Program of the United Popular Movement (MPU)
The program of the Movimento del Pueblo Unido (MPU) is the plan for a post-Somoza government with the broadest support from the left. In addition to the more than 20 member organizations of the...
...This program differs from that of the Frente Amplio Opositor (FA O) in its emphasis on the radical economic restructuring of the economy under state direction to assure a minimal standard of living for the entire population...
...To this end the government will declare a TOTAL AND UNCONDITIONAL AMNESTY for all prisoners jailed for acting to bring about a just change in Nicaragua and will permit the immediate return of all those exiled for the same reason...
...Sexual discrimination against women in labor practices will be ended...
...A coherent industrial policy will be formulated for both the state and private sectors with participation of all the active forces (government, unions, entrepreneurs, etc...
...3) ECONOMY: To raise the nation out of its economic stagnation and promote economic development, the unity government will take the following measures: a) expropriation of all goods, property, haciendas and companies of the Somoza family and the formation of a government organization to administer them...
...c) nationalization and expropriation of all maritime and air transport and mass-passenger land transport and the creation of a ministry responsible for their regulation and administration...
...12) MILITARY: The popular unity government will take immediate steps to create a national army which will watch over the national interests of the people and the defense of the nation...
...To this end, a body will be created and charged with the regulation of interior and exterior commerce whose objective will be to obtain the best conditions for buying and selling and to guarantee prices for national producers of commodities subject to price speculation in international markets...
...Medicine will have a social character and all Nicaraguans and resident foreigners will have access to it...
...8) WORK: A Labor Code will be formulated which will guarantee workers and peasants a 48-hour week divided in a manner appropriate to the particular exigencies of each economic sector and always respecting rest periods and time dedicated to collective union activity...
...b) nationalization and expropriation of all natural resources and of the companies that exploit them (minerals, petroleum, wood, etc...
...9) EDUCATION: Measures will be put into immediate effect to end illiteracy through a massive national plan involving all students, teachers and voluntary workers who will carry education to every corner of the country...
...in such a way that the economic actors will have concrete knowledge of the effect on their personal prospects and on the national interest...
...1978 3 c) a review and proper use of all foreign loans contracted by the Somoza government, renegotiating the terms and repayment of those that were actually used for works for the public good and national interest...
...4) FINANCE: The resources required to guarantee fulfillment of public financing objectives will be obtained from three principal sources: a) the total revision of all direct and indirect taxes, abolishing those that are detrimental to the majority of consumers, principally direct taxes on foodstuffs, and articles used in education, medicine, sports, and on recreational and cultural activities...
...In addition to the more than 20 member organizations of the MPU, all three tendencies of the FSLN have endorsed the plan...
...Education will be obligatory and all Nicaraguans will have access to it...
...5) NATIONAL PLAN: The National Plan will provide domestic industry with guidelines to follow for the fulfillment of national goals in both the state and private sectors of the economy...
...Through the state finance system the government will grant loans for agricultural production to all producers, large, medium and small...
...6) COMMERCE: The government will suppress all archaic forms of commerce of the people's basic necessities, regulating prices so that each Nicaraguan will be guaranteed the highest standard of living permitted by our natural resources...
...It will cease to be an instrument of repression in the hands of one family that has used it to perpetuate its power...
...The obvious reason for the differences between the two programs is that the MPU was organized primarily to represent workers, peasants and the urban poor while the FA 0 is directed by progressive sectors of the bourgeoisie, trying to appeal to both labor and business...
...The FA 0 program emphasizes the protection of civil and political rights, basically the same rights recognized in the MPU program, but the FAO program leaves economic goals and reforms largely undefined...
...The university budget will be increased to meet the great demand from all those, mostly workers and peasants, who have the capacity for higher education but lack the resources to obtain it...
...PROGRAM OF THE MOVEMENT OF POPULAR UNITY 1) UNITY: The Movimiento del Pueblo Unido (MPU) considers fundamentally important the unity of all progressive forces of the country interested in eliminating the Somoza dictatorship and promoting a change in government that would profoundly transform the nation's economic, social, political and cultural structures, constituting a response and a concrete solution for the needs of all sectors of the Nicaraguan people...
...In the agricultural sector the emphasis will be on the production of basic grains and on those products necessary to maintain a balanced diet for the nation (fruits, vegetables, etc...
...The participation of private interests in the economy will be promoted and directed toward those productive sectors that require a technology obtainable under more favorable terms by private companies and whose production will not be in contradiction with the collective or national interests...
...Women will be incorporated on a large scale into all economic, political, social and cultural tasks (establishing the principle of equal work for equal pay...
...Without a real struggle on the part of all active forces, the fight against Somoza becomes an idle dream...
...2) GOVERNMENT: The MPU proposes to form a government with the representative participation of all political, economic, labor and cultural forces committed to raising the country from the stagnation, dependency and underdevelopment imposed by the dictatorship and its allies...
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...7) AGRICULTURE: A comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program will be developed to put an end to the formation of latifundios and to institute, with the lands expropriated from the Somoza family, a program of cooperatives and state enterprises in which will participate all landless peasants or those with land insufficient to maintain a family...
...The government will also provide technical assistance, especially to small producers, to raise harvest yields and guarantee an income level which will enable them to meet the needs of their families (education, housing, health, food, etc...
...The pedagogical, technical and professional levels of all privates and ranked officers will be raised...
...b) freedom to form union, worker, peasant, youth, student, cultural and sport organizations...
...Programs of teacher training and school construction will be increased so that there will be no valley or district without access to education...
...Black lists" will be abolished and all workers will have wages guaranteed to cover their personal and familial needs...
...In the formation of this army, purged of its corrupt and evil members, the rank and position of all officers who take an active stand against the dictatorship will be respected...
...The government will guarantee respect for civil rights and liberties: a) freedom of thought and of the press...
...10) HEALTH: The unity government will initiate health and hygiene programs for the large numbers of poor workers, peasants and Indian communities, and will eradicate the diseases which now ravage children and affect great sectors of the population, such as malaria, gastroenteritis, tuberculosis, etc., as well as those diseases caused by malnutrition and hunger...
...There will be an end to unemployment and underemployment with work guaranteed for all...
...Likewise, the government will begin negotiations to obtain foreign aid from any country, regardless of its ideology, always at the most favorable terms...
...To fulfill these objectives, rural "health centers," regional first aid hospitals, and specialized hospitals for treating more serious cases, will be built...
...e) the creation of a National Economic Plan to coordinate the private and state sectors of the economy with the goal of initiating economic development that corresponds to the social necessities of all Nicaraguans...
...11) HOUSING: The popular unity government will develop programs to guarantee a home for each family, immediately undertaking new construction programs in both urban and rural zones .. . Rent will be regulated so that it will neither be the intolerable burden that it now is nor constantly threaten eviction by the merchants of workers' necessities...
...Exploitation of child labor will be prohibited and school attendance will be mandatory...
...The special stipends and privileges of military men of high or low rank will be abolished- Parasitism within the ranks will be eliminated and the army will be made to take an active part in the development of the country...
...d) price regulation for goods of basic necessity, thereby putting an end to speculation and unwarranted increases in the price of foods...
...b) nationalization of the domestic and foreign banking system and regulation of the financial institutions serving the private sector...
...c) freedom to travel and to work...
...The government will regulate the cost of medical services of those doctors and specialists who are not part of the national system of social security, immediately abolishing commerce in the health of the people...
Vol. 12 • November 1978 • No. 6
