Nicaragua farmworkers leader sends greetings to SA convention

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SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1990 Chamorro went on national radio and TV to urge the strikers to go back to work Monday morning. She warned that all strikers who failed to do this would be fired. Chamorro's threat outraged the strikers. That same evening thousands of people spontaneously took to the streets to shout anti-government slogans and to support the strikers.

In the course of these mass protests, barricades were set up in Managua's neighborhoods and main thoroughfares. Managua awoke the next day looking like it did just prior to the overthrow of Somoza.

Rodrigo Ibarra, a leader of the Movement for Revolutionary Unity (MUR) reports that in Villa Flores, one of Managua's working-class districts, 15 Sandinista members started digging up the cobblestone streets on Sunday evening. "But by Monday evening," Ibarra stated, "after the police had attempted unsuccessfully to take them down, over 200 people were on the barricades. Among them were some 40 or 50 people who we knew had voted for Chamorro and the UNO coalition."

Ibarra also explained that the workers and youth on the barricades were fully armed. "They knew instinctively," he said, "that Chamorro would call out the army, and if that failed, the contras, who had been reloculated throughout Managua that negotiations had been re-established between Chamorro and the union leadership. It was also announced that Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez had offered to mediate a "negotiated solution" between the Sandinistas and the government.

The next day that's what happened; the agreement between the FNT [National Workers Front] and the government was made public. It included an insignificant (given the monthly rate of inflation) 43 percent wage increase for July. This had been the central demand of the strikers. Other "concessions" included an agreement to permit top Sandinista leaders to "have voice" in the government's plan to reprivatize the state farms. Also, there was an agreement to offer three months' compensation to 6000 laid-off state workers, and a "pledge" to take no reprisals against strikers. The subsidies for public transportation, healthcare, and education were also reinstated.

But even these "concessions" can be expected to be taken back when the counterrevolutionary government feels it is opportune.

The strikers, seeing no fighting perspective from the FSLN leadership, decided not to continue the struggle on their own. Moreover, Humberto Ortega, the head of the July 5, 1990 Managua, Nicaragua To: Socialist Action Convention Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Farmworkers Unions of Nicaragua salute the Socialist Action International Convention. We would have liked to be with you on this occasion, but as you know, your government has denied our visa application.

We continue our struggle. Presently, 15,000 farmworkers are on strike, demanding recognition and respect for their collective-bargaining agreements, as well as protesting the reprivatization of state farms. Four thousand landless campesinos have initiated land takeovers to demand their right to land. More farmworkers and campesinos are joining the struggle everyday.

For taking part struggle, 1 and other union leaders of the National Workers Front (FNT) were detained yesterday, in an attempt to break our strike. Due to the pressure of workers and students, we were released, and our struggle is stronger than ever. Today, more than 82,000 workers across the country are on We hope that we will be able to visit you soon, if your government allows us. We look forward to sharing our experiences with you.

For the moment, we appreciate your solidarity with the working people of Nicaragua.

The struggle continues!

Long live the international solidarity of the workers of the world!

Fratemally, Edgardo García, Secretary General, Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (A.T.C.)