Program of the Movement for Revolutionary Unity (MUR)

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'The MUR believes that soldiers must have the right to be members of the revolutionary party of their choice. and democratically elect their own 10 SOCIALIST ACTION OCTOBER 1989 The following excerpts of the political platform of the Movement for Revolutionary Unity (MUR) are reprinted from the June 1989 issue of Unidad Revolucionaria, the monthly newspaper of the MUR. The translation is by Socialist Action.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The Movement for Revolutionary Unity (MUR) was formed by ex-members of various left parties in Nicaragua to offer a revolutionary alternative to the working class and all progressive sectors of society. It raises the banner of the independence of the working class and its organizations in the struggle for their economic, social, and political demands.

The MUR seeks to forge the unity of all workers and revolutionists who support the revolution, be they organized into a political party or not, with the goal of defending the interests of the workers and their allies and establishing a socialist society.

The MUR advocates the deepening of the democratic conquests of the revolution. The working class and its allies should control the factories and farms of Nicaragua. They should make all the fundamental decisions on economic, social, and political matters facing the nation through their own institutions.

The MUR is anti-imperialist. It condemns the penetration of imperialist capital throughout the world. This represents only a new form of colonialism and domination of all the oppressed peoples. It is imperialism which is responsible for the misery, exploitation, racism, and all other blights that scourge the working class and all the oppressed. The MUR solidarizes with all the people of the world who are struggling to free themselves from the imperialist yoke.

The MUR advocates the defense and deepening of the gains made by the workers and peasants beginning with the triumph of July 19, 1979 [the day Somoza fell]. It defends and supports the trade unions and coop eratives, the land distribution, the nationalt Visuals The following phone interview Moisés Hassan was conducted by Socialist Action editor Alan Benjamin on Sept. 17, 1989.

Socialist Action: Why did you decide to become the presidential candidate of the Movement for Revolutionary Unity (MUR) in the February 1990 elections?

Moisés Hassan: Our goal is to provide a political alternative for the great majority of the people of Nicaragua who are dissatisfied with the choices they are being offered in these elections. The Nicaraguan majority has become frustrated and disenchanted with the Sandinista government. For the most part, they will not vote for the Sandinistas.

At the same time, however, they have little sympathy for the right-wing alternative offered by Violeta Chamorro and the UNO (National Opposition Union). The UNO coalition only wants to turn the clock back to democratically elect ization of sectors of the economy, etc. But at the same time the MUR calls for the deepening of the revolution in all areas of society. Hence, the MUR actively supports all struggles waged by workers and peasants in defense of their interests.

The MUR is a political party that fights to establish a socialist society-that is, a society where all forms of exploitation will be the days of Somoza and to destroy all the gains that have been fought for and won over the past 10 years. The Nicaraguan people have suffered great hardships to defend the considerable gains of the revolution. They will not easily fall prey to the demagogy of these reactionary forces.

S.A.: What are your specific programmatic differences with the FSLN?

Hassan: There are many basic differences. Some are of an ideological character; others involve the practice of the Sandinistas. On the first level, we do not believe in the strict control by the ruling party over all the activities carried out in society. We are opposed to the attempts by the FSLN to stifle freedom of association, primarily the freedom to form independent trade unions. It has reached the point where the government has resorted to coercion and even violence to force unions to affiliate to the CST [Sandinista Workers Federation] or to prevent their disaffiliation from the CST.

This is true as well of the neighborhood organizations. The CDSs [Sandinista Defense Committees] are controlled by the FSLN and are used for strictly partisan purposes.

Another difference with the FSLN has to do with the application of the agrarian reform program. We believe that if the peasants want individual titles to the land, they should receive them. But this has not been FSLN policy. The FSLN has created large, mostly inefficient state farms that often need subsiofficers' eradicated, where the workers are masters of the means of production, where all forms of sex and race discrimination are done away with, where the well-being of the majority is the priority of society, and not the profits of the few.

Socialism opens the road to the full cooperation among all the peoples of the world. Hence, the MUR solidarizes with the worlddies. It has also promoted cooperatives, where all the members are owners of the land but nobody really owns the land. This has affected the productivity of these cooperatives.

S.A.: But hasn't the FSLN made a shift in recent years toward granting more land titles to the peasants?

Hassan: There has been somewhat of a shift, but it is still limited. The distribution of the land is insufficient; it is also quite selective. During the first years of the revolution, the Sandinistas' main concern was to establish large state farms in the lands expropriated from Somoza. It was only later, mainly as a result of the contra war, that the government decided to distribute land to the peasants in the border zones-though they still promoted the cooperatives. Through this policy, they hoped to sap any potential support for the contras among the peasants in the border regions.

We in the MUR are also very critical of the day-to-day administration of government by the Sandinistas. While the Sandinistas reject all charges of corruption, in practice their fight against corruption has been extremely weak—I would say almost symbolic. The reason for this, in my opinion, is the prevalence of political opportunism, of political favoritism, in the top levels of government.

S.A.: Are there any internal mechanisms within the FSLN and the governmental apparatus to control this abuse of power and to make the leadership accountable to the rank capitalist exploitation.

POLITICAL PROGRAM OF THE MUR 1. Defense of the conquests of the revolution against the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie and imperialism:

With the triumph of the revolution, Nicaraguans have made great gains; among them the nationalization of an important portion of the economy. The MUR stands squarely for defending and maintaining the nationalized means of production. The MUR not only defends these conquests, but also calls for deepening them. The MUR calls for workers' control over the means of production.

Defense of the unions, agricultural cooperatives, and mass organizations:

The MUR considers that the existence. of these organizations (about 1000 unions, 3000 agricultural cooperatives, etc.) represents a revolutionary conquest for the Nicaraguan people. The bourgeoisie and imperialism focus their hatred against the worker, peasant, and other mass organizations. They see them precisely as the backbone and pillars of the revolution.

These organizations, however, are hindered in their revolutionary efforts by the bureaucratic control that the Sandinista leadership exerts over them.

3. We oppose all agreements signed in Esquipulas or Sapoá that undermine national sovereignty and the gains of the revolution:

The accords of Esquipulas II and Sapoá [the Arias Peace Plan] are aimed at providing unfettered freedom to the counterrevolutionaries and the pro-imperialists in Nicaragua. The MUR is opposed to all those accords that undermine national sovereignty and the popular gains of the revolution.

We therefore oppose the amnesty accepted by the FSLN of notable Somocista leaders guilty of crimes against the people. The same accords set out to guarantee property and political rights to those obtaining amnesty. The MUR rejects the return of confiscated properties to these Somocista, counterrevolutionary leaders, such as the FSLN has been carrying out. Not one inch of land for them! The and file?

Hassan: The functioning of the party and of the state is totally top-down. The highest body of the FSLN is its nine-man National Directorate. There is no other body that can counter or challenge the power of the National Directorate. It is accountable to no one.

The National Directorate selects all the members of the Sandinista Assembly, the party body that is supposed to be the highest decision-making body in the FSLN. The Assembly is not elected by the party ranks. The regional leadership bodies of the FSLN are also designated from above by the Directorate. Even the candidates to all government posts are designated by the Directorate-although in some cases, usually those involving lower posts, the Directorate will take into account some of the suggestions of the middle-level cadre of the party.

This same top-down functioning also characterizes the ATC [Rural Workers Association], the CST [Sandinista Workers Federation], and the other mass organizations linked to the FSLN. All the leaders are imposed from above, even though in some cases, particularly in the CDSs [Sandinista Defense Committees], a farce is promoted to try to convince people that the National Executive Committee is elected by the rank and file. But these elections are just a formality. The leadership of the Sandinista Front will always choose the final candidates.

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peasants must preserve and extend their right to the land and the workers to control the factories.

4. For the arming of all working people:

The MUR struggles for the generalized arming of the people. It therefore declares its support for the reorganization of the militias in such a way that they take on a worker, peasant, and neighborhood character. Likewise, it supports the arming of peasant cooperatives.

On the other hand, the MUR supports the application of the Patriotic Military Service and denounces all counterrevolutionaries and pro-imperialists who speak out against it. The goal of these critics is to weaken the military defense of the revolution.

The MUR states that it was the heroic mobilization of thousands of youth that permitted the success of the defense of the revolution.

Nonetheless, the MUR cannot avoid pointing out that the bureaucratic methods that the Sandinista government has used in the application of the Patriotic Military Service-including privileges granted to the children of high-ranking state officials-has provoked indignation and anger among the population.

5. Defense of the standard of livWing of the workers:

For an increase in wages to keep up with the increase in the cost of living. An escalator clause for all workers and their allies should be put into effect to prevent the growing demoralization among the working class and to prevent the workers, the backbone of the revolution, from suffering the burden of the inflationary plague.

6. The government should guarantee basic consumer goods to all working people:

The Sandinista government has dismantled the system of food cooperatives and outlets of basic consumer goods. It has lifted all price supports for consumer goods. These policies should be reversed. The nation's wealth should be distributed equitably. Worker and peasant control over the distribution of goods and services should be established.

7. For the respect of the collective bargaining agreements and the social gains of the workers:

The MUR opposes the interference of the Ministry of Labor (MITRAB) in the negotiations between the workers and the employers, private or public. Worker and peasant organizations should conduct their negotiations as they see fit, without being shunted aside and replaced by the state and/or management. The MUR supports the independence and autonomy of these mass working class and peasant organizations.

8. Against unemployment. The government should guarantee permanent employment to all workers:

The MUR opposes the policy of unemployment that the Sandinista government is applying on a national level, thereby worsening the misery of the working class families. Dignified and decent employment should be guaranteed for all who seek work. The MUR also opposes the Sandinista policy of compactación [compacting), which has already been responsible for the loss of tens of thou sands of jobs in the public sector.

9. For the deepening of the agrarian reform, for access to land for middle and poor peasants, and for credit from the state to all these sectors:

With Esquipulas II, the process of agrarian reform has been frozen, and is in the process of being reversed. The Sandinista government has paralyzed the granting of lands to peasants, while thousands of poor peasant families still don't have access to the land.

The MUR fights to deepen the agrarian reform. The peasants should be given the land. They should be allowed to cultivate it in whatever way they democratically decide. State credits and other forms of support must be extended, moreover, to small producers and cattle ranchers.

10. No to the incentives in dollars and córdobas to the capitalists!

The capitalist agro-exporters, in contrast to wage earners and small producers in the city and the countryside, receive a preferential treatment of economic incentives on the part of the government in the form of dollars and córdobas. In 1987, this capitalist sector received 300 billion córdobas from the state through the mechanism of preferential and multiple exchange rates. This only contributed to the country's hyperinflation as this public money was not invested productively by the agro-export capitalists.

National revenue should be redistributed toward the workers and their peasant allies. No more incentives to the capitalists!

11. Do not recognize the foreign debt contracted with the imperialist banks:

The slogan of "Cancellation of the imperialist debt" is just and reasonable. The workers and all the oppressed must not have to make sacrifices to pay back the large financial monopolies whose loans were not contracted by the people and did not benefit them. All money going toward interests and the repayment of the debt should be redirected to benefit the workers and their allies.

12. For the freedom and democratic rights of the workers:

The MUR calls for the complete independence of the unions and mass organizations from the bourgeoisie and the state. Such independence is indispensable for the workers to carry out effective struggles against the private bosses and the state administration.

The MUR also supports the right to strike, the traditional instrument of struggle of the workers' movement. The MUR calls for the abolition of the old labor code, which was written during the Somoza regime and which continues to be applied by the capitalists and the state administration.

A new labor code should be enacted following discussions and approval by an assembly or national congress of the various unions and mass organizations, thereby ensuring that the interests of the workers will prevail.

13. For an autonomy program that responds to the just aspirations of the ethnic and indigenous communities:

The MUR supports and fights for a true autonomy program of the indigenous communities, who claim the right of access and use of indigenous land, the democratic right to elect their own leaders, and the recovery and respect of their values and cultural traditions.

14. For the economic, social, political and cultural rights of women:

Women are doubly exploited in the capitalist system by exploitation in the factories and farms, and by the oppression in the home. They are victims of the traditional machismo from men and from society at large, which imposes on them the job of reproducing the salaried workforce.

The MUR supports the right of women not to be discriminated against in their workplaces. It supports their participation in all the activities of society. At the same time, the MUR supports a woman's right to have an abortion. It should be the woman who decides whether or not to have children.

15. For the democratic rights soldiers:

The MUR believes that soldiers must have the right to be members of the revolutionary party of their choice, have access to the different periodicals of the workers' movement, and have the right to democratically elect their officers.

16. For the coordination of revolutionary organizations in central America' The people of Central America have a common history and nationality. Their division into small states was conducted to satisfy imperialist interests. The interests and revolutionary struggles of all Central American peoples have a regional character.

In view of these characteristics, the MUR calls for the unity and coordination of the revolutionary and anti-imperialist organizations in Central America in order to confront together the imperialist aggression in the region.

17. For a Popular and Democratic National Assembly of union delegates, agricultural cooperatives, artists, soldiers, and shanty-town dwellers to direct the destiny of the nation:

The MUR calls for the unity of the people through their own rank-and-file organizations in a Popular and Democratic National Assembly that relies on the participation of union delegates, cooperatives, soldiers, inhabitants of the barrios, as well as all social sectors and political parties that support the workers' movement and socialism, in order to establish assemblies on a national, regional, state, and municipal level, with the purpose of guiding and leading the destiny of the nation.