Unmaking of the Bourgeoisie
The inauguration on May 4, 1980, of Nicaragua's legislative body, the Council of State, marked a watershed in the unfolding of the Nicaraguan revolution. For months prior to its installation,...
...Robelo had in mind a multi-class party that would include reformist bourgeois and petty bourgeois sectors, along with key members of the mass organizations...
...In lieu of concrete evidence to support this charge, he pointed to the large Soviet diplomatic mission in Managua, and asserted that he was "opposed to the grasp of the Russian KGB that threatens Nicaragua...
...economic strategy in Nicaragua when he testified in Congress in November on behalf of the $75 million loan...
...Alfonso Robelo used his position in the Junta to try to undermine the revolution from within...
...As Jaime Wheelock, a member of the National Directorate, pointed out, "On July 19th we won our political independence...
...The most critical area in which the state is assuming a major production role is agriculture, the dominant sector of the Nicaraguan economy...
...3. Ibid., May 14, 1980...
...The press also reflects a wide range of views...
...Even more important, Nicaragua is simply underdeveloped economically...
...Barricada, May 14, 1980...
...More importantly, why did the bourgeoisie engage in such an alliance with the FSLN in the first place...
...10 These early challenges to the revolution did not deter the Sandinista Front...
...2. Diario Las Americas, May 6, 1980...
...1 8 Sergio Ramirez, a member of the Junta, put it even more simply: "The welfare of the people, rather than profits, must come first...
...Basic Grains: Most basic grain production is handled by small and medium producers...
...Specifically, he pointed to the Nicaraguan private sector as the main hope for the United States, and asked that Congress approve the loan since 60% of it was designated for this sector...
...Barricada, May 4, 15, 1980...
...INRA has one other major division, ProCampo, which works closely with peasants and medium-sized producers, providing agricultural extension services and helping set up cooperatives...
...maneuvers in Nicaragua...
...Alfonso Robelo, attacking the changes as a violation of pre-victory agreements, finally resigned from the Junta...
...Koeppel and Harvey, "Nicaragua Rebuilds," p. 43...
...During the same period, a rash of articles appeared in Business Week, Newsweek, U.S...
...The bourgeoisie and conservative political forces in Nicaragua reacted vehemently...
...Nicaragua needs extensive international economic asssistance to reactivate the economy and to prevent massive starvation...
...In one of the more hysterical displays of anti-communism yet to surface among the bourgeois opposition, Cardenal denounced what he called the "Marxist traitors" who were running the government: "I was surprised when they [the FSLN] named me VicePresident of the Council of State, and at that moment decided that my only remaining alternative was to leave the country in order10 NACLA Report to denounce what is taking place...
...The Plan's central goal is to "increase production while at the same time redistributing income," and calls for "the growing integration and participation of the popular organizations" in all areas of the economy...
...Agro-INRA is in charge of securing the *Earlier figures from Nicaragua exaggerated the amount of Somoza's land holdings by as much as 100...
...Pressure by landless peasants and agricultural workers in areas where land pressures were more intense led to further expropriations...
...And perhaps even more importantly, in 1980, almost 90% of new investments will come from the public sector...
...For months prior to its installation, the mass organizations had pressured incessantly for changes in the planned composition of the Council of State to better reflect popular interests...
...They even called on the U.S...
...And while Cuba has been willing to provide significant support by sending doctors, teachers, military advisers and technical personnel, it does not have the resources to do much more...
...8 The commercialization of Nicaragua's leading agricultural exports- coffee, cotton, sugar and beef- which had been carried out by large-scale merchants and elements of the bourgeoisie, also fell under state control...
...One major innovation has been to rotate corn (a local staple food) with some of the export crops, particularly cotton...
...The aid, he noted, will be crucial in enabling them "to play an active role...
...In other cases, plants have been decapitalized or neglected by their owners as funds and assets are moved abroad...
...8. NACLA interview with Jaime Wheelock...
...The bourgeoisie's first public challenge to the Sandinista Front and the Government of National Reconstruction occurred in midNovember...
...16 Taking command of the economy: "The welfare of the people, rather than profits, must come first...
...These moves have not been limited to changes in the government...
...The Carter Administration has thus far provided $40 million in economic assistance, including reopened loans from the Agency for International Development that had been frozen under the Somoza regime.'" The administration has also lobbied Congress to approve a special $75 million loan for Nicaragua...
...9 The Economic Plan of 1980 lays out the objectives of the Sandinista Front and the Government of National Reconstruction...
...Along with the Sandinista Popular Army, they are responsible for defending the revolution against any internal armed attacks and are prepared to ward off any threats of intervention from abroad...
...But they have as little access to real power as the bourgeoisie has traditionally given the working class in any country dominated by capitalism...
...But political power is another thing entirely...
...UNMAKING BOURGEOISIE 1. NACLA, ed., Nicaragua 1979: Year of Liberation...
...These cooperatives may be limited to buying and distributing agricultural inputs- seeds, fertilizers, etc.-or in some cases, are production cooperatives in which the land is administered and worked in common by peasants...
...Immediately after the victory, the government eliminated the most powerful group of the bourgeoisie by expropriating the holdings of the Somoza clan...
...7. Barricada (Managua, Nicaragua), May 7, 1980...
...government moved in concert with this new tone...
...However,as on the international scene, the Front has moved adroitly on the domestic front to limit the ability of the bourgeoisie to 13NACLA Report influence the course of the revolution...
...We are under a Marxist system...
...7 A central thrust of the government's effort to "regulate" the laws of capitalism during the first year has been to gain control of the capital accumulation process...
...Diario Las Americas, April 26, 1980...
...Although INRA has only 10% of the cattle, it controls 80% of the slaughterhouses, and that is where there is the greatest control over profits...
...This was the general political ambience in which the Sandinista Front announced the restructuring of the Council of State...
...9 As if to punctuate the point, House Leader Eugene "Tip" O'Neill, meeting with the new Secretary of State, Edmund Muskie, decided to table the stillpending $75 million loan appropriation...
...2 0 Transnational corporations too have been hit by the government's efforts to gain greater control of the economy...
...The rest, those who had fought Somoza because they had been so long denied their "right" as the bourgeoisie to rule in their own interest, would not be so easily denied that opportunity now...
...The party failed to win any significant popular support, however, and was quickly denounced by the Sandinista Front and the mass organizations for linking the name of Sandino to what was essentially a counterrevolutionary movement...
...These complexes cover far more land than Agro-INRA, and they are viewed as the key to modernizing and expanding Nicaragua's agricultural production...
...Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, spelled out the current U.S...
...One important exception is gold mining...
...The war against Somoza had caused tremendous economic destruction, and Somoza as well as others had sent what money they could out of the country in the previous year and a half-estimated at some half billion dollars...
...In particular it complained about the community organizations, the Sandinista Defense Committees, which it said, "have no legal existence nor were they contemplated in the Program of Government...
...4. New York Times, June 28, 1979...
...10 NACLA ReportI m m D r p eer c 3 Popular Sandinista Army...
...The bourgeoisie, then, is encouraged to stay and participate in the economic and political life of the country...
...approximately two-thirds of Nicaragua's foreign exchange, is now carried out by a state trading agency...
...Around the turn of the year, the FSLN took a number of important steps to expand its control over the state and the economy...
...Class struggle escalates: "It is not possible to conceive an active cooperation by all sectors in the productive process" Forced to accept this secondary role, some elements of the bourgeoisie have wielded their most effective weapon-economic sabotage...
...In November, he pressured the Front to form what he called the "Partido Sandinista Unico" (the Only Sandinista Party...
...He then embarked on a virulent anti-communist crusade, claiming that the revolution was in danger of falling to "Soviet Imperialism...
...The FSLN rejected this maneuver, recognizing that a political party reflecting this multiplicity of class interests and using the name of Sandino would ultimately dilute the revolutionary process...
...It is actually debatable whether or not cotton should be a major export crop since 70% of the foreign exchange from sales is in turn spent on imported inputs such as fertilizers, insecticides, machinery, etc...
...Cruz had worked for the Inter-American Development Bank in the 1970s, and was appointed to head the Nicaraguan Central Bank in the Government of National Reconstruction...
...Under the banner of "Sandinismo Si, Comunismo No," the new party tried to project a reformist image while staunchly opposing any efforts to build a revolutionary socialist society...
...The Sandinista Front also negotiated directly with the most intransigent sector of the bourgeoisie--COSEP...
...In this, the popular classes and the Sandinista Front clearly hold the upper hand...
...14MaylJuno 1980 special equipment and providing the qualified administrators necessary to run these modern and sophisticated enterprises...
...While these early measures did not pose a direct threat to other private holdings in agriculture and industry, the bourgeoisie viewed the government's actions as ominous for the future...
...Intercontinental Press, December 17, 1979...
...Under this economic plan, the state will expand its participation in every sector of the economy...
...Barricada, February 25 and March 23, 1980...
...In early Match, the Democratic Conservative Party denounced the government's economic program and attacked the policies of the Sandinista Front, claiming that they were leading to "a climate of social anarchy in which it is not possible to conceive a serious effort or an active cooperation by all sectors in the productive process...
...and the need for the working class to develop its ability to effectively lead itself...
...The most industrialized units of agricultural production are run by Agro-INRA...
...Exports to Western Europe and Japan have grown, while Nicaragua has received lowinterest, long-term credits for important capital goods and raw materials from these countries.'" West Germany, for example, provided a 30-year loan for $23 million at 2% interest, with a ten-year grace period...
...82-3...
...Arguing that Nicaragua is already governed in part by Sandinistas who "want to lead Nicaragua toward a Marxist model," he pointed out that "pluralist" political currents still exist in the country...
...Besides controlling the export trade, the state controls 70% of the processing facilities and 15% of the coffee producing lands...
...Barricada, May 6, 1980...
...With any of these options, one fact remains true- the risks are high...
...Viron Vaky, U.S...
...Agriculture accounts for over three-quarters of the country's exports, and approximately 70% of the population earns its living from agriculture or related activities...
...The first step of the FSLN was to institutionalize its control over the decisive instrument of power-the Army...
...It is subject to fluctuating world prices for its exports while it pays ever higher prices for materials to build its own factories...
...Communism took over in Cuba because the business sector left," reasoned one car dealer just before the victory...
...Important steps in this direction have been the expropriation of the private banks and the takeover of the export trade...
...Rather it means changing the economic, political and social structures...
...They can commit economic suicide by closing down their factories or refusing to plant their lands, in which case they will be expropriated...
...9. NACLA interview with a member of FSLN...
...Standing behind the five-member Junta is the nine-member National Directorate of the FSLN, which sets the political direction for the government and controls the Sandinista Popular Army...
...Virtually every "interest group" within the bourgeoisie had either owned a bank or major blocks of shares in one or more banks...
...actions...
...5 The revolution is described by the FSLN as "popular, democratic and anti-imperialist," meaning that society as a whole continues to reflect a multiplicity of class interests...
...According to one government source, the country may lose up to $60 million this year through capital flight...
...As Daniel Ortega, a member of the Junta and of the National Directorate, pointed out at the time of COSEP's demands, "we are not going to share power with those who only seek to weaken that power- neither in the Government Junta nor in the ministries...
...With the end of the war and the dismantling of the Somoza regime, both the state and the economy have had to be entirely restructured...
...Political parties ranging from the right-wing Democratic Conservative Party to the proSoviet Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN) operate openly and freely...
...Roots of the bourgeois crisis: "We feel absent from the decisions of the government...
...Why did the installation of the Council of State spark a breach in the alliance...
...The United States had frequently asserted that it would not intervene in either Nicaragua or El Salvador as long as they were engaged in an "internal" struggle...
...The transnationals do not dominate vital sectors of the Nicaraguan economy...
...Nicaragua has moved to loosen its strong economic bonds with the United States by diversifying its trade and financial relations...
...Nicaragua has expanded its economic ties with socialist and third world countries as well...
...The results have been greater state control over the allocation of resources and an economy more responsive to state planning...
...And in mid-April, Violeta Chamorro, widow of Pedro Jbaquin Chamorro, resigned her seat on the governing Junta, citing ill health...
...The FSLN's measured response: "We are not going to share power with those who seek to weaken that power...
...News & World Report and The Economist, COMPOSITION OF THE Organization FSLN, Mass Organizations and Army Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) Sandinista Defense Committees (CDS) Association of Rural Workers (ATC) Sandinista Workers Confederation (CST) Association of Nicaraguan Women (AMNLAE) Sandinista Youth (JS) Sandinista Popular Army Members of the Patriotic Front of the Revolution (FPR) Independent Liberal Party (PLI) Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN) Popular Social Christian Party (PPSC) Members of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) Chamber of Construction Confederation of Chambers of Commerce (CCC) National Confederation of Professionals (CONAPRO) Nicaraguan Chamber of Industry (CADIN) Number of Seats (24 seats) 6 9 3 3 1 1 1 (6 seats) 1 1 1 (6 seats) 1 1 1 1 16 NACLA Reportall of which discussed growing Cuban and/or Soviet penetration of Nicaragua...
...U.S...
...While reiterating that the Front would never compromise its commitments to the Nicaraguan masses, the Front called on "honest sectors" in COSEP to participate fully in the process of economic reactivation...
...The businessmen that helped overthrow the Somoza regime," Interior Minister Tomas Borge observed, "will have to resign themselves to taking a back seat...
...Moreover, cotton, one of the two leading export crops (the other is coffee), requires constant technical assistance...
...To make matters worse, the bulk of Nicaragua's trade is with the United States, a country that has never been reticent to use its economic power to impose its will on Latin America...
...To fill the vacant seats on the Junta, the Front appointed Arturo Cruz and Rafael Cordova Rivas...
...4 And there is ample room for them to stay and participate--if, as Henry Ruiz, Minister of Economic Planning, put it, "they are willing to learn to play their part in accordance with national goals and needs...
...COUNCIL OF STATE Organization Nicaraguan Development Institute (INDE) Nicaraguan Union of Agricultural Producers (UPANIC) Other Action and Labor Unity Federation (CAUS) Association of Miskitos, Sumos and Ramas (MISURASATA) Confederation for Trade Union Unification (CUS) Democratic Conservative Party (PCD)* Federation of Health Workers (FETSALUD) General Confederation of Labor (CGT-I) National Association of Clergy (ANC) National Association of Nicaraguan Teachers (ANDEN) National Confederation of Workers National Council of Superior Education (CNES) Nicaraguan Democratic Movement Party (MDN)* Social Christian Party (PSC) Union of Nicaraguan Journalists (UPN) Number of Seats 1 1 (14 seats) 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 *To date, have refused their seats on the Council of State...
...House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, "Viron P. Vaky, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Statement in Support of Central American and Caribbean Supplemental," November 27, 1979...
...It can shut down its plants, or refuse to plant its agricultural crops...
...As the process of polarization continues, everyone is forced to decide whether they are with the Sandinistas or the forces of counterrevolution...
...His replacement was Henry Ruiz, a member of the FSLN National Directorate...
...now we confront the even more difficult task of winning our economic independence...
...INRA is now investigating the possibility of turning some irrigated cotton lands over to basic grains...
...Of the country's cottonproducing lands, INRA controls only 8%, while the bourgeoisie controls well over half (with the rest under the control of medium and small-scale producers...
...In general, the transnationals are not as important in Nicaragua as in many other Latin American countries...
...The country is an exporter of primary commodities while it imports many light manufactured goods and most of its capital goods...
...NACLA interview with Xabier Gorostiaga, Ministry of Economic Planning, Managua, Nicaragua...
...6. NACLA interview with Jaime Wheelock...
...Cotton: the majority of cotton lands are controlled by large producers, but INRA controls the export trade and 50% of the processing facilities...
...the Soviet Union has shown no signs of wanting to provoke U.S...
...Adolfo Jose Acevedo Vogl, a major theorist of the FSLN, described the framework of this transition: ". . the laws of capitalism will continue to function, but in a regulated manner and within certain limits...
...In the first article of this Report, we described some of the conditions the FSLN must take into account - the economic fragility of war-torn Nicaragua...
...ambassador in Managua, Lawrence Pezzullo, to participate in the discussions.' Finally, at the eleventh hour, COSEP decided to conditionally accept its five seats, hoping that this would enable it to wrest some future concessions from the revolutionary forces...
...This flood of propagandistic accusations just added to the stockpile which later could be used to justify harsher U.S...
...Already they have expanded their output and are diversifying into new areas of production...
...The economy, like the state, is viewed as transitional...
...5. Barbara Koeppel and David Harvey, "Nicaragua Rebuilds," The Progressive (May 1980), p. 43...
...La Prensa (Managua, Nicaragua), March 9, 1980...
...Through the Industrial Corporation of the People (COIP), the state already controls 109 industrial enterprises involved in diverse areas of production, ranging from textiles and paper to chemicals and plastics...
...1 Simultaneously, the Sandinista Front announced the formation of a political front with several Nicaraguan parties that had been supportive of the revolutionary process...
...In some instances, these tactics have compelled the workers and the state to step in and seize control of the enterprises...
...As COSEP complained, "the private sector feels it is absent from the decisions of the government...
...Barricada, March 29, 1980...
...Fundamentally, the clash over the Council of State is rooted in the struggle for control of the state and the economy that has been going on ever since Somoza's overthrow began to appear as a real possibility...
...NACLA interview with Xabier Gorostiaga...
...The economic front: "Now we confront the difficult task of winning our economic independence...
...A long-time supporter of the Front, he had been a member of the anti-dictatorial group, The Twelve...
...Cardenal is head of the Chamber of Construction, one of the sectors that Somoza began to muscle in on only after the 1972 earthquake...
...EPICA, Nicaragua: A People's Revolution (Washington, D.C.: EPICA, 1980...
...In November, the government moved to correct this situation: it seized control of the mining assets of three transnational corporations- Rosario Resources Corporation and ASARCO of the United States, and Noranda Mines of Canada...
...Intercontinental Press, June 2, 1980...
...A wide array of political forces have been allowed to coexist...
...The export of these commodities, which provide Who Controls What in Agriculture Following are excerpts from an interview with Salvador Mayorga, Vice Minister of the National Institute for Agrarian Reform, and member of the FSLN...
...8 NACLA ReportIn response to this pressure, the Sandinista Front and the executive branch of the government-the Junta of National Reconstruction-announced on April 22 that 14 additional seats would be added to the Council, most of which would go to the mass organizations...
...Ministerio de Planificacion, Plan de reactivacion economica en beneficio del pueblo (Managua, Nicaragua, 1980), pp...
...These, in turn, are subdivided into production units which are run by INRA administrators in conjunction with agricultural workers...
...And should a machine break down, it must import the replacement parts--all with its precious foreign exchange...
...4 Both Mexico and Venezuela have agreed to provide oil to Nicaragua under better terms than those reigning on the world market...
...According to a leader of the Popular Social Christian Party, his organization joined the Patriotic Front "to support the democratic and patriotic policies of the Government of National Reconstruction...
...But not all of COSEP's members were convinced that this approach would serve their interests...
...All this has clearly not dissuaded the United States from using economic means to try to preserve its interest in Nicaragua...
...Speech by Alfonso Robelo, Matiguas, Nicaragua, May 11, 1980...
...Nonetheless, the landowners' actions have already had an adverse effect on cotton production: less than 250,000 acres will be planted this year, about 80% of what was called for under Plan 80.26 While some elements of the bourgeoisie were undermining the economy, others stepped up their political offensive...
...The unabashed intent in providing these soft loans and grants is to subvert the revolution...
...Total foreign investment is estimated at only $180 million...
...3 0 When he joined the Junta, he declared that, "This revolution does not mean the mere substitution of one political power for another...
...Cuba has provided approximately $50 million in assistance, while the Soviet Union recently signed a modest trade and assistance agreement with Nicaragua...
...s 3 Underscoring the importance of incorporating these sectors into the revolutionary process, the FSLN has scheduled the official inauguration of this new grouping for July 19, the anniversary of the victory...
...INRA and the small producers have planted their lands, but according to reports in Barricada, some large landowners "are not repairing their machinery," or refusing to plant some of their lands, claiming an "inadequate work 1516 NACLA Report force...
...All had existed under theNACLA Report Somoza regime, and the latter two were particularly strong among the middle class...
...Organized on the community level, the militias are composed of thousands of workers and peasants...
...An Army high command was established with Humberto Ortega of the National Directorate at its head...
...On April 23, the State Department issued a declaration saying that the United States was "preoccupied" with developments in Nicaragua, and that the resignation of two Junta members signified the rupture of "political pluralism" which "could have a decisive influence on our future bilateral relations...
...Or finally, they can stay and participate modestly in a system where "the welfare of the people, rather than profits, must come first...
...There have also been moves to directly limit the profits of the bourgeoisie...
...But despite these very real limitations, Jaime Wheelock points out that "few movements have taken power in such favorable circumstances...
...The opening struggle: "We have encircled the bourgeoisie...
...COSEP was also disturbed by the rapid growth of the mass organizations...
...Many of the larger capitalists, particularly those burned by their historic links to Somoza's operations had already liquidated what they could of their holdings and abandoned the country...
...The bourgeoisie strikes back: "Sandinismo Si, Comunismo No...
...Billboard reads...
...Alfonso Robelo, an industrialist and member of the Junta, resigned his post, denouncing the reapportioned Council of State as a "totalitarian scheme...
...According to the Program of the Government of National Reconstruction, drawn up ten days before the overthrow of Somoza, the Council was to have 33 seats, of which approximately half would go to traditional political parties or organizations dominated by the bourgeoisie.' Mass organizations which had become powerful only after the victory had no seats on the Council...
...The goal, according to Humberto Ortega, is to create an army that "conducts itself in a revolutionary manner," and "that is in touch with the political and ecnomic realities of the country...
...The march to victory will not be stopped" This is not seen as a traditional army by Latin American standards...
...As one member of the National Directorate declared, "By taking control of the banks we have encircled the bourgeoisie...
...The National Guard of the Somoza regime was completely dismantled, and the Sandinista guerrilla units were transformed into the Sandinista Popular Army...
...In order to guarantee its economic future, the bourgeoisie was intent on securing a "controlling interest" in political power...
...Altogether, 154 commercial and industrial enterprises of varying sizes fell under state control, and Somoza's vast agricultural holdings were taken over by the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA...
...2 At about the same time, Alfonso Robelo, after a meeting in Washington with representatives of the State Department, launched the Nicaraguan Democratic Movement as a political party and began to openly attack the political and economic policies of the Sandinista Front...
...International economic strategy: "We must diversify Nicaragua's economic dependence...
...Moreover, the economy is extremely vulnerable to international economic pressures, particularly from the United 12MaylJune 1980 States...
...According to Plan 80, these publiclycontrolled enterprises will become "the hub . . . of the transition to a new industrial structure...
...interventionist dangers from the United States, particularly as the struggle in all of Central America intensifies...
...These banks were often the springboards for the bourgeoisie's penetration of the country's commerce, industry and agriculture...
...The FSLN's response to these provocations was to broaden the base of the government, play on existing divisions within the bourgeoisie, and otherwise pursue the same fundamental policies as before...
...Intercontinental Press, June 2, 1980...
...Barricada is the offical newspaper of the Sandinista Front, La Prensa reflects the views of some sectors of the bourgeoisie, and Nuevo Diario supports the revolutionary process while maintaining an independent political stance...
...Ibid., May 11, 1980...
...2 2 Division of Estimated Productive Capacity by Sector Coffee Cotton State (INRA) 15% Small Producer 70% Large Producer 15% 8% 25% 67% Beef 10% 70% Source: Salvador Mayorga, Vice-Minister, INRA Large farms that do not have processing or industrialized facilities are organized into agricultural complexes...
...After the victory, large tracts of land belonging to the Somoza family, to National Guard officers, and to Somoza's cronies, were expropriated by the new agrarian reform agency, INRA...
...Large producers, by neglecting their fields for only a short period of time, can destroy most of the crop...
...According to Pedro Cerda, Vice-Minister of Economic Planning, a progressive income tax and wage increases for the workers mean that "some of the benefits that traditionally wound up in the hands of private business interests will now serve the interests of the country...
...Comision Economica para America Latina (CEPAL), Nicaragua: Repercusiones economical de los acontecimientos politicos recientes (Santiago, Chile: CEPAL, August 1979), p. 14...
...This accounts for at least part of the heavy debt Nicaragua owes to an array of private banks, governments and multilateral lending institutions...
...12-13, 47...
...8 The U.S...
...Political education, carried out as much as possible among the combatants during the guerrilla campaign, is to be continued in a more organized and systematic way...
...Many of these belonged to the Somoza family...
...This was a key setback for Robelo...
...Rafael Cordova Rivas has been a member of the Democratic Conservative Party, a major adversary of the Sandinista Front...
...One key change was the removal of Nicaraguan businessman Roberto Mayorga from the Ministry of Economic Planning...
...Efforts by INRA to learn the exact extent of the people's property inheritance from Somoza are still being conducted...
...The new Patriotic Front will include the Nicaraguan Socialist Party, the Popular Social Christian Party and the Liberal Independent Party...
...INRA's response has been twofold: first to expropriate some of the idle lands, and second to compel the recalcitrant landowners to rent to small-scale producers at low prices...
...These include large, integrated enterprises such as cattle ranches with slaughterhouses, sugar mills and plantations...
...In 1980, just over 40% of the Gross Domestic Product will be generated by the state...
...There is a modern agricultural export sector, but the production of food staples for the internal market is dominated by traditional peasant producers, and the country's industrial base is less advanced than that of neighboring Costa Rica, El Salvador or Guatemala...
...Meat: Right now there are approximately two million head of cattle...
...Program of the Government of National Reconstruction (New York: NACLA, 1979...
...To pacify some business interests, the Junta adopted a resolution passed by the Council of State recognizing the right of expropriated property owners to appeal their cases in the courts...
...Coffee: Here too the state is in a strong position...
...Three political parties, Robelo's Nicaraguan Democratic Movement, the Conservative Democratic Party, and the Social Christian Party, refused to take the seats assigned them on the Council...
...At that time, COSEP, the leading business organization, declared that it is "wrong to excessively concentrate power in one political group or party [the Sandinista Front...
...Negotiations for compensation are currently under way, with the FSLN willing to pay for only the actual facilities...
...Members of the National Directorate head key ministries as well--Defense, the Interior, Agricultural and Agrarian Reform and, more recently, Economic Planning...
...less than one week after the Council's inauguration, one of the COSEP representatives appointed to the Council, Jose Francisco Cardenal, abandoned the country for the United States...
...A large portion of the required assistance will have to come from the capitalist world...
...Assistance to Nicaragua, July 31, 1979 to April 30, 1980," Embassy of the United States, Managua, Nicaragua...
...At a party convention in May, he supported a minority position that called on the party to participate in the Council of State and support the process of national reconstruction...
...In general, the bourgeoisie has opted to plant only the best lands where their investment brings the highest return...
...3 3 The capitalists must choose--as individuals and as a class--how to play their cards...
...Others were taken over from sectors of the bourgeoisie that abandoned the country, while still others were expropriated from owners who tried to decapitalize their plants...
...In September 1979, some younger members of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie set up the Nicaraguan Social Democratic Party...
...They will be progressively narrowed, as the new relations of production take hold, and the solid base of a new economy is created...
...They can ally with the more overtly counterrevolutionary forces-the exiled somocistas and the National Guard bands operating from neighboring countries...
...The state's ownership of productive enterprises in industry, mining and agriculture, its control over banks and the country's financial system, and its ascendancy in the commercial sphere--these are the major changes that enable the state to play a significant economic role...
...Another such move was to create the Sandinista Popular Militias, under the leadership of Eden Pastora, better known as "Comandante Cero...
...Like the workers, the bourgeosie can "go on strike...
...NACLA interview with Jaime Wheelock...
...During these first months, the most crucial struggle between the Sandinista Front and the bourgeoisie has occurred in the economic sphere, the Achilles' heel of the Nicaraguan revolution...
...imperialism on its Central American doorstep by providing extensive assistance...
...To get the cotton growers to participate in the program of economic reactivation, INRA and the banks have extended loans to all private producers...
...But in the months prior to his appointment to the Junta, he has increasingly distanced himself from the party's leadership...
...Next, the government expropriated all of Nicaragua's commercial banks, thereby taking over the financial nerve centers of the bourgeoisie...
...2 4 Cotton production, which alone accounts for almost a quarter of Nicaragua's exports, is where the bourgeoisie can wreak the greatest economic damage...
...Adolfo Jose Acevedo Vogl, "Acerca del contenido de clase del estado," Barricada, March 15, 1980...
...6 In this first year those favorable circumstances have been parlayed, as the FSLN and the mass organizations expanded their control of the state and the economy...
...As a result, INRA today controls about 25% of Nicaragua's 8.8 million acres of cultivated land, most of it among the country's most fertile and productive.*-z To administer these lands, INRA has adopted two different approaches...
...Initially, INRA called for the planting of a total of 300,000 acres...
...And the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), which represents the major business associations, met continuously for over a week to decide whether or not to participate in the Council...
...This decision was hailed by representatives of the mass organizations as a dramatic step from traditional "parliamentarianism to a revolutionary state...
...The FSLN recognizes that the local bourgeoisie has now been promoted to the front ranks of U.S...
...A cabinet shakeup in late December, carried out after discussions between the Junta and the Sandinista Front, lessened the influence of the bourgeoisie in key ministries...
...They can stay, and try to disrupt the march toward socialism economically and ideologically, hoping that the unstable situation in Central America will change in their favor...
...12 While Nicaragua clearly must alter its relationship to the capitalist world, the severance of all economic bonds with the dominant capitalist countries is not a viable option...
...Diario Las Americas, April 17, 1980...
...I'm not leaving...
...NACLA interview with Salvador Mayorga, Vice Minister of INRA...
...7 At the same time, the new government began laying the basis for public control of the economy...
Vol. 14 • May 1980 • No. 3
