In Review
Nicaragua: An Eye-witness Report on the Electoral Process, a Report by a Delegation of the National Lawyers Guild. 26 pp. $2 (paper). Copies available from: Chicago NLG, 205 West Wacker Drive,...
...Copies available from the IFDP, 1885 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103...
...Bernardo Vega is a key figure in the history of New York City's Puerto Rican community...
...The views of workers and peasants and a political officer from the U.S...
...Copies available from: Chicago NLG, 205 West Wacker Drive, Suite 2122, Chicago, IL 60606...
...Monthly Review Press, 223 pp...
...These memoirs are beautifully written, providing vivid profiles of New York's socialists of the World War I era-a truly internationalist and exotic group, with the hispanic community playing a major role...
...Most interesting are the descriptions of the cigar factories where Vega worked throughout his life...
...This point provides one of the authors' few weak arguments, namely that queues pro- vide a useful social function-people can complain together...
...10 (paper...
...Starches, sugar and coffee are consumed in huge quantities...
...He eventually returned to Puerto Rico where he remained active in the pro-independence movement...
...Corpulence is still a sign of prestige in Cuba...
...Vega was a militant in Puerto Rican trade union and political movements, before emigrating to the United States in 1916...
...Traditional food prejudices die hard and nutritional problems persist...
...The authors clearly consider Cuba's rationing system superior to food distribution systems in most Third World nations-hunger and malnutrition have been eliminated...
...Memoirs of Bernardo Vega: A Contribution to the History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York edited by Cesar Andreu Iglesias...
...Shor- tages are common, rations do not last and must be supplemented by deregulated supplies, restaurant service is abysmal and long queues make shop- ping a prohibitive task...
...The report also concludes that the deaths, abductions, administrative burdens and costs of the contra war have seriously disrupted registration and campaign procedures...
...But temporarily divorcing food distribution from the rest of the state apparatus, the reader will most likely agree with the authors that it is the most tangible success of the revolu- tion...
...State Department officials for what they until recently liked to call the "sea of splashing dominoes...
...Between the Lines, 336 pp...
...He founded the Liga Puertorriquena e Hispafia and the weekly Grdfico, which he edited for many years...
...This book is a useful compendium of the political forces extant in Caribbean change and instability...
...But the authors do describe the system's many shortcomings while looking at private farmers markets, bartering, home cultivation, agricultural methods, the black market and cor- ruption...
...7.95 (paper...
...The International Crisis in the Caribbean by Anthony Payne...
...Brief profiles of the more volatile island states follow with a look at the swinging fortunes of the Left and Right and the eccentricities that have characterized Caribbean heads of state...
...12.95 (paper...
...18.50 (cloth...
...In this book, three highly qualified authors have sifted through every detail of every aspect of eating in Cuba...
...The delegation considered the elections to be broadly representative, free and open...
...The delegation also interviewed representatives of the FSLN, the Independent Liberals and the right-wing Social Christian Party, which did not participate...
...The opening chapter looks at the thinly disguised U.S...
...military perceptions behind the geographically artificial "Caribbean Basin," the name preferred by U.S...
...In September of this year, the National Lawyers Guild sent a group of 10 lawyers and one law professor to examine the nature and validity of the Nicaraguan elections...
...Anthony Payne is a British political science professor who served as an adviser to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee during its study of Central America and the Caribbean in 1981 and 1982...
...Banking on Poverty: The Global Impact of the IMF and the World Bank edited by Jill Torrie...
...The Johns Hopkins University Press, 173 pp...
...The IFDP is well-known for its indepth studies of hunger and development issues...
...No Free Lunch: Food and Revolution in Cuba Today by Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins and Michael Stout...
...He joined Henry Wallace's Progressive Party and became national director of the party's hispanic section...
...Finally, there is a fascinating history of the Puerto Rican/Cuban alliance during the war of independence, and of Jos6 Marti's life in New York...
...They studied the legal structure of the electoral process and monitored political debates and advertisements on the radio and television...
...Payne discusses the roles of the United States, Cuba, European and Latin American countries and analyzes pan-Caribbean con- cerns, especially in the aftermath of Grenada, in this sharply analytical study of the "Caribbean crisis...
...To express opposition to the institu- tions' handling of international finance vis-A-vis the Third World, a coalition of church, research, human rights and labor groups sponsored "The Global Impact of the IMF and the World Bank" conference at the University of Toronto...
...The IMF and the World Bank held their 1982 conference in Toronto, a site keenly attuned to the monetarist policies now in vogue with the international lending institutions, sitting as it does between the governments of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher...
...Vega also describes the many cultural mechanisms that provided an ultimate safety net for the poor...
...The government has tried to encourage healthier eating habits, but with little success...
...Institute for Food and Development Policy, 250 pp...
...Each worker donated a part of his salary to hire men who read aloud from newspapers, novels or political treatises every morning and afternoon...
...Embassy are also cited...
...Problems are widespread...
Vol. 18 • November 1984 • No. 6
