pandora
19th July 2005, 15:41
Every year 300,000 Nicaraguans from every city and town gather in the main plaza in Managua to celebrate the Revolution against Samoza in 1979.
Left wing and sympathic Revolutionaries such as Castro, the Zapatistas, and maybe Chavez make appearences. It is one of the most thrilling sites you can hope to see as a socialist.
This article in Counterpunch gives a nice run down
25 Years on
Revolution in Nicaragua¨¨
By LEE SUSTAR
¨Washington was in shock on July 19, 1979. A massive popular insurrection had put radical leftists in power in Nicaragua, a country ruled with an iron hand for the previous 43 years by the Somoza family, funded and armed by the U.S. to keep "order" in its "backyard."
Find it at:
http://counterpunch.org/sustar07232004.html
HOWEVER:
Issues this year are Daniel Ortega´s signing a pact with the right wing embezzling ex-pres to guarentee him clemency, when starving Nicaraguans had to bind together to find the legal fees to convict him.
This has decreased faith in Daniel Ortega and could hurt FSLN, except with two major parties involved who else is there.
Despite corruption, mainly giving foreign aid benefits to friends and family, the Sandinista have launched most of the social programs, all the free schools and hospitals.
What has eroded their agenda has been the globalization of Nicaraguas banks, and therefore non-recognition of those banks of the campesinos farm cooperatives for loans for seed and fertilizer. This put the food source for the nation in the hands of foreign investors when campesinos were forced to sell, and in the provinces I´ve visited destroyed the family farm.
Sandinistas have seen many new middle class families erupt who are pro-Capitalization even if it means other families who were their partners in the Revolution must starve. Ignorance of the rising cost of food with export with the lowering of trade tariffs has left the Nicaraguan economy especially vulnerable to price speculation raising the cost of rice and beans to 50 cents a pound.
Considering the daily wage is 1.50 this means the three pounds of beans needed to sustain life for a family are not always available due to the high unemployment, not to mention sundays and holidays. Medications are very dear and impossible to fill causing a health care crisis. Hospitals I visited were filthy as they can not afford the water to clean them. Meanwhile new private hospitals have sprung up for the wealthy, which are few.
The Somozas have returned and Nicaragua is ripe for the picking.
However :D
The Revolutionary Spirit has not died! The majority of Nicaraguans remember the war very well, and some I spoke to said they were better off during the war in that they are losing more family members now to disease and accidents around the highways due to high speed global traffic from Panama which runs down bicyclists and pedestrians at random.
Nicaraguans are very vocal, and do not want to be taken advantage of. Recent protests against electric and phone companies have shown that Nicaraguans will fight back, and protect their borders.
It is important to realize that the whole country was during the war Sandinista and the war was only on the borders against the US invading force. Nicaraguans are strong willed, proud, and joyful in a way Hondurans and other Central Americans who have been not found a way to freedom are not.
It is this victory over oppression that Nicaraguans celebrate today, and it is this celebration that we as their comrades should celebrate.
Cheers Pandora
Left wing and sympathic Revolutionaries such as Castro, the Zapatistas, and maybe Chavez make appearences. It is one of the most thrilling sites you can hope to see as a socialist.
This article in Counterpunch gives a nice run down
25 Years on
Revolution in Nicaragua¨¨
By LEE SUSTAR
¨Washington was in shock on July 19, 1979. A massive popular insurrection had put radical leftists in power in Nicaragua, a country ruled with an iron hand for the previous 43 years by the Somoza family, funded and armed by the U.S. to keep "order" in its "backyard."
Find it at:
http://counterpunch.org/sustar07232004.html
HOWEVER:
Issues this year are Daniel Ortega´s signing a pact with the right wing embezzling ex-pres to guarentee him clemency, when starving Nicaraguans had to bind together to find the legal fees to convict him.
This has decreased faith in Daniel Ortega and could hurt FSLN, except with two major parties involved who else is there.
Despite corruption, mainly giving foreign aid benefits to friends and family, the Sandinista have launched most of the social programs, all the free schools and hospitals.
What has eroded their agenda has been the globalization of Nicaraguas banks, and therefore non-recognition of those banks of the campesinos farm cooperatives for loans for seed and fertilizer. This put the food source for the nation in the hands of foreign investors when campesinos were forced to sell, and in the provinces I´ve visited destroyed the family farm.
Sandinistas have seen many new middle class families erupt who are pro-Capitalization even if it means other families who were their partners in the Revolution must starve. Ignorance of the rising cost of food with export with the lowering of trade tariffs has left the Nicaraguan economy especially vulnerable to price speculation raising the cost of rice and beans to 50 cents a pound.
Considering the daily wage is 1.50 this means the three pounds of beans needed to sustain life for a family are not always available due to the high unemployment, not to mention sundays and holidays. Medications are very dear and impossible to fill causing a health care crisis. Hospitals I visited were filthy as they can not afford the water to clean them. Meanwhile new private hospitals have sprung up for the wealthy, which are few.
The Somozas have returned and Nicaragua is ripe for the picking.
However :D
The Revolutionary Spirit has not died! The majority of Nicaraguans remember the war very well, and some I spoke to said they were better off during the war in that they are losing more family members now to disease and accidents around the highways due to high speed global traffic from Panama which runs down bicyclists and pedestrians at random.
Nicaraguans are very vocal, and do not want to be taken advantage of. Recent protests against electric and phone companies have shown that Nicaraguans will fight back, and protect their borders.
It is important to realize that the whole country was during the war Sandinista and the war was only on the borders against the US invading force. Nicaraguans are strong willed, proud, and joyful in a way Hondurans and other Central Americans who have been not found a way to freedom are not.
It is this victory over oppression that Nicaraguans celebrate today, and it is this celebration that we as their comrades should celebrate.
Cheers Pandora