Nicaragua: an Unfinished Revolution
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1 Smash the Contras! Workers to Power! Nicaragua: An Unfinished Revolution The Nicaragua/Iran/hostage imbroglio that has en- ‘‘turn the other cheek’’ and free 7,000 members of Anas- gulfed the Reagan government in recent months has tasio Somoza’s murderous praetorian guard proved to provided plenty of material for political columnists and be an expensive mistake. These same guardsmen today cartoonists. Jimmy Carter’s fanatically anti-communist constitute the backbone of Washington’s proxy army. To national security man, Zbigniew Brzezinski, com- date they have killed more than 18,000 Nicaraguans and mented sourly: ‘‘In Western Europe, there is derision at wounded an equivalent number. the way America tried to pursue a would-be Machiavel- In addition to the direct economic damage inflicted lian policy in a manner more reminiscent of Inspector by the contras, the cost of fighting the war is an immense Clouseau.’’ San Francisco Chronicle columnist Alice Kahn drain on the economy. Some 120,000 people have been dubbed the affair the ‘‘Ayatollah, Ron & Ollie Show,’’ forced to become refugees in their own country. Twelve while right-wing commentator William Safire whines percent of the work force serves in the armed forces. To that it is probably the ‘‘Gipperdaemmerung’’ for the finance the war, which eats up half of all government previously teflon-coated chief North American state ter- expenditure, spending on housing, health care and edu- rorist. cation has been cut to little more than a third of what it Besides showing the Reagan gang’s contempt for the was in 1980-82 (Barricada Internacional, 28 August 1986). niceties of constitutional checks and balances, the scan- This erosion of social programs in turn undermines the dal has also revealed that there is little support even revolution’s popular base. among the far right for the contra losers. Administration While the war has seriously strained the Nicaraguan officials now admit that nearly all the ‘‘private’’ money economy, on the battlefield the contras have been raised for the contras has come directly or indirectly chewed up by the effective and highly motivated sol- from the U.S. government. diers of the Sandinista popular army. The 15 December What’s more, it turns out that the contra chiefs’ com- 1986 New York Times reported: ‘‘With their support in mitment to free enterprise is not merely ideological. Central America at an all-time low, the contras and their They are fiscal ‘‘pragmatists’’ and have not passed up the Administration backers are now in an 11th-hour scram- opportunity presented by Reagan’s largess to branch out ble to reverse four years of failure....At this point almost into some lucrative sidelines, like laundering money and no informed analyst gives the rebels much chance of smuggling drugs. The U.S. General Accounting Office success.’’ estimates that of the $27 million Congress allocated to But the contras don’t necessarily need a military vic- fund the counterrevolution in 1985, ‘‘most of it went to tory to fulfill their function. Elliott Abrams, Reagan’s top private rebel bank accounts in the Cayman Islands or the Latin American specialist, reiterated the administra- Bahamas, to private individuals or corporations in the tion’s commitment to the contra strategy and asserted, United States, and to the Honduran armed forces’’ (New ‘‘if this current U.S. policy is maintained, it seems to me York Times, 19 June 1986). the Sandinistas will not survive. Either they will be This kind of bad publicity fueled Washington’s grow- forced to compromise, or refusing to compromise, the ing disaffection with Reagan’s ‘‘freedom fighters’’ and Nicaraguan people will rise up and get rid of them’’ (New helped prompt the various Congressional investigations York Times, 9 January). The same article reports that into contra wrongdoing. It also contributed to an open ‘‘some senior State Department officials...have ex- split between the State Department’s ‘‘human face’’ con- pressed concern that the Administration is becoming so tras (represented by Arturo Cruz) and the CIA’s opera- tightly locked into an anti-Sandinista policy that if the tional wing headed by Adolfo Calero. But these are only contras falter on the battlefield, pressure may build up tactical differences. The American bourgeoisie is funda- within the Administration to commit American forces mentally united on the need to roll back the Nicaraguan on their behalf.’’ revolution, a point underlined by the bipartisan support Yet there are serious differences within the bourgeoi- for the $100 million voted for Reagan’s terrorists last sie over the advisability of direct U.S. intervention. The summer. Center for Defense Information estimates a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua would cost 5,000 U.S. deaths and $10 bil- The Contra War: Squeezing lion in the first four years of what would likely be a Nicaragua’s Economy prolonged and bloody occupation. The more farsighted elements of the ruling class have a sense that the poten- The U.S. has so far opted for squeezing the fragile tial risks of such a military adventure, with two-thirds Nicaraguan economy while organizing and arming the of the American populace opposed from the outset, far contra mercenaries. The Sandinistas’ 1979 decision to outweigh any possible benefits. 2 In the event that the U.S. does attack, it is the duty of Nicaragua and quickly disappeared from store shelves; American revolutionists to ensure that the Pentagon’s the products were bought up to be sold in neighboring worst fears come true. That means mass mobilizations countries at prices ten times higher.’’ in the streets, on the campuses and particularly in the The ‘‘magic of the marketplace’’ has translated into black and Hispanic communities. But the most impor- food shortages and rationing. Last summer Vice Presi- tant task will be to agitate in the unions for political dent Sergio Ramirez Mercado remarked: ‘‘We are expe- strikes against the invasion. The American working class riencing the worst moments since the triumph of the has the social and economic power to do more than just Sandinista revolution, a crisis so profound that even break a few windows----it can stop U.S. intervention in supplying foods is very difficult’’ (New York Times, 14 its tracks by interrupting production, communications August 1986). and transportation. The growth of the black market is disintegrating the proletariat. Thousands of Nicaraguan workers have quit A Revolution Cannot Serve Two Masters their jobs to become peddlers in the black market be- cause they cannot survive on the wages they earn. The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) Skilled workers who leave the factories to go into busi- came to power in 1979 with a program of egalitarian, ness for themselves can make ten times as much as those petty-bourgeois nationalism garnished with a sprin- who stay. The absorption of hundreds of teachers, doc- kling of Marxist rhetoric. The political parameters of the tors, engineers, middle-level administrators and other revolution were recently reiterated by Comandante vitally necessary professionals and skilled laborers into Humberto Ortega: ‘‘This historical stage we are going the ‘‘parallel economy’’ is putting a tremendous strain through in Nicaragua is fundamentally one of national on an already overburdened social and economic infra- liberation. We cannot address national liberation and structure. NACLA Reports (April/May 1986) com- social liberation at the same time, it would be too diffi- mented, ‘‘The black economy...originally seen as a safety cult’’ (Barricada Internacional, 31 July 1986). valve, has become a gaping hole that threatens to over- This is exactly wrong. Nicaragua had its own flag, whelm the whole economic fabric.’’ postage stamps and seat in the United Nations under Even many left-liberal Sandinista well-wishers are Somoza. If by ‘‘national liberation’’ Ortega means free- slowly coming to realize that the Nicaraguan revolution dom from neo-colonial dependence on the United is in deep trouble. Here is how Paul Berman summed up States, this cannot be won until the revolution cuts off the current situation in the December 1986 issue of the imperialist connection at its roots----private owner- Mother Jones: ship of the productive wealth of society. The Nicaraguan capitalists are both the agents and the partners of the ‘‘The war must be won. Therefore the government American multinationals. To liberate Nicaragua from its enforces a military draft. Labor productivity must rise. historic relationship of neo-colonial dependency, it is Therefore the government squeezes the workers. Profit- necessary to eliminate the ‘‘free enterprise’’ system that able sectors of the economy must be encouraged. There- consigns the masses of the region to desperate poverty. fore the government grants as many favors as it can bear The entire history of the Nicaraguan revolution to to the big capitalist cotton and coffee farmers. A govern- date underlines this fundamental point. From the very ment that enforces a draft, squeezes the workers, favors beginning the FSLN’s attempts to enlist the support of the capitalists, and does all this in the name of socialism, the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie in a struggle for ‘‘national so that workers and capitalists both feel betrayed----such liberation’’ have met with disdain. Since 1979, the capi- a government is bound for trouble.... talists have been decapitalizing as fast as they can, and ‘‘The quandary, then, is: the government must act, and sending the proceeds to Miami or investing them in the powerfully. It needs more support than ever. But it does black market. not have more support. It has less. Something must give.’’ The FSLN’s Barricada Internacional (27 March 1986) The workers are neither blind nor stupid. They know described the dilemma of the ‘‘mixed economy’’: ‘‘...why not stabilize the economy by keeping profit mar- that the concessions to the bourgeoisie come directly at gins, prices and salaries at a level that would assure the expense of their living standards.