What They Are Saying
Vilas, Carlos M.
...we are used to thinking that imperialism only wants to keep us in misery. I believe that was true in the past, but it is not the moment we are experiencing now. Victor Tirado,...
...Former Sandinista cabinet minister Alejandro Martfnez Cuenca shot back that such a proposal sounded more like France in 1968 than present day Nicaragua...
...FormerOAS ambassador Carlos Tunnerman responded that despite changes on the international scene, the FSLN would remain "nationalist, anti-imperialist, and committed to defending our dignity and self-determination...
...Tirado's thesis provoked an immediate and intense reaction...
...an "orthodox" contingent advocates the unconditional defense of worker and peasant rights...
...The FSLN should promote a social pact that would be "the heart of a new national, multi-class project...
...Luis Carri6n concurred: "Anti-imperialism is the flip side of our defense of Nicaraguan sovereignty, and of our commitment to the peoples of the Third World...
...Un that occasion, Sandinista leaders publicly supported union demands and negotiated an agreement with the government to end the conflict...
...The Sandinista leadership is walking a tightrope: They want to maintain a diamaw- wlrn rne rrnvernmenl In nmer ro keepthe "hard-liners" at bay:at the same time they wish to remain at the forefront of the popular movement...
...Then, following a meeting between Daniel mega...
...The slogan "National Directorate: Give Us Your Orders...
...in more general terms, it concerns the future of the FSLN as a popular force, as well as the party's position in a shifting world order...
...in July...
...Moreover, anti-imperialist movements end up in economic disaster...
...Carline...
...This gmup...
...less concerned with politics than with daily survival issues: this pmhably explains why the FNT labor movement has gained prominence and escaped many of the barbs thrown at the FSLN...
...ratner tnan nsen trom tne base...
...According to FNT leader DAmaso Vargaq-the FSLNdid not support the May labor strikes...
...The immediate debate revolves around Sandinista policy toward the government and the grassroots protests...
...cntlclzed the process as "concials who had gone into party posts...
...Sandinismo should defend the rights of the poor, but from a "multiclass, pluralistic perspective...
...On the other end of the spectrum...
...Tirado contends that the era of anti-imperialist revolutions has come to an end, with the fall of the socialist bloc and the decline of Soviet support for the Third World...
...The "new look" of Uarricada is symbolic of the kind of sandinismo likely to emerge from the July congress...
...Radical" orovertly classist language (references to the proletariat...
...even tried to dismantle...
...If we understand anti-imperialist struggles to mean a total military and economic confrontation with imperialism, then the cycle of these kinds of revolutions is ending...
...in fact...
...imperialism, then, of course, we were going to be struggling eternally...
...orthodox" Sandinistas emphasize democratization and renovation within the party...
...In the wake of last May's strike movement, sociologist Orlando Nufiez Soto declared conditions ripe for a "revolutionary alliance of urban workers and campesinos, especially those campesinos who formed the base of the Nicaraguan Resistance...an alliance aborted by Sandinista policies and by the counterrevolution...
...Tunnerman agrees...
...Since the FSLN defined its mission as a "perpetual struggle against U.S...
...Jurist Augusto Zamora remarked that agreements with the govemment are attractive to those lookmg to curry government tavor and hold on to former privileges...
...we need anational popular and anti-imperialict r~vnliitinnaw frnnt tn win hark power...
...top Sandinistas opposed talks with the government...
...At the same time...
...Chamorro advisor Antonio Lacayo and US...
...the "pragmatists" I-onseca...
...many of whomoccupied high posts under Ortega argues the need for national reconciliation, given the population's war-wearinessand the lackof international support for aradicalization of the revolution...
...On the domestic front, agreements between the FSLN and the Chamorro government have revived the old question of class alliances...
...Comandante Henry Rufz, a member of the National Directorate, advocates a "broad alliance of social and political sectors genuinely concerned with promoting the interests of Nicaragua above all else...
...By September...
...Carlos Fonseca TerBn...
...stability for the bourgeoisie is another...
...The majority of the candidates were former government officials who had gone into party posts...
...I should point Humberl out...
...The former title "Official Organ of the Sandinista National Liberation Fmnt" has heen replaced by a new slogan: "In the National Interest...
...We can't have these hybrid positions...
...it's common to hear in the same breath acritiqueof centralism or "verticalism," and complaints on the "lack ofdirection" orthe "lack of aclear Ortwa and Dotla Vloleta: !O Walking a tight;ope within the FSLN havegainedaclearedge...
...Former Vice President Sergio Ramirez calls on the party to open its ranks to "anyone with patriotic sentiments...
...Barring some surprise...
...Stabilityfor the people is one thing...
...The old red and black logoof a guerrilla fighter in the trenches is gone...
...there were actions in Managuathat the (FSLN)departmental ! commission opposed...
...Since last year...
...that acArgentine social scientist Carlos M. Vilas teaches at the UNAM in Mexico...
...the FNT was threatening more agitation...
...Jose Bermddez, National Workers Front (FNT) We see the same faces in different places, [before] in the government and now in theparty...
...But when the govemment violated the accords, the FSLN was left hanging...
...In the end, the FNT gained Bome autonomy, hut ultimately recognized the FSLN'spolitical leadership...
...Luis Carri6n, FSLN National Directorate As a party member and a national workers leader, Idemanda clearandfirm stance from the Frente Sandinista...
...in its place the paper's name appars in large black type, framed on the right by a Nicaraguan flag with Sandino's portrait etched into it, and on the left by the day's winning lottery number...
...This would not exclude adopting a more modern definition of imperialism, one that "doesn't mean a permanent confrontation with the United States, but a search for a relationship of mutual respect...
...and the failure of the FNT's October I protests, the FSLN leaned in favor of a negotiated settlement, dragging the FNT along with it...
...For months, the Sandinista daily Barricada has covered the ongoing polemic...
...Th'is woild include a ratifi catlon of antl-~mpenahsm and ot the nationalist and popular nature of sandinismo (although with an elastic vision of the groups andlor classes that define the "nation...
...Victor Tirado, FSLN National Directorate Anti-imperialism will remain valid as long as imperialism exists...
...Instead of suicide accords with the oligarchy...
...The elections for the 600 congress delegates held throughout 1W provoked dissatisfaction among many grassroots groups...
...Others have pushed for the FSLN to maintain its popular hue...
...would be stricken...
...Last summer's pmtests, which occurred largely on the margin of FSLN activity, are a case in point...
...and support fora mixed economy andtherightsofthe poor...
...One of the more controversial statements came from Commander Victor Tirado in November...
...the FSLN strengthened its position as a gobetween with government moderates...
...We have to look for new options....The worldwide trend can be summed up in two phrases: market economy and free elections...
...a Sandinista youth leader and son of FSLN founder Carlos - . . . . . tradictory": discussing democratization while presenting a slateofcandidates who had "stepped down" fmm leadership . . . . a p . . posttlons...
...Augusto Zamora, Sandinista legal advisor When I returned to Nicaragua late last year, seven months after the inauguration of the new government and four months after the July labor strikes, I encountered a panorama that was different from anything I had witnessed before: a deteriorating economy coupled with political effervescence...
...Since the pragmatist vein is strongerin the upperreaches of the FSLN than at the base...
...The FSLNis divided, not between 'pragmatist' and 'orthodox' groups, but between 'first class' and 'no class...
...Much of the party's base is...
...The FSLN, he countered, should strive to unite different nationalist currents in favor of development with social justice...
...the vanguard, the class struggle...
...It is a demand that resonates with the party's base...
...Ambassador Hany Schlaudeman on September 28...
...Comandante Tombis Borge, the only surviving founder of the FSLN, was more virulent: "Statements that imperialism doesn't exist, or that it doesn't merit a confrontation, a political and ideological war, are...historically false...
...companied eleven years of Sandinista rule, had given way to a kaleidoscope of opinions loosely referred to as the "internal debate...
...the documents coming out of thecongress will attempt to reconcile thedisoarate oositions reflected in the debate...
...At first...
Vol. 24 • May 1991 • No. 6
