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20 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1989 Nicaragua Dynamics arat Unfinished Revolution A by To order, write to: Walnut A penetrating analysis of 10 years of the Nicaraguan Revolution.
"Nicaragua:
Dynamics of an Unfinished Revolution (192 pp.) provides thi key to understanding the situation in Nicaragua today.
Written by Socialis Action editor Alan Benjamin (in collaboration with researchers at the ITZTANI Institute in Managua), with an introduction by Rod Holt and Jeff Mackler. Price: $7.95.
Publishing Co., 3435 Army St., clothing, shelter. Nicaragua has been sliding downhill since 1979.
For a while, more egalitarian distribution disguised this fact, and the general health and welfare of the people as a whole rose—but only for a time. Machines were wearing out and were not being replaced. Housing, transport, and roads were steadily eroding.
Productivity of labor declined. This did not reflect at all upon the efforts of the workers, for productivity does not depend on the willingness of the worker but rather on the availability of tools and materials. This is just as true in the Nicaraguan countryside as it is in Detroit. Tractors, gas for the tractors, and fertilizer are the counterparts of sheet steel, glass, and rubber.
Prior to the revolution, distribution of the necessities for production was left to the native capitalists, the branches of multinational corporations, and Somoza and his collaborators. After the revolution, it was left to the native capitalists and the FSLN-led government.
As detailed in this volume, the native capitalists declined to play by the new rules. Encouraged by the U.S. government, they used their ingenuity to have it both ways. They solicited and received large government grants, ostensibly to increase production, while they smuggled every dime they could to Miami.
Production declined as machinery was run into the ground or illegally hustled over the border. The domestic policies of the Sandinistas, largely dependent on the good will of supposedly patriotic native capitalists, failed.
This is the national and international context of Alan Benjamin's critical book, "Nicaragua: Dynamics of an Unfinished RevoluLECH- CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ELECTION VICTORY YOU AND SOLIDARITY HAVE IMPRESSIVE POPULAR SUPPORT...