Workers and peasants in power
In early December, Ernest Mandel visited Nicaragua at the invitation of the Agrarian Reform Research and Study Center, which is under the Ministry for Development and Agrarian Reform (MIDINRA). He had many discussions with officials responsible for sectors of the economy, for training Nicaraguan government cadres and with leaders of the Sandinista
NICARAGUA.
National Liberation Front (FSLN).
Besides giving several lectures to
At the same time, vigorous arguments going on in the press.
Every day, are
Nuevo
Barricada and
Diario answer
La Prensa, the lies and halfexposing
For example, teachers at the Central American University, Mandel also gave a public
"The World Crisis of Capitalism, talk entitled aguan Association for the Social Sciences.
which was announced the day before in the daily Nuevo ed the talk,
Diario.
On his return from Nicaragua, Ernest Mandel was interviewed by
La Gauche, the French-language
Fourth International. The text of the interview follows.
What was the class nature of the elections in Nicaragua?
It's wrong to talk about bourgeois parliamentary elections, about elections for a bourgeois parliament, as
I already pointed out in an article in the
November 16, 1984, issue of La Gauche.
My stay in the country fully confirmed my conviction that the state power in
Nicaragua represents the workers and poor peasants.
Some 450,000 armed working people keep their guns in their
It is in the context of such a regime that you have to define the class nature of the Assembly, and not on the
Q. How much do the Sandinistas' declarations of support for political
A. There is no way to assess indivmake any predictions about future
But one thing is clear - the Sandinista leaders are now saying that political pluralism is neither a tactical maneuver with regard to the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie nor a concession to international public opinion, whether this be directed at Social Democrats, left
Latin-American bourgeois forces or the imperialist countries themselves.
They are saying that political pluralism is useful and essential for the revolutionuseful and essential for building socialism in Nicaragua. It is, in particular, essential for raising the class consciousness and level of activity of the toiling masses, to get them involved increasingly in the real administration of the economy and the state, in the struggle against bureaucratic deformations within the revolutionary camp and the FLN.
more and more numerous declarations represent a notable contribution to the development of international revolutionary consciousness, a return
International Viewpoint 14 January 1985
" sponsored by the NicarSeveral hundred people attendpaper of the Belgian section of the to the original thought of Marx, of the Lenin of 1917, or Rosa Luxemburg and of Trotsky. I see it as the confirmation of what we have been reiterating for dec-
Inasmuch as these positions are attuned to the reality in Nicaragua, the entire international workers' movement, world working class, will derive immense advantages from them.
Q. Can you give some practical examples of the fruits of political pluralism for the toiling masses?
A. You can't dissociate political pluralism from the self-organization self-management of the masses. conditions the other. A combination of the two is beginning to take hold in Nicaragua. It is far from having achieved its fullest development. things are beginning to move in this direction represents a new step torward, by self-management in Yugoslavia, which has been parsmothered by the single-party
With respect to workers control and mass participation in the management of the enterprises, production committees are operating in more than half the
The real extent of self-management differs considerably, to be sure, but it is continuing to increase. respect to territorial organization, the Sandinista Defense Committees (CDS) are the bodies in the neighborhoods that represent the great mass of the population. They take charge of a series of state functions, such as distributing ration coupons, supervising the distribution of basic necessities and education.
As regards education in the rural areas, there are parents' consultative councils (sometimes including both parents and high school students) that strive in particular to coordinate education and the preparation of high school students for integration into the productive process.
truths of the opposition. when La Prensa claimed that the government had kept the leaders of the opposition from travelling abroad, Barricada published a list of their many trips, based on exit stamps collected at the Managua airport. fact, if you want to talk about pluralism and democratic rights, is that there are presently strikes going on, and they have not been subjected to any sort of re-
Q. Are the advances toward socialist democracy going to be reflected in the constitution that the Assembly is going
A. I think so, but obviously I can't prediet to what an extent. That depends on the discussions underway, the extent of the involvement and the political activity of the masses, the outcome of social struggles in the coming months, and above all, the outcome of the confrontation with imperialism and the counterrevolution.
So far, there are two gains that should be pointed up. On the one hand, democratic rights, a pluralism of political parties, the right to strike, and freedom of the press and association seem to have been codified. On the other, the Sandinista leadership has just made an important step forward by recognizing the right to
The big question left pending is that of the institutionalization, alongside the Naof people's either in an assembly or in another form - it does not matter what the form is as long as it is real and not purely a formal, "rubber stamp" body.
In other words, people's power should be established not just at the local level, in the neighborhoods, villages and enterprises but also at the level of municipalities, regions and of the country as a
This rise of socialist democracy is taking place in the context of continual imperialist aggression against the Nicaraguan revolution. Isn't there a contradic-
A. Not at all. The Sandinista regime
in Nicaragua is facing the cruelest sort of imperialist military and economic offenSive. In addition to the lessons drawn from the Nicaraguan revolutionary process itself and the lessons from other countries, this imperialist offensive is a stimulus for the FSLN to seek to continually broaden its popularity among the masses and increase the effective support it gets from them in order to be able to mobilize the entire people should there be a massive American aggression. This orientation has been crowned with success.
I think that against imperialism and its contra mercenaries, the support of the masses for the FSLN is almost total. Even the opposition bourgeois parties have said that they would mobilize with a single will in the event of an American invasion.
Q. You speak of a cruel counterrevolutionary offensive. Could you give some examples?
During my stay in Nicaragua, a gang of 200 counterrevolutionaries staged an ambush outside El Pericon, to the north of the city of Esteli, and massacred 28 workers who were going to pick coffee
Most of the victims of this unspeakable slaughter were telecommunications workers. Several of them were burned alive by the counterrevolutionaries, while others were finished off with bayonettes. During the funeral, the whole city of Esteli was in the streets shouting its grief and its determination to avenge its brothers and sisters.
Q. What are the counterrevolutionaries trying to gain by such massacres?
A. The imperialists are perfectly well aware that international public opinion is becoming more sensitive every day to the threat of massive aggression, of the US air
Nicaragua or of the were committed, hundreds of thousands of people would protest in the streets, not just in Western Europe but also in Mexico, in Latin America, and in particular in the United States and Canada. Washington would have to pay a very high political price. In fact, it is necessary effort to make this political price higher and higher, to make it too high.
In these conditions, for the moment, the imperialists have chosen a war of attrition as their line of attack against the Nicaraguan revolution. combining the incursions of armed gangs of counterrevolutionaries with a growing blockade and economic sabotage.
The gangs are operating basically from
They have ultramodern equipment, and sometimes copter support. It is obviously the imperialists who are providing this logistical aid, through the intermediary of the CIA.
Does the counterrevolution have a social base in Nicaragua itself?
A. You can't talk about civil war in the real meaning of the term, since the social base of the contras is a very narrow 4
Production of Basic Products for Internal Consumption (In indexes) 1977 1980 1981 1982 1983 Chickens 100 99 124 142 155 Pigs 100 93 154 200 150 Pasturized milk 100 99 143 160 189 Sugar 100 107 100 125 123 Soluble coffee 100 514 589 842 984 Pasta 100 167 175 156 190 Oils 100 116 115 114 183 Salt 100 155 145 Soap 100 123 183 197 Paper 100 269 330 363 Nonalcoholic drinks 100 107 105 108 120 Cigarettes 100 114 108 95 108 Matches 100 100 104 125 134 Source: Ministry of Industry. Before the victory of the revolution, many of these products were imported. one. It is made up essentially of Somoza's old National Guard, their families and their retainers, and the whole thing depends on camps established outside the country. This base is clearly being eroded. They're starting to replace their losses by recruiting mercenaries of other nationalicies rather than Nicaraguans.
Q. Is this war of attrition effective from the counterrevolutionary point of
It obviously cannot overthrow the Sandinista regime or even undermine it. But it can place the regime in more and more difficult economic circumstances. It has forced the government to devote national budget to military Imports of spare parts, raw materials and consumer goods are drop-
What is more, it has caused damage amounting to one-fourth of the national
Moreover, this war of attrition is forcing the people's government to mobilize a great mass of workers continually in the army and the militia, thereby causing grave interruptions in production and in the circulation of goods. The government has to mount a struggle at the same time to defend the country militarily and to bring in the coffee harvest. That is a very heavy burden for the popuiar masses.
Has the economic situation Nicaragua deteriorated as a result?
During the first years after the Sandinista victory, the material situation improved for the toiling masses, which is something we have not seen often in the revolutions of the twentieth century. In 1983, Nicaragua had the highest rate of growth in all Latin America.
The year 1984, by contrast, was a difficult one, a year of war economy, as the Sandinista comrades say. War costs and the destruction caused by the aggressors reduced available resources by nearly 25%. The masses understand this and accept it, but that doesn't mean that they suffer any less from its consequences.
Q. Can you specify what is involved in the economic burden imperialist aggression is imposing on the Nicaraguan masses?
A. The costs of the war involve a reduction in the quantity of good distributed by the public network. The latter in fact is more and more being restricted to rationed goods (food staples) and essential services (housing, education, health, public transport - which, moreover, is inadequate - and water, gas and electricity, where there are also prob-
The wages of blue- and white-collar workers are ample for paying for these goods and services. But they are not sufficient to enable them to get what they need on the free market. Under the pressure of the black market in dollars (the dollar goes for 20 times the official rate on the black market), more and more commodities are flowing into the free market, putting clothing, toys and electrical appliances, in particular, out of the reach of those that have no other means than their wages.
Except for some products, there is no real scarcity. There is, however, an imbalance between prices and incomes. And that's producing an economic reaction on the mart of the masses. and more people, including workers and members of their households, are preferring to take up intermediary jobs. In this way, they can earn four or five times more than they could working in a factory or a cooperative. Unemployment ha has completely disappeared. There is a shortage of labor.
Q. Does that represent the failure of the mixed economy?
A. It's more complicated than that. When people talk about the mixed economy, they are generally thinking of what remains of capitalist enterprise in the
Nicaragua. That is not the main problems come because the production and exports of this sector are strictly monitored by the state (the situation is comparable to that of the NEP in Russia). The difficulties arise from the uneasy coexistence of a nationalized industrial sector that is too weak to provide for the entire population and a sector of small peasant producers that cannot be eliminated by forced collectivization.
For political and social reasons, as well as economic ones, it is essential to maintain the alliance between the workers and peasants. But it is necessary to make sure that this uneasy coexistence of the two sectors does not lead to imposing sacrifices on the workers, and blocking planning, industrialization and a reasonable degree of economic growth.
International Viewpoint 14 January 1985
ed after the 1926 general strike, when the 'Spencer' union was established in the same coalfield.
The other arm of the government and coal employers' attempt to destroy the NUM is the long list of legal actions being taken against the union by scab miners.