This planet is our Miners' message planet-labor & to Moscow: the environment "Gorbachev out!" Page 3 Page 24

f&, Freedom Socialist Wice 1? /?evP/y/ilt«1"1 fiMiN;M.

May-July 1991 Volume 12, Number 4 ($1.00 outside U.S.) 75 .. Bush's obscene vidory: recession, repression, reaction & ruin

wenty years after Vietnam, the glow, doesn't it? All that high-minded Big Oil, bankers, and brokers of U.S. Air Force finally got to garbage out of Washington about arms are rich from this war. bomb a Third World country "stopping Saddam's aggression"-and American workers, and T back to the Stone Age. now these post-blitz atrocities. Oh well, workers abroad, will Iraq was blown to smithereens. as Henry Kissinger remarked after the shoulder the billions Roads, bridges, farms, homes, hospitals, U.S. betrayed the Kurds in the 1970s, it cost. electricity, food warehouses, communi­ U.S. foreign policy isn't about "social to page 23 cations and sewage treatment facili­ work." What it is about in the Mideast ties-wiped out. Between 100,000 and is retaining imperialist control of the 200,000 Iraqi soldiers and civilians were oil. For this Bush needs compliant dic­ blasted to shreds by the bombs. Dead tators, not democracy, in the region. mothers and children litter the cities The hundreds of thousands of and towns. Water supplies are glutted Kurdish refugees on Iraq's northern with poisons and cholera is now up­ borders awaiting starvation or slaugh,t.er ping the body count. .by Saddam are proof of this. Bush sure struck ablOWtoTfte-enum, didn't he? In the aftermath of Desert Desert Storm: war for profit. Storm, after Iraqi Kurds and Shiites rose The U.S. antiwar movement could not up against Saddam at Washington's stop the slaughter that commenced on prodding, the U.S. sat back and let January 15. Cries for peace were Saddam massacre them all to hell. Bush drowned in the blitz. And oh what a wants Saddam out, and was willing that blitz! The Pentagon barked, the media Kurds and Shiites be cats' -paws in the snapped to, and while horror rained on effort to oust him. But Bush wants one Baghdad a propagandistic carpet-bomb­ of Saddam's Ba'athist generals in the ing strafed and savaged the USA. saddle after the smoke clears. Victorious The boys in the international board­ Kurds in Iraq would mean restive Kurds rooms needed this war, to make plain also pressing their legitimate national to a recalcitrant world that their rent-a­ demands in Turkey, home to the largest cop, the U.S. military, will level the U.S. nuclear stockpile in Asia. Shiite earth to further the interests of Big Oil gains would stir Islamic fundamental­ and the banks. Washington needed this ists from Tehran to Cairo, sorely dis­ war to rivet attention away from politi­ tressing Bush's Saudi and Egyptian cal time-bombs at home. partners in crime. Sort of smudges the patriotic after-

New Freeway Hall 5018 Rainier Ave. S. BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE Seattle, WA 98118 PAID SEATTLE, WA ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED PERMIT NO. 1003 2 Freedom Socialist May-July 1991

l' In This Issue Letters Vol. 12, No.4 May-July 1991 Black Panthers sample copies of your anti- the majority of today's work- International I just bought my first Free- Semitic newspaper; I am not ing class has achieved a new Special Supplement interested in receiving them. dominance capable of shaking Bush's Gulf victory 1 "On the Nature of the dom Socialist (Feb.-April '91), which included the article on Nancy Nachum the world. Dateline Australia 1 Nicaraguan State" 5 jerusalem Betty Maloney U.N. & Gulf war 1 Malcolm X by former Panther Aaron Dixon. I was happy to Radical Women Organizer Mideast history 20 Labor New York City Merle Woo victory 2 discover that Dixon is still ac- Women workers Soviet Union 24 tive and writing a book on the I want to share with readers Reporter's free speech 24 Black Panther Party. I would my thrill at the explosive re- She likes us! National Features like to contact him! sponse to the groundbreaking I appreciated greatly "On Stagolee new Radical Women paper the Nature of the Nicaraguan Jobs vs. ecology 3 Sam Deaderick 4 New York City "Women Workers-Sparkplugs State" and the article on war in Logger's interview 3 Editorial 20 of Labor" (available from all the Mideast (Vol. 12 #3). Earth First! vs. FBI 3 Clara Fraser column 21 Anti-fascist RW branches; see box on page I was especially impressed Freeway Hall Case 4 Voices of Color 21 Greetings! This is Christian 22). It was presented this by Clara Fraser's "Long Arabian of Front Range Anti-Racist Ac- spring at the Marxist Scholars Nights." Made dozens of copies tion. I received a complimen- conference in Philadelphia, the and distributed them. Hope I tary copy of the Freedom Socialist Scholars conference in have the distinct pleasure of Freedom Socialist Credo Socialist with a letter requesting New York, and the Labor Notes meeting her personally some our evaluation of the article conference near Detroit. day and shaking her hand. "United Front repels Neo-Nazi Based on the latest statistics jean Duffy The Freedom Socialist boldly confronts and on labor-force demographics, West Palm Beach, Florida makes sense ofthe dizzying events shaping today's threat" (Vol. 12 #2). The grammar/writing style this paper provides the theo- revolutionary world. and content are all top notch! retical analysis for a new level War resisters It's a very good thing to see of Marxist organizing. Humans We're Marxists, Leninists, Trotskyists, are defined under capitalism Over thirty of us current our brother/sister anti-racist or- war resisters are publishing a feminists, humanists ... we believe that all today's ganizations doing such an ex- by their economic role; since the 1950s, women's predomi- newsletter, The ANTI-WARrior. gigantic upheavals are links in an enormous cellent job protesting and re- The ANTI-WARrior will fea- sisting the racist/fascist cancer. nant social role has changed global effort to topple the tyranny ofimperialism from de-classed and essentially ture stories on prisoners of or Stalinist bureaucratism or racist arrogance. Besides United Front Against conscience, info on how you Fascism, I believe that other powerless housewife to prole- tarian leader. can help resisters facing up- We hail the decisive leadership role played by anti-racist groups have taken coming trials, and opinion part in these very same in- The increase of women people of color and by sexual and national from 31 % of the workforce in pieces by unapologetic dissi- stances, with little or no credit dents within the war machine. minorities in the worldwide class struggle. given in the article. I hope this 1954 to over 450/0 today has changed the nature of the en- Send $1 for issue #1 to: The was just an overSight. ANTI-WARrior, 48 Shattuck SQ, We focus on women's non-stop fight for Christian tire American working class- from being dominated by an Box 129, Berkeley, CA 94704. equality which, in the final analysis, challenges Greeley, Colorado jeff Paterson every single basis on which capitalism rests. aristocracy of labor to being composed in the majority by Berkeley, California Feminism is essentially an energizing and Exodus Freedom the dispossessed. Women, unifying inducement to international people of color, and lesbians Readers are encouraged to submit revolutionary upsurge. Socialist and gays are well over half of letters, news stories, commentary, I have just experienced a the working class today! cartoons, graphics, photographs, Our goal is to make these facts of life month of Scuds. Feminist radicals are teach- and pertinent information on apparent. We aim to inject the socialist Kindly stop sending me ing the essential lesson that world and national affairs. movement with the revitalizing ideas of Trotskyism and feminism in order to prepare it for victory in this crucial decade.

Staff e:~:;C.72 Victory "0. ] Editor Editorial Assistant Des!;:n lit Robert Crisman Janet Sutherland Pro uctlon Gabriela Tello in Merle Woo·s Manager Erick Anderson Andrea Bauer Staff Writer Barb Mulligan Matt Nagle Brian Willett Production Jon Walwick Manager free speech mara Consulting Editors Kathleen Merrigan Yolanda Alaniz Clar.a Fraser Proofreader Asst. Production Helen Gilbert privileges of employment." UC against UC was Guerry Hoddersen refused to comply. What it of­ an important Manager Henry Noble Steve Hoffman fered-one-year positions and testing Camera a clear indication she wouldn't ground. We Business Manager Business Assistant lit Printing be subsequently re-hired-was proved that Wendy McPherson Grace Williams VALCO GraphiCS designed to force her to sue for we can beat reinstatement until she retired. the devil-by The Freedom Socialist (ISSN 0272-4367) is published quarterly by the Freedom Given that, and the fact building sup­ SOCialist Party, New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98118. she'd done what she set out to port for free Phone: (206)722-2453. Subscriptions: I-year $5.00 (institutions $10.00), 2-year Supporting Sub S25.00, do at the outset-stymie Mc­ speech and the 3-year Sustaining Sub $50.00, 5-year Sponsoring Sub $100.00. Add S5.00 for overseas Carthyism at UC-Woo pur­ right to be radi­ airmail. Back copies S.75 each. Checks or money orders to Freedom Socialist at the sued the monetary settlement cal. We won on the address above. In AustraIia: 1-yearS6.00, airmail. Mail paymentto P.O. Box266, West as compensation. issues and prevented campus Brunswick, Vic. 3055. Current subscribers: Appearing on your mailing label is a number which indicates how many more issues you are due to receive. "0" means this Why did UC want her out reaction from taking over." is your last issue. so damn bad? Well, she's an Her victories have wide s we go to press, Asian American, a lesbian, and ramifications: UC is the largest word has just a radical. That's three strikes. employer in California, wield­ been received And she refused to shut up ing tremendous political and that Merle Woo about UC's discriminatory economic clout. It also profits has beaten the treatment of students, faculty from the war economy by ad­ University of Califor­ and staff. Unforgivable. ministering the government nia again! On April 25, Woo, UC likes to posture as a bas­ labs that spit out the U.S. nu­ fired twice from her lecturer's tion of free speech, spends mil­ clear arsenal. UC prioritizes position at the Berkeley cam­ lions of dollars doing it, and war over education-and pus, accepted a sweet $75,000 Woo was there to puncture the passes war costs onto students settlement in lieu of reinstate­ illusion. She publicly criticized and staff: UC's Regents have ment to her old job. After fir­ UC's discriminatory practices, voted a 40 percent fee hike and ings in 1982 and 1986, Woo's helped limit harassment of 1,000 staff worker layoffs. charges of discrimination and campus activists, helped her , Woo says, liThe way to de­ retaliation were vindicated union organize for lecturers' feat UC is expose it as big busi­ both times. job security, aided in develop­ ness and an arm of the Kudos to Woo, her union, ing a campus Multi-Cultural government. We can win by University Council-American Lesbian and Gay Studies pro­ organizing around the Federation of Teachers, and her gram, encouraged campus ac­ need for student, staff, fac­ defense committee for waging tivism, and, naturally, fought ulty and comnJUnity con­ and winning the good fight! discriminatory firings. trol of education. The terms of her second re­ To top it, she promoted the "I'm proud to have contri­ instatement order, issued in need to build a SOcialist de­ buted to UC's legacy of free 1989, had read that Woo be re­ mocracy to benefit all the dis­ speech and civil rights. I look turned "to her position as lec­ enfranchised. Definitely forward to victories won by a turer with full back pay and unforgivable! new generation of student, benefits, seniority, and full Says Woo, "The fight staff, and faculty activists." 0 ,.

May-July 1991 Freedom Socialist 3

Part two Jobs vs. ecology A diletntna tnanufactured by the profit systetn Part One of "Jobs vs. Ecology" discussed workers were bullied into disregarding the debate over the spotted owl, the state of safety rules in order not to slow produc­ the forests, and the corporate timber bar­ tion down. ons. This concluding installment looks at The way L-P operates is the norm. In conditions for timber workers, the environ­ February 1989, at a Georgia-Pacific mental movement, and what action can be (G-P) lumber mill in Fort Bragg, Califor­ Logger and Owl: taken to preserve both jobs and nature. nia, a pipe burst in Frank Murray's face, in it together causing him to swallow oil full of carci­ against the timber ~OWI vs. Man' was the head- nogenic PCBs. monopolies. •• line for Time magazine's At the hospital, the company tried multi-page spread on the to prevent his stomach being pumped, bird's listing as a threatened claiming the substance was just mineral species last year. oil. The spill area was not closed off, 'Owl vs. Man.' Them vs. us. and sixteen people were contaminated Polluters and exploiters like to see and three shifts of workers endangered environmental issues framed this way, before the G-P stopped stonewalling. as if a sound ecology were inimical to The union, International W ood­ human interests. If we accept this view, workers Association (IWA), refused to they profit. Meanwhile, we suffer. represent the contaminated workers. Why? Because the "environment" IWA later tried to cut a deal with G-P doesn't just include plant and animal that would have reduced an OSHA (Oc­ subspecies few people have even heard cupational Safety and Health Adminis­ of until their survival is in question. tration) fine for "willful poisoning." "Environment" also means everything Most timber jobs are non-union, and from where toxic waste is dumped to A logger's outlook the unions that do exist don't do much the fact that our immune systems are for their memberships. Wage cuts and teve Goodman has felled trees . weakened by the degradation of the layoffs were fierce through the 'BOs. planet'S ozone layer. Top union officials work in tandem :;:~~~ ~~rc~~~:~~~~e~:~~f~~ ~~t~~~. ~:~f~Cj~~~~%~!sfOra;~ ~:!~S, The environment's quality means with management to peddle the com­ S life or death for working people. Ecol­ pany line on the environment. The though~sa~~s t~~t cWh~le it is still his de~s:~ ~~ ~~ek~011er's Side, and he av­ ogy is our issue, and we need to claim on roversy over management f thO cere are some of his IWA and the Western Council of Indus­ o e wrests it in order to turn things around. trial Workers (WCIW) formed a coali­ ,: The spotted owl . tion last year with Weyerhaeuser, G-P, The owl is a non is T Cutting forests, squeezing and other timber companies to defeat or don't we? - sue. he real question is do we 10 Id workers. It is big bUSiness, not ecol­ national conservation legislation. "You have the ca 'g0 -growth timber OI;'.Y.thatis hostile to most human inter­ But the bureaucrats have not suc-' later,' and the mp that says 'Let's log everythi ests. Nowhere 1s thIs truth more starK ceeded in pruning all pro-environment tree is a death ~l~~ ~~ve the side which says '] lov::f :nd worry about it than in the timber industry. sentiment from the ranks of labor. to be made about What °t~ebwhere between these two ~x~s, and any death of a Harry Merlo, CEO for timber giant In Montana, for example, five envi­ 1m er to log." remes a dedsion has -E . Louisiana-Pacific (L-P), summed up the ronmental groups and two unions rep­ " nVlronmentaIists corporations' attitude to natural re­ resenting 800 millworkers worked MaYbe the environm r sources in these words: "We log to in­ together for four months to develop old growth B h·· enta IStS are right about th finity. Because we need it all. It's ours. a proposal designating tracts in the up. People'~ j~~sta:! ~ -?ot the last time this kind Of~~~~?e:~ of c.utting the It's out there, and we need it all. Now." Kootenai National Forest as wilderness, mental issues. OIng to come in conflict again and Ie ~s go~ng to come The companies consider workers in and therefore off-limits to logging, . "And the feeling I et fro. agaIn WIth environ_ the same way-as a resource to be pur­ mining, and road-building. Job at stake. I Want g . m envIronmentalists is 'I d ' chased as cheaply and exploited as ;,our job or Your kid~~oe:~r~:~f?i~aVed~I don't car~:b~:~~~ I~~un~! my thoroughly as possible. L-P is the outfit For a holistic environmental ~r:he comp~ssion for What's going to he envIronmentalists should show ep which closed a California mill in order movement. For the environmental some kInd of plan to help them." appen to loggers' lives and come up to reopen it in Mexico, where they pay movement to translate its appeal into the employees 87 cents an hour. They effective results, it is going to have to "F or people to make an i . are also willing to murder their workers do much more of this kind of joint have more facts . ntelhgent deCiSion on th . to keep profits high. work. ronmentalists c~~o~~~~t ~his PR war that goes on. B~t~siues, they need to In September 1989, at the L-P saw­ When it does, it can make great one another" Ir fIgures. It's just people thr . n:;ustry and envi- mill in Ukiah, California, a worker strides. Judi Bari and like-minded . OWIng umper stickers at named Fortunado Reyes was mangled Earth First! colleagues have forged : Loggers & logging In my .. to death when he climbed onto a con­ new alliances with California work­ , OPInIOn, c1earcuttin i h veyor belt to clear it of jammed lumber. ers by helping to combat on-the­ you re working on real flat laneY, way to log. It's safer. If The machines were supposed to be job disasters like the G-P accident, ~~u ~~~%{:~t~fnabJe og. ut where most of the turned off before a jam was cleared, but to page 22 to page 22 COINTELPRO'S latest victims: radical environmentalists n May 24, 1990, Earth First!ers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were been a labor organizer for seven years on the East Coast. driving in Oakland, California when a pipe bomb exploded in their A month before the bombing, Bari convinced a majority of regional Earth car and sent the two activists to the hospital. Bari was there for over a First!ers to renounce tree-spiking, a dangerous, divisive practice that had loggers Omonth. Cherney was treated for a lacerated cornea and released-only up in arms. In the weeks that followed, Bari, Cherney, and their colleagues were to be arrested immediately by the Oakland police, who charged him and Bari deluged with death threats and fake press releases issued in their name. with "illegal posseSSion and transport of explosives." In one instance, Bari and three other women received a letter that said, "We The prosecution had no evidence and eventually dropped its case. But first have distributed your phone number to every organized hate group that could they ensured that Bari and Cherney were thoroughly smeared in the media as possibly have hostile tendencies toward ilk of your kind. No longer can sleazy "eco-terrorists" who aCCidentally bombed themselves. And the FBI and Oak­ dykes like you operate with impunity." Cherney and four other men got similar land police never managed to find any suspects other than the victims. mail, adjusted for gender. But suspects there are, obvious ones. Foremost among them is the FBI, act­ These tactics echo the FBI counter-intelligence programs (COINTELPRO) ing in the interests of the timber industry. against the Black Panther Party, Native Americans, and others in the '60s and Bari and Cherney were central organizers of Redwood Summer, an ambitious '70s. Ward Churchill, author of the invaluable study Agents of Repression, de­ campaign to halt the logging of much of California's last redwood forests by scribes the FBI goal in these incursions: "First, it targets key activists, then it dis­ three timber giants: MAXXAM Inc., Louisiana-Pacific, and Georgia-Pacific. credits the organization and breaks the morale of its participants." MAXXAM had acquired a junk bond debt of $750 million in its hostile 1985 But Bari and Cherney are undeterred. They both continue to organize for en­ takeover of Pacific Lumber. The corporations' stake in squelching resistance to vironmental and other causes. Redwood Summer attracted 2,000-3,000 partici­ their clear-cutting plans was high. Bari and Cherney were bombed eight days pants and helped Earth First! claim a few victories over the logging companies. before the scheduled kick-off of Redwood Summer. Perhaps even more importantly, Bari and Cherney'S message of cross-move­ In the previous months, they had made crucial headway in breaking down ment solidarity is gaining adherents inside the ecology movement. divisions between environmentalists and working loggers and had won impor­ Not even dynamite can stop an idea whose time has come. 0 tant allies in the feminist, people of color, and lesbian/gay movements. Bari, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World General Executive Board, had Thanks to Z magazine and the Industrial Worker for material in this article. 4 Freedom Socialist May-July 1991

lawsuit was specifically a political vendetta against the FSP as well as a Sam Deaderick fraudulent grab for money. But Sam, who knew Snedigar very well, declined to remove himself. He Gay rights pioneer, gifted writer recognized the attempt by Snedigar and his lawyers to force public dis­ and free speech partisan closure of FSP minutes and member­ ship lists as a McCarthy-like 1949-1991 broadside against the constitutional rights to free speech and association. am Caponi Deaderick, who died of a heart to Spring 1980. He also co­ He remained proudly and pub­ attack on February 2 in Seattle at age 41, was authored the Freedom Social- liclya Freeway Hall Case defendant one of those people who made a difference in ist Party's 1982 Political ~ to the end. Sthe world. An early enlistee in the gay rights Resolution, "Crisis and Oppor-* Sam was a political man, but not movement, he was a radical activist, writer, and tunity," which, alone among ~ in any narrow sense of the word. He thinker and a free speech advocate to the day he the political pronouncements was a radical who loved the good died. In his last months he wrote voluminously of the day, offered scientific life: good books, gourmet cooking, about the U.S. war in the Persian Gulf, the disaster it grounds for optimism and re­ the opera, Billie Holiday, Mozart wrought at home and abroad, and what U.S. antiwar sistance against the Reaganite onslaught. above all. Possessed·of a skewering wit, he used it activists could and should do to end it. Tired and in ill-health, Sam left the FSP in Novem­ most often to spear low men in high places: pomp­ Sam joined the Gay Liberation Front in Portland ber 1983. Five months later he suffered a heart attack. ous bosses, gassy politicians (Democrats and Repub­ in 1970. It was with the GLF that he first gained no­ Through it all he remained a friend of the party. In licans), and every stripe of hypocrite, bigot and tice as a movement writer and editor. early 1984, ex-FSP member Richard Snedigar sued the phony. In 1974, Sam joined the Freedom Socialist Party, FSP and nine individuals for return of a donation he He was loved and will be missed-for his politi­ becoming an editor of this newspaper at its outset in and others had made five years earlier to a party evic­ cal integrity, his generosity in friendship, and his 1975. As a writer he specialized in gay and interna­ tion fund. Sam, a former FSP Executive Committee theoretical and journalistic contributions to our tional issues. With fellow editor Tamara Turner, he member, was named as one of the defendants. As an party and to the social change movements. D authored the remarkable series "Gay Resistance: The ex-member, he could easily have removed himself Hidden History," which ran in the FS from Fall 1978 from the case; it was apparent early on that Snedigar's -ROBERT CRISMAN Freeway Hall Case: What it is and what's ahead enacity! That's the Freedom Socialist Party's records, all organizations would be vulnerable to political hallmark, and neither the Washington state ju­ opponents. dicial system nor witch hunting lawyers have • Stereotyping of radicals. Snedigar claims the FSP-"a T been able to overcome it during the Freeway Hall small, declining cult"-brainwashed him out of his money. Case. This year, the party's perSistence will be rewarded Classic redbaiting. And, as the history of this case proves, when the case is either thrown out or finally goes to trial in judges can still be swayed by it. King County Superior Court. • Donations jeopardized. It would be impossible for any The Freeway Hall Case is a First Amendment court battle group to survive if donors can yank back their money years pitting the FSP and eight individuals against an ex-FSP down the road. member who wants to bankrupt the party and put the skids • Sentence before verdict. Before even hearing the suit, on radical organizing. the Superior Court awarded Snedigar $42,000 because the It all started in 1984 when Richard Snedigar sued the FSP refused to hand over its minutes. Collection attempts party to get back $22,500 he had given to a party eviction were made. A defendant's house had to be put up as bond to fund in 1979. Snedigar claimed the party had defrauded prevent seizure of people's property. him. However, lacking evidence-he contradicted his claim Preparing for the long-awaited trial, the Freeway Hall in an early oral deposition-he and his lawyers turned the Case defense team is currently hard at work raising funds suitinto a witch hunt. They demanded that the FSP hand and enlisting new support. Recent endorsers include James over confidential internal records such as meeting minutes Forman, civil rights leader and author of The Making of and membership lists. Black Revolutionaries; Dolores Huerta, co-founder and first Early court rulings backed Snedigar up. In challenging vice-president of the United Farm Workers of America; au­ them, the FSP lost or was ignored on 24 appeals and legal thor, editor, and literature professor Annette Rubinstein, motions before winning a tough, precedent-setting decision Ph.D.; radio commentator Dorothy Healey, author of Dor­ supporting First Amendment rights from the state Supreme othy Healey Remembers a Life in the American Commu­ Court. nist Party; and attorney and writer Michael Linfield, Nica­ Here are some of the issues that make this case important raguan Supreme Court member under the Sandinistas. D for all radicals, diSSidents, and small"d" democrats. • Violation of privacy rights. Had the courts seized FSP -MATT NAGLE

republics and states. Yet the center is re­ solving the nation's problems." a capitalist one. By junking interna­ sponsible for strategiC economic plan­ This could be the end of the story tional revolution in the '20s, Stalin en­ ning, and foreign commitments by for Gorbachev. The 1989 miners' strikes sured that the West would retain its ... showdown republics must be made in the frame­ were serious enough. Then the miners advantage. He wanted to build "social­ work of Moscow's international commit­ demanded self-management in the ism in one country," the Soviet Union, from page 24 ments. mines. Now, in effect, they're posing and "peaceful coexistence" with imperi­ USSR's "Slavic heartland"-Russia, Now, what planning can Moscow do the question of who shall control the alism so that he and his henchmen the Ukraine, Byelorussia and Kazakh­ if each constituent republic of the So­ state, workers or bureaucrats. This is could be left alone to enjoy the bureau­ stan-in a loose economic federation. viet economy is allowed to pursue its fundamental, a question of political crats' paradise in the USSR. His aim was to elbow Gorbachev out of development independently? What revolution and civil war. Stalin's triumph meant that the the picture and speed a transition to concrete means are there to integrate The miners are as yet susceptible to West would control the earth's wealth, capitalism. Talks were initiated, but in the needs and interests of the parts and pro-market demagoguery from such as and that the Soviet Union would floun­ February Byelorussia and the Ukraine the whole? The question is somewhat Yeltsin, however. Seventy years of Stal­ der. Also that it would be a prison­ pulled out. The Ukraine and Kazakh­ academic at the moment, of course. inist shortages and savagery have mud­ house for decades: the bureaucrats had stan then urged Gorbachev to hurry Perestroika is a dead letter and the cen­ died the socialist idea, to say the least, ripped off an entire revolution from the work on the proposed new Union ter would be hard-pressed to handle a and allowed the Yeltsins to make hay workers who had made it, and they Treaty, his blueprint for a reconstituted two-car funeral, much less strategiC eco­ with the notion that freedom and pros­ needed a police regime for protection. federation of Soviet republics. nomic planning. perity will arrive with bourgeois democ­ Soviet Stalinism is now on its last The Ukraine et al. feared being swal­ Believe it, the Treaty offers more of racy. Still, Moscow's slightest move legs. The workers are clamoring for de­ lowed up in a union with Russia, by far the same misery and the certainty of toward market reform, whether it be mocracy and the good life, all the the largest and most powerful republic. greater conflicts between the republics layoffs or price hikes, has been greeted things promised by the October revolu­ Yeltsin's own constituency, Russia's and Moscow. by the workers with absolute fury. tion. But the promises can't be kept so workers and farmers, strongly favored They've felt the breath of capitalism long as the bureaucrats reign in Mos­ Gorbachev's referendum. After Yeltsin's Miners vs. Moscow. Conflict is al­ as it exists, and they want no part of it. cow and capitalists hold sway in most plan collapsed, he wisely refrained from ready full-blown between the workers What they need now is ideological of the rest of the world. urging a "no" vote on the referendum. and the bureaucracy. One-third of the clarity. They need to realize that the So­ The workers' fight falls on two Gorbachev took the referendum's USSR's 1.2 million coal miners have viet Union's travail stems from its pov­ fronts-against Stalinism and against passage as a ringing endorsement of his walked off the job, and it looks as if fac­ erty and backwardness as compared the profit system. As this becomes clear, Union Treaty. A draft of the Treaty, ini­ tory workers in Byelorussia and oil with imperialism, and that the solution and as their fight progresses to outright tiated by eight large republics, traces the workers in Siberia are about ready to to the USSR's problems lies ultimately contention for control of the Soviet intended shape of the new federation. join them. in the international arena. state, Soviet workers will inspire West­ How can it work? For example, the The coal miners want Gorbachev The West has a lock on most of the ern workers to rise up in their own republics will have legislative control and the government out. Says a Donbas world's productive wealth, financial re­ countries, and join in making revolu­ over their internal economic develop­ region strike committee leader, "We sources, and cultural and technological tion worldwide. D ment and, as a natural corollary, the want to destroy the present system of expertise-all the prerequisites for a right to treat independently with other government [which] is incapable of functioning socialist economy, or even -ROBERT CRISMAN r---~-·-· --.~~~= ==-_.. -.- .. --=.. ~.- .. -=--~--. ------.-...... -.-~====

I ,

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT /SUPLEMENTO ESPECIAL 5

Part two The ature of the icaraguan State by Stephen Durham & Susan Williams, M.D.

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT/SUPLEMENTO ESPECIAL-l 6 THE NATURE OF THE NICARAGUAN STATE

nomic relations. The government was state apparatus, in this case the extent to The installment's investigation into accordingly unstable and self-contradic­ which the previous Somoza regime had the Nicaraguan economy revealed that tory. been dismantled; 3) the program and private ownership of the means of pro­ Recap After reviewing the importance of goals of the Sandinista leadership, i.e., duction, dominated by large capital, is In the past installment, Durham and the Marxist concept of the state to any the character of its relationship to the the key feature of Nicaragua's "mixed" Williams, writing two years before the analysis of the Nicaraguan upheaval, the economy and to the masses and their economy, and that this has been the case Sandinista electoral defeat, asserted that authors drew on the history of revolu­ needs. since the early years after the insurrec­ Nicaragua was a capitalist state, but a tions, from the Paris Commune to the No one criterion is sufficient to de­ tion. peculiar one: on the one hand, the Cuban revolution, to outline the three fine the character of a state: should pri­ This second and last installment will Sandinista regime, which came to criteria which together determine the class vate property relations prevail after a revo­ resume the investigation of the nature of power through the popular insurrection, character of a state ruling over a revolu­ lution, one must also look, for example, the Nicaraguan state with an examina­ stood at the helm of a workers and farm­ tionary society. The three criteria are: 1) at whether government policies are aimed tion of its institutions and the economic ers government. But the state continued the property relations and the extent to at replacing the rule of capital, to come to and social policies of the Sandinista gov­ to rest on, and protect, capitalist eco- Which they prevail; 2) the character of the a conclusion. ernment.

FSLN, which still holds the real power. after the insurrection. It abolished the The DN defines policy for the govern­ previous constitution and the Supreme ment as well as for FSLN participation in Court of Justice and provided for the IV. Nicaragua's the government and the mass organiza­ destruction of unspecified "remaining tions. The DN dominates through ap­ structures of Somocista power."6 Many pointment of its members to key ministe­ new laws have since been enacted by State Apparatus rial posts, and by its control of the coer­ decree of the Junta. cive state apparatuses-the army, police, Yet the court system in Nicaragua ur second criterion for the es­ in the hands of the people in order to prisons and intelligence network. has only been reorganized, not trans­ tablishment of a workers' state defend the revolution against contra raids Functioning as a de facto ruling group, formed, by the revolution. The Somocista is the smashing of the bour­ and the threat of U.S. invasion. Peasants the DN is the only coordinating political courts were dissolved, judges dismissed, O geois state apparatus and its re­ in the frontline areas of the contra war body in the government. The DN enjoys and new judges appointed. Three special placement by a qualitatively different kind receive guns today along with their land tremendous authority and popular sup­ types of courts were established- labor of governing structure, one which em­ titles. port, grounded in the FSLN role in the courts, agrarian courts and special tribu­ bodies proletarian democracy and oper­ Late in 1987 the FSLN launched an insurrection. nals for political crimes. Still, the overall ates in the interests of the majority of aggressive campaign to revitalize the Daniel Ortega served as the liaison function of the courts and the law has society. popular militias. They went door-to­ between the DN and theJunta from 1979 been to "mediate" the class conflict: to To what extent was the Somocista door to enlist participation. This cam­ to 1984. Governing by decree, the Junta strike a "balance" between the aspira­ state apparatus destroyed? What new paign was part of the two-pronged oversaw the re-organization of the old tions of land-hungry peasants and the political structures have emerged? Do Sandinista defense strategy to build the government bureaucracy. The 1984 elec­ property rights of landowners, between qualitatively new forms of workers' rule militias and professionalize the army. tions which ended the rule of the Junta workers' demands and capitalist profits. exist? We must know this to gauge the In the defense configuration, the placed a President (Ortega) and Vice-presi­ This mediation has worked essentially in nature and degree of the transformation draftee army, led by a profeSSional officer dent at the head of the executive branch favor of the bourgeoisie. of the Nicaraguan state. corps, clearly predominates over the mi­ of government (the ministries and ad­ Much of the old legal codes remain litias. There is also evidence that because ministrative departments). in force. Notable among these are the FSLN, as a party, is distancing itself The FSLN has been careful from the Somoza's labor legislation, the penal code, Incomplete from military leadership, the army is as­ outset to maintain bourgeOiS representa­ and family legislation, including the law suming an increasingly separate and in­ tion at all levels of government. For against abortion. In the early period of Break-up of the dependent role. example, the Ministry of Labor in 1980 the revolution, the FSLN acknowledged Somocista Army The militias, meanwhile, are not ac­ went to Virgilio Godoy, tl}e leader of the the need for a complete revision of the Before the insurrection, more than countable to the people. legal codes but postponed 50,000 Nicaraguans died at the hands of Arms are in the hands of this task to future elec­ the National Guard. The Guard was the the population, but are tions and the establish­ fiercest and most hated face of Somoza's being used to defend Nica­ ment of a new constitu­ many-headed Hydra of repression. ragua against military ag­ tion. The elections have Immediately after the Sandinista gression from without, come and gone; a new, military victory, the Guard was liqui­ not to help transform constitution has been dated as an institution. Its demolition Nicaraguan society or re­ adopted; the reVisions \ was a major achievement of the revolu­ press the Nicaraguan , have yet to be instituted. tion. The insurrection also led to the bourgeOisie. TheJunta prohibited immediate and complete dissolution of in 1981 the withdrawal Somoza's detested police force. of capital from produc­ The victorious masses were deter­ The tion, and provided for the mined to completely eradicate the Guards­ confiscation of land men, known as murderers, torturers, rap­ Sandinista which an owner refuses ists, thieves, and total stooges for the Government to use for production. At regime. The revolutionary people wanted Between 1979 and the same time, however, to carry out revolutionary justice, but 1984 the formal govern­ the government has de­ only a handful of the Guardsmen were ment was the Govern­ clared illegal all strikes, tried and executed. mental Junta of National peasant occupations of The Sandinistas asserted that none of Reconstruction OGRN). the land, and" any action the Guardsmen would be killed for their The FSLN designed this aimed at forcibly modify­ crimes, and in many instances they re­ government in early ing the relations of pro­ strained the people from performing sum­ 1979, before the insurrec- . duction."7 mary executions. Indeed, within one tion. When tensions be­ year, the government freed thousands of TheJuntafunctioned tween government and imprisoned Guardsmen and other fierce as a coalition government bourgeoisie reached a opponents of the revolution. of the FSLN and the anti­ critical level in the spring But the FSLN publicly announced Somocista bourgeois po- of 1980, direct negotia­ only a fraction of these releases because litical parties. Bourgeois Spirited recruits to militia. Managua. tions between the FSLN of the immense unpopularity of its ac­ representatives sat on the reclutas de 'as mi'icias sandinistas, Managua. National Directorate and tion.l Junta until its rule was the political arm of the The FSLN also attempted to ended in the 1984 elections. Liberal Independent Party, who served capitalists, COSEP (Superior Council of reintegrate a few of the National Guard Relations between bourgeois officials until February, 1984.5 Private Enterprise), which were mediated by giving them jobs, but the majority fled and FSLN were rocky from the beginning. In the meantime, while the Defense by the U.S. ambassador, resulted in the ley the country into Honduras and became First, the bourgeoisie demanded that and Interior Ministries were built from de amparo, a law providing court protec­ the nucleus of the contra counterrevolu­ the Junta convene the Council of State the ground up, most government bu­ tion against the seizure of property. This tion. and hold elections immediately after the reaus, especially those supervising eco­ law was later replaced, in 1986, by the insurrection. But, according to Borge, the nomic planning and agrarian reform, in­ preamble to the new constitution which FSLN wanted to wait until all the political corporated the old apparatus; new heads declares the mixed economy and the New Organs parties, including those of the bourgeoi­ were appointed from the FSLN top leader­ rights of private property to be immu­ of Armed Force sie, could organize and compete in the ship. The majority of lower and middle table. Within several months of the insur­ electoral process.4 administrators kept their posts, leaving Only in the area of land reform have rection, new institutions of internal secu­ Then, in 1980, popular demand intact the bulk of the Somocista bureau- the courts actually challenged existing rity-the police force and prison system­ forced theJunta to give Council represen­ cracy. property relations. However, changes in were rebuilt, essentially from the ground tation to mass organizations. This The creation of the state sector of the this sphere have gone no further than up, under the Ministry of the Interior, prompted the banker and soon-to-be economy gave rise to an expanded gov­ establishing a legal basis for a system of headed by FSLN leader Tomas Borge. contra leader, Alfonso Robelo, to resign ernment officialdom, including agrono­ land redistribution which differs little in The standing army was completely from the Junta. He was replaced by Cen­ mists, technicians and managers who kind or degree from agrarian reform reorganized under Sandinista authority. tral Bank President Arturo Cruz, who make up one third of all those employed projects throughout Latin America. It operates under FSLN leader Humberto served only briefly before being appointed by the state economic sector. Huge ten­ The courts have consistently ruled Ortega, Minister of Defense. as an envoy to the U.S. Shortly after sion and conflict is building between against strikes and land confiscations by A striking feature of the transforma­ arriving in the U.S., Cruz resigned his bureaucrats and workers in this sector, workers and peasants that directly threat­ tion of the coercive forces is the wide­ post, joined the opposition, and remained, generated by government emphasis on ened bourgeois property. spread arming of the people in popular until his resignation, the political king­ large-scale, capital-intensive agro-export People's Tribunals were established militias. Estimates of the number of pin of the contra forces. projects similar to those promoted by to try Somocista collaborators. These workers and peasants with weapons range Between 1981 and 1984, the Junta Somoza. tribunals, made up of a government-ap­ from a minimum of 60,000 (in the bour­ consisted of Sandinistas Daniel Ortega pointed judge and two citizens, sentenced 2 and Sergio Ramirez, and Rafael Cordoba many counter-revolutionaries to jail terms geoiS press ) to 450,000 (according to The Courts and the Fourth International leader Ernest of the right-center, bourgeois Democratic following the insurrection. Nevertheless, Mandell). Conservative Party. Legal System Sandinista determination to conciliate The Sandinistas have consistently de­ Above theJunta stood the nine-mem­ The Fundamental Statute decreed in with hostile bourgeois forces has under- clared their commitmentto keeping arms berJoint National Directorate (DN) of the 1979 formed the nucleus of legal reform to supplement poge 4

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT-2 LA NATURALEZA DEL ESTADO DE NICARAGUA

est able y contradictorio consigo mismo. este caso el grado al que el previo regimen La investigacion en el fasciculo acerca Recapitulacion Despues de revisar la importancia del de Somoza fue desmantelado; 3) el progra­ de la economia nicaragiiense revelo que la En el fasciculo anterior, Durham y conceptomarxista del Estado frente a cual­ rna y metas del mando sandinista, por ejem­ propiedad privada de los medios de pro­ Williams al escribir dos afios antes de la quier analisis del levantamiento nica­ plo, el caracter de su relacion con la econo­ duccion, dominadas por el gran capital, es derrota electoral sandinista, aseveraron que ragiiense, los auto res recurrieron a la histo­ mia y con las masas y sus necesidades. el rasgo clave de la economia mixta de Nicaragua era un estado capitalista, pero ria de las revoluciones, desde la Com una de NingUn criterio es suficiente para defi­ Nicaragua y este ha sido el caso desde los uno peculiar: por un lado, el regimen san­ Paris hasta la revolucion cubana, para deli­ nir el caracter de un Estado: si las relaciones primeros arlOS postreros a la insurreccion. dinista, que lIego al poder a traves de una near los tres criterios que unidos determi­ de propiedad privada prevalecieran des­ Esta segunda y ultima entrega resumi­ insurreccion popular, estuvo al timon de nan el caracter de clase de un Estado gober­ pues de una revolucion, para sacar una ra la investigacion de la naturaleza del un gobierno de obreros y campesinos. Pero nante sobre una sociedad revolucionaria. conclusion, uno tiene que ver tambien por Estado nicaragiiense por medio de un exa­ el Estado continuo defendiendo y apoyan­ Los tres criterios son: 1) las relaciones de ejemplo, si las politicas de gobierno estan men de sus instituciones y de las politicas dose en las relaciones economicas capital­ propiedad y la extension en la cual preva­ dirigidas a reemplazar el dominio del capi­ sociales y economicas del gobierno istas. El gobierno fue por consiguiente in- lecen; 2) el caracter del aparato estatal, en tal. sandinista.

mantuvo, hasta su renuncia como el caci­ ticla, y proveyo la destruccion, sin especi­ que politico de las fuerzas de La Contra. ficarlas, de las "estructuras restantes del IV. El Aparato Entre 1981 y 1984 lajunta consistiade poder somocista".6 Muchas leyes nuevas los sandinistas Daniel Ortega y Sergio han sido desdt: entonces establecidas por Ramirez, y de Rafael Cordoba del Partido decreto de lajunta. Estatal Nicaragiiense Democratico Conservador burgues, de Sin embargo, el sistema de cortes en centroderecha. Nicaragua solo ha sido reorganizado, no uestro segundo criterio para el tener las armas en las manos del pueblo Por encima de lajunta estaba la Direc­ transformado, por la revolucion. Las cor­ establecimiento de un Estado para defender la revolucion de ataques de cion Nacional (DN) del FSLN, formada tes somocistas fueron disueltas, los jueces obrero, es el aplastamiento del la contra y de la amenaza de invasion por nueve comandantes, que todavia sos­ destituidos y nuevos jueces nombrados. N aparato estatal burgues y su re­ estadounidense. Los campesinos en las tiene el poder real. La DN define la poHtica Tres tipos especiales de cortes fueron esta­ emplazo por un tipo de estructura gober­ zonas de la guerra con los contras reciben, del gobierno, asi como la participacion blecidas-<:ortes laborales, cortes agrarias y nante cualitativamente diferente, una que hoy en dia, armas junto con sus tftulos de del FSLN en el gobierno y las organizacio­ tribunales especiales para crimenes politi­ personifique Ia democracia proletaria y tierras. nes de masas. La DN domina por medio del cos. Aun asi, la funcion en general de las opere en favor de los intereses de la mayo­ A finales de 1987 el FSLN emprendio nombramiento de sus miembros a puestos cortes y de la ley es la de mediar el conflicto ria de la sociedad. una campana agresiva para revitalizar a las ministeriales clave, y por su control de los de clases: mantener un equilibrio entre las lHasta que grado fue destruido el apa­ aspiraciones de los campesinos hambrien­ rato estatal somocista? lQue nuevas es­ tos de tierra y los derechos de propiedad de tructuras poHticas han surgido? lExisten los terratenientes, entre las demandas de nuevas formas cualitativas de gobierno los trabajadores y ellucro capitalista. Esta obrero? Debemos saber esto para poder mediacion ha funcionado esencialmente evaluar la naturaleza y grado de transfor­ en favor de la burguesia. macion del Estado nicaragiiense. Muchos de los antiguos codigos lega­ les permanecen en vigencia. Notables en­ tre estos, estan la legislacion laboral de El Desmantelamiento Somoza, el codigo penal, y la legislacion familiar, incluyendo la ley en contra del Incom"leto del aborto. A comienzos del periodo de la Ejercito Somocista revolucion, el FSLN reconociola necesidad Antes de la insurreccion, mas de 50,000 de una revision completa de los codigos nicaragiienses murieron a manos de la legales; pero pospuso esta tarea para futu­ Guardia Nacional. La Guardia era la mas ras elecciones y el establecimiento de una tern ida y mas odiada cara de la hidra de nueva constitucion. Las elecciones han lIe­ muchas cabezas de la represion somocista. gado y se han ido; una nueva constitucion lnmediatamente despues de la victo­ ha sido adoptada; las revisiones aun tienen ria militar sandinista, la Guardia fue liqui­ Sandinista national directorate in session, Managua 1985. La dlrec­ que ser instituidas. dada como institucion. Su demolicion fue cl6n naclona' sandinisla en sesl6n, Managua 1985. La junta prohibio en 1981 el reUrar el el mayor logro de la revoluci6n. La insu­ capital de la produccion y dispuso la con­ rrecci6n tam bien condujo a la completa e mflidas populares. Fueron de puerta en aparatos estatales coersivos-el ejercito, la fiscacion.delas tierrasque un duefio rehuse \nmed\ata d\so\uc\on de\a detestada fuer­ puerta para reclutar a participantes. Esta policia, prisiones y redes de inteligencia. a uSar para la produccion. Al mismo tiem­ za policiaca de Somoza. campana fue parte de la estrategia de de­ Al funcionar como un grupo gober­ po, sin embargo, el gobierno ha decIarado Las masas victoriosas estaban decidi­ fensa dual sandinista: formar a las milicias nante de facto, la DN es el unico cuerpo ilegales todas las huelgas, ocupaciones de das a erradicar por completo a los guardias, y profesionalizar al ejercito. politico coordinador del gobierno. La DN tierras por campesinos, y" cualquier acdon conocidos como asesinos, torturadores, En la configuracion de la defensa, el disfruta de tremenda autoridad y apoyo dirigida a modificar por la fuerza las rela­ violadores, ladrones y secuaces completos ejercito conscripto, dirigido por un cuerpo popular, fundamentado en el papel del ciones de produccion"/ del regimen. Los revolucionarios quisieron de oficiales profesional, claramente predo­ FSLN en la insurreccion. Cuando en la primavera de 1980, las lIevar a cabo la justicia, pero solo un punado mina sobre las milicias. Tambien hay evi­ Daniel Ortega sirvio como enlace en­ tensiones entre el gobierno y la burguesia de los guardias fueron enjuiciados y eje­ dencia de que, ya que, el FSLN como un tre la DN y lajunta, desde 1979 hasta 1984. alcanzaron un nivel critico, las negociacio­ cutados. partido, se esta distanciando del mando Gobernando por decreto, lajunta supervi­ nes directas en tre la Direccion Nacional del Los sandinistas afirmaron que ningu­ del ejercito; el ejercito esta asumiendo cada sola reorganizacion de la antigua burocra­ FSLN y el COSEP (Consejo Superior de la no de los guardias seria muerto por sus vez mas un papel aparte e independiente. cia del gobierno. Las elecciones de 1984 Empresa Privada), brazo politico de los crimenes, y en muchas ocasiones restringi­ Las milicias mientras tanto, no son que terminaron el mando de lajunta, pu­ capitalistas, que fueron mediadas por el eron al pueblo de realizar ejecuciones responsables ante el pueblo. Las armas es­ sieron al presidente (Ortega) y al vicepresi­ embajador de EVA, resultaron en la Ley de sum arias. En efecto, antes de un ano, el tanen lasmanos de la poblacion, pero estan dente C. Ramirez a la cabeza de la rama Amparo, ley que provee la proteccion juri­ gobierno libero a miles de guardias encar­ siendo usadas para defender a Nicaragua ejecutiva del gobierno-los ministerios y dica contra el embargo de propiedades. celados y a otros feroces opositores de la contra la agresion militar desde afuera, no departamentos administrativos. Esta ley fue mas tarde reemplazada, en revolucion. para ayudar a transformar a la sociedad 0 Desde el principio el FSLN ha tenido 1986, por el preambuloa lanueva constitu­ Pero el FSLN anuncio publicamente para reprimir a la burguesia nicaragiiense. cuidado de mantener representacion bur­ cion que declara que sean inmutables la solo una fraccion de estas liberaciones, guesa en todos los niveles del gobierno. Por economia mixta y los derechos a lapropie­ debido a la in mensa impopularidad de su ejemplo, en 1980 el Ministerio de Trabajo dad privada. accion.l El Gobierno Sandinista fue para el dirigente del Partido Liberal Solo en el area de la reforma agraria, las El FSLN tambien intento reintegrar a Entre 1979 y 1984 el gobierno formal Independiente, Virgilio Godoy, quien sir­ cortes, han desafiado a las relaciones de algunos exguardias dandoles empleos, pero fue la junta Gubernamental de Recons­ vio hasta febrero de 1984.5 propiedad existentes. De cualquier modo, la mayoria huyo hacia Honduras y se con­ truccion Nacional UGRN). El FSLN disefi6 Entretanto, mientras los Ministerios los cambios en esta esfera no han ido mas virtieron en el nucleo de la contrarrevolu­ este gobierno a principios de 1979, antes de Defensa e Interior fueron recreados com­ alIa del establecimiento de bases legales cion. de la insurreccion. pletamente, la mayoria de las agencias gu­ para una sistema de redistribucion de tie­ La junta funciono como un gobierno bernamentales, especialmente aquellas que rras, que difiere poco en tipo 0 grado de los de coalicion del FSLN y de los partidos supervisan la planeacion economico y la proyectos de reforma agraria adoptados a Los Nuevos politicos burgueses antisomocistas. Los re­ reforma agraria, incorporaron al antiguo traves de Latinoamerica. presentantes burgueses participaron en la aparato; los nuevos jefes fueron designa­ Las cortes han fallado consis­ Organos de las junta hasta que su mando finalizo en las dos por el alto mando del FSLN. La mayoria tentemente en contra de las huelgas y las Fuerzas Armadas elecciones de 1984. de los administradores de nivel bajo y confiscaciones de tierra por parte de los Al cabo de varios meses de la insurrec­ Las relaciones entre los oficiales bur­ medio conservaron sus puestos, dejando trabajadores y campesinos que directamen­ cion, fueron reconstruidas las nuevas insti­ gueses y el FSLN fueron escabrozas desde el intacto al bulto de la burocracia somocista. te amenazaban la propiedad burguesa. tuciones de seguridad interna-la fuerza comienzo. La creacion del sector estatal de la Los Tribunales Populares fueron esta­ policiaca y el sistema carcelario-esencial­ Primero, la burguesia exigio que la economia dio ascenso a una burocracia blecidos para enjuiciar a los colaboradores mente desde cero, bajo el Minist~rio del junta convocara al Consejo de Estado y gubernamental ampliada incluyendo a somocistas. Estos tribunales, formados por Interior, encabezado por Tomas Borge, di­ celebrara elecciones inmediatamente des­ agronomos, tecnicos y gerentes quienes un juez nombrado por el gobierno y dos rigente del FSLN. pues de la insurreccion. Pero de acuerdo a forman hasta un tercio, de todos los em­ ciudadanos, sentenciaron a prision a mu­ El ejercito permanente fue completa­ Borge, el FSLN queria esperar hasta que pleados por el sector economico estatal. En chos contrarevolucionarios en seguida de mente reorganizado bajo la autoridad todos los partidos politicos, incluyendo este sector, se esta generando una gran la insurreccion. No obstante, la resolucion sandinista. Este opera bajo Humberto aquellos de la burguesia, se pudieran orga­ tension y conflicto entre los burocratas y sandinista de conciliarse con las fuerzas Ortega, lider del FSLN y Ministro de Defensa. nizar y competir en el proceso electoral.4 trabajadores, debido al enfasis del gobier­ hostiles burguesas, ha socavado el poten­ Un aspecto notable de la transform a­ Entonces, en 1980 la demanda popu­ no en proyectos a gran escala de capital cial revolucionario de los tribunales, como cion de las fuerzas coersivas es el lar forzo a la junta a darles representacion intensivo de agroexportaciones, similares fue mas notablemente ilustrado, con el armamiento general del pueblo en las mi­ en el Consejo a las organizaciones de ma­ a aquellos promovidos por Somoza. indulto, por el gobierno, de Eugene licias populares. Calculos aproximados del sas. Esto impulso al banquero y proximo a Hasenfus, mercenario estadounidense. numero de obreros y campesinos con ar­ ser lider de la contra, Alfonso Robelo a El indulto a Hasenfus encendio una mas van desde un minimo de 60.000 (en la renunciar a laJunta. El fue remplazado por Las Cortes y el fuerte protesta en Nicaragua. SegUn una 2 prensa burguesa ) hasta 450.000 (segUn el Arturo Cruz, presidente del Banco Central, Sistema Legal encuesta realizada por el FSLN, 38% de la lider de la Cuarta Internacional Ernest quien solo sirvio brevemente antes de ser El estatuto fundamental, decretado en gente se opuso al perdon de este criminal MandeP). nombrado emisario a los EUA. Cruz renun­ 1979 forma el nucleo de reforma legal de la guerra Contra. Los sandinistas han declarado cia a su puesto al poco tiempo de su llegada despues de la insurreccion. Abolio la cons­ El cisma entre la voluntad del pueblo consistentemente su compromiso de man- a los EUA, se unio a la oposicion y se titucion previa y la Suprema Corte de jus- o 10 p6glno S del suplemento

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SUPLEMENTO ESPEClAL-3 8 THE NATURE OF THE NICARAGUAN STATE

cut the revolutionary potential of the The National Assembly drafted and, After the Junta-led government was Sandinista unions and the FSLN have tribunals, as was most strikingly illus­ in December, 1986, ratified the new con­ established, many of these functions were precluded challenges by independent trated in the government pardon of U.S. stitution, which codified the separation­ taken out of their hands, and power was unions to bourgeois property rights, such mercenary Eugene Hasenfus. as per bourgeois democratic norm-be­ consolidated in the FSLN National Direc­ as expropriations or asserting workers' Hasenfus' pardon sparked heavy pro­ tween the executive and legislative torate and invested in the Junta and its control over production in the private test in Nicaragua. According to an FSLN branches of government. governmental bureaucracy, the army, and sector. poll, 38% of the people opposed the par­ * * * the Sandinista police. While the CDS Capitalist economic dominance and don of this contra war criminal. In summary, the law, the courts, and remained important in implementing government emphasi~ on increased pro­ The schism between the people's will the governmental structure created by FSLN policy and rallying the population duction have relegated the unions to and the government is a prime illustra­ the new constitution are all consistent behind governmental programs, they lost watchdogging the hostile bourgeoisie and tion of the incompleteness of the over­ with a bourgeois democratic form of gov­ their potential for becoming indepen­ disciplining the workforce to achieve haul of Nicaragua's legal system. ernment. dent organs of workingclass rule. higher productivity. Is there any evidence The role of the unions is that this official governmen­ also restricted inside the Local Government tal structure is balanced by workplace. For example, Local government embodied in Revo­ any other forms or mecha­ union participation on any lutionary Municipaljuntas aMR) replaced nisms of direct rule by the level in workplace adminis­ the corrupt, patronage-riddled Somoza workers and peasants? tration was guaranteed in system. Let us look at the role of 1983 by only 61% of the The JMRs vary widely in representa­ mass organizations in revo­ contracts in the state sector tion, but most are comprised of people lutionary Nicaragua. and 58% in the private sec­ elected from or delegated by the FSLN, tor.10 the Sandinista Defense Committees Strikes were illegal be­ (CDS), and other mass organizations, with The Mass tween 1982 and 1985. some representatives from business and Organizations Wages are set by the other political parties. JMR members are The emergence of popu­ government and not subject not elected directly or subject to recall, lar organizations and their to union negotiations, which though a few officials have been removed mobilization of the people focus on working conditions. by organized protest from mass organiza­ in the insurrection was one But the workers are dissatis­ tions. of the most distinctive and fied with current wage and The JMRs have tried to consolidate a eXCiting features of the price conditions, and ten­ strong relationship between local gov­ Nicaraguan revolution. sions between them and the ernment and the populace. Many of These groups also were im- . government are growing. these efforts have been innovative, but portant in helping to imple­ Some "production their results have been mixed, hampered ment government policy, es­ councils" exist in the state by a large turnover in JMR leadership. pecially the enormously suc­ sector, but these are only ad­ The JMRs have also been undermined by cessful campaigns for literacy Peasants taking over unused land in Carazo visory bodies, restricted to a lack of material resources; more than and health. Department. Campesinos tomando IInas tierras sin making recommendations 50% of the JMRs have an annual budget At their peak, roughly IISO en el Departamento de Carrazo. on how to increase produc- of less than $10,000.8 half the population belonged tivity. There is no evidence Tensions also exist between theJMRs to some of the mass organizations-the The CDS have no decision-making they actually direct production. And and national government agencies. These CDS, Sandinista Workers Federation power in government beyond their indi­ even in this advisory role, they run into central agencies still determine most (CST), Rural Workers Association (ACT), vidual neighborhoods. And because of management resistance. . policy and control the bulk of funding for Luisa Amanda Espinosa Nicaragua the worsening economic situation and The unions are also being weakened local projects. Women's Association (AMNLAE), and the the contra war, they suffer from lack of by the contra war. Fifty-three thousand National Union of Farmers and Ranchers funds to carry out work assigned to them. unionized workers (57%) have been in­ (UNAG). Also popular is the FSLN youth Although the FSLN has attempted to build corporated into the defense effort.ll The Councils section as). the CDS and sought to revive them through the election of new leadership in 1984, their social role is waning. A look The Peasant Sandinista at one of their main areas of work-food Organizations Defense Committees distribution-illustrates how the govern­ The National Unions of Farmers and The largest mass organizations are ment bureaucracy actually undennines Cattle Ranchers (UNAG) is the only mass the Sandinista Defense Committees (CDS) them. organization to arise in the countryside' which function as neighborhood block In 1986, just as the CDS were geared since the insurrection. It was organized committees. The CDS organize civil de­ up to launch an aggressive campaign in 1981 out of a split in the Agricu\tura\ fense and actively recruit to the popular against black market traders and price Workers Association over the issue of militias. gougers, the government agency which wages and working conditions in agricul­ Based on the urban poor, the CDS sets and controls prices, MICOIN (Minis­ ture. organized the insurrection under the lead­ ter of Interior Commerce), decided to Initially an organization of small peas­ ership of the FSLN. They were crucial in pursue an independent and competitive ants, UNAG has since integrated into its delivering the final military blow against course by establishing a parallel market ranks all types of agricultural producers, the National Guard. with prices slightly lower than the black including a small number of large land­ Immediately afterward, they took on market. The aim here was to coax specu­ owners. some of the functions of state and had the lators into legal transactions. This sabo­ UNAG has been the moving force potential of becoming new organs of taged the work and leadership role of the behind the government's channeling of workers' power. They carried out many CDS. social services since late 1985 from the police functions, guarding against coun­ Meanwhile, the government has as­ urban areas to the countryside. It also terrevolution and sabotage. They also signed the unions, most of which are lobbied for and won relaxed price con­ were the focal point for some food distri­ under FSLN control, to carry out food trols for food in 1986, which increased bution and other services while the new distribution programs, thereby duplicat­ private peasant income as an induce­ government was still on th~ drawing ing CDS functions. Union food distribu­ ment to greater production. board. tion centers were allocated more and bet­ The government has conceded to­ ter food. As a result, the CDS experienced tally to UNAG's demand that the distri­ further decline in mem­ bution of land titles not depend on mem­ bership and influence. bership in agricultural cooperatives. UNAG's main activities reflect the continued influence of private agricul­ The Unions ture. It organized a market system in .J------, ~ SU5cribete al The number of rural areas that is independent of the workers organized state-regulated distribu tion of foodstuffs. into unions since the This parallel and competing marketing Subscribe tothe SOCIALIST Sandinista revolution system funnels a large portion of rural is impressive. As of production into the black market. OM 1985, 228,000 of UNAG receives direct aid from the FREED i J Inciuyo $100 (US) para una sus;;'g:;'1: ~~~~c~~dora . Nicaragua's 900,000 European social democracy in the form of . 0 f 5-year sponsoring sU.b- . por 5 aiios (20. el.em~I';hresF)IY'SU oec~e por Gloria Martin. workers belonged to loans from Sweden to help develop its o Enclosed IS $~ 0 or) a d a free COpy of SOCialIst . I' t FeminISm 'I e t unions, an eight-fold in ternal marketing structure. The private scrip~i~n (2o,.hlssuF~s taOnecade by Gloria Martin. SOCia IS . . ., FemInism: 'I e "s 0 Incluyo $50 para. sostener una suscnpclon increase from 28,000 sector was similarly funded by the W orid 9 50 f a 3 year por 3 aiios, 12 elemplares. in 1979. Bank in the year after Somoza's fall. o Enclos~d is $ qr t o~ 12 issues. I $25 para una suscripci6n de apoyo The largest The Sandinista government openly sustaimng subscnp I , 0 Inc uyo . union, the Sandi­ supports UNAG, hailing the peasant pro­ $25 f a 2 year por 2 aiios, 8 elemplares. nista Workers Fed­ ducers and the "patriotic" large landown­ o ~~~~~s~i~~s SUbscWptiO~, 8 issues. 0 Incluyo $5 para una susc~iPci6n reg$~I~r de eration, comprises ers as leaders in the reconstruction of the - 4 'emplares Instltuclones . o Enclosed is $5. fOtf ~ 14Yi~~~es. Institutions $10. 1 ano, el , . e timbraje para los fasciculo s 65% of all union country. This stance adds additional strain regular subscnp 10 , 0 Incluyo $4, ma? $2.50St~uggle: A Racial or National members. Another to the fragile alliance between workers and peasants, and between urban centers . 4 00 Ius $2 50 for [lostage, for I-IX de The ChIcano 17% are in the San­ o Enclosed IS $1 iX 6fThe Chicano Struggle: Movement? dinista-led Rural and rural areas. Installments - t' A Racial or National Movemen . Workers Associa­ Address/Oireccion ------tion, which is pri­ marily active AMNLAE Name/Nombre ---(P1e-ase~p::-nn~v";:::av::or:;de::us;;;;ar-;;;,et;;;radede-;;;m;Old;;;e)--- Zip/Zona postal_----- among workers in AMNLAE (Luisa Amanda Espinosa State/Estado ----- state-owned agri­ Nicaragua Women's Association) reflects City/Ciudad_------Phone{1'elelono _------culture. the vital role of women in the insurrec­ country/pais:------:---:::: ordenes de pago al Freedom Socialist, New Freeway The unions tion and their impact on society. do not control Active mostly in urban areas, d t· Freedom Socialist, \ ~:~~~o~~e~~~~:,.Ave. sout~. s~~~(6~~I~~lJ: una semana para envio) production, even AMNLAE has pressured the government Send checks or mon:'l or e~a i:i Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 Ai'iadir $5 para envlO fuera de os . .. de 1 ana correo aereo New Freeway Han. 518 :l (I: one week for delivery) . . $6 por una suscnpclon ' in the state sec­ to distribute land titles to women-a Add $5 fOr overseas alrm I 1I0W .' Resldentes austrahanos. 0 al' . . $600 for 1·year subscription, airmail Mandar cheques u order:s d;:sa~est·Brunswick, Vic. 3055 tor. Close ties unique aspect of agrarian reform. AustralIan residents. . to' . Freedom Socialist, P.O. ox between the to supplement poge 6 Send checkS or ~on~ ~deri66 'West Brunswick, VIC. 3055 Freedom SOCialist, P. . ox , FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT-4 y el gobierno es una ilustracion principal Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos jadores organizados en sindicatos desde la por exigencias de la UNAG que la distribu­ de 10 incompleto de la reestructuracion del (UNAG). Tambien es popular la Juventud revolucion sandinista. Para 1985,228.000 cion de los titulos de tierras no dependa sistema legal de Nicaragua. Sandinista del FSLN OS). de 900.000 trabajadores nicaragiienses per- de la membreda en las cooperativas agri­ tenecian a sindicatos, un aumento de ocho colas. veces de los 28.000 en 1979.9 Las princi pales actividades de la UNAG El Gobierno Local Los Comites de La Federacion de Trabajadores reflejan la influencia continua de la agri­ EI gobierno local personificado en las Defensa Sandinista Sandinistas, el sindicato mas grande, abar­ cultura privada. Organizo un sistema de Juntas Municipales Revolucionarias OMR) Las organizaciones de masas mas gran­ ca el 65% de todos los miembros de sindi­ mercado en las area rurales, siendo inde­ reemplazo al corrupto sistema somocista des son los Comites de Defensa Sandinista catos. Otro 17% esta en la Asociacion de pendiente de la distribucion de comesti­ infestado de patrimonialismo y clientelas. (CDS) que funcionan como comites de T raba jadores Rurales con mando sandinista, bles regulada por el Estado. Este sistema de Las JMR varian ampliamente en su manzana de barrio. Los CDS organizan la activa principalmente entre los trabajado­ mercado paralelo y competitivo, orienta a representacion, pero la mayoria estan for­ defensa civil y reclutan activamente a las res de la agricultura, propiedad del Estado. una gran porcion de la produccion rural madas por personas elegidas desde 0 dele­ milicias populares. Los sindicatos no controlan la produc­ hacia el mercado negro. gadas por el FSLN, los Comites de Defensa Basados en los urbanos pobres, los cion, aim en el sector estatal. Vinculos La UNAG recibe ayuda directa de la Sandinista (CDS), y otras organizaciones CDS organizaron la insurreccion bajo la estrechos entre los sindicatos sandinistas y socialdemocracia europe a, en forma de de masas, con algunos representantes em­ direccion del FSLN. Fueron cruciales en el FSLN han impedido desafios sindicales prestamos desde Suecia, para ayudar a de­ presariales y de otros partidos politicos. Los enviar el golpe final militar contra la Guar­ independientes a los derechos de la propie­ sarrollar su estructura interna de mercadeo. miembros de la JMR no son elegidos direc­ dia Nacional. dad burguesa, tales como las expropiacio­ El sector privado fue financiado tamente 0 sujetos a ser destituidos, no lnmediatamente despues, tomaron al­ nes oreivindicar el control de los trabajado­ similarmente por el Banco Mundial, en el obstante, unos cuantos oficiales han sido gunas de las funciones del Estado y tuvie­ res sobre la produccion en el sector privado. ano posterior a la caida de Somoza quitados por las protestas organizadas par ron el potencial de convertirse en nuevos El dominio de la economia capitalista El gobierno sandinista apoya abierta­ el movimiento comunal. organos de poder de los trabajadores. Lle­ y el enfasis del gobierno en incrementar la mente a la UNAG, saludando a los produc­ LasJMR han tratado de consolidar una varon a cabo muchas funciones policiacas, produccion, han relegado a los sindicatos a tores campesinos y a los grandes terrate­ relacion fuerte entre el gobierno local y la cuidandoen contra y del sabotaje de la con­ vigilar a la burguesia hostil y el nientes "patrioticos" como lideres en la poblacion. Muchos de estos esfuerzos han trarrevolucion. Tambien fueron punto focal disciplinamiento de la fuerza de trabajo reconstruccion del pais. Esta postura anade sido inovadores, pero los resultados han para la distribucion de algunos alimentos y para lograr una productividad mayor. una tension adicional a la fragil alianza sido mixtos, impedidos por la gran rota­ otros servicios mientras el nuevo gobier­ EI papel de los sindicatos es tambien entre trabajadores y campesinos, y entre cion en el liderazgo de las JMR. Las JMR no estaba todavia en la mesa de trabajo. restringido en el sitio de trabajo. Por ejem­ los centros urbanos y las areas rurales. tambien han sido minadas por la falta de Despues de que el gobierno dirigido plo, la participacion sindical en cualquier recursos materiales; mas del 50% de las por la Junta fue establecido, muchas de nivel de la administracion dentro del sitio JMR tienen un presupuesto anual de me­ estas funciones fueron retiradas de sus de trabajo, fue garantizada en 1983, por La AMNLAE nos de $10.000 (U.S.).8 manos y el poder se consolido en el Direc­ solo el 61% de los contratos en el sector La AMNLAE (Asociacion de Mujeres Tambien existen tensiones entre las torio Nacional del FSLN e investido en la estatal y 58% en el sector privado.10 Nicaragiienses, Luisa Amanda Espinosa) JMR y las agencias del gobierno nacional. Junta y su burocracia gubernamental, el Las huelgas fueron ilegales entre 1982 refleja el rol vital de la mujer en la in- Estas agencias centrales todavia determi­ ejerdto, y la policia san- y 1985. surreccion y su impacto en la sociedad. nan la mayoria de las politicas y controlan Los salarios son establecidos por el Activa mas que todo en las areas urba- el bulto del financiamiento para los pro­ gobierno y no sujetos nas, la AMNLAE ha presionado al gobierno yectos locales. ~~~::------_-===~~~==~_para que distribuya titulos de tierras a las rtl mujeres-un aspecto unico de la refor­ rna agraria. La AMNLAE ha sido tambien Los Consejos activa en las campanas de alfabetiza­ En 1979 el Estatuto Fundamental creo cion, de educacion para adultos y de el Consejo de Estado como un cuerpo con­ salud. sultivo de laJGRN. Compuesto por delega­ En 1983, la AMNLAE emprendio una dos de sindicatos laborales, partidos politi­ batalla agresiva para que se incluyeran a cos, la iglesia, las empresas y las organiza­ las mujeres-luchadoras activas y lideres ciones de masas, el Consejo genero mu­ en la insurreccion-en el reclutamiento chas propuestas legislativas que fueron militar. La cual perdio porque el FSLN subsiguientemente decretadas como ley temiola reaccion de la iglesia catolica, que por laJunta. Pero nunca tuvo por Sl mismo era ya hostil hacia la conscripcion misma. ning(1n poder legislativo para promulgar De cualquier modo, la AMNLAE obtuvo el o vetar una ley. Consecuentemente, los derecho de las mujeres a enlistarse en el sindicatos y las organizaciones de masas, ejercito sandinista, aunque no fue sino no poseyeron poder politico directo. hasta 1986 que las mujeres fueron integra­ 'A' nivel local, esta misma fund6n das al ejercito.12 , ". con:sultlva limltada exlste en los Conse­ La AMNLAE es determinante en el jos Populares Municipales.y en los Con- AMHLAE memb planteamiento de los asuntos e intereses de sejos Regionales Revolucionarios, don- Nlelllbro$ de" ers ia Maaagua rail las mujeres. En 1986, durante el debate sobre la nueva constitucion, muchas muje­ de las organizaciones de masas, los gru- COlltrlls JUlio;' ~NNLAE ell NIIIIlIg: 1IagaiDSt coatras. JUly 198 pos politicos e intereses empresariales ' e 984. IIIl1rchlllldo ell COlltr1l1l ~. res en la AMNLAE, por ejemplo, pidieron el tienen solo voz, sin el poder de obligar en dinista. e .0$ aborto legal a peticion. la formulacion de politicas. Estos consejos Mientras los CDS siguieron sien­ Como con los CDS, la participacion de son aun menos exitosos en influir las poli- do importantes en la implementacion de a negocia- las masas en la AMNLAE esta decayendo, ticas del gobierno a nivellocal que 10 que las politicas del FSLN y al unir a la pobla­ ciones del sindicato, el cual se enfoca no obstante que aun existe un liderazgo el Consejo de Estado es a nivel nacional. cion detras de los programas gubernamen- en las condiciones de trabajo. Pero los activo y sonoro vinculado estrechamente EI Consejo de Estado fue disuelto des- tales, perdieron su potencial de convertirse trabajadores no estan satisfechos con las con el FSLN y altamente visible en el go­ pues de las elecciones de 1984 y reemplaza- en organos independientes del mando de condiciones actuales de sue Idos y predos, y bierno. do con la Asamblea Nacional, un cuerpo la clase trabajadora. las tensiones entre elIos y el gobierno estan * * * legislativo separado de la rama ejecutiva Los CDS no tienen poder de decision aumentando. En resumen, las organizaciones de del gobierno. en el gobierno mas alia de sus barrios Algunos "consejos de produccion" masas en Nicaragua no son organos de En diciembre de 1986, la Asamblea individuales. Ya causa del empeoramiento existen en el sector estatal, pero estos son dominio de clase sobre la burguesia. Solo Nacional redacto y ratificola nueva consti- de la situacion economica y de la guerra solo cuerpos consultivos, restringidos a durante la insurreccion misma estas orga­ tucion,quecodificola separacion-comouna Contra, sufren de la falta de fondos para hacer recomendaciones de como nizaciones (particularmente los CDS y la norma democratica burguesa-entre las ra- lIevar a cabo el trabajo que se les ha asigna- incrementar la productividad. No hay evi­ ACT) atacaron directamente las institucio­ mas ejecutiva y legislativa de gobierno. do. Aunque el FSLN ha intentado construir dencia alguna de que elIos en realidad nes de dominio y de derechos de la propie­ * * * los CDS y buscado revivirlos a traves de la dirijan la produccion. Y aun en este papel dad burguesa. Por encima del papel pasaje­ En resumen, la ley, las cortes y la eleccion de una dirigencia nueva en 1984, de asesores, se topan con resistencia admi­ ro y limitado de los CDS inmediatamente estructura gubernamental creadas por la su papel social esta debilitandose. Una nistrativa. en seguida de la insurreccion, las organiza­ nueva constitucion, son todas consisten- mirada a una de sus principales areas de Los sindicatos tambien han sido debi­ ciones de masas no han operado en ning(1n tes con la forma de gobierno demo- trabajo-la distribucion de alimentos­ litados por la guerra Contra. Cincuenta y lado como organos de poder de los trabaja­ crataburguesa. ilustra como la burocracia del gobierno tres mil trabajadores sindicalizados (57%) dores. (Hay alguna evidencia de que esta actual mente los socava. han sido incorporados al esfuerzo de de­ Con la disolucion del Consejo de Esta­ estructura oficial gubernamental este ba- En 1986, justo cuando los CDS esta­ fensa.ll do y la adopcion de la constitucion, las lanceada por algunas otras formas de me- ban aprestados a emprender una campana organizaciones de masas, han perdido toda can ism os de man do directo, por parte de agresiva en contra de los comerciantes del representacion en el gobierno. Operan con los trabajadores y campesinos? mercado negro y de los infladores de pre- Las Organizaciones el apoyo del gobierno, como grupos de Veamos el papel de la mayoria de las cios, la agencia de gobierno MICOIN (Mi­ Campesinas presion para conseguir concesiones de los organizaciones de masas en la Nicaragua nisteriodeComerciolnterior),queestable­ La Union Nacional de Agricultores y capitalist as. revolucionaria. ce y controla los precios, decidio continuar Ganaderos (UNAG) es la unica organiza­ La disminucion de la participacion en con un trayecto competitivo e indepen­ cion de masas surgida en el campo desde la las organizaciones de masas surge de la Las Organizaciones diente, estableciendo un mercado parale- insurreccion. Fue organizada en 1981 des­ erosion de su habilidad para influir en las 10, con precios un poco mas bajos que los pues de una division en la Asociacion Agri­ decisiones que determinan el curso de la de Masas del mercado negro. El objetivo aqui era cola de Trabajadores sobre el tema de sal a­ revolucion. La UNAG, como unica excep­ El surgimiento de las organizaciones engatusar a los especuladores hacia las tran­ rios y las condiciones de trabajo en la cion, ha aumentado su influencia por el populares y su mobilizacion del pueblo en sacciones legales. Esto saboteo el trabajo y agricultura. deseo sandinista de conciliarse con los ca­ la insurrecion fue uno de los rasgos mas papel de liderazgo de los CDS. lnicialmente una organizacion de pe­ pitalistas y campesinos terratenientes. distintivos y emocionantes de la revolu­ Mientras tanto, el gobierno ha asigna­ que nos campesinos, la UNAG, ha integra­ El crecimiento de la UNAG junto con cion nicaragiiense. Estos grupos fueron tam­ do a los sindicatos, la mayoria de los cuales do desde entonces en sus filas a todo tipo de la disminucion de los CDS y el aumento de bien importantes en ayudar a implementar est an bajo el control del FSLN, el llevar a productores agricolas, incluyendo un 00- tensiones entre el gobierno y los trabajado­ la politica de gobierno, especialmente las cabo los program as de distribucion de ali­ mero pequeno de grandes terratenientes. res, presagian un mal agiiero para el futuro campanas enormemente exitosas de mentos, asi entonces dupJicando las fun­ Desde finales de 1985, la UNAG ha de la revolucion. alfabetismo y sa Iud. ciones de los CDS. A los centros de distribu­ sido la fuerza movil detras de la canaliza­ En su punto culminante,aproxima­ cion sindicales de alimentos se les repartio cion de los servicios sociales del gobierno damente la mitad de la poblacion pertene­ mejores y mas viveres. Como resultado, los de las areas urban as hacia el campo. Tam­ Conclusiones Sobre cia a alguna de las organizaciones de ma­ CDS experimentaron una disminucion bien presiono y obtuvo el relajamiento del sas-los CDS, la Confederacion Sandinista mayor en membredas e influencia. control de precios de alimentos, en 1986, el Aparato Estatal de Trabajadores (CST), la Asociacion de 10 que incremento el ingreso privado del de Nicaragua Campesinos Trabajadores (ACT), la Aso­ campesino como un aliciente para una La insurreccion en 1979 resulto en la ciacion de Mujeres Nicaraguenses Luisa Los Sindicatos mayor produccion. victoria militar del FSLN sobre la Guardia Amanda Espinosa (AMNLAE) y la Union Es impresionante el numero de traba- EI gobierno ha concedido total mente, o 10 poglno 7 del suplemento

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SUPLEMENTO ESPECIAL-S 10 THE NATURE OF THE NICARAGUAN STATE

AMNLAE has also been active in literacy, mediately following the insurrection, the Sandinista army and reorganizing the bined legislative and executive functions adult education and health campaigns. mass organizations have nowhere oper­ police and prison system. characteristic of soviets elected by and In 1983, AMNLAE waged an aggres­ ated as organs of workers' power. The Sandinistas have armed the popu­ accountable to the workers and peasants. sive battle to include women-active With the dissolution of the Council lation and organized them into popular They do not decide the direction of social fighters and leaders in the insurrection­ of State and adoption of the constitution, militias. But these militias do not func­ development and are limited to pressur­ in the military draft. They lost because mass organizations have lost all represen­ tion as vehicles for suppressing the bour­ ing for concessions from the capitalists. the FSLN feared the reaction of the Catho­ tation in government. They operate, geois class. Rather they are limited to Weakened by the revolution, the lic church, which was already hostile to with the support of the government, as defending the country against military bourgeoisie has made some concessions conscription itself. However, AMNLAE pressure groups seeking concessions from incursions by the U.S.-instigated coun­ but in no way has relinquished its eco­ won the right of women to enlist in the the capitalists. terrevolutionaries. nomic control or political influence on Sandinista army, though it was not until The decline in participation in mass Much of the state bureaucracy is es­ the state bureaucracy. 1986 that women were integrated into organizations stems from the erosion of sentially intact from the Somoza era. The Tension between the state and the the military.12 their ability to influence decisions that only difference is that Sandinista leaders people, especially in the economic arena, AMNLAE is decisive in raising the determine the course of the revolution. sit in the top posts. And the government is yet another indication that the destruc­ issues and concerns of women. During The one exception, UNAG, has grown in consistently guarantees a voice and power tion of the bourgeois state apparatus is the 1986 debate on the new constitution, influence because of Sandinista desire to to the bourgeoisie in formulating and woefully incomplete. This antagonism for example, many women in AMNLAE conciliate with the landowning capital­ executing economic policies. The has sharpened with the growth of the called for legalized abortion on demand. ists and peasantry. Sandinistas promote instead of challenge government bureaucracy since Somoza's As with the CDS, however, mass par­ UNAG's growth, together with the capitalist hegemony in the economy. downfall. ticipation in AMNLAE is waning, although decline of the CDS and the growing ten­ Likewise, the courts and legal system The people characterize the bureau­ there still exists an active and vocal sions between government and workers, have basically upheld the inviolability of cracy as lethargic and slow to respond to AMNLAE leadership closely tied to the bodes ill for the future of the revolution. private property and have confined the changing circumstances. Wherever pos­ FSLN and highly visible in the govern­ revolution within bourgeois democratic sible, the masses circumvent the bureau­ ment. limits. The 1986 constitution, which cracy to meet their survival needs. The * * * Conclusions enshrined the mixed economy and "po­ growth of the black market is a primary In summary, the mass organizations litical pluralism" as permanent features example. in Nicaragua are not organs of class rule on Nicaragua's of state, cemented the position and power Dismantling Somoza's repressive re­ over the bourgeoisie. Only in the insur­ State Apparatus of the bourgeois class in the economy gime did not constitute smashing the rection itself did these organizations (par­ The 1979 insurrection resulted in the and the state apparatus. bourgeois state apparatus. That task re­ ticularly CDS and ACT) directly assault militaryvictoryofthe FSLN over Somoza's No true organs of workers' rule have mains, and cannot take place without the institutions of bourgeois rule and National Guard. Subsequent changes in arisen either within the government or as making more radical inroads into the property rights. Over and above the the state apparatus have not gone much a competing power formation. The mass bourgeoisie's powerful position in the passing and limited role of the CDS im- beyond replacing the National Guard with organizations nowhere exercise the com- economy.

which feed off all varieties of popular national solidarity that is paramount to ideologies, the FSLN imbibed the false the revolution's survival. v. The PrograDl and promise and regressive idealist philoso­ Cheerleaders for the Sandinistas as­ phy of liberation theology. sert that the leadership has not gone Liberation theology, in its militancy, further to expropriate the capitalists be­ Goals of the Sandinistas in its advocacy of social struggle against cause they cannot, given the material the exploiters, is progressive. But in its conditions in the country. This is non­ his third and last criterion, after ism within the FSLNwas cemented by the god-seeking mysticism and rejection of sense, and the FSLN leadership itself states economics and the state appara­ Sandinistas' admiration of, and collabo­ Marxist dialectical materialism-as well that limiting the assault on capitalist prop­ tus, enjoins us to evaluate the ration with, the Cuban revolution. as its refusal to embrace the full liberation erty relations was an a priori, conscious T conscious leadership factor in the Fidel Castro's 1959 victory spurred of women and gays-it is retrogressive. programmatic choice. As Tomas Borge Nicaraguan revolution. the founders of the FSLN to move against Christian socialism is far better than Chris­ noted in 1980: Somoza, and Cuba became the inspira­ tian capitalism, of course, but it is still What Is Sandinismo? tion and the staunchest ally of the FSLN's illogical and unscientific, prone to be­ We could have taken over Sandinismo is the product of three battle to overthrow the dictatorship in come a wellspring of reaction at precisely all their businesses and we ideological currents: nationalism, Stalin­ the '60s and '70s. But the military and the point where revolutionary progress­ would not have been over­ ism and liberation theology. economic assaults on Cuba by the U.S. involving the satisfaction of human, and thrown, I am. sure of that. But The FSLNbrought these (actually har­ and the defeats of the Latin American especially women's, needs on earth-be- what is most conducive to the monious) ideas together in a program of economic dev.elopment--of" the .. , I action which sufficed to overthrow country is what is best for the Somoza, but not to advance and consoli­ Nicaraguan people. So when date a sodalist revolution in the interests we talk about a mixed of the workers, peasants and oppressed economy, we mean iti and masses. when we talk about political Sandinismo is eclectic. It devalues pluralism, we mean it. This is Marxist theory and is marked by a strong not a short term maneuver but strain of nationalist exceptionalism: Nica­ our strategic approach. 14 ragua is unique, say the Sandinistas, and must find its own independent path for­ It is increasingly evident that this ward. (Every country, of course, is unique, cavalier, blind approach leads to eco­ so tactics and strategy must vary. But nomic and political perdition. The Stal­ each country is still a component, com­ inist notion that revolution should be mon part of global currents and politics.) limited beforehand to bourgeois democ­ Defending the nation against the racy is profoundly and ultimately anti­ contras and the threat of U.S. invasion is revolutionary. All progress is won through the rallying cry of the FSLN. Nationalism struggle, economic and political, and revo­ cements the FSLN's wandering program, lutions which do not fulfill their integral providing an ideological rationale for the nature are doomed to endless civil war. people's front that is consciously main­ tained with the bourgeoisie. The FSLN program, published in 1969 Middle Caste Blues and not since revised, calls for the over­ The FSLN is a middle caste leader­ throw of the Somoza regime and the ship, standing between the revolutionary establishment of a revolutionary govern­ masses and the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie. ment representing all sectors of the popu­ It aims to maintain peaceful coexistence lation, including the "patriotic" bour­ Campesinos crowd into voter registration office, AtlilDtico del between the classes and between Nicara­ geoisie. 13 The program advocates the na­ Norte. Muchedumbre de campesinos en la oficina de registro para gua and imperialism. In essence, this tionalization of Somoza's property and a votar, Atlantico del norte. means propping up capitalism. more equitable distribution of national In the early period after the insurrec­ income, but it avoids addressing the revolution in the late '60s and early '70s gins to erode the bedrock idealist notion tion, the Sandinistas had enormous lati­ question of sodalism. threw Cuba into abject dependence on that God created us all and heaven can be tude within which to maneuver concilia­ With their stage-ist, Menshevik ap­ Soviet largesse and conservatized the lead­ found only in the afterlife. tion with capitalism. They had mobi­ proach to revolution, FSLN leaders public­ ership. This fostered the reintroduction Reconciling Christ with communism lized the majority of the people against ly and consistently renounce socialism as of Stalinism into the heart of Sandinis mo. is a hapless endeavor. Somoza. The military victory conferred unattainable and unrealistic in this peri­ Stalinism implacably eroded the so­ on them tremendous authority and popu­ od. Hence, Sandinista reformist national­ cialist content of the FSLN program. larity with the working and peasant ism puts a brake on revolutionary progress, The third current in Sandinismo is The FSLN in Power masses. as does Stalinism, another counterrevo­ liberation theology, which emerged in The FSLN continues to promote class The unquestioned political hege­ lutionaryideological pillar of Sandinismo. the '70s throughout Latin America as a collaboration, as codified in the tenets of mony of the Sandinistas among the revo­ Despite their ideological debt to Stal­ result of heightened class tensions sweep­ mixed economy, political pluralism ex­ lutionary people allowed them to repress inism, the FSLN did not come out of the ing the region. Liberation theology poses pressed through conflicting class parties, the revolutionary dynamic in 1979-80, Communist Party but originated as a as "true Christianity" the struggle of the and international non-alignment. i.e., to halt land takeovers in the country­ small, independent Left formation in the poor for social and economic justice. In The mixed-up economy guarantees side and factory expropriations in the late '50s. In 1959, Carlos Fonseca, who Nicaragua as elsewhere, the Catholic private property rights to the bourgeoisie cities. The Sandinista success in largely codified Sandinista thinking, and Tomas church was polarized between the libera­ and effective bourgeois control over the con taining the revolution within reform­ Borge founded the Moscow-oriented Nica­ tion theologists and the reactionary hier­ decisive sectors of production, distribu­ ist parameters won them financial back­ raguan Socialist Party (PSN). Two years archy in the struggle against Somoza. tion and finance. The Sandinistas pro­ ing from a sector of international capital­ later, they broke with PSN to build the Isolated from the labor unions dur­ mote political pluralism-participation ism which hoped to influence them to FSLN. ing the Somoza years, the FSLN organized of the bourgeoisie in decision-making­ halt the revolution altogether. The FSLN program enshrined rural agricultural workers, the urban poor, as crucial to political and economic re­ Unparalleled amounts of capitalist San dino' s nationalism as th e revolution's and students, among whom liberation building. International non-alignment, aid (including funds from the U.S.) poured ideological bedrock, consciously reject­ theologists were also actively organizing meanwhile, dangerously abstracts Nica­ into Nicaragua in the critical first years ing Trotskyist internationalism and the against the dictatorship. Already steeped ragua from the boiling class struggle in after the insurrection. This was key in concept of permanent revolution. Stalin- in nationalism and Stalinism, both of Central America, and weakens the inter- to supplement page B

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT-6 LA NATURALEZA DEL ESTADO DE NICARAGUA 11

Nacional de Somoza. Los cambios subsi­ Y el gobierno consistentemente garantiza a como una formacion de poder que compi­ mentablemente incompleto. Este ant ago­ guientes en el aparato estatal no han ido la burguesia, voz y poder en la formulacion tao Las organizaciones de masas no ejercen nismo se ha agudizado con el crecimiento mas alIa del reemplazo de la Guardia Na­ y ejecucion de las politicas econOmicas. en ningOn lado las funciones legislativas y de la burocracia gubernamental desde la cional con el ejercito sandinista y la reorga­ Los sandinistas promueven a la hegemonia ejecutivas combinadas, caracteristicas de caida de Somoza. nizacion en el sistema carcelario y de capitalista en la economia en vez de retarla. los soviets que son elegidos por y responsa­ La gente caracteriza a la burocracia policia. Del mismo modo, las cortes y los siste­ bles a los obreros y campesinos. Ellos no como letargica y lenta en responder a las Los sandinistas han armado a la po­ mas legales basicamente han sostenido la deciden la direccion del desarrollo social y circunstancias cambiantes. Dondequiera blacion y la han organizado en milicias inviolabilidad de la propiedad privada y estan limitadas a presionar para sacar con­ que sea posible, las masas Ie dan la vuelta a populares. Pero estas milicias no funcio­ han confinado a la revolucion dentro de cesiones de los capitalistas. la burocracia para satisfacer sus necesida­ nan como vehfculos para suprimir a la los limites de la democracia burguesa. La Debilitada por la revolucion, la bur­ des de supervivencia. El crecimiento del clase burguesa. Mejor dicho estan limita­ constitucion de 1986, que conservo guesia ha hecho algunas concesiones pero mercado negro es un ejemplo principal. das a defender al pais en contra de incursio­ religiosamente la economia mixta yel"plu­ de ninguna forma ha renunciado a su con­ El desmantelamiento del regimen re­ nes militares por los contrarrevolucionarios ralismo politico" como rasgos permanen:' trol economico 0 influencia politica en la presivo de Somoza no se constituyo en el instigados por los EVA. tes del Estado, cimentaron la posicion y el burocracia estatal. aplastamiento del aparato estatal burgues. Buena parte de la burocracia estatal poder de la clase burguesa en la economia La tension entre el estado y la gente, Esta tarea aun permanece y no puede to­ esta esencialmente intacta de la era de yen el aparato estatal. especialmente en el terreno economico, es mar lugar sin que se hagan mas incursiones Somoza. La (mica diferencia es que los No han surgido organos verdaderos de aun otra indicacion de que la destruccion radicales hacia la poderosa posicion bur­ lideres sandinistas ocupan los altos cargos. mando obrero ya sea dentro del gobierno 0 del aparato estatal de la burguesia es la- guesa en la economia.

como la economica. El noalineamiento cionario les permitio reprimir la dinamica internacional, mientras tanto, peligrosa­ revolucionaria entre 1979-80, por ejem­ El Prograrna las mente abstrae a Nicaragua de la lucha de plo, para detener las apropiaciones en el V. y clases en Centroamerica, y debilita la soli­ campo y las expropiaciones de fabricas en daridad internacional que es de suma im­ las ciudades. En gran parte, el exito Metas de los Sandinistas portancia para la supervivencia de la revo­ sandinista de contener en su mayoria a la lucion. revolucion dentro de los para metros 1tercer y ultimo criterio despues del '60s y '70s. Pero los ataques economicos y Los porristas de los sandinistas afir­ reformistas, hizo que ganaran apoyo fi­ aparato estatal y la economia, nos militares a Cuba por parte de los EVA y las man que elliderazgo no ha ido adelante en nanciero de un sector del capitalismo in­ conlleva a evaluar el factor cons­ derrotas de la revolucion latinoamericana expropiar a los capitalistas, porque ellos no ternacional que esperaba influirlos para ciente de liderazgo en la revolucion a finales de los '60s y comienzos de los '70s pueden, dadas las condiciones materiales detener del todo la revolucion. E arrojaron a Cuba a una dependencia ab­ en el pais. Esto es un disparate y el mismo En los primeros afios criticos despues nicaragiiense. yecta a la generosidad sovieti­ de la insurreccion, fueron ca y causo que la dirigencia se vertidas en Nicaragua canti­ l.Que Es el hiciera mas conservadora. dades de ayuda capitalista, sin Sandinismo? Esto promovio la reintroduc­ paralelo, (incluyendo fond os El sandinismo es el producto de tres ciondel estalinismo dentro del de los EVA). Esto fue clave corrientes ideologicas: nacionalismo, , corazon del sandinismo. para permitir que entre 1982- estalinismo y teologia de la liberacion. El estalinismo erosiono 83 Nicaragua alcanzara la mas El FSLN reunio estas ideas (en realidad implacablemente el conteni­ alta tasa de crecimiento y armoniosas) en un programa de accion que do socialista del programa del mejoramiento economico basto para derrocar a Somoza, pero no para FSLN. de su nivel de vida en avanzar y consoli dar una revolucion soda­ La tercera corriente en el Centroamerica. Pero la pre­ lista en interes de los trabajadores, campe­ sandinismo es la teologia de sion continua de las masas sinos y masas oprimidas. la liberacion, que emergio en revolucionarias, junto con el El sandinismo es eclectico. Devalua a los '70s por toda rechazo sandinista de la teoria marxista y esta marcado por una Latinoamerica como resulta­ capitularse del todo al impe­ fuerte tendencia de excepcionalismo na­ do de las incrementadas ten­ rialismo de EVA, engendra­ cionalista. Los sandinistas dicen que Nica­ siones de clase que recorrie­ ron un crecimiento en la hos­ ragua es unica y que tiene que encontrar su ron a la region. La teologia de tilidad burguesa, culminan­ propio camino independiente hacia ade­ la liberacion toma como "ver- Fidel Castro addresses Sandinista rally at Timbal. do en una guerra contra­ lante. (Todo pais, por supuesto es unico, dadero cristianismo" la lucha 1985. Fidel Castro dirigie"do u" discurso e" u"a re­ rrevolucionaria abierta y en por 10 tanto las tacticas y estrategias deben de los pobres por la justicia uni6" de sandinistas en Timbal, 1985. sanciones econ6micas a ni- variar. Pero cada pais sigue siendo un com­ social y econ6mica. En Nica­ vel internacional. ponente, una parte comun de las corrien­ ragua como en cualquier parte, la iglesia liderazgo del FSLN declara que Iimitar el Desde entonces, se ha contraido el tes y politicas mundiales). cato1ica fue polarizada entre los teologos ataque a las relaciones de propiedad capita­ espacio de los sandinistas para maniobrar. El defender a la nacion de los contras de la liberacion y la jerarquia reaccionaria, lista era una opcion a priori, consciente y La agresion imperialista ha desgastado y de las amenazas de invasion por parte de en la lucha contra Somoza. programcitica. Como 10 sefialo Tomas Borge materialmente la capacidad del FSLN de los EVA es la consigna unificante del FSLN. Aislado de los sindicatos laborales du­ en 1980: cumplir sus promesas para con las masas. El nacionalismo cementa el divagante pro­ rante los afios de Somoza, el FSLN organizo Mientras tanto, la desorganizacion crecien­ grama del FSLN, al proveer un raciocinio a los trabajadores agricolas rurales, a los Podriamos habernos te en la economia, especialmente el creci­ ideologico para el frente popular que esta urbanos pobres y a los estudiantes, entre apoderado de todas sus miento del mercado negro, pesa fuerte­ mantenido conscientemente con la bur­ los cuales los teo logos de la liberacion empresas y no habriamos sido mente sobre los trabajadores y los pobres guesia. estuvieron organizando activamente en derrocados, estoy seguro de eso. urbanos, y ha provocado un descontento El programa del FSLN, publicado en contra de la dictadura. Impregnados ya de Pero 10 que es mas conducente significativo y erosion en la confianza en la 1969 y no revisado desde entonces, pide el nacionalismo y estalinismo, los cuales se al desarrollo economico del dirigencia. derrocamiento del regimen de Somoza y el nutren de toda una variedad de ideologias pais, es 10 que es mejor para el La base politica yeconomica, endeble, establecimiento de un gobierno revolucio­ populares, el FSLN se embebio de la falsa pueblo nicaragiiense. Asi que contradictoria y erronea del regimen nario que represente a todos los sect ores de promesa y la filosofia regresiva idealista de cuando hablamos acerca de sandinista se esta desbaratando. la poblacion, incluyendo a la burguesia la teologia de la liberacion. unaeconomiamixta,lodecimos La inquietud de clases en alza, no solo "patriotica"Y El programa aboga por la La teologia de la liberacion en su en serio; y cuando hablamos en Nicaragua sino en toda Centroamerica, nacionalizacion de la propiedad de Somoza militancia yen su apoyo a la lucha social en acerca del pluralismo politico, apunta hacia una confrontacion en y una distribucion mas equitativa del in­ contra de los explotadores, es progresiva. tambien 10 decimos en serio. Nicaragua. Y esta tension esta encontran­ greso nacional, pero evita hacer alocudon Pero es regresiva, en su misticismo en bus­ Esto no es una maniobra de do su expresion dentro de las mas del FSLN. a la cuestion del sodalismo. queda de Dios y en su rechazo al materialis­ corto plazo sino es nuestro Dentro del FSLN han surgido debates Con su enfoque menchevique etapista, mo dialectico marxista-asi como 10 es su enfoque estrategico.14 sobre las cuestiones de suma importancia a la revolucion, los lideres del FSLN publi­ rechazo de abrazar la completa liberacion de la polltica economica y el papel de las camente y consistentemente renuncian al de las mujeres y los homosexuales-Por Es cada vez mas evidente que este organizaciones de masas. Los parametros y socialismo en este periodo como algo supuesto, el socialismo cristiano es muchi­ enfoque ciego y arrogante conduce a la resultados, si los hay, de estas discusiones inalcanzable y poco realista. De aqui que el simo mejor que el capitalismo cristiano, perdicion politica y economica. La nocion no son claros, pero el hecho de que estan nacionalismo reformista sandinista actue pero sigue siendo ilogico y acientifico, pro­ estalinista de que la revolucion debe limi­ ocurriendo, indica que por 10 menos algu­ como un freno al progreso revolucionario, penso a convertirse en una fuente brotante tarse de antemano a la democracia burgue­ nos sectores del FSLN estan tratando de como 10 hace el estalinismo, otro pilar de reaccion justo en el punto en que el sa, es profunda y ultimadamente encontrar un camino de salida al creciente ideologico contrarrevolucionario del progreso revolucionario--al involucrar ala antirevolucionaria. Todo progreso se logra atolladero. sandinismo. satisfaccion humana, y especialmente a las a traves de la lucha economica y politica, y Es posible que estos debates pudieran A pesar de su deuda ideologica con el necesidades de las mujeres en el mundo-­ las revoluciones que no cumplan con su culminar en un resquebrajamiento dentro estalinismo, el FSLN no surgio del Partido comienza a erosionar el cemento de la naturaleza integral estan condenadas a una del FSLN y el surgimiento de una vanguar­ Comunista, sino se origino como una for­ nocion idealista de que Dios nos creo a interminable guerra civil. dia de izquierda que junto con otras fuerzas macion de izquierda pequefia e indepen­ todos y que el cielo solo se encuentra en la revolucionarias, pudiera implantar un diente a finales de los 'SO. En 1959, Carlos vida venidera. liderazgo socialista en Nicaragua. Los lide­ Fonseca, quien codifico el pensamiento Reconciliar a Cristo con el comunis­ Melancolia de res sandinistas de cualquier modo, aunque sandinista, y Tomas Borge, fundaron el mo es un esfuerzo desventurado. la Casta Media han dado golpes heroicos por la democra­ Partido Socialista Nicaragiien se (PSN) orien­ El FSLN es una dirigencia de casta cia y en contra del imperialismo, caen tados hacia MoscU. Dos afios mas tarde, media, ubicado entre las masas revolucio­ lejos, muy lejos de los estandares estableci­ rompieron con el PSN para crear el FSLN. El FSLN en El Poder narias y la burguesia nicaragiiense. Busca dos por Lenin y Trotsky en la Revolucion El programa del FSLN con servo El FSLN continua promoviendo la co­ mantener una coexistencia pacifica entre de Octubre, en Rusia. religiosamente el nacionalismo de Sandino laboracion de clases, como aparece codifi­ las clases, y entre Nicaragua y el imperialis­ Como cualquier liderazgo de casta como la piedra angular de la revolucion, cado en los principios de la economia mix­ mo. En esencia esto significa apuntalar el media, los sandinistas mantienen su posi­ conscientemente rechazando el ta, el pluralismo politico expresado a traves capitalismo. cion en virtud del apoyo de los trabajado­ internacionalismo trotskyista y el concep­ de partidos de clases opuestas y el no En el primer periodo despues de la res y campesinos, permanecen suscepti­ to de la revolucion permanente. El alineamiento internacional. insurreccion, los sandinistas tuvieron una bles y responden, hasta cierto grado, a la estalinismo dentro del FSLN fue cimenta­ La economia mixta, garantiza los de­ enorme libertad para maniobrar en conci­ presion de la masa revolucionaria. Pero sus do por la admiracion y la colaboracion de rechos de propiedad a la burguesia y un liarse con el capitalismo. Ellos habian mo­ program as y metas-atascadas en el los sandinistas con la revolucion cubana. control efectivo burgues sobre los sectores vilizado a la mayoria del pueblo en contra estalinismo, al nacionalismo estrecho, en La victoria de Fidel Castro en 1959 decisivos de la produccion, distribucion y de Somoza. La victoria militar les confirio la teologia de la liberaci6n y al refor­ motivo a los fundadores del FSLN para finanzas. Los sandinistas promueven el una tremenda autoridad y popularidad mismo-- siguen siendo insuficientes para actuar contra Somoza, y Cuba vino a ser la pluralismo politico--la participacion de la entre las masas trabajadoras y campesinas. llevar a Nicaragua hacia un Estado inspiracion y el mas fiel aliado en la batalla burguesia en la toma de decisiones-como La incuestionable hegemonia politica obrero. del FSLN para derrocar a la dictadura en los clave para la reconstruccion politica tanto de los sandinistas entre el pueblo revolu- a la paglno 9 del Juplemento

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SUPLEMENTO ESPfC/AL-7 12 THE NATURE OF THE NICARAGUAN STATE allowing Nicaragua in 1982-83 to achieve growing disorganization of the economy, Debates have erupted within the FSLN ever, though they have struck heroic blows the highest economic growth rate, and especially the growth of the black market, on paramount questions of economic for democracy and against imperialism, improvement in its standard of living, in weighs heavily on workers and the urban policy and the role of the mass organiza­ fall far, far short of the standards set by Central America. But the continuing poor, and has provoked significant dis­ tions. The parameters and results, if any, Lenin and Trotsky in the October Revolu­ pressure of the revolutionary masses, satisfaction and erosion of confidence in of these discussions are unclear, but the tion in Russia. along with the Sandinistas' refusal to the leadership. fact that they are taking place indicates Like any middle-caste leadership, the completely capitulate to U.S. imperial­ The flimsy, contradictory and wrong­ that at least some sectors of the FSLN are Sandinistas hold position by virtue of ism, engendered rising bourgeois hostil­ ful economic and political underpinnings trying to find a road out of growing im­ support from workers and peasants, and ity, culminating in open contra warfare of the Sandinista regime are coming un­ passe. they remain susceptible and responsive and international economic sanctions. done. It is possible that these debates could to some degree to revolutionary mass Since then, the Sandinistas' room to The heightening class unrest, not culminate in a split within the FSLN and pressure. But their program and goals­ maneuver has rapidly contracted. Impe­ just in Nicaragua but throughout Central the emergence of a left vanguard which, mired in Stalinism, narrow nationalism, rialist aggression has materially eroded America, points toward a showdown in together with other revolutionary forces, liberation theology and reformism-re­ the capacity of the FSLN to deliver on its Nicaragua. And this tension is finding its could implant a socialist leadership in main insufficient to carry Nicaragua for­ promises to the masses. Meanwhile, the expression within the ranks of the FSLN. Nicaragua. The Sandinista leaders, how- ward to a workers' state.

ernment-controlled mass organizations. a government camp called Tasba Pri. Many Heated Indian protest forced the regime died 1 .Ie forced relocation, opening the to back down, and in 1979 the Indian door for a U.S. propaganda blitz to bolster VI. The Atlantic Coast organization MISURASATA was formed Reagan's contra "freedom fighters." and approved as the Indians' representa­ With the escalation of the contra he problems of the Sandmista Somoza's Guardia. The Atlantic peoples, tive in the government. war, the whole Atlantic Coast became a revolution-its failure to trans­ though they had joined Sandino's libera­ Then in Spring 1980, the govern­ military war zone patrolled by the FSLN form the state bureaucracy and tion movement in the '30s, did not di­ ment imposed a Spanish-only literacy Army. By late 1984, however, in response T allow the revolutionary classes rectly partiCipate in the '79 insurrection. campaign among the Indians. But by to military stalemate and international to empower themselves with new organs Nonetheless, because Somoza had been October it gave in to the demand that criticism, the government began voicing of state power-are revealed most starkly the overseer of capitalist decimation of Indian languages be included. support for Indian autonomy. In 1985, on the Atlantic Coast. the region's natural wealth, the costefios Meanwhile, economic tensions esca­ Miskitos returned from across the Rio Ten percent of Nicaraguans live in greeted the victorious revolution with a lated as the U.S. boycott of Nicaragua Coco and from Costa Rica to test the Zelaya Province, the Atlantic Coast re­ surge of support, pride, and an intense wiped out vital trade and left the Atlantic sincerity of the reversal, negotiating to gion, which is 53% of Nicaragua's land. desire for self-determination. Coast dependent on a tenuous import keep their weapons if change proved false. The Atlantic Coast is the traditional home With the ouster of Somoza and with­ lifeline from the Pacific region. The contra In 1987, after much government stall­ of Miskito Indians concentrated in the drawal of U.S.-based multinationals hos­ war disrupted farming and mining, and ing, the national legislature finally passed north along the Honduran border; the tile to the revolution, the Indians' de­ the FSLN mismanaged what little produc­ an Autonomy Law which calls for elec­ Black, English-speaking Creoles and Ga­ mand for self-determination took on new tion remained. Compounding the errors, tions to establish an independent govern­ rifonos in the south around the town of life, as did the question of autonomy for the FSLN's 1981 Declaration of Principles ment to replace Managua's bureaucratic Bluefields; and Sumo and Rama Indians, Nicaragua's Blacks. claimed exclusive right to exploit the administration in the region. Yet the origi­ small indigenous populations concentra­ But the hopes of Indians and Blacks area's resources. Indian leaders charged nal sources of conflict have not been ted in the north and south respectively. for an equal place in the revolution ran that government plans threatened In­ dealt with: Indian and Creole critics of The Atlantic Coast peoples, called up against cultural chauvinism and rac­ dian land claims and disregarded Indian the Law point out that it fails to spell out costefios, have historically developed in ism within the FSLN leadership. The San­ wishes to maintain and improve their how economic resources will be allocated, isolation from the Pacific Coast region. It dinistas distrusted self-organization tribal modes of production. Indian iden­ hence how economic development is to was only after the 1979 insurrection that among the Atlantic Coast peoples. They tity, they asserted, was a dead letter with­ proceed. Nor is the question of commu­ the first, and still the only, road was built sent in economic, political and military out the right to control their own land nalland rights addressed. connecting Managua to Puerto Cabezas overlords who attempted to rein in the and maintain their own economy. The Autonomy Law does acknowl­ in northern Zelaya. revolution and make it conform to the The greater the protests, the greater edge the government's worst" mistakes"­ The historic exploiters of the Atlan­ goals of narrow Nicaraguan nationalism. the government fear of Indian separat­ though the word mistake here is an un­ tic Coast had been the British and U.S. The distrust was especially directed at the ism. In February 1981, the Sandinistas worthy euphemism for calculated policy. Under Somoza's rule, U.S. corporations Miskitos, whose agriculture-based econ­ suddenly arrested 33 MISURASATA lead­ But then, given that it leaves the basic had free rein to exploit the natural re­ omy and espousal of communal property ers. Massive sitdown protests soon forced economic questions unaddressed, the law sources of the region: lumber, minerals, rights set them on a collision course with their release, but the die was cast and appears designed as merely a gloss under fish and bananas. The region remained the Sandinista state bureaucracy. bitter conflict would ensue. which the old economic exploitation can underdeveloped, poor, and dep~ndent Soon after the insurrection, the FSLN By the end of 1981, a majority ofthe take place. U would allow, via· the elec­ on direct trade with the U.S., Costa Rica, moved to impose its will on the Atlantic 40,000 Miskitos who live on Nicaragua's tions, only the trappings of autonomy­ and Caribbean neighbors. Education, so­ Coast: ALPROMISO, a multi-tribal orga­ Honduran border, the Rio Coco river, had and even this seems to be too much for cial services and community life revolved nization built in the '70s to resist Somoza' s crossed into Honduras to fight the FSLN the FSLN: the elections have not yet been around the Moravian Church. encroachments, came under attack. The government. InJanuary 1982, the Sandi­ called; the law remains unimplemented. The revolution erupted in the Pacific Sandinistas wanted it dissolved and the nista military forced 8,500 Miskitos out of The Sandinistas now seem bent on stall­ regions, the personal stomping ground of Indian communities affiliated with gov- their villages along the Rio Coco and into ing the Indians into submission.

The bourgeois nature of the Nicara­ combativeness of the masses and the fact guan state is further revealed in the unre­ that international class struggle is ascen­ solved tensions between the working class, dant in Latin America and Asia. Under VII. Conclusions on the which almost seized power in its own other historical circumstances, or in other behalf after the insurrection, and the capi­ regions of the world more removed from talists, who still wield their economic the U.S., a revolution like Nicaragua's Character of the State hegemony through the mediation of the would not likely have survived eight years. middle-caste FSLN. U.S. imperialist proximity and pres­ n the basis of the preceding the very socialist consciousness and com­ Nevertheless, the relative longeVity sure has kept the eyes of the world on an.alysis, the writers conclude mitment, and the clear programmatic of the Sandinista regime (as compared to Nicaragua, making it impossible for the that Nicaragua is not a workers' goals, which could, ifimplemented, move Chile and Grenada, for example) is a leadership to slide unnoticed in a com- O state. It meets none of the out­ the revolution forward against the pri­ direct result of and tribute to the fierce to supplement page J0 lined criteria, none of the programmatic vate property system and toward work­ norms. ers' power, socialist morality, interna­ Nicaragua rests on a bourgeOis-domi­ tionalism, and defeat of the contra-revo­ nated, predominantly capitalist economy lution without surrendering the gains in which the state sector not only is not and mission of the revolution. expanding in general but is contracting If Nicaragua is not a workers' state, within the agricultural sphere. And the what then did the revolution accomplish? capacity of the government to plan, di­ The revolution was a political one, a rect and control the economy, which was massive popular uprising which smashed always tenuous, is now diminishing. the police state and changed the (onn of The FSLN government's ongoing bourgeois rule from the repressive Somoza commitment, in theory and action, to dictatorship to the FSLN middle-caste maintaining the role of the bourgeoisie government. The FSLN has instituted in the country's economic and political democratic freedoms but has limited de­ life stands solidly in the way of trans­ mocracy to the political arena. It chan­ forming property relations. nelled the revolutionary aspirations of The entire state apparatus, beginning the workers and peasants into a bour­ with the Sandinista government, con­ geoiS democratic, not proletarian, form sciously and deliberately perpetuates of rule. Nicaragua remains a capitalist bourgeois property relations and the capi­ state. talist exploitation of labor. Within months after the seizure of The revolution, moreover, has only power, the forward motion of the revolu­ partially destroyed Somoza's state ma­ tion was largely halted in order to pre­ chinery. Eight years after the insurrec­ serve bourgeois property relations. De­ tion, Nicaragua totally lacks any real or­ spite the victory over Somocista tyranny, gans of proletarian rule. No institutions and the initial gains after the insurrec­ exist resembling soviets, the historic tion, Nicaraguan society has begun to model for proletarian rule. The form of stagnate and even deteriorate, especially government corresponds to bourgeOiS on the economic front. This was to be democratic rule, consistent with the bour­ expected, given the terrible hardships im­ geoiS economic underpinnings of the posed by the contra war and the U.S. state. embargo, but the FSLN turned errone­ Additionally, the Sandinista leader­ ously to more capitalism aI)d less work­ ship, that so-called "Marxist regime," lacks ers' control to meet the emergency.

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT-8 LA NATURALEZA DEL ESTADO DE NICARAGUA 13

dirigida especialmente a los indios miskitos, arrestaron de pronto a 33 lideres de cuya economia basada en la agricultura y la MISVRASAT A, protestas de "senton" masi­ adhesion a derechos comunales de la pro­ vas forzaron su liberacion, pera el dado VI. La Costa Atlantica pledad, los situaron en un carril de choque estaba echado y los am argos confiictos con la burocracia estatal sandinista. proseguirian. oS problemas de la revolucion guardia de Somoza. La gente del Atlantico, Pronto despues de la insurreccion, el Para fines de 1981, la mayoria de los sandinista -su fracaso para trans­ aunque se habia unido al movimiento de FSLN actuo para imponer su voluntad en la 40,000 miskitos que viven a orillas del Rio formar la burocracia del Estado y liberacion sandinista en los anos treinta, Costa Atlantica: ALPROMISO, una organi­ Coco, front era entre Nicaragua y Hondu­ L permitir a las clases revolucionarias no participo directamente en la insurrec­ zacion multi tribal, construida en los anos ras, habian cruzado hacia Honduras para adquirir ellas mismas poder con nuevos cion del '79. Sin embargo, como Somoza setenta para resistir las invasiones de pelear en contra del gobierno del FSLN. En organos de poder estatal-son revelados habia sido el capataz del diezmar capitalis­ Somoza, se via atacada. Los sandinistas enero de 1982, el ejercito sandinista saco a mas descaradamente en la Costa Atlantica. ta de las riquezas naturales de la region, los querian su disolucion y que las comunida­ la fuerza a 8,500 miskitos de sus aldeas a 10 El diez por ciento de la poblacion costefios recibieron a la revolucion victo- des de los indigenas se afiliaran con organi­ largo del Rio Coco, hacia un campo del nicaragiiense vive en zaciones de masas gobierno llamado Tasba Pri. Muchos mu­ la Provincia de contraladas por el go­ rieron durante la relocalizacion forzada, Zelaya, la region de bierno. Vna protesta abriendo la puerta para el blitz propagan­ la Costa Atlantica, la acalorada por parte distico estadounidense para reforzar a la cual constituye un de los indigenas for­ Contra, los "luchadores por la libertad" de 53% de la base terri­ zo al regimen a re­ Reagan. torial en Nicaragua. tractarse, y en 1979 Con la escalada de la guerra Contra, la La Costa Atlantica es la organizacion indi­ Costa Atlantica entera se convirtio en una la pat ria tradicional gena MISVRASAT A zona militar de guerra patrullada por el de los indios miski­ fue formada y apro­ ejercito del FSLN. De cualquier modo, a tos que se concentran bada como la repre­ finales de 1984, en respuesta al estanca­ en el norte a 10 largo sentacion -indigena miento militar y ala critica internacional el de la frontera con en el gobierno. gobierno empezo a expresar apoyo por la Honduras; los negras, Entonces en la autonomia de los indigenas. En 1985 los creoles de habla in­ primavera de 1980, Miskitos regresaron del otro lado del Rio glesa y los garifonos el gobierno impuso Coco y desde Costa Rica para probar la que viven en el sur entre los indigenas sinceridad de la reversa sandinista, nego­ alrededor del pueblo una campana de al­ ciando mantener sus armas en caso que el de Bluefields; y los in­ fabetizacion en espa­ cambi6 probara ser falso. diossumoyrama,dos nol. Pero para octu­ En 1987, despues de andarse con pequenas etnias in­ bre cedio a la deman­ muchos rodeos del gobierno, la legislatura digenas concentra­ da de que fueran in­ nacional paso final mente una Ley de Auto­ das en el norte y sur cluidos los lenguajes nomia que convoca a elecciones para esta­ respectivamente. indigenas. blecer un gobierno independiente que re­ Las gentes de la Mientras tanto, emplace la administracion burocratica de Costa Atlantica, lla­ las tensiones econo­ Managua en.la region. Aun asi las fuentes madas costefios, se micas escalaron originales del conflicto no han sido resuel­ han desarrollado his­ Rehearsal for the Maypole Festival in Bluefields. Ensayo para el cuando el boicoteo tas: las criticas de los indigenas y creoles toricamente en aisla­ Festival del Palo de Mayo en Bluefields. de los EVA a Nicara- acerca de la ley, senalaron que esta falla en miento de la region gua destruyo el co­ deletrear como iban a ser asignados los de la costa del Pacifico. Fue solo hasta riosa con una oleada de apoyo, de orgullo mercio vital y dejo la Costa Atlantica de­ recursos economicos, y por tanto como iba despues de la insurreccion de 1979 que fue y con un deseo intenso de la pendiente de un cordon vital tenue de a proceder el desarrollo economico. Tam­ construida la primera y todavia (mica ca­ autodeterminacion. importacion de la region del Pacifico. La poco es atendida la cuesti6n de los dere­ rretera para conectar Managua con Puerto Con la expulsion de Somoza y el retiro guerra Contra trastorno la agricultura y la chos de tierras comunales. Cabezas en Zelaya del norte. de las multinacionales basadas en los EVA, mineria, y el FSLN maladministro a la poca La ley de autonomia reconoce los peo­ Los explotadores historicos de la Cos­ hostiles a la revolucion, la exigencia de produccion restante. La Declaracion de los res "errores" del gobierno-siendo que aqui ta Atlantica han sido los britanicos y los autodeterminacion de los indios tomo una Principios del FSLN, agravando los errores, la palabra error es un eufemismo invalido estadounidenses. Bajo el gobierno de nueva vida, como 10 hizo la cuestion de en 1981, reclamo el derecho exclusivo de para una politica calculada. Pero entonces, Somoza, las corporaciones estadouniden­ autonomia para los negros nicaragiienses. explotar los recursos del area. Lideres indi­ dado que deja preguntas economicas basi­ ses tuvieron rienda suelta para explotar los Pero la esperanza entre los indios y los genas acusaron que los planes del gobierno cas sin respuesta, la ley parece disenada recursos naturales de la region: maderas, negros pot un lugar equitativo en la revo­ amenazaban a los reclamos indiKenas y como una simple pulida bajo la cual la mineria, pesca yphitano. La region seman­ lucion se topo con en:noVinistno "CUltural hacian caso dinis"oaeTos"&"seos "de "mante­ antigu~explotact6n e'Ctinofiiica pued'e'Ue: ' tuvo subdesarrollada, pobre y dependiente y el racismo dentro de la dirigencia del ner y mejorar el modo de produccion tri­ varse a cabo. Esto permitiria, por via de las del comercio directo con los EVA, Costa FSLN. Los sandinistas desconfiaron de la bal. La identidad indigena afirmaron, fue elecciones, solo las galas de la autonomia­ Rica, y los vecinos caribenos. La educacion, auto organizacion entre el pueblo de la letra muerta, sin el derecho a controlar sus y hasta esto parece ser demasiado para el los servicios sociales y la vida comunitaria Costa Atlantica. Enviaron a caciques eco­ propias tierras y mantener su propia eco­ FSLN: las elecciones no han sido proclama­ gira ron a lrededor de la iglesia mo­ nomicos, politicos y militares quienes in­ nomia. das aun; la ley sigue sin ser implementada. raviana. tentaron refrenar la revolucion y hacerla Entre mayores las protestas, mayor es Los sandinistas parecen estar decididos La revolucion hizo erupcion en la re­ conforme a las metas del estrecho naciona­ el temor del gobierno al separatismo indi­ ahora en encerrar a los indios en la sumi­ gion del Pacifico, senorio personal de la lismo nicaragiiense. La desconfianza fue gena. En febrero de 1981, los sandinistas si6n.

gobierno para planear, dirigirycontrolar la dictadura de Somoza a la casta media de economia, que siempre fue tenue, esta dis­ gobierno del FSLN. Este ha instituido liber­ VII. COllclusiolles Sobre minuyendo ahora. tades democraticas pero ha limitado a la El compromiso continuo del go­ democracia al campo politico. Canalizolas bierno del FSLN, en la teoria y en la practi­ aspiraciones revolucionarias de los trabaja­ .- el Carticter del Estado ca, de mantener el papel de la burguesia en dores y campesinos en una forma de regi­ la vida politica y economica del pais, se men democratico burgues, no proletario. n base al analisis precedente, los Nicaragua descansa sobre una econo­ interpone solidamente en la via de la trans­ Nicaragua sique siendo un estado capita­ escritores concluyeron que Nicara­ mia predominantemente capitalista domi­ formacion de las relaciones de la propie­ lista. gua no es un Estado obrero. No nada por la burguesia, en la cual el sector dad. Durante meses despues de la toma del Ereune ninguno de los criterios tra­ estatal no solo no se esta expandiendo en El aparato estatal entera, comenzando poder, el avance de la revolucion fue dete­ zados, ni ninguna de las normas general, sino se esta contrayendo dentro con el gobierno sandinista, conscientemen­ nido mayormente para preservar las rela­ pragramaticas. de la esfera agricola. Y la cap acid ad del te y deliberadamente perpetua las relacio­ ciones burguesas de la propiedad. A pesar nes de la propiedad burguesas y la explota­ de la victoria sobre la tirania somocista y cion capitalista de trabajo. las ganancias iniciales despues de la insu­ Ademas, la revolucion solo ha destrui­ rreccion, la sociedad nicaragiiense ha em­ do parcial mente la maquinaria estatal de pezado a est an carse y hasta a deteriorarse, Somoza. Ocho anos despues de la insurrec­ especialmente en el frente economico. Esto cion, Nicaragua carece total mente de cual­ era de esperarse, dadas las terribles penu­ quier organo real de dominio proletario. rias impuestas por la guerra Contra y el No existen instituciones que semejen a los embargo estadounidense, pera el FSLN para soviets, el modelo historico del mando hacerle frente a la emergencia se oriento proletario. La forma de gobierno corres­ erroneamente al capitalismo ya un menor ponde al regimen democratico burgues, control de los trabajadores. consistente con los pilares economicos La naturaleza burguesa del Estado de burgueses del estado. Nicaragua es revelada aun mas, con las Ademas, elliderazgo sandinista, el tal tensiones sin resolver entre la clase obrera, llama do "regimen marxista", carece de la que casi tomo el poder para si despues de la verdadera conciencia y compromiso socia­ insurreccion, y los capitalistas, quienes to­ lista, y las metas programaticas claras, que, davia blanden su hegemonia economica a si son implementadas, pueden mover ha­ traves de la mediacion de la casta media del cia adelante la revolucion en contra del FSLN. sistema de propiedad privada y hacia el Sin embargo, la relativa longevidad poder de los trabajadores, la moral socialis­ del regimen sandinista (comparado con ta, el internacionalismo, y la derrota de la Chile y Granada, por ejemplo) es un resul­ contrarrevolucion sin rendir los logros y la tado directo y un tributo a la combatividad mision y mejoras de la revolucion. feroz de las masas y al hecho de que la lucha Si Nicaragua no es un Estado internacional de clases esta en ascenso en obrero, Lque logro entonces la revolu­ Latinoamerica y Asia. Bajo otras circuns­ cion? tancias historicas, 0 en otras regiones del La revolucion fue una de tipo politico, mundo mas distantes a los EVA, una revo­ un levantamiento popular masivo que lucion como la de Nicaragua probable­ aplasto al estado policiaco y cambio la mente no hubiera sobrevivido ocho anos. forma del dominio burgues, de la represiva a la paglna J J del suplemento

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SUPLEMENTO ESPECIAL-9 14 THE NATURE OF THE NICARAGUAN STATE pletely counterrevolutionary direction. trol of the state. In other words, if they lution does not march forward to prole­ epoch. To date, no workers' state has Then there's the fact that a victorious establish a workers' state. tarian rule-and soon-it will inevitably been overthrown from within and re­ counterrevolution, that is, the negation But this would mean a stark reversal crumble. placed with a bourgeois state. And this of bourgeois democracy in Nicaragua, of FSLN determination to maintain the History proves that under mass revo­ impressive historical evidence points the would also entail the negation of the mixed economy, multi-class political plu­ lutionary pressure, a middle-caste, class­ way ahead for Nicaragua. Sandinistas themselves! ralism, and international non-alignment. collaborationist leadership like the FSLN Unfortunately, the FSLN is not mov­ BourgeoiS hostility is growing, plac­ Mobilized originally for the heroic can still move to create a workers' state in ing in this direction. The revolutionary ing Sandinistas and the masses at a cross­ battles against Somoza and then for de­ direct response to mounting imperialist socialist cadres of the world proletariat roads. Nicaragua's gravest problems­ fense against the contras, the masses have opposition. This is the possible and nec­ must call on them to reverse their course, the contra/U.S. insurgency and the dire persevered despite their middle-caste lead­ essary scenario for sustaining the mo­ and call on the Nicaraguan Left and the economic crisis-can only be overcome if ership. But this situation cannot last mentum of Nicaragua's revolution. His­ revolutionary masses to demand imple­ the workers and their allies advance the indefinitely. Already, signs ofthe masses' tory teaches that construction of a work­ mentation of all measures necessary to revolution-if they expropriate the capi­ fatigue and disillusionment with the ers' state is ultimately the only defense create a workers' state capable of safe­ talists and seize complete political con- Sandinistas are proliferating. If the revo- against capitalist counterrevolution in this guarding and extending the revolution.

directly transitory to a workers' state. alist era does not change the social sys­ There is considerable fuzziness, to tem (Le. Iran, Philippines). The Stalinist VIII. Debate in the say the least, in the SWP analysis (pre­ "workers' and peasants' government"­ sented in great detail by Mary-Alice Wa­ and the SWP's -is a phrase designed to ters in liThe Workers and Farmers Gov­ hide this sad reality. Trotskyist Moventent ernment: A Popular Revolutionary Dicta­ Lenin, Trotsky and other leaders of torship,"16 as regards the class character the early Com intern had considered the isagreement on the nature of Workers League (Fourth International)­ of the state, along with confusion of the ascension to power of such a government the Nicaraguan state has the international organization compris­ state with the government that adminis­ as an accidental detour created by un­ sparked intense and often acri­ ing the majority of Latin American ters it. usual historical conditions, like war, fi­ D monious controversy among Trotskyists; Socialist Action, a split-off The reason for the fuzziness and con­ nancial crash, mass revolutionary pres­ Trotskyists. from the U.S. Socialist Workers Party fusion lies, in the first place, in the fact sure sans revolutionary leadership, etc. The viewpoints cover the spectrum: (SWP); and, perhaps most notably, the that the SWP's formulation constitutes a They believed that such a government, Nicaragua is a bourgeois state, or a healthy Nicaraguan Trotskyists. (Nicaragua's complete rejection of Marx and Lenin's resting atop a capitalist state, would be an workers' state, or a deformed or degener­ Maoists and Stalinists also consider Nica­ contention that only one class can hold unstable conjunctural phenomenon ated workers' state, or a two-class work­ ragua a bourgeois state.) state power. This rejection in turn stems which could quickly turn into a road­ ers' and farmers' government, or some The U.S. SWP-actually an ex­ from the SWP's habit of tail-ending the block to workers' power. sort of hybrid as yet unnamed. Trotskyist, de facto Stalinist formation­ Sandinista pursuit of a multi-class Val­ Delegates to the Fourth Congress of This dissonant cacophony of opin­ denies that Nicaragua is a workers' state, halla. SWP opportunism, which compels the Comintern in 1922 concluded that ion reflects the current fragmentation but does so by means of vast revisions of it to jettison the essence of Marxism on lithe formation of a real workers' govern­ and ideological crisis of world Trotskyism. the theory of the state developed by Marx, the question of the state, is anathema to ment, and the continued existence of a At one pole we find the Spartacist Lenin and Trotsky. true revolutionaries. government which pursues a revolution­ League which implies that Nicaragua is a At the other end of the spectrum is The SWP is compelled, as a "Marxist" ary policy, must lead to a bitter struggle, bourgeois state which underwent a po­ the Fourth International majority headed organization, to cover its Menshevik and eventually a civil war with the bour­ litical revolution with "overtones of so­ up by the United Secretariat (USEC) of tracks, with Marxist phraseology. It bol­ geOisie. "17 cial revolution" (Le., nationalization of the Fl. USEC sees in Nicaragua a workers' sters itself by citing Lenin's application of The Comintern was prepared to de­ Somoza's property) and whose leader­ state whose leadership, by propounding the term "workers' and farmers' govern­ fend a workers' and farmers' government ship is a "petty-bourgeois, radical-nation­ the mixed economy and political plural­ ment" to the Soviet Union after 1917. only if it grew out of, or furthered, open alist force" which remains outside the ism, is following precisely the course that The Bolsheviks, however, used this term revolutionary assaults on capitalist prop­ workers' movement. responsible revoluUonaries should. during and after the Russian Revolution erty relations and led rapidly to the estab­ The Spartacist League criteria for de­ as a popular synonym for the dictator­ lishment of a true workers' state. fining the state as bourgeois is very muddy, ship of the proletariat supported by the The workers' and farmers' govern­ but the implication of their writings is "Neither A Bourgeois peasantry. ment, in its true sense, is a temporary, that the determining factor is the contin­ Nor A Workers' Historically, however, the term was unstable and episodic formation that con­ ued predominance of bourgeois property also given a meaning opposite to that tradicts the very class character of the relations.15 State"?-The SWP Re­ understood by the Bolsheviks. This mean­ state it rules. It must resolve this contra­ The SL also portrays the FSLN as prise of Menshevism ing, first applied in the mid-'20s, signi­ diction by using the state apparatus to agents of capitalism who finance "the Nicaragua, according to the SWP, fied the rise to state power of bourgeois bring about rapid transformation to a fifth column of the contras." not only presents the international move­ forces at the head of the working and workers'state. Despite SL's strident and generally ment with a new model for socialist de­ peasant masses. Stalin used the term in This was precisely the dynamiC in unbalanced critique of the FSLN, they velopment but has required the SWP to this sense as an attempt to give a good Cuba between the defeat of Batista in call for Nicaragua's defense for two rea­ revise its previous Trotskyist analyses of name to bourgeois revolutions, whereas January 1959 and the expropriation of sons: first, because of the revolutionary every revolution since 1848. This must the Bolsheviks and the early Communist the capitalists in August-October 1960. It victory over Somoza and the "psycho­ be some revolution! International insisted that national lib­ was also the dynamiC in China after the pathic killers" of his National Guard; sec­ The SWP believes Nicaragua is ruled eration struggles in the imperialist era Maoist army assumed power. ond, because Nicaragua is currently the by a "workers' and farmers' government" could only be won through a proletarian Referring to the Stalinist corruption front line of defense of the Soviet Union established after the military defeat of anti-capitalist revolution, and that purely of the term, Trotsky wrote: against U.S. imperialism. Somoza. Further, the Nicaraguan and bourgeois-democratic upheavals would Other groups at this pole also classify Grenadian revolutions show that the end in fiasco. Stalin sought to limit The slogan workers' and Nicaragua as a bourgeois state without workers' and farmers' government, in revolutions precisely within bourgeois farmers' government is thus presenting any clear criteria for their as­ which state power is shared by two classes parameters, because he wanted release acceptable to us only in the sessment. Included in this line-up are the (working class and peasantry), is a neces­ from imperialist pressure. sense it had in 1917 with the two U.S. sections of the International sary stage distinct from, preceding, and Bourgeois revolution in the imperi- Bolsheviks, i.e., as an anti­ bourgeois, anti-capitalist slo­ gan, but in no case in the "democratic" sense which About Sobre later the epigones gave it, the Authors transforming it from a bridge los Autores to socialist revolution into the Dr. Susan Williams spent La Dra. Susan Williams chief barrier in its path. IS three weeks in Nicaragua with co- Ul paso tres semanas en Nicaragua author Stephen Durham in April ~ con el coautor Stephen Durham The SWP is correct only in stating 1989 talking with Nicaragua's ~ en abril de 1989 conversando con that Nicaragua is not a workers' state, but people and assessing the conclu- ~ la gente de Nicaragua yevaluando the essence and rationale of their posi­ las conclusiones a las que habian tion completely repudiates the precept of sions arrived at in this document. ~ llegado al escribir este documento. permanent revolution-that the funda­ An Assistant Professor of Medi­ Profesora de medicina en el mental tasks of the democratic revolu­ cine of New York Medical College, New York Medical College, la Dra. tion can only be realized through estab­ Dr. Williams is Chief of Gastroen­ Williams es la jefa de gastroente­ lishing a workers' state. terology at New York City's Metro­ Stephen Durham and Dr. Susan Williams rologia en el Hospital Metropoli­ The SWP once again turns Leninism politan Hospital, which serves the tano de la Ciudad de Nueva York, on its head and stands forth as the epigone mostly Puerto Rican and Black population of East Harlem. el cual sirve por 10 comun a la poblacion puertorriquena y of the Stalinist epigones. negra de East Harlem. Dr. Williams has been involved in the care of people with La Dra. Williams ha estado involucrada en el cuidado de AIDS and in analyzing the impact of the AIDS crisis on Blacks, pacientes con SIDA y en el analisis del impacto de la crisis del "Nicaragua Is A Latinos, gays, and women. She and Durham also collaborated SIDA en los negros, latinos, homosexuales y mujeres. Ella y to produce the document II AIDS Hysteria: A Marxist Analysis." Durham han colaborado tambi€m en la produccion del docu­ Workers' State"­ An incisive analyst of feminist issues and the women's mento liLa Histeria del SIDA, Un Analisis Marxista." Fourth International movement, Dr. Williams has written and spoken particularly Una analista incisiva de la cuestion femenina y del movi­ Apologetics extensively on reproductive rights. mien to de la mujer, la Dra. Williams ha escrito y hablado extensamente sobre los derechos reproductivos. In contrast to the SWP, the majority Stephen Durham is a Marxist scholar and theoretician Stephen. Durham es un erudito marxista y un teorico faction of the Fourth International as­ whose visit to Nicaragua with Dr. Williams was the culmination cuya visita a Nicaragua con la Dra. Williams fue la culmina­ serts that liThe 19th oOuly 1979 marked of more than two decades of specialized study of South and cion de mas de dos decenios de estudios especializados sobre the first steps of the dictatorship of the Central America. Sur y Centroamerica. proletariat based on an alliance with the He received a degree in Latin American History, graduating El obtuvo un grado en Historia Latinoamericana, habien­ peasantry, of the construction ofa work­ from the University of California at Berkeley. He has traveled dose graduado de la U niversidad de California en Berkeley. Ha ers' state, which has to be consolidated widely in Latin America and lived for a year in Brazil. Fluent in viajado ampliamente por Latinoamerica y residio un ano en like any emerging workers' state."19 (Em­ phasis in original.) Spanish and Portuguese, he has taught English as a second Brasil. Habla el espanol y portugues con fluidez, y ha ensenado ingles como segundo idioma. Escribe frecuentemente sobre According to the FI's 12th World language. He writes frequently on Latin American affairs for the asuntos latinoamericanos en el Freedom Socialist. Congress Resolution (1985), and in the Freedom Socialist. Durham es tambien un sindicaista a pasionado y un vetera­ writings of FI leaders Ernest Mandel, Paul Durham is also an ardent unionist and a veteran activist in no activista en el movimiento de liberacion de lesbianas y LeBlanc and others, Nicaragua evidently the movement for lesbian and gay liberation. gays. to supplement page J2

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT-IO LA NATURALEZA DEL ESTADO DE NICARAGUA

La proximidad y la presion imperialista trabajadores y sus aliados avanzan la revo­ proliferan los signos de fatiga y desilusion contra de la contrarrevolucion capitalista de los EUA han mantenido los ojos del lucion-si expropian a los capitalistas y de las masas con los sandinistas. Si la revo­ en esta epoca. Hasta la fecha ningun Estado mundo en Nicaragua, haciendo imposible toman completo control politico del Esta­ lucion no marcha hacia adelante al domi­ obrero ha sido derrocado desde dentro y ala dirigencia que se deslice inadvertida en do. En otras palabras, si ellos establecen un nio proletario-y pronto- esta se desmo­ reemplazado por un Estado burgues. Y esta una direccion completamente Estado obrero. ronara inevitablemente. impresionante evidencia historica apunta contrarrevolucionaria. Luego, esta el he­ Pero esto significaria una completa La historia comprueba que bajo la el camino hacia adelante para Nicaragua. cho de que una contrarrevolucion victo­ regresion de la resolucion del FSLN de presion revolucionaria de las masas, un Desafortunadamente el FSLN, no se riosa, 0 sea, la negacion de la democracia mantener la economia mixta, un pluralis­ liderazgo de casta media colaboracionista est a moviendo en esta direccion. Los cua­ burguesa en Nicaragua, puede tambien mo politico multiclase y un no­ de clases como el FSLN puede movilizarse dros revolucionarios socialistas del prole­ acarrear ila negacion de los mismos alineamiento internacional. aun para crear a ser un Estado obrero en tariado mundial deb en pedirles dar mar­ sandinistas! Las masas, movilizadas originalmente respuesta directa a la oposicion imperialista cha atras a su camino, e invocar a la izquier­ La hostilidad burguesa crece, colocan­ para las heroicas batallas en contra de en subida. Este es el posible y necesario da de Nicaragua y a las masas revoluciona­ do a los sandinistas y a las masas en una Somoza y despues para la defensa de los escenario para sostener el momento de la rias para exigir que se implementen todas encrucijada. La insurgencia de la Contra Contras, han perseverado a pesar de su revolucion nicaragiiense. La historia nos las medidas necesarias para crear un Estado estadounidense y la horrible crisis econo­ dirigencia de casta media. Pero esta situa­ ensefia que la construcci6n de un Estado obrero capaz de salvaguardar y extender la mica-solo pueden ser superadas si los cion no puede durar indefinidamente. Ya obrero es finalmente la unica defensa en revolucion.

de las masas de obreros y campesinos. nante. Este debe resolver esta contradic­ Stalin utilizo el termino en este sentido, cion usando al aparato estatal para traer VIII. Debate en el como un intento para dar un buen consigo una transformacion rapida hacia nombre a las revoluciones burguesas: un Estado obrero. mientras que los bolcheviques y la Primera Esta fue precisamente la dinamica en Movimiento Trotskyista Internacional Comunista insistieron Cuba entre la derrota de Batista en enero de que las luchas por la liberacion nacional 1959 y la expropiacion de los capitalist as I desacuerdo sobre la naturaleza del socialista pero ha requerido que el PST en la era imperialista solo podrian ser entre agosto y octubre de 1960. Fue tam­ Estado nicaragiiense ha encendido revise sus analisis trotskyistas previos, de ganadas por medio de una revolucion pro­ bien la dinamica en China despues de que intensa y a menudo mordaz con­ todas las revoluciones desde 1848. iQue letaria anticapitalista y que los levanta­ el ejercito maoista asumio el poder. Etroversia entre los trotskyistas. revolucion debe ser esta! mientos puramente democratico­ Trotsky escribio que: En referencia ala Los puntos de vista cubren el espectro: EI SWP cree que Nicaragua est

I es el continuo predominio de las rela­ podria volverse rapidamente en un ci6n democratica solo pueden ser realiza­ ciones burguesas de la propiedadY obstaculo para el poder obrero .. , das a traves del establecimiento de un Esta­ La LE tambien describe al FSLN En 1922, los delegados del Cuarto do obrero. 1 como agente del capitalismo que fi­ Congreso de la Internacional Comu­ Una vez mas el PST pone de cabeza al nancian lila quinta columna de los nista concluyeron que lila formacion leninismo y se erige como el epigono de los contras". de un gobierno obrero real y la existen­ epigonos estalinistas. A pesar de la estridente y total­ cia continua de un gobierno que persi­ mente desbalanceada critica por parte gue a una politica revolucionaria, debe del LE en contra del FSLN, ell os recla- Leon Trotsky conducir a una lucha amarga y even- "Nicaragua es un Es­ man la defensa de Nicaragua por dos tualmente a una guerra civil con la tado Obrero"- Apolo­ razones: primero, por la victoria revolucio­ que el gobierno de obreros y campesinos, burguesia".17 . naria sobre Somoza y los "asesinos psicopa­ en donde el poder estatal esta com partido La Internacional Comunista estaba getica de la Cuarta tas" de su Guardia Nacional; segundo, por­ por dos clases (Ia clase obrera y la cam­ preparada para defender al gobierno de Internacional (CI) que Nicaragua es actualmente la linea del pesina), es una etapa distinta necesaria obreros y campesinos solo si este provenia En contraste con el PST, la faccion frente de defensa de la Union Sovietica que precede a la anterior y directamente o continuaba los ataques abiertos revolu­ mayoritaria de la Cuarta Internacional, ase­ contra el imperialismo estadounidense. transitoria hacia un Estado de obreros. cionarios contra las relaciones de la propie­ vera que "E119 de julio de 1979 marco los Otros grupos en este polo, tambien Hay una borrosidad considerable, por dad capitalista y se dirigia rapidamente al primeros pasos de la dictadura del prole­ clasifican a Nicaragua como un Estado no decir men os, en el analisis del PST establecimiento de un Estado obrero ver­ tariado basada en una alianza con el cam­ burgues sin presentar ningun criterio claro presentado con gran detalle por Mary-Alice dadero. pesinado para la construccion de un para su evaluacion. En este alineamiento Waters en "EI Gobierno de Obreros y Cam­ EI gobierno de obreros y campesinos, Estado obrero, el cual ha tenido que ser estan incluidas las dos secciones de la Liga pesinos": Una Dictadura Revolucionaria en su sentido real, es una formacion tem­ consolidado como cualquier Estado de Internacional de Trabajadores (Cuarta In­ Popular",16 con respecto al caracter de clase poral, inestable y episodica que contra dice obreros en surgimiento".19 (Enfasis en el ternacional) de los EUA-Ia organizacion del Estado, junto con la confusion por el mero caracter de clases del Estado gober- original). internacional que incluye a la mayoria de parte del Estado con el gobierno que 10 los trotskyistas latinoamericanos; la Ac­ administra. r---;,,;1\;----~----_--__ -_~O~'O paglnoJl del suplemento cion Socialista, separados del Partido So­ La razon por la borrosidad y la confu­ 1 cialista de los Trabajadores (PST) de los sion, yace en primer lugar, en el hecho de :i EUA; Y qUiza mas notablemente, los nica­ que la formulacion del PST constituye un r ragiienses trotskyistas. (Los maoistas y es­ rechazo completo de la opinion de Marx y posthumous gem ~t 7i:!iltJ $,' , r talinistas nicaragiienses tambien conside­ Lenin de que solo una clase puede sostener lli ~. ran a Nicaragua como un Estado burgues). el poder estatal. Este rechazo a su vez surge fro m one of Am erI·ca's p'l' ll1t J\tilc'htt.lrlg It EI Partido Obrero Socialista estado­ del habito del PST de andar tras la busque­ f. ~~. by 1lg Ille unidense -en realidad una formacion da sandinista de un nirvana multiclasista. ' 41 extrotskyista, estalinista de facto-niega EI oportunismo del PST que 10 fuerza a Inest avant garde/· ~lJrOdille 11 que Nicaragua es un Estado obrero, pero 10 deshacerse de la esencia del marxismo It hace por medio de revisiones vastas de la sobre la cuestion del Estado es anatema a political poets." ~J teoria del Estado desarrollada por Marx, los verdaderos revolucionarios. r Lenin y Trotsky. EI PST esta obJigado como organiza­ It Del otro lado del espectro esta la ma­ cion "marxista", a cubrir sus hue lias -POETRY FLASH r yoria de la Cuarta Internacional, encabeza­ mencheviques, con fraseologia marxis­ "F San Francisc~ :l da por el Secretariado Unido (USEC) de la tao Se refuerza a si mismo al citar la rom political manifesto n CI. EI USEC ve en Nicaragua un Estado aplicacion por Lenin del termino "go_ prose narrative to so to dream-lyric, from obrero cuya dirigencia, mediante la pro­ bierno de obreros y campesinos" a la sheer verbal tal~~i.:, ,P~~tu;ted by moments of puesta de la economia mixta y el pluralis­ Union Sovietica despues de 1917. Los mo poiftico, esta siguiendo precisamente bolcheviques de cualquier modo, usa­ - _ 0 d RANCISCO CHRONICLE r er Now' $8.95 • 120 el cur so que deben seguir los revoluciona­ ron este termino durante y despues de -----..:..--=-~~~. ~ges • Paperback. ISBN rios responsables. la revolucion rusa, como un sinonimo Please send ------__ ~932323-01_4 me co . --_ popular para la dicta dura del pro­ (Add $1 50 shi . - pies of Woman Sittin to letariado apoyado por el campesi­ . ppmg cost for first book, 50~ each adcfti::::; Machine, Thinking at $8.95 each ) "I.Ni Estado nado. Name _ book.) Total Enclosed: $ . IS Burgues ni Obrero"?­ Sin embargo, a este termino, se Ie dio historicamente otro significado Address (please print) _ Date l( La Repeticion del opuesto al entendido por los -----______------__ :t Menchevismo del PST bolcheviques. EI cual, aplicado pri- State _City lS SegUn el PST, Nicaragua no presenta mero a mediados de los afios veinte, -----__ Zip ------__ el solamente el movimiento internacional significo la sub ida al poder estatal Return with payment to Red Lett - PhoneCs) er Press, 409 Maynard Av So con un modelo nuevo para el desarrollo d e Ias fu erzas b urguesas a I a ca b eza e. . '201,-:-==:-::-:---- Seattle, WA 98104 206-68___ _ • 2-0990. FREEDOM SOCIALIST SUPLEMENTO ESPECIAL-ll 16 THE NATURE OF THE NICARAGUAN STATE

became a workers' state solely by virtue of defeat the dictatorship, prevent a coun­ Nicaragua must conciliate with the bour­ prise" (i.e., the majorityofthe economy!), the military defeat and subsequent re­ terrevolution by local forces or U.S. inva­ geoisie and leave their property intact. and the Sandinista refusal to move against placement of Somoza's repressive forces sion, preserve a bourgeois economy in Mandel rationalizes: these overwhelming "remains," that are by the armed might of the Sandinistas. association with land reform, and elimi­ precisely the problem. The consolidation of the new state then nate the worst capitalist saboteurs and When people talk about The FI' s attempts to define Nicaragua depended on two factors-the emergence human rights violations. the mixed economy, they are as a workers' state crassly rely on glossing of organs of proletarian democracy and But the Sandinistas, unlike the generally thinking of what over the glaring deficiencies and contra­ the economic transformation of society, Fidelistas, have never gone beyond these remains of capitalist enter­ dictions of the record and the govern­ which, however, is deferred in its comple­ bourgeois democratic aims-and have prise in the strict sense in Nica­ ment programs. The FI has become a tion to a vague future date. prevented the masses from doing so. An ragua. That is not where the craven apologist for the FSLN leadership, Propounding the majority FI view in armed populace alone-without the main problems come from, running interference for them against aJanuary 1985 interview, Mandel explic­ transformation of property relations, because the production and the valid criticism of their concerned itly underscores the primacy of control­ without the organs of workers' rule to exports of this sector are revolutionary supporters. ling the armed forces-to the exclusion bring about that transformation, and strictly monitored by the state Tom Barrett of the Fourth Interna­ of all other considerations for determin­ without a leadership proclaiming a clear (the situation is comparable tional Tendency (FIT), the FI's closest U.S. ing the nature of the state: socialist program--cannot make Nicara­ to that of the NEP [New Eco­ co-thinkers, addressed Socialist Action's gua a workers' state. nomic Policy] in Russia).24 call for overthrowing Nicaraguan capital­ ...the state power in Nica­ Even if one were to grant the FI's ism, in order to defend the revolution, as ragua represents the workers premise that Nicaragua became a prole­ This is flatly untrue. The Soviet NEP, follows: and poor peasants. Some tarian dictatorship-albeit an "emerging" Le., the careful restmation of capitalist 450,000 armed working people and therefore fragile and tenuous one­ relations in Soviet agriculture and some •.. the working class holds keep their guns in their homes. what is their assessment after eight years industries in the early '20s, was instituted state power in Nicaragua, It is in the context of such a of its "consolidation," according to their in the larger context of a fundamental and.•. the process ofpermanent regime that you have to define own gUidelines? and progressive change from capitalist to revolution is moving forward the class nature of the Assem­ Accenting the significance of creat­ socialized property relations. The Soviet there. It must do so at its own bly, and not on the basis of ing new organs of workers' rule, the FI , state had taken over the majority of in- pace, which cannot be dictated formal criteria.zo often points to the supposed by North American growth of workers' democracy Marxists basing them­ By hinging his definition solely on in Nicaragua as a key factor in selves on learned Nicaragua's "body of armed men," Mandel this supposed consolidation. texts.2S is fetishizing a single line from State Their articles often make claims and Revolution and tossing out 70 that CDS and other mass orga­ In this underhanded, years of development of the Leninist nizations are in fact organs of snide, anti-theoretical and theory of the state. He jettisons a rich workers' rule, and they predict redbaiting way, permanent body of knowledge and established crite­ an expanding role for these revolution ("learned texts") is ria delineated through extensive and of­ groups in ruling society. But demonstratively tossed out the ten bitter theoretical and political battles. the very evidt:nce presented in window by the allegedly And he "bends" Trotskyism to the service the 12th World Congress Reso­ Trotskyist FI. of Nicaraguan exceptionalism. lution shows that the mass or­ Despite its apparent ad­ In terms of historical precedents for ganizations have not taken on herence to the language of Nicaragua, the situation there is closest to the function of class rule and Trotskyism, the FI effectively what existed in Cuba on January 1, 1959 that the influence they have trails after the SWP revision­ after the military victory. wielded is waning! ists. Both organizations let the An intensive debate ensued within The FI's frenzied search for Sandinistas off the hook for the U.S. SWP on the nature of the Cuban signs of proletarian democracy their refusal to move against state. Joseph Hansen, writing for the in Nicaragua has turned them the capitalists. For the SWP, majority, explicitly rejected the notion into apologists for political, Nicaragua's workers' and farm­ that Cuba had become a workers' state at opponent-class pluralism. ers' government, despite obvi­ the time of the defeat of Batista and the Mandel states thattheplu­ ous bourgeois hegemony, is the passage of military control into the hands ralism espoused by the inevitable, peacefully transi­ of the revolutionary army. Even 10 Sandinistas, and self-organiza­ tional road to socialism. The months later, after the formation of popu­ tion/self-management by the FI, arguing that Nicaragua is lar militias, Cuba was still not a workers' masses, are mutually interde­ already a workers' state, avers . state. (An SWP minority denied that pendent and condition each that encroachment on capital- Cuba was a workers' state even after the other. He further characterizes ,ist property, while ultimately elimination of capitalist relations of pro­ the Sandinistas' espousal of plu­ necessary, is just not that cru­ duction because it lacked organs of prole­ ralism as a "return to the origi­ cial right now. tarian rule and a Bolshevik/Trotskyist lead­ nal. thought of Marx, of the How come? When will it ership.) Lenin of 1917, of Rosa Luxem­ be? Will it ever be? Noted Hansen: burg and of Trotsky."22 Non­ A tribute to Nicaragua's reVOlutionary Un The SWP justifies its posi­ sense; where is the evidence? tributo III upirltu revolucionllrlo de Nicllrllgull. tion by unfurling an open as­ The Rebel Army at that The problem is that plu­ sault on Trotskyism and the point served three conscious ralism in Nicaraguan politics is not an dustry, especially in the key sectors, had theory of permanent revolution. The FI ends, predominantly political aspect of workers' democracy, of express­ nationalized all land, and maintained a "defends" Trotsky, and the Marxist theory in nature: (1) to topple Batista, ing various currents within the revolu­ monopoly of foreign trade. The leader­ of the state on which permanent revolu­ (2) to prevent a Guatemala­ tionary proletariat. Rather, pluralism ex­ ship was forced to organize a temporary tion is based, but cavalierly twists prin­ type counterrevolution, (3) to presses the influence and economic hege­ and partial retreat, and openly labelled it ciples to bolster an analysis that violates defend the coalition govern­ mony of the bourgeoisie in a "mixed," as such, in order to spur sluggish produc­ Trotskyism and then leads in practice to ment, which was committed read capitalist, economy. tion. a position similar to the SWP's. Both to safeguarding private prop­ The FI states that "certainly in the None of this happened in Nicaragua. groups in effect endorse the status quo, erty (with redistribution of last instance the economic foundations In Russia, Trotsky emphasized that even as they affix different labels to the land and rectification of will be decisive in the consolidation of the NEP was a danger to the workers' state state. abuses in other fields). the workers' state."23 (Emphasis in origi­ and had to be constantly measured in But the beleaguered and desperate nal.) But they are vague on when and terms of whether it ultimately strength­ Nicaraguan revolution benefits little from Hansen conduded: how they expect this economic transfor­ ened state control of the economy or such friends. Far more valuable to them, mation to occur. And they do not pro­ undermined it. whether or not they know and accept it, The absence of socialist duce an economic yardstick against which And even under the NEP, the state is a carefully reasoned and critical analy­ consciousness made it impos­ to measure progress in consolidating the sector ofthe economy continued to grow, sis of the Nicaraguan state that uses the sible to call Cuba a workers workers' state. together with the Bolsheviks' overall en­ tools of Marxism, not to drop a halo on state on January 1, 1959, even FI commentators uniformly avoid gagement in planning and directing pro­ the Sandinistas but to shed genuine light though bodies of armed men, any critical assessment of existing, funda­ duction. But the opposite is true in Nica­ on vital revolutionary questions and de­ a special repressive force, did mental property relations as they pontifi­ ragua. The measures instituted there have velop a course of action that can defend exist then.21 cate on the nature and dynamics of the proved incapable of planning and con­ poverty-stricken, tiny, brave Nicaragua revolution. They also ascribe difficulties trolling capitalist production or the from the imperialist monster and impel The goals ofthevictorious Sandinistas with production or the black market to economy in general. the revolution onto the path of socialist in 1979 were essentially the same as those forces beyond FSLN control, and uncriti­ Mandel notwithstanding, it is pre­ democracy. of the Cuban leadership in its first days: cally parrot the Sandinista assertion that cisely the "remains of capitalist enter- to supplement page 14 Call, write, v· escribe, visitanos!

CALIFORNIA WASHINGTON Los Angeles: 1918 W. 7th St., #204, Port Angeles: 512 E. 7th, Port Angeles, WA Portland: 7038 N. Fairport PI., Portland, OR Los Angeles, CA 90057. 213-413-1350. 98362.206-452-7534. 97217.503-289-7082. San Francisco Bay Area: 523-A Valencia St., Seattle: National Office, Bush Asia Center, San Francisco, CA 94110. 415-864-1278. 409 Maynard Ave. So., Seattle, WA 98104. 206-682-0990. • • • Seattle Branch, New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier NEW YORK Ave. So., Seattle, WA98118. 206-722-2453. AUSTRALIA New york City: 32 Union Square E., Rm. 907, Tacoma: P.O. Box 5847, Tacoma, WA 98405. Melbourne: P.O. Box 266, West Brunswick, NY, NY 10003. 212-677-7002. 206-383-4142. VIC 3055. 03-386-5065.

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT-12 LA NATURALEZA DEL ESTADO DE NICARAGUA 17

De acuerdo a la Resolucion del 12~ macion de las relaciones de propiedad, sin 10 que queda de la empresa arrolladores, son precisamente el proble­ Congreso Mundial (1985) de la CI y a los los organos del regimen obrero para conse­ capitalista en Nicaragua, en el ma. escritos de los lideres Ernest Mandel, Paul guir esa transformacion, y sin un liderazgo sentido estricto de la palabra. Los intentos de la CI para definir a LeBlanc y otros de la CI, Nicaragua eviden­ que proclame un programa socialista cla­ Esto no es de donde provienen Nicaragua como un Estado de obreros se fia temente vino a ser un Estado obrero solo ro- no puede hacer de Nicaragua un Estado los principales problemas, crasamente en encubrir las deficiencias por virtud de la derrota militar y el reem­ obrero. porque la produccion y expor­ deslumbrantes y las contradicciones de plaza subsiguiente de las fuerzas represivas Aun cuando uno fuera a otorgar la taciones de este sector estan historial y programas del gobierno. La CI se de Somoza por el poder armado de los premisa de la CI de que Nicaragua se con­ estrictamente controladas por ha convertido en una apologista ansiosa sandinistas. La consolidacion del nuevo virtio en una dictadura proletaria-si bien el Estado (Ia situacion se del liderazgo del FSLN, interfiriendo a fa­ Estado dependio entonces de dos facto­ una" en surgimiento" y por ende una fragi! compara con la del NEP [Nueva vor de ellos en contra de las criticas validas res-el surgimiento de organos de demo­ y tenue-lCual es su evaluacion despues PoliticaEconomica] en Rusia).Z4 de sus defensores revolucionarios in teresa­ cracia proletaria y la transformacion eco­ deochoanosdesu "consoJidacion", seglin dos y preocupados. nomica de la sociedad, que, de cualquier sus propias pautas? Esto es absolutamente falso. La NEP Tom Barrett de la Tendencia Cuarta modo, esta diferida en su realizacion a una Acentuando el significado de crear los sovietica, por ejemplo, a comienzos de los Internacional (TCI), los copensadores de la fecha futura vaga. CI mas cercanos en los EUA, se pronuncia­ En una entrevista realizada en 1985, ron al respecto del lIamado de la Accion proponiendo el punto de vista mayoritario Socialista para derrocar al capitalismo ni­ de la CI Mandel subraya expHcitamente la caragiiense, para defender a la revolucion primacia de controlar las fuerzas arma­ de la siguiente manera: das--con la exclusion de todas las otras consideraciones para determinar la natu­ ... la clase obrera sostiene raleza del Estado: el poder estatal en Nicaragua y ... el proceso de la revolucion .... el poder estatal en Nica­ permanente, avanza. Debe de ragua representa a los obreros hacerlo a su propio paso, el y a los campesinos pobres. Unos cual no puede ser dictado por 450.000 obreros armados marxistas norteamericanos que guardan sus armas en casa. Es se basan en textos aprendidos.zs en el contexto de tal regimen en el que uno tiene que definir la De esta manera socarrona, sarcastica, naturaleza de clases de la antiteorica y anticomunista, la Revolucion asamblea, y no en la base de un Permanente ("textos aprendidos") criterio formal. zo comprobadamente es arrojada por la ven­ tana por los supuestamente trotskistas de Al colgar su definicion unicamente la CI. del" cuerpo de hombres armados" de Nica­ Atm a pesar de la aparente adherencia ragua, Mandel, esta fetichizando un solo allenguaje trotskyista, la CI efectivamente renglon de Estado y la Revoluci6n y des­ sigue a los revisionistas del PST. Ambas echando 70 anos de desarrollo de la teoria organizaciones soltaron a los sandinistas leninista sobre el Estado. Desech6 un cuer­ del anzuelo-por su rechazo de actuar contra po rico en conocimiento y criterios sabi­ los capitalistas. Para el PST, el gobierno de dos, delineados a traves de extensas y fre­ obreros y campesinos, a pesar de la hege­ cuentemente amargas batallas teoricas y Woman tutile worker in Managua factory. Obrera te1ttil en IIna monia burguesa obvia, es el camino inevi­ politicas. Y "tuerce" el trotskyismo al ser­ ftibrlca lie Managlla. table y pacificamente transitorio hacia el vicio del excepcionalismo nicaragiiense. socialismo. La CI argumenta que Nicara­ La situaci6h alii, en terminos de prece­ nuevos organos del regimen obrero, la CI anos veinte, la restauraci6n cuidadosa de gua es ya un Estado obrero, en contra de la dentes hist6ricos para Nicaragua, fue 10 con frecuencia senala al supuesto creci­ las relaciones capitalistas en la agricultura apropiacion de la propiedad capitalista, mas cercana, a la que existi6 en Cuba el miento de la democracia obrera en Nicara­ yen algunas industrias sovieticas fue insti­ que aunque a fin de cuentas necesaria, no primero de enero de 1959 despues de la gua como un factor clave en esta supuesta tuida en el contexto mas amplio de un es tan crucial en este momento. victoria militar. consolidacion. Sus articulos frecuentemen­ cambio fundamental y progresivo de las l Como es posible? l Cuando sera Nica­ En este periodo siguio un debate in­ te reclaman que los CDS y otras organiza­ relaciones de la propiedad capitalista a ragua un Estado obrero? lLo sera alguna tenso dentro del PST estadounidense sobre ciones de masas son de hecho 6rganos de socializada. EI estado sovietico se habia vez? la naturaleza del Estado cubano. Joseph dirigencia obrera, y predicen un papel en apoderado de la mayoria de las industrias, EI PST justifica su posicion desplegan­ Hansen, escribiendo para la mayoria, ex­ expansion para estos grupos, en regir a la especialmente en los sectores clave, nacio­ do un ataque abierto al trotskyismo y a la plicit

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SUPLEMENTO ESPEClAL-13 18 THE NATURE OF THE NICARAGUAN STATE

and discussions with Nicaraguans. Use Left, especially among Trotskyists, and in theory and the lessons of history to show the Central American solidarity move­ that the FSLN course of blocking the ment, on the lessons of the revolution, IX. Proposals for Action formation of a proletarian dictatorship the nature of the state, and our program. can only result in the deterioration or 4. Emphasize the special relation be­ defeat of the revolution. tween the Latin American struggle and ecause of the urgent necessity for revolutionary masses of Nicaragua to de­ 2. Send FSP visitors to Nicaragua im­ the North American revolution by pub­ the Nicaraguan workers and farm­ fend and carry the revolution forward by mediately. We must stay in close touch lishing and disseminating our analysis ers to erect a workers' state in means of completing the expropriation with the pulse of the revolUtion and ob­ among Latin American revolutionaries, B Nicaragua and stimulate the revo­ of the bourgeoisie from economic domi­ serve its development first-hand in order especially Trotskyists, and to Fourth In­ lution throughout Central and Latin nance and political influence, and by to confirm, extend or alter our analysis. ternational adherents and official bodies. America, the FSP should adopt the fol­ establishing a workers' state. 3. Send returning visitors on national 5. Set up or enroll in Spanish classes, lowing program of action: This call shoUld be made through the tours to inform the party and promote a key task for meaningful work with the 1. Call on the Sandinistas and the media of letters, FS editorials, leaflets, discussion and debate within the U.S. Latinos here and abroad.

power of the mass organizations shrank, ing overtime to dismantle the revolution because the Sandinistas opted for bour­ by beheading the FSLN Army, returning x. Afterword: geois-democratic parliamentarianism, en­ state industry to private hands, cutting shrined in the 1984 Constitution. Little wages, and throwing Nicaragua open to fresh grassroots leadership was allowed to unbridled investment by foreign and Since the Election develop. domestic capital. The Sandinista policies engendered a Nicaragua's people see all this clearly. he 1990 electoral defeat of the agro-exporters. The FSLN refused to Use crisis of the regime which came to a head And they are fighting back, as the massive Sandinistas confirms, in the nega­ its resources to empower the Native pro­ early last year. The Nicaraguan people, strikes in May and July last year so graphi­ tive, our conclusions on the na­ ducers in the development of the vast, poorer than ever and desperate for relief, cally demonstrate. This will to fight is the T ture of the Nicaraguan state, its untapped wealth ofthe region. Autonomy used the February elections to protest the best evidence that the revolution is not contradictions, and the steps needed to remained a fiction on paper; hence, the FSLN's failure to reverse the revolution's yet defeated. move the revolution forward. Sandinistas failed to bring the costefios slide into chaos. The Sandinistas, cling- As the "loyal opposition" to the The revolution survived a decade of Chamorro government, however, the incredible hUman and economic destruc­ FSLN holds onto its middle-caste charac­ tion engineered by the Pentagon and the ter, attempting to prevent a decisive con­ CIA-and it is this proud legacy of sur­ frontation between labor and capital and vival that is the basis for further progress. to maintain the political status quo. The sheer will and determination of Yet while top Sandinistas are cutting the Nicaraguan people and their com­ deals with Chamorro, and advocating mitment to the FSLN kept the revolution­ compromises with the bourgeOiSie, other ary fires burning in the dark years of the FSLN sectors are more tied than ever to contra war. Nicaraguans still supported the people in the street. the FSLN, even in the face of major set­ Currently, the FSLN is wracked by backs such as the USSR's 1988 cutback of internal debate. And a grassroots radical oil, which sent a message worldwide that wing, adamantly opposed to the collabo­ it was open season on all Third World rationist course, is in the process of for­ revolutions. mation. Nonetheless, the Sandinistas fell from Leftwing Sandinista militants now power last year because, after 10 years in need to push the FSLN as a whole to draw power, they had failed to sufficiently con­ the proper lessons from its decade in solidate the revolution's achievements, power and hammer out a program for the fulfill the democratic aspirations and real liberation of Nicaragua. The main material needs of the Nicaraguan people, lesson---capitalism is incompatible with and carry the revolution forward in four the people's aspirations for democracy key and interconnected areas. and independence. A program fashioned First, the U.S.-pounded economy con­ out of this realization would mobilize tinued to spin out of control as the state Election camP4U&Jl! hope r.emained in the faces of FSLN.suppor.te.r.s.... Nicaragua's worken,. peasants, women, bureaucracy, committed to "mixed" capi­ IA Clllnpilfill eledorlll:-TJJCsperllnzll se mlliiluvo en los rostros de los Indians, Creoles and youth to confront talism, imposed a brutal austerity plan pllrrldllrios del FSLN. and oust the Chamorros and contras, and which sacrificed the survival needs of make Nicaragua a workers' state. Such a wage earners and small producers to the into the heart of the revolution where ing stubbornly to failed policies, gave the program, enunciated boldly, would also interests oflarge agro-exporters. The FSLN they belonged. election away. Chamorro had only to rally international forces who've been cut food subsidies and pared away at the Third, the needs of women, the main­ promise that the U.S. would come to too long deluded by the notion that de­ state industrial sector. Unemployment stay of the Nicaraguan economy, were Nicaragua's aid once the Sandinistas were mocracy in Nicaragua could somehow be and inflation pushed the people into ever­ kept on the back burner. As the revolu­ ousted. And so they were, by a desperate, consolidated this side of socialism. worsening poverty. The country was tion spiraled downward, women, 43% of worn-out people. One lesson of Chamorro's victory is shoved into a U.S. dollar-driven free mar­ whom are single heads of households, Chamorro's promise was empty; U.S. that this idea is a delusion. The Sandini­ ket scramble for the barest necessities. were hit hardest on all sides-as mothers II aid" to the Third World consists in arm­ stas should shout it from the rooftops. Second, the critical problems of the without childcare, as the lowest-paid ing pro-capitalist dictators and death Meanwhile, the job of U.S. revolu­ Atlantic Coast remained unsolved under workers, as beleaguered consumers in the squads. Since last February, everything in tionaries is to build a movement at home FSLN rule. Sandinista military occupa­ chaotic, impoverished marketplace. The Nicaragua has gotten worse. Inflation has that will fight, in solidarity with the Nica­ tion continued after the conclusion of FSLN put the burden for replenishing the skyrocketed. Seventy percent of the people raguan people, against capitalism in both the contra war. Under the 1987 Autonomy war-decimated population on women, are mired in extreme poverty and per countries. U.S. imperialism is the prob­ Law, Indians' demand for the right to refusing to legalize abortion. Women capita income has shrunk to 1945 levels. lem in this hemisphere; the only solu­ self-determination and Blacks' demand became the fiercest critics of government Women's rights are being rolled back, and tion, ultimately, is a sodalist confedera­ for equality remained unmet. Thousands bureaucratism and corruption, even while the people on the Atlantic Coast are far­ tion of states in the Americas and the of Indian fighters had returned to the their sacrifice and pride kept the Nicara­ ther away than ever from autonomy. The Caribbean. In the interim, the more ef­ revolution hoping that the government guan revolution alive. region is moreofa military camp than ever. fectively the U.S. movement builds for would incorporate Indians equally into Lastly, the democratic participation The conditions that bred the revolu­ revolution at home, the easier it will be the revolution, but those hopes were sac­ of the people in the running of the revo­ tion are doubly in force-and Chamorro for the Nicaraguan people and those fight­ rificed to the interests of the Pacific-based lutionary state was discouraged, and the and the returning contra forces are work- ing imperialism everywhere.

Notes Domestic and International Influ­ Avon, England: Zed Books, 1986, p.145. 17. "Theses on Tactics" excerpted in ences," Nicaragua: Unfinished "Workers' and Farmers' Government," 1. Tomas Borge, "On Human Rights in 8. Charles Downes, "Local and Regional Revolution, Peter Rosset and John Government," Nicaragua: The First SWP Discussion Bulletin, vol. 22, no. 12, Nicaragua," Sandinistas Speak, Vandermeer, editors, NY: Grove Press, May 1961, p.34. Tomas Borge, et al., NY: Pathfinder Five Years, p.45-63. 1986, p.88-89. Press, 1982, p.90-93. 18. Leon Trotsky, The Death Agony of 9. Carlos M. Vilas, "The Mass Organiza­ Capitalism and the Tasks of the 2. Mike Layton, "Ronald Reagan's Actions 6. "Leyes relacionadas con el Consejo de tions in Nicaragua," Monthly Review, Estado," as cited by John A. Booth, Fourth International, NY: Path­ Against Nicaragua Take Their Toll," vol. 38, no. 6, Nov. 1986, p.28. finder Press, 1973, p.94. Seattle Times, Dec. 24,1986, Op-EdPage. "The National Government System," in Nicaragua: The First Five Years, 10. Carlos M. Vilas, "The Workers Move­ 19. "The Central American Revolution," 3. "Workers and Peasants in Power: Inter­ Thomas W. Walker, editor, NY: Praeger, ment in the Sandinista Revolution," International Viewpoint (special supple­ view with Ernest Mandel," International 1985, p.3l. p.135. ment: "Resolutions of the Twelfth Viewpoint, #67, Jan. 14, 1985, p.3. 7. Carlos M. Vilas, "The Workers Move­ 11. "Nicaragua: Political Debate Centers World Congress of Jan. 1985), p.94. 4. Borge, p.97. ment in the Sandinista Revolution," A on Power Sharing," Central American 20. "Workers and Peasants in Power: Inter­ S. Latin American Studies Association, Revolution Under Siege, Richard L. Report, vol. 13, no. 38, Oct. 4, 1986. view with Ernest Mandel," p.3. "The Electoral Process in Nicaragua: Harris and Carlos M. Vilas, editors, 12. Ruth Nebbia, "Nicaraguan Women Vol­ 21. Joseph Hansen, "What the Discussion unteer for the Army," Militant, June 20, on Cuba is About," SWP Discussion 1986. Bulletin, vol. 22, no. 12, May 1961, 13. "The Historic Program of the FSLN," p.23. Many Thanks Sandinistas Speak, p.13-22. 22. "Workers and Peasants in Power: Inter­ 14. Borge, p.96. view with Ernest Mandel," p.3. The authors and the Freedom Socialist staff extend very 23. "The Central American Revolution," 15. Jan Norden, II Anti-Imperialism Abroad special thanks to Ana Meekins, Gabriela Tello, and Fernando Means Class Struggle at Home," Work­ XII World Congress, p.94. L6pez-Dellamary for their painstaking translation of this docu­ ers Vanguard, Dec. 9, 1986, p.6. 24. "Workers and Peasants in Power: Inter­ 16. Mary-Alice Waters, "The Workers and view with Ernest Mandel," p.4. ment into Spanish. Thanks also to Tello for her general assis­ Farmers Government: A Popular Revo­ 25. Tom Barrett, "SimplistiC Answers in tance in this supplement's production. Her talents and dedica­ lutionary Dictatorship," New Interna­ the Debate on Central America," Bulle­ tional, vol. I, no. 3, spring-summer tin in Defense of Marxism, vol. 26, Jan. tion were invaluable in making this project possible. 1984. 1986, p.24.

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT-14 LA NATURAlEZA DEL ESTADO DE NICARAGUA

cas fracasadas regalaron la elecci6n. acuerdos con la burguesia, otros sectores Chamorro s610 tuvo que prometer que los del FSLN estan mas atados que nunca a la x. Postdata: EUA vendrian a la ayuda de Nicaragua una gente en la calle. vez que los sandinistas fueran expulsados. Actualmente, el FSLN esta arruinado Y asi 10 fueron, por un pueblo desesperado por el debate interno y un ala de origen Desde la Elecci6n yagotado. radical proveniente de las bases, inexora­ La pro mesa de Chamorro estaba vacia; ble en su en oposicion al curso a derrota electoral de los sandinis­ mantenidas en el fogon trasero. Al descen­ la "ayuda" de los EUA al Tercer Mundo colaboracionista, esta en el proceso de for­ tasen 1990comprueba, enlonegati­ der la revoluci6n en espiral, las mujeres, consiste en armar dictadores procapitalis­ macion. yo, nuestras conclusiones sobre la 43% de las cuales son unicas jefas de fami­ tas y escuadrones de la muerte. Desde el Los militantes izquierdistas sandinistas L naturaleza del Estado nicaraguen­ lia, fueron abatidas mas fuertemente por pasado febrero, todo en Nicaragua ha em­ necesitan empujar ahora al FSLN como un se, sus contradicciones, y los pasos necesa­ todos lados-como mad res sin guarderias, peorado. La inflacion subio por los cielos. to do para trazar las lecciones apropiadas de rios para avanzar a la revolucion. como las trabajadoras con paga mas baja, Setenta por ciento del pueblo esta atascado su decada en el podery elaborar un progra­ La revoluci6n sobrevivi6 una decada como consumidoras acosadas en el merca­ en extrema pobreza y el ingreso percapita rna para la liberaci6n real de Nicaragua. La de una increible destruccion humana y do ca6tico y empobrecido. El FSLN puso la se encogio a niveles de 1945. Los derechos principal leccion-el capitalismo es in­ economic a, maquinada porel Pentagonoy carga sobre las mujeres para reponer a la de la mujer estan siendo echados atras y la compatible con las aspiraciones del pueblo la CIA-yes este orgulloso legado de poblacion decimada por la guerra, gente en la Costa Atlantica esta mas lejos por la democracia y la independencia. Un supervivencia la base para un progreso rehusandose a legalizar el aborto. Las mu­ que nunca de la autonomia. La region es, programa moderno basado en esta com­ posterior. jeres se convirtieron en los criticos mas mas que nunca, un campo militar prension movilizaria a los obreros, campe­ La pura voluntad y la determinacion violentos del burocratismo y corrupcion Las condiciones que engendraron la sinos, mujeres, indigenas, creoles y a la del pueblo nicaragiiense, y su compromiso del gobierno, aun cuando su sacrificio y revoluci6n se han duplicado en fuerza. juventud nicaragiienses para confrontar y con el FSLN mantuvo ardiendo los fuegos Chamorro y las fuerzas con­ expulsar a las Chamorros y a los Contras, y revolucionarios en los oscuros anos de la tras que regresaron estan tra­ hacer de Nicaragua un Estado obrero. Tal guerra Contra. Los nicaraguenses siguie­ bajando horas extras para des­ programa, enunciado a grandes rasgos, re­ ron apoyando al FSLN aun frente a mayo­ mantelar la revolucion, deca­ uniria tambien fuerzas internacionales que res contratiempos tales como los recortes pitando al ejercito del FSLN, han sido enganadas por mucho tiempo por de petroleo en 1988 por parte de URSS, 10 devolviendo la industria del la nocion de que la democracia en Nicara­ que envio un mensaje mundial de que era Estado a manos privadas, re­ gua de alg6n modo puede ser consolidada temporada abierta de caza para todas las cortando los salarios y arro­ de este lado del socialismo. revoluciones del tercer mundo. jando a Nicaragua de manera Una lecci6n purificadora de la victoria Sin embargo, los sandinistas perdie­ abierta a la inverSion desen­ de La Chamorro es que esta es un engano. ron el poder el ano pasado porque despues frenada por capital domesti­ Los sandinistas deben gritarlo desde los de 10 anos de estar en el, fallaron en con­ co y extranjero. tejados. solidar suficientemente los logros de la El pueblo nicaragiiense Mientras tanto el trabajo de los revolu­ revoluci6n, satisfacer las aspiraciones de­ ve todo esto claramente. Y cionarios estadounidense, es el de crear un mocraticas, las necesidades materiales del movimiento en casa que luche, en solida­ pueblo nicaraguense, y llevar hacia adelan­ ridad con el pueblo te a la revoluci6n en cuatro areas claves e interconectadas. Suuuner1990,Managua Primero. La economia golpeada por construction workers los EU A continu6 girando fuera de control strike as inflation hits mientras que la burocracia estatal, com­ 34,000%. So much for prometida al capitalismo "mixto", impuso Chamorro's promise of un plan de austeridad brutal que sacrifico U.S.-aided economic las necesidades de supervivencia de asala­ rejuvenation. Verano riados y de pequenos productores a los lie 1990. Trab4l}allores intereses de grandes agroexportadores. El lie una constnlcd6n en FSLN corto los subsidios de comida y se Managua en lIudgll, alejo del sector industrial del estado. El rnientras '41 Infladon desempleo y la inflacion empujaron al a'canza 34,000"- pueblo a una pobreza siempre empeorante. Totlo por '41 promua 1'.1 pais fue empujado a un salvese quien lie l.II Cllamorro lie '41 pueda de mercado libre, impulsado por los ayullalle restauraclon d61ares estadounidenses, para conseguir l!Conornfulle los E.U. Qecesidad~s mas basicas. _ __ Segundo. Los problemas critlcos de la Costa Atlantica permanecieron sin resol­ orgullo mantuvieron viva verse bajo la direcci6n del FSLN. La ocupa­ a la revoluci6n nicara­ cion del ejerclto sandinista continuo des­ giiense. pues de la conclusion de la guerra Contra. Por ultimo, la parti­ Bajo la Ley de Autonomia de 1987, la cipaci6n democratica del exigencia de los indigenas por el derecho a pueblo en el avance del la autodeterminaci6n y la exigencia de los Estado revolucionario negros por la igualdad, siguen sin cumplir­ fue desalentado y el po­ se. Miles de luchadores indigenas habian der de las organizaciones de masas se regresado a la revoluci6n con la esperanza encogio porque los sandinistas optaron esta luchando de que el gobierno incorporara a la igual­ por un parlamentarismo democ­ en respuesta, como 10 demuestran tan dad indigena en la revolucion, pero esas raticoburgues, conservado religiosamente griificamente las huelgas masivas en mayo nicaraguense, en con- esperanzas fueron sacrificadas por los inte­ en la constituci6n de 1984. Fue permitido y julio del ano pasado. Este deseo de lucha tra del capitalismo en ambos paises. El reses de los agroexportadores con base en poco desarrollo de liderazgos populares es la mejor evidencia de que la revoluci6n imperialismo estadounidense es el proble­ el Pacifico. El FSLN rehuso usar sus recursos proveniente de las bases. aun no ha sido derrotada. ma en este hemisferio; la unica solucion, al para autorizar a los product ores nativos a Las politicas sandinistas engendraron Como la "oposicion leal" al gobierno final, es una confederaci6n sodalista de desarrollar la vasta riqueza sin explotar de una crisis del regimen que llego al tope a de La Chamorro, no obstante, el FSLN se estados en las Ammcas y en el Caribe. En la region. La autonomia permanecio como comienzos del ano pasado. El pueblo nica­ aferra a su caracter de casta media, inten­ el interin, entre mas efectivamente cons­ una ficcion en papel; por 10 tanto, los san­ raguense, mas pobre que nunca y desespe­ tando prevenir una confrontaci6n decisiva truya por la revolucion en casa el movi­ dinistas fallaron en traer a los costefios al rado por alivio, usolas elecciones de febre­ entre mana de obra y capital y, ala vez, miento estadounidense, mas facH sera para coraz6n de la revoluci6n al que pertenecian. ro para protestar la falla del FSLN de rever­ mantener el statu quo politico. el pueblo nicaragiiense y para aquellos que Tercero. Las necesidades de la mujer, tir el desliz de la revolucion al caos. Los Pero mientras los cabecillas sandinistas estan luchando contra el imperialismo en pilar de la economia nicaraguense, fueron sandinistas, aferrados tercamente a politi- hacen tratos COn La Chamorro y discuten todas partes.

Revolucion Sitiada, RiChard L. Har­ 1984 21. Joseph Hansen, "De que se Trata la Notas ris y Carlos M. Vllas, editores, Avon: 1. Tomas Borge, "Sobre los Derechos Hu­ 17. "TesisSobreTiicticas" extraidoen "Go­ Discusi6n en Cuba," SWP Discussion EQgland: Zed Books, 1986, p.145. bierno de Obreros y Campesinos," SWP Bul/etin, vol. 22, no. 12, mayo 1961, manos en Nicaragua," Los Sandinis­ 8. Charles Downes, "Gobierno Local y tas Hablan, et. aI., NY: Pathfinder Discussion Bulletin, vol. 22, no. 12, mayo p.23. Press, 1982, p.90-93. Regional," Nicaragua: Los Prime­ 1961, p.34. 22. "Obreros y Campesinos en el Poder: ros Cinco Aiios, p.45-63. 2. Mike Layton, "Las Acciones de Ronald 18. Leon Trotsky, La Agonia de Muute Entrevista con Ernest Mandel," p.3. Reagan en Contra de Nicaragua Produ­ 9. Carlos M. Vilas, "Las Organizaciones del Capitalismo y las Tareas de la de Masas en Nicaragua," Monthly Re­ 23. lila Revoluci6n Centroamericana," XII cen una Cuota de Victimas," Seattle Cuarta InternacionaI, NY: Path­ Congreso Mundial, p.94. Times, die. 24, 1986, Op-Ed Page. view, vol. 38, no. 6, Nov. 1986, p.28. finder Press, 1973, p.94. 10. Carlos M. Vilas, "EI Movimiento Obre­ 19. "La Revoluci6n Centroamericana," In­ 24. "Obreros y Campesinos en el Poder: 3. "Obreros y Campesinos en el Poder: Entrevista con Ernest Mandel," p.4. Entrevista con Ernest Mandel," Interna­ ro en la Revoluci6n Sandinista," p.135. ternational Viewpoint (suplemento es­ tional Viewpoint, #67, ene. 14, 1985, 11. "Nicaragua: El Debate Politico Centra­ pecial: "Resoluciones del Duodecimo 25. Tom Barrett, "Respuestas Simplistas en p.3. do en la Distribuci6n del Poder," Cen­ Congreso Mundial de ene. 1985), p.94. el Debate Sobre Centroamerica," Bul/e­ 4. Borge, p.97. tral American Report, vol. 13, no. 38, 20. "Los Obreros y Campesinos en el Po­ tin in Defense of Marxism, vol. 26, ene. 5. Asociaci6n de Estudios Latino­ Oct. 4, 1986. der: Entrevista con Ernest Mandel," p.3. 1986, p.24. americanos, "EI Proceso Electoral en 12. Ruth Nebbia, II Las Mujeres NicaragUen­ Nicaragua: lnfluencias Domesticas e ses Voluntarias en el Ejercito," Militant, lnternacionales", Nicaragua: La Re­ jun. 20, 1986. volucion Inconclusa, Peter Rosset y 13. "EI Programa Hist6rico del FSLN," Los John Vandermef'r, editores, NY: Grove Sandinistas Hablan, p.13-22. Agradecimientos Press, 1986, p.88-89. 14. Borge, p.96. Los autores del Freedom SOCialist extienden sus especiales 6. "Leyes Relacionadas con el Consejo de 15. Jan Norden, "EI Anti Imperialismo en agradecimientos a Ana Meekins, Gabriela Tello y Fernando Lopez­ Estado," como fue citado por John A. el Extranjero Implica la Lucha de Cla­ Booth, "EI Sistema Nacional del Go­ ses en Casa," Workers Vanguard, die. 9, Dellamary por su afanosa traduccion de este documento al espa­ bierno," Nicaragua: Los Primeros 1986, p.6 nol. Agradecemos tambien a Tello por su afable asistencia en Cinco Ados, Thomas W. Walker, edi­ 16. Mary-Alice Waters, "El Gobierno de tor, NY: Praeger, 1985, p.31. Obreros y Campesinos: Una Dictadura general en la produccion de este suplemento. Sus talentos y 7. Carlos M. Vilas, "EI Movimiento Obre­ Revolucionaria Popular," New Interna­ ro en la Revoluci6n Sandinista," Una tional, vol. 1, no. 3, primavera-verano dedicacion fueron invaluables en hacer posible este proyecto.

FREEDOM SOCIALIST SUPLEMENTO ESPEClAL-15 20 Freedom Socialist May-July 1991

~,s PU4K WAS BEATING SOME GUY SENSELESS F=OR NO Editorial GOOD REASON .•• ~ DO' oaRGE ~IM?

Opportunity knocks for 4th International after SWP exit

DOITING THE LAST "I," the U.S. Socialist Workers Party, once the revolutionary standard-bearer of U.S. Trotskyism, for­ mally severed its fraternal connections to the Fourth Interna­ tional on June 10, 1990. With Leon Trotsky, the party had led the founding of the International in 1938 in order that, through the affiliation of Trotskyist parties in different countries, a cohesive interna­ tional workers' revolutionary movement could be built. But the SWP publicly sloughed off Trotskyism in 1982 with its noisy repUdiation of the theory of permanent revolution, Trotskyism's ideological bedrock. Leaving the Fourth was pretty much a formality: the spirit of Trotskyism had been slain and laid to rest inside the party since the mid-'60s.

HERE'S WHY THE SWP dumped the Old Man: Trotsky taught that every oppressed group, from gays to steelworkers to national liberationists, needs a socialist revolution to get what they're after because capitalism stands in the way of de­ mocracy and equality for everyone. He also said that workers How the West seeded are going to have to lead these movements because only their interests are 100 percent opposed to those of the profiteers. That's at the heart of permanent revolution and the SWP the Desert Storm clouds wanted none of it. It's been decades since they believed that workers could make a revolution, especially in the U.S. Little odern Mideast his­ Zionism provokes Arab arm Israel against all the Arabs wonder, since for them the only workers who count are the tory dates from the revolt. Colonial subdivision as the West's proxy guarantor straight white hard hats who man heavy industry (what's left crumbling of the of the Mideast into artificial of "stability." of it)-who are undoubtedly the most privileged, conservative M Ottoman Empire nations and the installation of Western oil corporations strata of the workforce. after World War I, wIlen hege­ fragile, puppet Arab rulers still poured billions into the coffers Wild horses COUldn't get the SWP to admit that the spark mony over the region was con­ did not guarantee stability. So of Gulf state ruling families, plugs of labor today are its new majority, the underprivileged solidated by western European the British helped set up a Zi­ and the U.S. armed the Arab ones, the women, people of color, immigrants, gays. powers, primarily Britain and onist "homeland" for the Jews nationalist states, one against The SWP spent roughly 20 years touting Archie Bunkers as France. in Palestine as a garrison the other, to contain them U.S. labor's revolutionary vanguard; naturally, this woeful The outbreak of the war against Arab nationalism. within a web of interstate rival­ hucksterism produced nothing but cynicism and disorienta­ sharpened European realiza­ Jewish immigration to Pales­ ries. In this way, the Arab rul­ tion in the party. Finding their skewed version of class struggle tion that oil was crucial as a tine, given the green light with ers were each tied to the West an increasingly sterile enterprise, the SWP opted for political strategiC military commodity, the Balfour Declaration in against their own people. The get-rich-quick schemes, hopping in with labor bureaucrats, essential for motorized ground 1917, remained at a trickle U.S. also gave Israel all the Black nationalists and reformists, NOW-type feminists, and and air transport and more through the '30s. However the military hardware it could pos­ redbaiters in the antiwar movement-whoever looked at the powerful navies. Accordingly, trickle became a flood in the sibly use and made it the moment like they might have some clout with "the masses." control of oil became the wake of the Holocaust and the region's sole nuclear power. By 1982 it was time for the SWP to say to hell with the West's overriding political con­ refusal by Western "democra­ But there remained Arab pretense and dump Trotskyism outright. God knows why it took cern in the region. cies"-primarily the U.S.-to poverty, outrage and aspira­ the party eight more years to leave the Fourth International. Britain and France carved admit Jewish refugees during tions to freedom; the canker of the Mideast into separate World War II. Zionism; and the ambitions of NOW COMES Socialist Action to try to claim the sole U.S. states, installing pliant ruler­ The creation of Israel in strongmen such as Saddam­ Trotskyist "franchise" in the international body. ships in each. They aimed to 1948 and the resulting expul­ all guaranteed sooner or later This figures. SA's leaders are people who were purged from protect their oil monopolies, sion of the Palestinians sparked to produce an explosion in this the SWP in the early '80s during the party's anti-Trotskyist throttle pan-Arab revolt and a resurgence of the Arab revo­ imperialist-armed camp. mop-up campaign. But aside from balking when it came time "contain" the USSR to the lution, which led to successful to toss the permanent revolotion overboard, these people north. nationalist revolts in Egypt and The set-up of Saddam. don't have any quarrel with what the SWP had become by the The new configuration of Iraq in the '50s. Added to the Iraq, though oil-rich, has late '60s and '70s. They share the same adulation for white states was only loosely based shifting political mix was the chafed continually over the in­ males as the fountainhead of meaningful social change, the on the old Ottoman adminis- final displacement of the Euro- jury done it by the British in same blindness to the race and sex dynamics that are reshap­ 1922. It emerged from its ing the U.S. working class, and the same consequent cynicism 1980-88 war with Iran-in with regard to the revolutionary potential of a predominantly which it was armed and abet­ female, rainbow, and lesbian/gay workforce. All this adds up ted by the U.S.-with a mas­ to SWP-style opportunism toward movement bureaucrats and sive war debt, an equally reformists-and the same sectarian arrogance toward the rest massive military machine, and of the Left, especially other Trotskyists, that the SWP displays. a whetted desire to become the During the Gulf crisis SA worked overtime in antiwar coali­ reigning Mideast power. tions to keep open socialists off the speakers' platforms at rallies. Iraq needed top dollar for its The SWP was famous for trying to muffle radicals in the anti­ oil. Then, tiny Kuwait began Vietnam war movement. over-producing from its wells, driving world oil prices down, FOR THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, SA has coexisted as an af­ enraging Saddam, and setting filiate group inside the Fourth International with two other the stage for war. U.S. Trotskyist organizations, Fourth Internationalist Ten­ Kuwait as an oil producer is dency (FIT) and Fourth International Caucus of Solidarity at the service of British Petro­ (FIC), as well as with the SWP. FIT and FIC came out of the leum and Gulf Oil. It jacked up same purges that SA did, and the differences among the three production at the behest of the groups are largely sectarian, not political. SA is the biggest of imperialists. Can you imagine the bunch. Now that the SWP has split, SA figures it's time to this mouse tweaking the tiger's muscle in and claim bragging rights as the lone "official" U.S. tail otherwise? Saddam's ambi­ Trotskyist group. tions threatened the imperial­ The International might go for it. They never fought the ist status quo in the Mideast. SWP's apostasy, other than with a paper defense of permanent He had to be maneuvered into revolution, hoping the appeasement would keep its largest, a confrontation and destroyed. best-financed group in the fold. This delicate appreCiation of Prince Falsa' (front) at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, Iraq threatened to invade the SWP's organizational weight is doubtless why SA refrained where Britain and France betrayed the Arabs and parti­ Kuwait. U.S. ambassador to for eight years from pressing its claim. Now SA thinks it's the tioned the Mideast to hold on to the oil. Iraq April Glaspie told Saddam Arnold Schwarzenegger of American Trotskyism-no small vir­ the U.S. would stand aside. He tue as far as the International leadership is concerned. trative divisions. Kuwait, for peans by the United States as likely didn't believe that, but The whole thing stinks. The mere fact that SA can grab for example, was ripped away the chief imperialist power. figured he could win a favor­ sole affiliate status as if it were a Burger King franchise speaks from Basra province (southern able compromise in an ensuing to a near-terminal degeneration of the International. Should Iraq today) by British Procon­ Policy: divide, conquer, face-off. At any rate he went the power play be upheld, the Fourth can kiss goodbye its last sul Sir Percy Cox in 1922. Brit­ arm Israel. The U.S. plan in-and George Bush drew that tatters of heritage and integrity. (The International has since ain wanted to deny Baghdad for the region was simple. infamous line in the sand. opted to keep all three groups in the fold-Ed.) access to the Persian Gulf and Shore up the Gulf oligarchies Remember all this when the What the Fourth International should do is reject SA's forestall any Iraqi challenge to against nationalism, coopt the final tally for this obscene to page 23 British dominance there. new nationalist regimes, and slaughter strikes home. [J May-July 1991 Freedom Socialist 21

Voices of Color

Claro Blacks and Asians: Fraser The writers of the hinges on another's following column are demise. From the White House War Room Darryl Powell, an Afri­ That's why call American fire­ cultural nationalism to the Gulfstream Waters fighter and social ac­ -which sees race, tivistinNew York City, WE ARE not class, as the pri­ PEOPLE ARE OFTEN NOT what they seem. Not only and Emily Woo mary dividing line that, people frequently don't really believe in the sentiments Yamasaki, an Asian among us-isn't the and ideas they claim to hold. American actor, office answer. Poor Blacks Which is why I cast a jaundiced eye on the supposed infal­ worker, and member of and Koreans strug­ libility of public opinion polls, and why I reject the actions of NYC Radical Women. gling to make it even large crowds as proof of their political attitudes. aren't each others' A recent article in the daily press announced that adults ew York enemies. The sys­ generally respond to inquiries into their opinions by saying City media tem Which serves what they think the other guy wants to hear, or something barons the money-men that conforms to an apparently conventional, safe outlook. decided who are pitting us That's obvious. Since most of what they hear and see N against one another they'd struck pay-dirt comes from the mass media, people regurgitate those con­ last year with the is the problem. cepts. And instead of pithy political discourse, a stale and And that prob­ chance to sensation­ mechanical idea-recycling process results. alize the Black com­ ENEMIES lem won't be solved Weare all victimized by this dead-end, vicious-circle pa­ munity boycott of two Korean race-baiting and violence have by "Buy Black" campaigns, ei­ ralysis of public debate. markets in Flatbush. erupted between U.S. or Carib­ ther. Control of all wealth is in Tabloid headlines flashed bean Blacks and Koreans, Viet­ white capitalist hands. And A terrible war was waged. President Burning Bush said the when the boycott was triggered namese, and other Asian and even if we could do business country overwhelmingly supported it. General Stormtroopin' by a Haitian woman's charge Pacific Islander groups from entirely Within our own com­ Norman, in his haute couture camouflage pajamas, said the that a Korean shopkeeper had L.A. to Boston. munity, we'd still be stuck in troops were all gung ho. The soldiers said so too. TV and press unjustly accused her of shop­ Why? Are our cultures so in­ an economic ghetto, with a reporters said what Bush and Schwarzkopf had said. Then the lifting and then assaulted her. compatible that we inevitably few of our own added to the man and woman in the street said what all the above said. Both the media and the city clash? Are our people natural ranks of the explOiters. And the next thing you knew, there was vast exaltation over fathers figured the controversy racists and xenophobes? this super-victorious war, swiftly followed by corrosive despair would serve as a handy coun­ We don't believe it. We need to unite. Rather and demoralization in a peace movement grown bewildered terweight to the uproar over We do believe that this sys­ than scapegoat each other, we by the support-our-troops demagogues. white racism in the murders of tem invests a lot of energy in need to build multi-racial alli­ The country appeared to be turning ultra-right. Black men in Howard Beach teaching racism. We're bom­ ances-based on respect and and Bensonhurst. See, scream­ barded with, and sometimes recognition of the real eco­ DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT. There are more things in ed the nightly news broadcasts, buy into, the hype: Asian im­ nomic and social walls that di­ heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your phi­ Blacks and Asians are racist migrants are the "model mi­ vide us. losophy, and few workers, students or retirees in the U.S.A. too! nority" that steals jobs from And we can do it. Last year are all that enamored with the philosophy that justifies the But the picketers and boy­ American workers; Blacks, in Tacoma, Washington, a holocaust we rained down on our workingclass sisters and cott organizers we!ve talkecl to < •• meanwhile, are lazy, would group including Korean Ameri­ brothers in the P.ersian Gulf. " are not anti-Asian bigots. They rather be on welfare than hold cans, Blacks, other people of Even the frenetic welcome parades bespeak more relief and point to good relations be­ jobs, are natural thieves, ad color, whites, and radicals ral­ pity than crazed jingoism. In Seattle, the parade committee tween some Korean store own­ nauseam. lied together outside a pro-Nazi split into pro- and con-militarism factions, and it's hard to ers and the predominantly These are the stereotypes. Populist Party meeting. They tell who will produce the larger contingent-the patriots or Black communities they serve. What's behind them? And who were protesting Populist links the protesters. But the two stores in question benefits? to an Aryan Nations plot to are notorious for their disdain­ bomb Korean businesses, a WHAT AN IRONY. It is so gratifying on this May Day, ful treatment of the people in Racist politics equals Black nightclub, a gay disco, 1991 that the Moscow parade is mercifully bereft of those their communities, and for capitalist economics. We and jewish synagogues. Those menacing fleets of tanks and seas of bayonets that graced Red that reason we believe this find the answer to the above Nazis sure saw we had some­ Square in the long darkness-at-noon era. American troop boycott was justified. questions in the fact that, thing in common. Fortunately, parades never featured armaments-I never saw any during while oppressed people are at so did the anti-Populist pro­ World War II or any other war. But Seattle's celebration will Divide and conquer. The each other's throats, white testers. be encased in martial hardware; I fully expect to see multi­ city's actions reinforce our be­ male bosses and landlords get Obviously, it's urgent we get colored, sequin-studded missiles dangling from the Space lief: the press called the boy­ rich off a diSCriminatory wage past our divisions. We should Needle. Shades of old Joe Stalin! cott organizers" outside agita­ system and exorbitant rents for begin holding inter-commu­ The Reverse Vietnam/Reward Our Soldiers contagion is just tors," when in fact they were slum hOUSing. nity dialogues that educate that-an epidemic born of the 4th-of-July yearning to remedy community people, primarily That's the capitalist stake in about our diverse cultures and past injustices against Vietnam vets and do something posi­ Haitians. Then, New York's keeping us divided. If we're histories. The Flatbush boycott tive, do the right thing, show the right stuff. But how do you first Black mayor, David tied up fighting each other, we sparked vital discussions, in­ express sympathy for hapless kids shanghaied into incinerat­ Dinkins, crossed the picket line won't be struggling together cluding forums organized by ing the cradle of human civilization-Iraq-from whence to buy fruit. And the police, for against the real enemy. Radical Women in New York most modern culture sprang? How can you cheer an invading whom Black community self­ And, as economic recession and San Francisco. African force that ruthlessly murdered its own history, its own heri­ organizing is anathema, used deepens, Blacks, Koreans, and American and Asian American tage, its own ancestral homeland? the boycott to harass picketers all the oppressed will be push­ feminists Barbara Smith and and clamp down on street ven­ ed toward more frantic squab­ Merle Woo talked at these fo­ You can't. You can't applaud marauders or bestiality. What dors. bling over dwindling jobs, rums about both the difficul­ you can do is befriend individuals and learn what is truly on Little wonder that, after the housing, financing for homes ties and necessity of uniting their minds and in their hearts. For out of these innocent and Korean shopkeeper was acquit­ and small businesses, and across the color line, and most misguided troops will come the new antiwar leaders, the new ted in January of assault on the other pieces of the shrinking people in the racially diverse militants, the new revolutionaries. It was ever thus. Haitian woman, some Blacks economic pie. The powers­ audiences agreed that we can DISORIENTED PEACE ACTIVISTS need to take a deep have concluded that the sys­ that-be are hoping we'll think only win by working together. breath, dig in, and peer beneath the surface of things on tem works for Asians but not that our own group's survival Racial antagonism among earth, into the hidden molecular action that reveals the con­ for them. people of color is, trasts and conflicts and realities of life that get obscured by The city fathers like white racism misleading exterior surfaces. and like sexism played their old War fever is not a constant. Personal demo-fatigue will divide-and-con­ and anti-gay big­ quergame.Butthe otry, a corner­ pass. The Left will resurrect explosively. And a lifestyle of truth of this situa­ stone of the capi­ armchair commentary and chic-bitter reSignation will pale tion is that the sys­ talist system that and wither. tem doesn't work sits on our backs. Indeed, many movement dropouts wither away complete­ for anyone-ex­ We have to break ly-they die too young once they cut ties with their political cept the rich. through that an­ roots and a culture that looks forward instead of nowhere. tagonism and get EVERYBODY KNOWS the world is engulfed in the Gulf Bombarded by rid of that system. war's bloody afterbirth. Nobody except the Bushniks is very As that happens, stereotypes. As happy about it, no matter what pieties they may spout. Some­ an Asian American racial and ethnic day, sooner than you think, and this side of the rainbow, the woman and an Af­ diversity will be­ rican American come the occasion angry, afflicted and sensitive people will embark on a voyage man, we are keenly not for hostility, of self-discovery that will carry them across the whirlpools of aware that our but for celebra­ circular logic into an undiscovered harbor swept by fresh communities have tion.O breezes-by their recognition of their own deep-seated sometimes been in convictions and hopes for a brave new world. conflict, and not -DARRYL When people start to unearth the truth about their subter­ just in New York. POWELL AND ranean wishes and dreams, at that point in history the planet In recent years, in­ EMILVWOO will start becoming habitable. And the revolutionary essence cidents of mistrust, YAMASAKI of America will once again bloom. 0 22 Freedom Socialist May-July 1991

tor-and another 80-foot-high landfill. Fight the corporations now! creation of new jobs in the area, and relo­ If these aren't environmental prob­ Meanwhile, there are crucial battles we cation assistance. ... jobs vs. lems, what qualifies? need to fight, and some we can win now. • Remove all time limits from unem­ The good news is that strong cam­ Once we dump the despoilers, we want ployment compensation. ecology paigns against toxic waste in poor neigh­ something left of the planet to enjoy and One much-discussed option that will borhoods are being waged all across the to manage! And it's precisely these battles not create new jobs is a ban on export of from page 3 country. Some local protest groups have that will educate people to the need to get raw logs. U.S. companies Ship unprocess­ renouncing tree-spiking because of the as many as 600 members, and many of rid of the system once and for all. ed logs abroad because that's where the danger it poses to workers, and organiz­ them are led by women of color. We must fight to make the corpora­ market is. Trying to stop this is not going ing timber hands into IWW (Industrial tions responsible for maintaining jobs to create a market at home, where reces­ Workers of the World) locals. Their suc­ Rx: get rid of the profiteers. Our while safeguarding the environment. sion reigns and construction is sluggish. cess can be measured by the retaliatory earth is being clear-cut, strip-mined and They're the ones who have reaped the Funding for conservation and job relief violence and dirty tricks against them. killed off to provide an ever-growing glut profits from the explOitation of both can be gotten by: (Please see accompanying article.) of goods, from paper to pistons to per­ people and resources over the decades. • Ending subsidies to the mining and As well as with workers, environmen­ fumes to petro-poisons-anything capital­ The prerequisites for accomplishing timber industries and others which make talists need to mend fences and build alli­ ists can sell at a price. Our land, water and this are democratizing the unions in the intensive use of scarce natural resources. ances with people of color. Environmen­ air are increasingly toxic because industry woods and mills, organizing the non­ Subsidies come in many indirect forms, talists and Native Americans already finds it cheaper to dump its pollutants union workers there, and building a firm such as artifiCially low fees for mining, frequently collaborate together to simul­ than clean up its act. Big capital is in­ alliance between conservationists and la­ tree-cutting, and grazing on public lands. taneously protect resources and treaty vested in deadly technologies and many bor. Then we will have the power to make • Slashing the "defense" budget. rights, but much more needs to be done. harmful, superfluous products; earth­ demands and initiate programs like the Alongside its horrific destruction of The dumping of garbage and pOisons friendly research, techniques and goods following: people and nature and our creations, the in ghettos, barrios, and on reservations is are squelched and kept off the market. • Create new jobs through systematic Pentagon is an insatiable consumer of fi­ environmental racism. Three out of ev­ Incessant imperialist wars for markets inventorying of the forest and reforesta­ nite resources. It is the biggest single U.S. ery five U.S. Blacks and Hispanics live and resources are scarring our planet as tion, including experiments in reproduc­ consumer of petroleum. near uncontrolled toxic-waste sites. well, and bomb-makers are now the king­ ing forests with the qualities of old The tasks necessary to begin putting "Cancer alley" is a 7S-mile chain of pins of industry. growth. In many areas, nobody knows human beings back into synch with the dumping grounds for oil refineries and This is the logic of a system defined by how much forest is left, what condition world we live in are undeniably gargan­ petrochemical plants lining the Missis­ the endless, competitive chase after prof­ it's in, or which species live there. Sus­ tuan. Fortunately, Mother Nature is very Sippi River. Altgeld Gardens is a housing its. Capitalists must have it this way or go tainable forestry can never be practiced patient and resilient. project in one of Chicago's Black ghettos out of business. without this information. But the time to start is now. Even built on top of a still-stinking former There is no way to save and heal the • Give economically depressed logging mothers have their limits! 0 landfill and near a sludge plant, a steel earth-and gear production for human communities money and decision-mak­ mill, a paint company, a huge incinera- needs-without overturning the system. ing power over job retraining programs, -ANDREA BAUER

too damn much." target" civilians, then pulped ordinary people in a Baghdad bomb shelter. And ... logger's • The timber industry did they tell you that the price of Turkey's "It's a cutthroat industry. It's not a bad support was the U.S. bombing of Kurdish thing that the environment has become ... censorship villages? Or that the Kurdish resistance outlook an issue. The logging companies used to movement suspended its armed struggle just do anything-build roads in winter­ from page 1 against Hussein rather than line up with from page 3 time, run cats up and down a riverbed. has been the bloodiest in history. From American "liberators"? Did they tell you logs are still left is steep ground. Select­ Nobody was there to stop them. They the war on Mexico in the early 1900s to of the millions of people who took to the logging on that ground is a nightmare, wanted to get the timber out and they the Gulf war, the U.S. Army has rampaged streets of Europe, Africa, and Asia to pro­ and dangerous. Select-logging-it sounds wanted to get it out cheap." worldwide, smashing workingclass move­ test this war? like a great idea. But nobody ever asked us ments, invading smaller countries, com­ No, they "sanitized" everything. about the safety factor. "Big companies like Boise Cascade and miting the vilest of atrocities-all in the "This is a dangerous job to begin with. Weyerhaeuser hire mostly immigrants interests of Wall St., and more lately of Job for the U.S. movement. There Something like 20 people a year die work­ without papers to do the tree planting. Tokyo and Bonn as well. is a lot of fear and hatred directed against ing in the woods in Washington state They pay them next to nothing. The con­ You don't believe me when I speak of all things American here and around the alone. If somebody in Seattle inhales ditions are terrible. It's slave labor. It's a atrocities? In the Marshall Islands in the world. But why should you, American some ammonia gas, you can pick up the backbreaking, horrendous job. I couldn't Pacific, people were deliberately contami­ workers and antiwar dissenters, be newspaper and read about it. But some do it. nated with nuclear fallout from U.S. H­ saddled with what your rulers do? poor slob can get killed in the woods, and "Three or four years ago there were Bomb tests in the 1950s. Mutations and Bush and Co. want you to believe that there's nothing." about 12 Hispanic tree planters riding in a deaths continue there today. the U.S. is the world's policeman against crew pickup, working for a subcontractor Hiroshima itself was perpetrated not aggression, and to comply with their sup­ "If the environmentalists are right, my working for Weyerhaeuser. They had an to win the war against Japan, but to warn pression of the rest of us-and yourselves. feeling is that my job isn't so important accident with a logging truck and quite a the Soviets that the U.S. was fully pre­ Note that while the Pentagon was lev­ that I'm going to rape the universe and few of them were killed. There was just pared to continue the war-against them. eling Iraq, Washington continued to pre­ say to hell with it. I'll go find a job doing one mention in the newspaper and it's Likewise, 250,000 people perished under side over spiralling unemployment and something else. But that's easy for me to gone, history, nothing ever heard of it Allied bombs in Dresden in 1945-merely deficits at home. Bush urged passage of say because I live close to a metropolitan again. You know that Weyerhaeuser had to warn the advanCing Red Army of the "crime" bills that would make your coun­ area. to twist some arms to see that that story West's military power. try an outright police state. The war "It's different for someone in Raymond did not go any further." against Iraq was a war against you, too. or Forks. They've worked 20 years in the Blacking out the real war. Have The working people of the world need woods, they're maybe 40,45, SO years "There's going to be less and less jobs. they ever told the American people any of you in the USA to lead in ridding us and old, and all of a sudden they're not going That means that the people who are left this? No! Your news, and your history, is yourselves of your parasitical, warmonger­ to have a job-what the hell are they go­ are going to become more and more com­ censored. ing rulers! Get them off my back, your ing to do? They have a house with a petitive. There's two ways the companies For example, everybody, including the back, and the backs of the Arab, African, mortgage. They have kids at home. They can handle that. They can pay less Iraqis, got more information from CNN Asian, Latin American and South Pacific have to just pick up and leave everything money. They can press for more produc­ than the American people did. In Austra­ peoples. behind them. . tion. And that means more injuries, more lia, we had two "feeds" from the Gulf. You must lead in preventing any more "A lot of them have lived in these' deaths." The U.S. feed cut to military pictures ev­ wars for profit. Capitalism is a cancer on towns for three and four generations. ery time something politically sensitive the world. Together we can excise it, but Their great-grandfather was a logger and • Leaving the woods came up; the general feed from the Euro­ you workers of the USA must be the prin­ their grandfather and their father. There's "I just can't abide the idea of working pean pool did not. cipal surgeons. 0 a lot of pride there. in an office. I think of that and shudder." Little of what the media reported re­ "What are you going to do? Are you flected reality. Twelve hours after the -PETER MURRAY going to make a make-work job for them? "The last day I was working as a bombing started we heard that the entire Make them bus boys and bartenders? fulltimer in the woods, I saw an animal I Iraqi Air Force and most of the Revolu­ Peter Murray is Secretary of the You're never going to turn a place like had never seen before, after 20 years-a tionary Guard had been wiped out. Yet it Suburban Train Guards' Section Forks into a tourist town anyway-it rains baby ermine. Neat." 0 later came out that only around 100 of of the Australian Railways Union. 750 Iraqi planes had been destroyed. The Revolutionary Guard was also largely in­ An International socialist feminist tact in secure bunkers-and it seems they largely still are after the ground offensive; Fund for organization In the front lines of the Radieal they are now defending Hussein against the Iraqi people. fight against racism, sexism, Then there were the oil slicks. Syco­ Feminist fascism, anti-gay bigotry phantic U.S. media hacks churned out and labor exploitation. kilometres and kilometres of video tape Sedition* Women showing cormorants drowning in an oil *sI-dlsh'en, noun: conduct or language inciting to rebellion CALIFORNIA slick "released by Hussein." Yet that slick against the authority 01 the state. Los Angeles: 1918 W. 7th St., #204, Los Angeles, CA 90057. came from an abandoned Saudi refinery. 213-413-1350. There was a larger slick in the middle of San Francisco Bay Area: National Office, 523-A Valencia St., the Persian Gulf, nowhere near any coast­ San Francisco, CA 94110.415-864-1278. line. Iraq couldn't have caused it, but "al_ lied" bombers could. I bet they didn't NEW YORK discuss that in the U.S. New York City: 32 Union Square East, Rm. 907, New York, NY 10003. They censor American news because 212-677-7002. they are desperate to create the impres­ WASHINGTON sion that they are winning, against a vil­ Port Angeles: 512 E. 7th, Port Angeles, WA 98362.206-452-7534. lainous enemy, with a minimum of Seattle: New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA casualties. They are desperate to overcome 98118. 206-722-6057. the "Vietnam syndrome," brought about $50,000 Goal Spokane: W. 3005 Boone, Spokane, WA 99201.509-327-9196. by the defeat there against a smaller mili­ Tacoma: P.O. Box 5847, Tacoma, WA 98405.206-383-4142. tary force, which sparked a revulsion Surpassed! among the U.S. population against further OREGON Thanks to all who contributed so Portland: 7038 N. Fairport, Portland, OR 97217.503-289-7082. military adventures. The imperialist warmakers won this generously. And it's not too latel • • • battie, at the cost of tens of thousands of donations to: Radical Women AUSTRAUA Iraqi soldiers, and tens of thousands of ci­ National Office, Valencia Hall, 523-A Melbourne: P.O. Box 266, West Brunswick, VIC 3055. 03-386-5065. vilian workers and farmers. They "did not ValenCia, San FranCisco, Celif. 94110. May-July 1991 Freedom Socialist 23

paign-affiliated Seattle Coalition for Peace in the Middle East because of "repeated ... obscene incidents of blatant racism and sexism in the SCPME." The Task Force "will con­ victory tinue to meet and expand" and is "com­ Stop the Wa~ mitted to linking the issues of global from page J peace, and economic, racial and gender Prognosis: escalating conflict. justice in the U.S." Now what? More wars, in the Gulf, in Pal­ These are surely the issues the move­ estine, wherever investments are threat­ ment has to deal with. Yet the split was a ened, wherever gold can be gotten from setback for the Seattle movement, and all the selling of guns. the reasons for it are not yet clear. While And in the U.S., where debt, S&L rip­ raCism, sexism and redbaiting certainly offs and racist drug wars eat at the future; played a role, the drive to disband was where health, education and welfare are pushed by local Democratic Party/Rain­ now all but trashed; and where the hem­ bow Coalition folks who are noted these orrhage of jobs to the war machine brings days primarily for the care they take not class conflict closer, war will serve as the to offend the sensibilities of Seattle's grand excuse to step up repression against Democratic mayor, Norm Rice. Rice all dissent. doesn't want anyone raining on his scheduled day-long" Allied Victory" pa­ Bush's blueprint: recipe for rade June 22. Could it be his antiwar chaos. Washington would have us be­ buddies cynically used real issues which lieve that war is the gateway to peace_i_n.-,-".,...,. the movement must confront to dis­ the Mideast and to world eco- band the Campaign and head off a nomic prosperity. A de-clawed showdown with Rice? Saddam is removed as a threat to Activfsts come to strategize against u.s. Mideast stability. A pro-West Arab The opera ain't over... Possible mo­ axis in Riyadh, Cairo and Damascus aggressions at Stop the War Coffeehouses, tives behind the Seattle rift aside, the is being nailed in place. A new re­ sponsored by the Freedom Sodalist Party shakeups are but a prelude to a healthy re­ gional security is hailed as possible. and Radical Women in Seattle, San Fran- constitution of the movement. This would mean oil could re­ cisco, and New York. Pictured above at a Even before the war started, a host of sume flowing securely to Europe, Ja­ antiwar organizing efforts were springing pan and the emerging Asian IIPOetry Against War" coffeehouse in Seattle up nationwide outside the aegis of the economies. Japan could continue to in April is featured guest Nellie Won& Bay two national groups. Pro!ests by people of finance America's spiraling debt. U.S. Area feminist and antiwar activist (seated, color, women, and youth were daily investments in overseas oil-run center). At left another poet takes advan­ events. economies would be safe. As Bay Area activist Tom Boot puts it, But don't break out the champagne tage of open microphone. "Bush bit off more than he can chew; the just yet, George. initial mobilizations have kept people Consider Iraq. Iraq is a mess. Every­ Since Gulf oil is decade supporting radicals and socialists around, despite the blitz." thing there is destroyed. Iraqis are much of the in Central America against the U.S. Boot is a member of African Americans struggling for life, yet the basis for life foundation of capital­ Twenty-five years ago many supported Against the War, a Black community can no longer be said to exist. The ist economy, world finance, production Vietnamese communists as well. Would group that seeks to end militarism abroad, Kurdish and Shiite rebellions, now beaten and trade face being shipwrecked. they faint dead away if they heard an educate on its effects at home, and sup­ back thanks to Bush's double-cross, will The Pentagon and CNN can no longer American socialist speak? Not likely. But port Black resisters in the military. The continue to simmer and spark, not just in sanitize the utter devastation that billows the "popular forces" WWP and the Peace group, says Boot, "is very democratic" and Iraq, but in Turkey, Iran, and the entire forth from the Mideast: the starving Kurds Campaign didn't want to alienate were "has no problem with open SOCialists." Mideast. The Iraqis remember who huddled on the borders of Turkey and Bush's supporters, the solidly pro-war SOcialists continue to organize and slaughtered their dead. And as famine and Iran; the upheavals and riots and blood­ Democrats and other redbaiters in the es­ educate against the war. For example, the cholera sweep through their country, as shed; the economic destitution spreading tablishment, the media and the streets. Freedom Socialist Party and Radical refugees spill towards the borders in worldwide; the incalculable environmen­ Liberals and Stalinists crave respect­ Women sponsor weekly Stop the War hordes, as hatreds and gunfire prOliferate, tal destruction. ability. Open SOCialists and those who are Coffeehouses in Seattle, New York and the how will the U.S. stay exempt from the The current domestic "victory" eupho­ drawn to radical ideas and action-people Bay Area where activists can come and chaos? ria will melt like snow in the fifth pit of of color, women, youth, lesbians and gay discuss and strategize on ways to end all The cozy relations between the Gulf hell. All the horrors in the U.S. that the men-are an unknown quantity and a po­ wars. oligarchies and Western oil moguls were war put on hold will re-grip the nation. tential embarrassment should their anger One Seattle coffeehouse in April fea­ jeopardized by the Iraqi invasion of Ku­ The war itself will sicken the U.S. public and frustration with the whole system be tured a talk and a video by Vietnam Vet­ wait. Now danger comes from a thousand at last. A new mood will spark renewed too directly or powerfully expressed. erans Against the War, Anti-Imperialist. directions. Most frightening to the oli­ protest against the war and the Washing­ That's why those outside the political The event disproved the revisionist no­ garchs is the heinous legacy of this war­ ton warmakers. "mainstream" were effectively shut out in tion that the '60s antiwar movement had the mass U.S. slaughter of Arabs for oil. both coalitions. The leadership of those spit on returning Vietnam veterans, show­ The Arab people will never forget at Timidity hobbled antiwar least likely to support the system was ing that vets joined the movement by the whose invitation the slaughter took place. leaders. The U.S. antiwar movement shortchanged; hence, any swift chance of thousands, as leaders, when they got And retribution is waiting in the chaos couldn't stop Bush this last time around. bringing the war home was lost. back. The following week's coffeehouse, stalking the Gulf. He blitzed us too quick. He had to blitz Most damaging is that, in kowtowing co-sponsored by Youth Against War, ad­ Also, peace between Israel and the quick or face disaster at home. to mainstream opinion as defined by the dressed the concerns and leadership of Arab world is an impossibility. What else stood in the movement's flag-waving media, antiwar leaders al­ young people in today's antiwar move­ Does Bush really think that the Pales­ way besides time? A divided national lowed Bush to define the issues. For ex­ ment. tinians are "discredited" among Arabs for movement: two coalitions when one was ample, was protesting the war really a In the last Freedom Socialist we wrote their support for Iraq? Is he unaware of the ticket. Leaderships in each who were matter of "not supporting our troops," as about the Internationalist Brigades put to­ the anti-U.S. riots that punctuated the scared of democracy, especially of discus­ Bush insisted? No, it was a matter of defy­ gether by FSP, RW, and other organiza­ war from Morocco to Jordan? sion openly condemning the war as a ing the system that drafts the disadvan­ tions and activists in the three above­ Let the Israelis try to expel the Pales­ capitalist enterprise. taged to fight and die for U.S. and Arab mentioned cities. Their points of unity tinians to Jordan as they plan. Let the One coalition, the National Campaign billionaires. Yet antiwar leaders defaulted strongly linked the issues of the oppressed Saudis, et al., pitch in with the Zionists. for Peace in the Middle East, was led by to Bush on this question. in both the U.S. and Mideast and ad­ Then let them duck. Mubarek hangs by a groups such as CISPES who spent the Campaign leaders waved Old Glory at dressed the critical questions of democ­ political thread in Cairo. Pictures of Assad 1980s telling people that congressional rallies and called on the movement to racy in the antiwar movement itself. are being defaced all over Syria. And the Democrats would halt the U.S. wars on El "support our troops"-by bringing them These are the issues that will reshape and Saudis are now desperately expelling their Salvador and Nicaragua. They hoped to home safely, to be sure, but somehow the rejuvenate the movement in the coming own Palestinian "guest" workers. pressure Congress to stop this war too, distinction got lost. months. Bush knows an explosion awaits on and because all of Congress is capitalist, The U.S. flag and the support-our­ Not a moment too soon: the U.S. the West Bank and throughout the Arab they didn't want out-front socialists on troops slogan belong, by definition, to won't stop its aggressions; that means we world the minute the Israelis give the ex­ the scene to offend. Bush and Co., and no wishful liberal have to. It means looking to the leader­ pulsion orders. That, and profits, is why The Coalition to Stop U.S. Interven­ thinking can change that fact. ship of those outside the media's "main­ the U.S. is shipping its Mideast allies bil­ tion in the Middle East was run by the stream." It means challenging the system lions in weapons. Stalinist Workers World Party. Lo and be­ Movement shakeup. Currently that makes war abroad and at home. It hold, WWP didn't want socialists "alien­ there's a shakeup in the antiwar move­ means pinpointing the capitalist source of Quicksand for capitalism. Arms ating popular forces" in its bailiwick, ment. In the Bay Area, for example, both the war and uprooting it. dealers will prosper in the New Mideast either. national coalitions have disbanded. That's the job. Let's get to it. 0 Order and so will the banks, for awhile. What popular forces? Church people In Seattle in March, the People of But oil prices will careen out of control. and progressive unionists spent a whole Color Task Force withdrew from the Cam- -ROBERT CRISMAN

throw of capitalism in all countries. This want to make revolutions will bypass the would have paved the way for a world­ Fourth International. Last year, a group of wide socialist federation of states and real ... Fourth IntI. Soviet radicals called for an open interna­ ... canrouflage equality among nations. After Stalin tional conference of Trotskyists to be held wrecked the Comintern, Trotsky formed from page 20 in Moscow. Wonderful idea! The Soviets the Fourth International to keep this pro­ claim with a contemptuous one-word sen­ think it's high time our movement got its for carnage cess alive. tence-"Never."-and call a conference of political act together, without regard to The demand is being voiced for U.N. all U.S. Trotskyists, for the purpose of dis­ franchise rights or the rest of the sectarian from page J negotiations to resolve the Gulf and Pales­ cussing, clarifying and resolving the real nonsense. We agree. precludes equality among nations. Lenin tinian crises. We can insist that the U.N. political differences among them, above And we believe that such a conference, and Trotsky recognized this 70 years ago arrive at justice for the Palestinians in Pal­ all with regard to the American Revolu­ held in Moscow, where the fate of the when they denounced the League of Na­ estine-possible only in a socialist bilat­ tion. The fact that the International has first workers state is now being decided, tions as an imperialist forum for "mediat­ eral state-but let us not be surprised so far eschewed this approach accounts could have a sobering and salutary effect: ing" the continuing subjugation of the when the U.N. fails even to achieve a Pal­ for the sectarian muddle afflicting it now. it would certainly inspire and strengthen rebellious colonial world. The same de­ estinian state in the Occupied Territories Stalinism, the main roadblock to the fledgling Trotskyist movement in the nunciation applies today to the U.N. as demanded by the PLO. Trotskyist leadership of the world's revo­ Soviet Union and help resolve our Lenin led in forming the Communist Let the U.No's failure spark the demand lUtionary movements, is crumbling. Now movement's sectarian gridlock; and it Third International (Comintern) in 1919 among radicals for a mass international is definitely the time for regroupment. might even wake up some who have as a counterweight to capitalist "interna­ socialist organization to finish the job the Revolutionary opportunities abound thought until now that being big fishes in tionalism" as expressed by the League. His Comintern started. Will the Fourth Inter­ for Trotskyism, and if the Fourth Interna­ small, stagnant ponds is the essence and idea was to further the class war and over- national step forward as the vehicle? 0 tional won't take them, Trotskyists who destiny of Trotskyism. D 24 Freedom Socialist May-July 1991 ekes . nd miners' strl -

and his technocrats came to Moscow determined to reform an economy ter­ hree recent developments minally shot through with bureaucratic have punctuated the Soviet inefficiency, corruption and waste. Gor­ bureaucracy's lurch toward to­ bachev launched perestroika hoping T tal collapse. The 76 percent that capitalist-style "correctives" would "yes" vote on Gorbachev's March 17 get the job done. referendum to preserve the Soviet Anticipating squeals from the old­ Union bought the bureaucrats a little line Stalinists who had pigged off the time, but the April 2 price hikes system in handsome fashion for de­ Hard realities conditioned boosted the cost of consumer goods an cades, he also promoted glasnost in or­ "yes" vote. This question was put to average of 60 percent and helped trig­ der to flush out "bureaucratism." SOViet voters on March 17: "Do you ger the spreading coal miners' strikes, Perestroika was a bust from the be­ consider it necessary to preserve the which have been fueled by the convic­ ginning. At what point would the anar­ Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a tion that the rulers in Moscow must go. chy of the market clash with economic renewed federation of equal sovereign The referendum showed that there planning, however riddled it was with republics, in which the rights and free­ are definite factors slowing the centrifu­ holes? This point was worth consider­ doms of people of any nationality will gal rush of dissident republics away ing, given the possibility of shipwreck, be fully guaranteed?" from Moscow. But the vote isn't much but anyone who asked Gorbachev The question was disingenuous. The of a reprieve for Gorbachev. Those price about it found he didn't have a clue. He republics have never been sovereign or hikes are bad news: installed to halt the said he didn't want full-fledged capital­ free in the grip of the Russified bureau­ quickening slide toward economic dis­ ism, just "elements." Which ones? How cracy. Still, the idea of a free and equal integration, they'll do nothing of the many? To what degree? association exerted an appeal among sort. What price escalation has done is Mumble, mumble, mumble. the various nationalities. to bring the miners out of their pits de­ Gorbachev's vagaries hardly mat­ There were other, realpolitik-type manding Gorbachev's hide. This out­ tered. Early on it was apparent that "re­ considerations. Russian president Yelt­ come was predictable. form" meant scrapping the ossified sin, the Roaring Rambo of the Soviet procurement and distribution systems, pro-capitalist right wing, had earlier Why perestroika was a pipe figuring out what to do with the mil­ floated a scheme to bring together the dream. Seven years ago Gorbachev lions of equally ossified mid-level bu- to page 4

Reporter SandI Nelson's free speech case Target of newsroom gag rule attracts national interest olitical activist and award­ Party's Stop the War Coffeehouses in "American Way of Life." This doesn't and is himself a media celebrity. No winning journalist Sandy Seattle, Nelson had a chance to talk square with their mandate and that of wonder it was so easy for the Pentagon Nelson has won some impor­ one-on-one with her supporters and in­ working reporters to "cover the story" to censor the news coming out of the Ptant new allies and national terested newcomers. objectively. How to paper over the dis­ Gulf war! press attention in her free speech battle Nelson's union continues to stand crepancy? The first need is a compliant The White House is preparing more at the Morning News Tribune in Tacoma, with her. And despite the two rejec­ workforce. wars for profit one of Washington state's major daily tions from the NLRB, the Newspaper Nelson, as a re­ abroad and more newspapers. Guild and the Sandy Nelson Defense porter, always "cov­ attacks on home­ In August 1990, MNT management Committee will keep pressing through ered the story," and i front dissent. The committed an unfair labor practice and the Board for her reinstatment and an until this year, the attackers hope to violated Nelson's constitutional rights end to retaliation. MNT could dredge succeed under the by demoting her to the copy desk be­ Case endorsements continue to roll up no cause for cover of censor­ cause of her off-the-job political orga­ in, most recently from the Coalition of complaint. But ship, via the nizing. The National Labor Relations Labor Union Women, the Northwest she's a socialist squelching of re­ Board has twice refused to take up her Women's Studies 1991 Regional Confer­ feminist actiVist, porters like Nelson. case. ence, AFSCME 2083-C in Seattle, and hardly the compli­ That's why the Nelson is organizer for Tacoma Radi­ Seattle Women in Trades. ant type, and man­ stakes are so high cal Women and active in her union. agement saw her as in her war with Since her late teens, the 34-year-old Media propaganda mills. As potential trouble. MNT management. journalist has been an outspoken word spreads that management demot­ So they invoked an Political activists fighter for social justice. ed Nelson to muzzle her on and off the "ethics" code gov­ must rally around Now she's fighting for her on-the­ job, people are asking, "Why? How is a erning what an em­ reporters like Nel­ job life. After receiving excellent perfor­ politically active journalist a danger?" ployee may and son. We need a me­ mance evaluations in past years at the To the general public, reporters like may not do off the dia that endeavors paper, she was given the lowest rating Nelson are no danger at all; rather, job, and bounced to "cover the in the most recent evaluation. Manage­ they're a boon. They can make sense of Nelson off her beat story," that doesn't ment warned her to "improve" by May, the issues that impact people's lives. and onto the copy censor itself at the but refuses to train her on copy desk That's why Nelson won awards for her desk. behest of the profi­ procedures. Tribune articles on the struggles of Na­ The MNT doesn't teers and the Pen­ tive American women. She knows the even have an ethics tagon. Write to Publicity yields support. Nation­ issues. code; that's one of Nelson, unfazed by newsroom gag MNT managing wide publicity for Nelson's case has at­ But to the news industry, Nelson is a the items on the rule, carries her fight to the public. editor Norm Bell tracted allies. The prestigious Columbia wrench in the media machine. The goal table in contract and demand that Journalism Review and Ms. magazine of news conglomerates like McClatchy talks with Nelson's union. The paper Nelson be reinstated to her writing po­ have published pro-Nelson articles this Incorporated, which owns the Tribune, has stalled those talks for four years, sition: Morning News Tribune, P.O. Box year. is to make money, just like any other trying to bust the union. 11000, Tacoma, WA, 98411. Send a Locally, the Seattle Gay News and the business. Corporate advertisers are their copy to Art Joyner, Newspaper Guild, Seattle Weekly have covered the case. big source of revenue. Hence, profit Pentagon as editor. So the ethics 3049 South 36th Street, Tacoma, WA, Seattle's Stonewall Committee for Les­ considerations determine the way the code that doesn't exist is really a gag 98409. If you can gather signatures on bian and Gay Rights organized a public news gets presented; issues are covered, rule for the Nelsons of the newsroom. postcards supporting Nelson, please call forum in April featuring Nelson and or not covered, in such as way as to Meanwhile the news industry rewards the Sandy Nelson Defense Committee Emmett Murray, president of the Pacific preserve the capitalist status quo. reporters who play their game: Mideast at 206-572-6643. 0 Northwest Newspaper Guild Local 82. The media have a bias. They are, in war correspondent Brit Hume, for ex­ And at one of the Freedom Socialist effect, a giant propaganda mill for the ample, plays tennis with George Bush -MAn NAGLE