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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 22 June 4, 2018
(special feature)
Protests against government attacks spread in Nicaragua
BY RÓGER CALERO
AND MAGGIE TROWE
MASAYA, Nicaragua — Thousands rallied here and in cities across the
country May 19 to demand the resignation of President Daniel Ortega and
Vice President Rosario Murillo. In Managua, workers and middle-class
layers gathered in peaceful protests on street corners and drove in
caravans around the city. They stopped and visited university campuses
occupied by students since protests exploded a month ago to express
solidarity.
Thousands of others gathered in León, Matagalpa, and Estelí, marching in
city streets where paving-stone barricades erected since April by
residents in working-class neighborhoods to defend themselves from
attacks by police and pro-government thugs remain in place. Some were
the sites of pitched battles that have left more than 70 dead and
hundreds wounded.
Widespread protests exploded April 19, the day after goons organized by
the Sandinista Youth, an organization led by the ruling party, the
Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), attacked some retirees in
León protesting against government proposals to increase workers’
contributions to the country’s pension fund and cut benefits.
University students rallying on campuses in support of the pensioners
were attacked by riot police and government-organized paramilitaries. To
defend themselves, students at the Polytechnic, Agrarian, and
Engineering universities occupied campus buildings and barricaded
themselves inside.
The killings and wounding of the students — and Ortega and Murillo’s
denial of brutal repression by police and paramilitary thugs and their
dismissal of protesters as miniscule groups of looters, right-wing gangs
and youth manipulated by opposition forces — have generated even more
indignation and incited more protests. “They were students, not
delinquents!” is a slogan heard in all the actions, seen as well as on
T-shirts, signs and graffiti on walls everywhere.
“We stand behind our elderly and our young people,” said craft vendor
Ervin Potosme, 57. Potosme, like many of the protesters, still considers
himself a supporter of the revolutionary ideals fought for by the FSLN,
which led the struggle that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of
Anastasio Somoza on July 19, 1979, opening a deep-going popular
anti-capitalist revolution.
The government that came to power on the shoulders of that mass
insurrection mobilized workers and peasants to fight for land reform and
workers’ rights; build their own organizations; take greater control of
factories; and carried out other measures in favor of the toilers.
But the FSLN leadership became increasingly dominated by those, like
Ortega, who backed away from a revolutionary course, rejecting any idea
of following the example of Cuba and its socialist revolution. This
evolution accelerated in the late 1980s, marking the beginning of the
FSLN’s degeneration into a bourgeois electoral party. By 1990 the
Sandinista revolution was over.
Potosme took part in the 1978 insurrection that exploded in the Monimbó
neighborhood of this city against the Somoza dictatorship. This
working-class neighborhood, whose population is largely of indigenous
descent, has served as an inspiration and as an emblem of courage and
resistance to tyranny for Nicaraguan toilers.
The main rally here was held at La placita, the main plaza and heart of
Monimbó. Protesters came from all sections of Nicaraguan society and
from a wide range of viewpoints, including supporters of opposition
parties, longtime opponents of the Sandinista Front, as well as workers
who were part of the revolution in the 1980s.
Calero and Trowe are in Nicaragua reporting for the Militant. We will
carry further coverage next week.
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