The FSLN's strength also lies in its ability to listen to criticism and to respond to it by drawing the necessary practical consequences. This is one of the aspects of a real workers' democracy. The exemplary pluralism of this debate is another. • ound table political, social and cultural repression, and the weak development of capitalism in our country, we cannot talk about a developed union movement before July 19, 1979. Only seven per cent of the workers were organized in unions, divided up among seven confederations that ran a gamut from right wing to progressive to revolutionary.
After 1975, the FSLN became a factor stimulating the forms of struggle of the working class, and the workers went from essentially economist struggles for limited demands to a political-military struggle whose objective was fundamental objective was the seizure of political power. With the revolution, it was we workers and peasants, represented by the FSLN, who took power.
Obviously, new conditions were then created. From an oppressed and exploited class, we became the ruling class in power. Our tasks are not the
Ministry of Labor, "Lunes-socioeconomico, " "Barricada, , May 5, 1986.
5. In the wake of the measures taken by the National Directorate after the US Congress approved 100 million dollars in aid for the contras (suspension of La Prensa, tightening of the state of emergency, expulsion of Vega), the PSN and the PCN signed a document with three of the Nicaraguan bourgeois parties - the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), the Democratic Conservative Party (PCD) and the People's Social Christian Party (PPS) calling for the rescinding of the measures and attacking the "hegemonism" of the FSLN in the name of a "real political pluralism, respect for the mixed economy, etc.
International Viewpoint 29 September 1986
same as they were before the revolution. Our first task consists mainly of defending the political power that we have won.
Since 1979, in the National Interprofessional Commission, the CST posed the problem of increasing production and the productivity of labor, the essential precondition for raising the standard of living of the workers, but also the problem of combating indiscipline on the job. All these questions were discussed at the First Assembly for Unity of the Trade-Union Movement, in which all those presently gathered around this table came together. It was there also that we rejected strikes as a form of struggle because of their effect on production.
The role of the unions in the revolution is not a theoretical but a practical problem. Our tasks are before us. What is needed, on the one hand, is to carry them out, and, on the other, to build more energetically real workers' management that will make it possible to monitor producof the unions has to be a fundamentally political struggle against the political aggression of imperialism, which is defending a definite class in this country.
While it is correct to put the emphasis on the tasks of military defence, it is not in itself the participation of a large part of the population that guarantees the class content of the defence. We cannot confine ourselves to setting practical objectives for the proletariat of this country.
If socialism is our goal and our activity has to be oriented in that direction, we would make a grave error in taking such a narrow approach, The political struggle is decisive, and in that connection I would recall that the indefinite suspension of La Prensa has been a constant demand of the workers. Finally, the government has concurred with this demand by the workers movement, and this should be stressed ....
A class characterization has to be made of private property, of production. People avoid posing this question in theoretical terms, but this cannot be avoided. For whom are we producing? The problem of production and productivity has to be looked at from the social surplus product. We cannot fall into the error of demanding work, productivity and production without taking into consideration where the surplus product goes.
Roberto Moreno (CAUS): The trade-union movement and the working class did not get its ideological and political conceptions and corresponding organization on July 19, 1979. The workers' movement, its program and its lines of action, date back well before that. Even when it emerged in 1915, it wrote some glorious pages of history by its political and not merely economic struggles.
Well before the overthrow of tion and distribution, to see how goods reach the population. We have to develop and generalize the experiences of the trade-union movement.... Coping with the imperialist crisis involves raising the political and ideological consciousness of our members and of the entire union movement. This is not a matter of technique nor one of wages. We workers have to understand clearly that we have to make greater exertions and more sacrifices in order to extricate ourselves from this crisis.
Fernando Malespin (FO): What is the role of the unions in the present period, and how can we characterize this period? The imperialist aggression today has reached a peak with the voting of 100 million US dollars for the contras. This is not only a military problem but also an economle and political one.
What is the role of the various political forces within the country in the confrontation with this aggression? We have to fundamentally distinguish two social classes which are antagonistic and inimical to each other, and see which one of them today is the victim of the aggression. On that basis, what role must the trade-union movement play with respect to this war and these divergent class interests?
Even if numerically the working class is weak, its political role with respect to social problems is precisely what makes it the vanguard class. From this standpoint, the union movement has to offer a working-class answer to various problems, and we think that the primary role
TRADE-UNION CONFEDERATIONS IN NICARAGUA CST Sandinista Workers Confederation. Linked to the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLN). Centers of strength: the sugar industry, food, transport, health services, construction, textiles, etc. International affiliations: World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the Permanent Congress for Latin-American Workers' Trade-Union Unity (CPUSTAL), the Latin-American regional body of the WFTU. ATC Association of Rural Workers. Linked to the FSLN. CGT-I General Confederation of Labor - Independent. Linked to the Socialist Party of Nicaragua (PSN, one of the two communist parties). Centers of strength: agricultural workers, services, shoemakers, construction, carpenters. International Affiliations: WFTU and the CPUSTAL. CTN Nicaraguan Workers Confederation Linked to the Social Christian Party (PSC), a small rightist formation. Centers of influence: the services, service stations, certain engineering plants, La Prensa, the private radio stations. International affiliations: the World Confederation of Labor (WL), linked to Christian Democracy; the Latin American Confederation of Workers (CLAT), linked to Christian Democracy on the Latin-American level. CAUS Confederation for Trade-Union Action and Unity. Linked to the Communist Party of Nicaragua (PCdeN). Centers of influence: the textile mills. International affiliation: WFTU. CUS Confederation for Trade-Union Unity. Linked to the Social Democratic Party (PSD, rightist). Centers of influence: taxi drivers, transport, machine shops, hotel waitors, the Miskitos. International Affiliation: International Confederation of Free Trade-Union Organizations (ICFTUO) the Latin American equivalent of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). FO Workers' Front. Linked to the Marxist Leninist Party of Nicaragua (PMLN, formerly MAP). Centers of influence: construction, agricultural workers, textiles, teachers, health workers, banks. CTN-I Confederation of Nicaraguan Workers - Independent, the so-called Autonomous CTN (a split-off from the CTN). Linked to the People's Social Christian Party (PPSC), a left split from the PSC. Influence negligible. Internatinal affiliation WCL, CLAT.
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Somoza, a lot of workers marched in Managua. There were peasant congresses, as well as a trade-union movement led by the CGT-I and the CAUS in 1973-1974, great struggles that awakened the consciousness of the proletariat and served to shake the Somoza regime and undermine it economically.
It is hardly surprising that there have been different manifestations at different periods, certain ones at times predominating. On July 19, 1979, power was taken. It was in the hands of the FLN, which had the support of all the revolutionary organizations, a support that, for ideological reasons that we all know about, has flagged or disappeared.
We have to start off from the origins of the working class to ask ourselves today what we are going to do or what we are doing. I don't think that this is a practical problem. Seeing it that way would lead us into serious mistakes. One of the objectives of the working class is the seizure of power. How could we take it overnight? In order to build socialism, we have to develop the productive forces.
Today, the productive relations are capitalist. There is a bourgeoisie, private property, a power of capital and wage labor. So, how can we cross the line? First of all, it is necessary to develop the productive forces in order to break with the existing production relations and build others in line with socialism. But that cannot be done overnight.
Jose Espinoza (CUS): I think, for my part, that the title of the debate imposes its own limitations. Without trying to give things too subtle an interpretation, it seems to me that this title demands from participants "Triumphant Nicaragua will not sell-out, will not surrender!" (DR) NICARAGUA VICTORIOSA
NISE VENDE
NISE RINDE 16 a prior acceptance of the policy conducted by the leaders of the revolution.
If I were asked what is the role of the unions in a revolution, their role could be defined concretely. The history of the trade-union movement around the world would in itself provide the answer. You can see it plainly in the four corners of the world.
We should ask ourselves if the trade-union policy conducted by the vanguard of the revolution has been fruitful or not. In my opinion, the answer is "no," and I think we can all see this. As an initial example, I would cite the failure of the Trade-Union Coordinating Committee. An attempt was made to give impetus to this project with the admirable slogan "One class, one union." It failed specifically because of the sectarianism of the vanguard, but also because of a chronic lack of labor discipline that it has so far been impossible to overcome.
With respect to workers' rights, this policy has been no better. There has been a lack of trade-union freedom, restrictions on the right to raise demands, elimination of the right to strike as a legitimate means of struggle for trade unionists, and so on.
What are the real causes of the present situation of virtual destitution that the workers are experiencing? The society laments about the imperialist aggression. We are aware of the enormous cost of a continuing state of war. But that does not justify the fact that the leaders or whoever have failed to inform us about the sums collected through the unemployment funds and how this money has been spent.
Likewise, it does not justity concealing the figures on the foreign debt and the projects in which are invested the enormous sums that the state collects in taxes. Nor does it justify giving priviledged treatment to some sections of workers through CAT [workers supply centers] cards (1), measures which have not been adequate even to serve the needs of the workers they were supposed to benefit.
Regardless of ideological positions, support for the government's policy or adherence to a party, we know what is happening in the stomachs of our children and companions and we know that the state of the stomachs of some gentlemen are still privileged as they were before.
We have given unconditional support to the work of the Contadora group and we have signed - along with other forces in political lifeaccords calling for reconciliation of all forces in the life of the nation. (2)
In so doing, we have distanced ourselves from sectarianism, from this single leadership, from politico. intellectual hegemony.
For the unions to really play a decisive role, to be active forces in the revolution, what the revolution needs to do specifically is to free these unions. We are convinced that the workers will produce more and better with freedom. The opposite is being demonstrated by the daily declining production of our factories and countryside. In truth, that is the role of the unions in these dramatic times.
Carlos Gallo (FSLN), Regional Committee III, Managua: Along with some trade-union confederations and some political parties, we think that our present differences concern the transition to socialism. It is the failure to understand this process that makes it more difficult for the revolutionary parties that exist in this country to act in a unified way. Some parties have been misled by the forms the revolutionary state has taken in Nicaragua. They cannot understand the nature of this state.
If this state were not a revolutionary one, a workers' state, we would not have to face a war of imperialist aggression. As for the analysis Salgado makes of the economic structure existing in this country, of the forms of ownership, I would call his attention to the fact that many socialist projects, which have today achieved their final form, began with private ownership proportionally higher than the figure he mentions.
What is decisive here is that it is the state that shapes the economy. That is the essential thing. As a revolution in transition to socialism, we do not need to have all private property confiscated or nationalized in order to move forward and say that what we have here is a workers' revolution.
What points have we touched? Today, the vital sectors of the economy are in the hands of the workers. The bourgeoisie does not control the foreign currency, the banks, the army, or the laws, regardless of certain legal inadequacies the state may have.
We don't think that the bourgeoisie
Some of the CAT cards are saved for production workers who have priority for the scarcer products. This measure was designed to benefit the producers at the expense not only of the informal sector but also administrative employees.
2. The Contadora group (Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Venezuela) has undertaken to find a solution to the situation existing in Central America based on a negotiated peace. This effort has been stalled for months and no one expects any practical results in the coming period The most probable outlook is that this group will gradually fade away.
International Viewpoint 29 September 1986
can reproduce itself in this country, because the main levers of command are in the hands of the revolutionary state, the working people. As for the analysis of the social surplus product that Malespin made, the fundamental problem is not changing the forms of property. What we want to change are the basic patterns of accumulation of the surplus product.
We have to analyze what transforming the rest of private property could bring us. Annually, the surplus product created by this sector is in the order of 8 to 10 million cordobas, which is a pathetically small amount by comparison with our needs.
We have to take as our starting point the class nature of the revolutionary state, which is expressed in the measures prompted by the revolution and the program that we are putting into practice. It is clear to everyone that what we have here is not a bourgeois state. We should analyze the conditions in which the revolution, the workers' move. ment, the working class are advancing in the achievement of the socialist program in the face of a major crisis of capitalism, perhaps the most profound in its history.
Now, as regards whether or not the FSLN is a party: It is enough to have a revolutionary program and activists in the mass movement to exercise and develop the functions of a party. A Bureau or a Central Committee does not make a party; they are only instruments.
Carlos Salgado (CGT-I): In Nicaragua, capitalist private property is predominant in the economic structure; it accounts for the majority of
Gross Domestic Product. We can conclude from this that there is exploitation and that one of the tasks of the union organizations should be defending the socioeconomic interests of the workers.
I point this out because a lot of comrades persist in the notion that to concern yourself with the socioeconomic conditions of the working people is an eminently economist attitude. Historically, the trade-union movement has had that function. It still does, because you cannot explain the crisis and call for defending the revolution without also defending the working people's interests.
We are in a situation where the workers are demanding a role in administrative management and not just in managing production. Why? Because the idea was put about that the only way for workers to play a role in production and management in the plants was to do more and better work. How are we going to get a positive response from the working masses when they are denied any role in the programming and planning of production?
For 7 years now the technicians and administrators have shown their incapacity, and it is said that this is because of lack of experience, that they have not yet learned, that they don't have sufficient competence, and so on. Maybe by now we workers have already shown that we are more capable than they are.
You talk about surplus product. I want to talk about taxes. It has been said that capitalist property has been seriously eroded, and through taxation the state is intervening to make sure that capitalism does not reproduce itself.
If we look at the tax system, the situation is quite alarming. Direct taxes paid by the workers remain the bulk of the state revenue. The official figures show that in 1983, out of a total of 13,835 million cordobas taken in by the government, 10,619 million came from direct taxes, because the system is the same as in 1977.
We condemn that approval [by the Reagan administration] of 100 million US dollars for the contras, and this should be an alarm signal for all the political, trade-union and people's organizations. They must form a united front against the intervention. We cannot continue to operate as we are doing. We have to orient the masses, we have to tell the workers that, over and above all the problems and divergent opinions we have about the conduct of the state, that we have to shoulder the burden of defending the revolution.
This problem will not be solved by wages. It is a problem of production, and that is intimately linked to the degree of involvement of the workers in adminstrative management.
Roberto Moreno (CAUS): The CAUS recognizes the Communist Party of Nicaragua as the vanguard. We are not discussing that because I don't think that would make any sense. Yes, the revolution is under attack because it is a people's revolution. But the workers also have other concerns, such as speculation. For example, the cost of producing a yard of cloth in Fabritex is 400 cordobas, but it costs 3,000 cordobas in the Dinatex stores. (3) If the state gets this difference, and participates in speculation, that's bad; if other sectors get it, that's even worse. Is this a reflection of workers' power? And what about calling workers to assemblies to tell them that it is forbidden to strike? You talk about workers' w power, but workers are treated as if they were contras or reactionaries. You are throwing the workers' movement off balance. I think that the government not only does not escape from reproducing capitalism, but actually reinforces it. With the agrarian reform, you give the right to ownership. But this property - small though it may be -breeds capitalism.
It falls to us to play a central role in this stage of transition so that socialism can triumph. One of the conditions of this triumph is that the working class is in power and that there is a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Ronaldo Membreno (CST): I want to make a proposition to the leaders of the main union federations, on the basis of the tasks that the workers' movement must take on. We want to do this in friendly competition with all the organizations which are agreed on defending revolutionary power, expressed by the integration of workers in the different forms of military defence -even if Malespin attacked the Patriotic Military Service in a veiled way.
Our tasks are: to increase production and productivity, in order to guarantee military defence and supplies to the civil population; to readjust the norms in industry, starting with textiles and metallurgy, so as to assure the best manufactures for the peasants, the towns and for defence; to increase working hours in the countryside so that basic products and products for export can be guaranteed.
We must take another look at the question of qualifications, so that skilled workers can receive a fair salary; we have to reinforce workers' participation in management, not just confining this to simple participation on questions like hiring or redundancy, but increasingly in regard to enterprise planning, and maintenance and repair projects. Management must be evaluated in the light of the accomplishments of these objectives, with the participation of the workers in the plants.
The CST proposes that members of your unions take some places in our national union school, in order that together we can fight above all inefficiency and waste, and so that we can win to the side of the working class administrators who are of bourgeois origin. That is also the role of the vanguard.
The Dinatex chain-store company was abolished by the government in July 1986. This had long been one of the textile workers' demands. This measure was one of a series designed to assure direct sale of factory products to the CAT in order to reduce the middlemen to a minimum and lower prices for consumers.
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HONDURAS