Report Card
Fiefer, William Paul
REPORT CARD William Paul Fiefer Fightin' Words FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN NICARAGUA by the National Lawyers Guild Central America Task Force Delegation to Nicaragua National Lawyers Guild, 853...
...Currently, says the author, "the only known method of structural change in ownership of the means of production is to move from capitalism directly to socialism...
...Aimed at the U.S...
...and British markets, Stuart Speiser's guide provides rules for the competition: "In 5,000 words or less," writes the author, "devise a plan for spreading the ownership of America's or Britain's productive assets broadly among the people, and reviving the economy, without confiscation or increased taxation...
...Rather, it suggests, the ideas should center on refining and modifying capitalism so as to broaden the ownership and means of production...
...This seething cauldron of oppression threatens to ooze northward across the Rio Grande, engulf Texas, and eventually convert the entire northern continent into a communist slave camp...
...Now comes this handbook, which seeks to turn the enterprise into a contest...
...For those willing to abide by the handbook's constraints, though, this contest may provide some idle diversion...
...aggression were to end...
...52 pp...
...Unfortunately, Kitty Hawk won't fly...
...3.95 plus $2 shipping and handling...
...The handbook instructs contestants to refrain from converting these economies into socialist states...
...Not so, counters this report from the National Lawyers Guild...
...This question is usually reserved for radical economists and political theoreticians...
...Though the task force observed evidence of restrictions on the media, the Guild attributes such censorship to the exigencies facing the Sandinistas as they conduct domestic policy during a virtual state of war...
...Capital Folly THE USOP HANDBOOK: A Guide to Designing Universal Share Ownership Plans in the United States and Great Britain by Stuart M. Speiser Council on International and Public Affairs, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017...
...Capitalism, by definition, tends to concentrate wealth, and the economic rules governing free enterprise lay waste to the best-made plans of economists and game players alike...
...Even the editors of La Prensa and El Nuevo Diario, who are critical of the Sandinistas, told the delegation that censorship would be lifted if the contra war and U.S...
...We believe that the draconian picture painted by the extremist opposition and the Reagan Administration is largely exaggerated for political reasons...
...The report includes similar appraisals of radio, television, and of cultural plurality of expression in Nicaragua...
...Speiser outlines the need for change and offers a model plan, dubbed "Kitty Hawk," that contestants may use...
...How can goods and services be equitably distributed...
...A sixteen-mem-ber Guild delegation spent twelve days in 1985 traveling through Nicaragua and conducting interviews with a broad spectrum of that nation's citizens: "Based upon our interviews and study, the delegation has concluded that the existence of emergency press restrictions has not stifled all freedom of expression in Nicaragua...
...News-gathering restrictions during our invasion of Grenada and the bombing of Libya only reinforce the sad observation that truth is the first casualty of war...
...REPORT CARD William Paul Fiefer Fightin' Words FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN NICARAGUA by the National Lawyers Guild Central America Task Force Delegation to Nicaragua National Lawyers Guild, 853 Broadway, Room 1705, New York, NY 10003...
...168 pp...
...The U.S...
...Entries are due by December 31,1986, and the three best entries take, in order of merit, $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000...
...Nicaragua, according to President Reagan, is a totalitarian beachhead in the Americas, a bankrupt social order where individualism is repressed and freedom of expression is a fiction...
...Government, say the authors, has itself been swift to impose constraints on reporting and opinion in time of war...
Vol. 50 • June 1986 • No. 6
