejandro Solórzano, the leader of SCAAS, characterized the new wages as "starvation wages."

The SCAAS has demanded that the new decree on work norms and wages passed on Feb. 29 be lifted. The union also calls for a 200% wage increase.

The Ministry of Labor ruled that the CGTi had not followed the arbitration and negotiation procedures specified by law. The government declared the building trades strike illegal and proceeded to dismiss the strikers.

A vital distinction The Sandinistas have taken a hard line against the strikers and their supporters, denouncing them as supporters of the contras who want to "destabilize the revolution."

On May Day, Daniel Ortega denounced the strikers, saying: "These workers are fighting against the revolution instead of the imperialism of the United States and the contras. They are led by people who have a counterrevolutionary program ... pseudo-leaders who receive money from the CIA."

Much of what Ortega says is, of course, true. The two pro-Moscow political parties of the leading the strike are members of an opposition bloc of 14 political parties that are calling for the 17 reforms to the constitution being pushed by the contras and U.S. imperialism.

In addition, the trade-union umbrella organization leading the strike-support work, the Permanent Congress of Labor (Congreso Permanente de los Trabajadores, or CPT), includes the CUS and the CTN, the two union federations supported by the CIA through the National Endowment for Democracy.

It is quite obvious that the Nicaraguan capitalists and their agents are interested in demagogically supporting the demands of the strikers to use as a club against the Sandinista government and to attempt to win the hearts and minds of the discontented workers toward their own reactionary political objectives. In this effort, they know they can count on the collaboration of the Stalinist misleaders.

Yet what drives the strike is not the outside manipulation by the bourgeoisie, but the terrible economic conditions imposed on this layer of the working class.

A New York Times (April 14) article reported the comments of a construction assistant who earns 26 córdobas a day (while a worker's lunch costs 30 córdobas, a pack of cigarettes costs 39, and an inexpensive pair of shoes goes for at least 400): "It's a question of starving on strike or starving on the job. You absolutely cannot live on that salary."

A relative of a striker is quoted as saying: "They say this is a political strike, but the real cause is that we can't live on what they want to pay."

The strikers don't see themselves as counterrevolutionaries. Most of them consider themselves to be socialists and are proud of the portraits of Lenin and Marx which decorate their union headquarters.

"Ortega says the strikers have 'no class consciousness,"' Orlando Morales told Socialist Action. "This is not true. The strikers have sacrificed plenty and are (continued on 14)

Socialist Action

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ASSAULT ON NICARAGUA: The Untold Story of Speeches by Daniel Sheehan

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