Do the workers understand what a nationalisation is!
Yes, the boss has left.
Do the workers stand the meaning of the nationalisation — that the factory no longer belongs to the boss, but is owned by the state?
Right. We are working with enthusiasm and more willingv because now we nave a free where we can say anything we want. We are all willing to build. If they can't pay us now, then we'll wait to get paid, because some day we're going to get paid.
Who benefits from your efforts?
Socialist Challenge 30 August 1979 Page 8 The new government that we have. We're ready to make a sacrifice in order to build a free country. I'm 50 years old and I've only seer Somoza In they paid was pathetic, everything outrageously expensive. We could barely eat.
And what do you expect from the government today?
expect the best. Everything now is better. Even one month and one everything is going fine.
And how do you see things going since the Somoza?
Everything is fine. Perfectly fine. Somoza used to say can all work in peace You didn't have a trade union before. Were there people who tried to form a union?
A lot of people tried. But what happened that when people had meetings and elected representatives to try to form the and anion regritein they would everything that immediately take punitive measures, and fire them.
In order to get rid of them the company would pay a lawyer the lawyer charged because the boss would say that he'd rather pay lawyer than a worker.
They tried a lot of times, but could involved — not because we And today government is concerned giving people work?
Absolutely. In fact everybody has work now.
What is happening the union?
are the union. But since there are Ially groups, don't want to join the first one that comes along.
We are in the process of discussing which one is in We have our best mler ess to go to the Casa del Obrero (Workers House) to get ourselves organised and decide which one is best for us.
How do WULLCU workers manage to work, take care of your children only a mother who is very old, and we have to leave our children there.
But now things we hope for, which the government has offered, child care centres.
They offered to set up child care here?
Right, a place where we can leave our chilären so that we can come to work - a piace where they wil give them proper meals, medicine and so on.
This has been projected!
Yes, this is a new plan which will be implemented, because for us workers it's a reliet to know that our children are often when we got home they would tell us: your child has been arrested.
We would ask why, and they would tell us that they were suspected of being Sandinistas. rible to live this way.
Everyone was terrified?
Yes, it was really horrible Now we are all at ease Now even the old women, are ready to pick up because Somoza left us in a terrible state, starving to death.
He'd better not think of ever coming back, because we're not going to let him. In Nicaragua all of us old women are ready to fight. SOME of the student 2,400-strong teachers' Nicaragua, who are so manoeuvres of those
he revolution has just begun" BETTY is a leader of a 'barrio' (neighbourhood) committee in Managua and a militant of the FSLN. The barrio committees are organised throughout the country, constitute the major link berween the masses and the Sandinista High Command. interview was carried out in the Casa Sandinista (Sandinista House) of the Monsenor Lezcano barrio.
Can you explain to committees, were formed and what has been their role!
The defence committees were formed before the insurrection when we saw organise the eventuality of civil war. It was a question of sector so organised way when the war broke out The question of protecting the fighters was almost always posed medicines, etc. At the same time we showed people how to prepare shelters against the bombings and shelling, in accordance with the general guidelines that came from Geneva.
Soon the need arose committees within the civil defence committees supply committees, health committees to deal with the problem of getting medicine and medical care for the fighters, and self-defence and vigilance committees military groups or Somocistas that might be on the loose.
With the victory of the insurrection, the civil defence committees become secondary.
and This how the barrio the need to people to prepare them for the respond they needed food, to have separate detect рагаNext week he writes his own have begun the task of organising ourselves to defend our Sandinista revolution, and they have become Sandinista defence committees.
People from different, barrios arrive every day at the Casa Sandinista de Ricardo Morales Avile to ask us to help them get organised into Sandinista defence committees. houses the committee which is in charge of the mass organisations everything popular organisations like the neighbourhood committees, the Sandinista rederation (CST), the Sandinista organisations, and other such organisations.
block by block basis -we have initiated these organisations with the people themselves, integrating every person in a given block. Then we elect a representative for each block.
We also elect a supplies representative to distribute the foodstuffs or solidarity packages that we receive from abroad. And we have a person to be in charge of health, who promotes discussions and prepares a store of medical supplies in their area.
We further elect a representative of the propaganda committee to inform the people and make a political analysis of the present conjuncture, so that the people will understand what we are doing and where we are heading -that is, to give them a political understanding.
'This Casa Sandinista we are in has as one of its main functions the promotion of political discussions, popular propaganda, initiation of educational campaigns. moment we are carrying out a around the project of national reconstruction This building This related to trade union youth four blocks at a time - neediest the our revolution. and the . At the discussion so that the people will know what the junta is doing, what the FSLN leadership is doing, and that we are working to fulfil their needs.
We understand that right now our task is one - of meeting demands, of working out concrete plans to meet the needs of the population.
means, for Instance, solving problem of water for those areas where the pipes were destroyed during the war. It means solving the problem of public lighting, which was rendered useless during the war. It means finding a way to distribute equally amongst the goods like the solidarity packages that we are receiving.
It also means initiating a health programme, especially a preventive health programme to avoid the spread of epidemics which could be an obstacle for the revolutionary movement.
We are on a campaign footing to carry out this revolution in an organised way, block by block, barrio by barrio, province by province, city by city, until we have a single organisation which is the one that will ensure the triumph of Our office personnel are here on a volunteer basis. No-one is paid.
How do they manage to survive?
People are beginning to go back to their jobs as the economic situation is slowly resolved, and those who work six eight nouls d dedicate the rest of their time to working here. Have there been elections in each block and each barrio to elect representatives?
Yes, this was done democratically.
How often do these councils meet?
the area committees twice a week.
the coordinated?
food Casa Sandinista. fumigate all the contamination What about the militias?
They are day organisations. The barrio committees meet once a week, and How is the work of the barrio committees The central headquarters at the Casa Sandinista de Ricardo Morales Avile coordinates the work of the barrio committees, and we in turn bring the issues raised in the barrio committees to the What is the relationship between the barrio committees, the junta and the goversment?
The barrio committees are carrying out the reconstruction projects that the junta has put forward. For instance, it tells us that we need to empty buldings to breveni The barrio committees carry out the work that the junta needs done on the basis of the reconstruction projects.
We have militias in each barrio to protect us and to solve problems of a military nature.
independent barrio committees. In other words, while we are in charge of the political organisation, the mass organisation, the militias are tied directly to the army. But we depend on the popular mass
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bourgeoisie. Socialist Challenge.
and their ability to defeat imperialism and the native CLIVE TURNBULL has just returned from Managua. He interviewed a government minister, a matchworker and the leader of a neighbourhood committee for impressions of developments in post-Somoza Nicaragua. Grassroots power