Demonstation in Managua against US war threats TREVOR EVANS is an economist currently workResearch in Nicaragua. Socialist Action interviewed The interview is in two parts. This week's deals with the impact of the initial economic policies pursued by the Sandinistas. The next issue looks at the economic consequences of the war.
you remind us crops.
through Central American common increased Nicaraguan was very dependent the import Whereas Nevery per cent of material production was products of agricultural producing.
agricultural products.
But despite this there was a lot of hunger in Nicaragua lot of food that was consumed had to be imported In 1979, after the revolution, the Sandinistas faced an that coullully by Latin American standards was very underdeveloped as a result of the 45 years of the Somoza dictatorship. LOD of that Nicaragua experienced eighteen months of the What was the economic strategy Tie Sandinistas when they gained The FSLN's overriding and the impact of the US war against priority was to meet the needs of the popular sechad supports ant the toI.
The government wanted to avoid the sort of collapse in production that had occurred in places like Mozambique after liberation and so they pursued the policy of a mixed This has three components the state sector, the small producer sector, and the capitalist sector.
policy of creating cooperatives The land parlarge (latifundia).
over of all Within capitalist DOULECURC who CUHThe state over what tant. claimed to a tribunal that the capitalists were not producing, and that claim was upheld, Wald be eat that propriated - as would leaving the country. in Nicaragua The share of the strictly capitalist sector in output has therefore fallen from one third in 1980 to just This fall is also due to the dynamic accumulation in the state sector.
The state sector organised in the area of people's property based on the state farms and the factories that were taken over from Somoza and his close allies. They have councils where workers are because the economic constraints that on the there is limited within which these councils can determine what happens within state enterprise. What they produce is pre-determined so they mainly Have Ill fluence over working conditions.
What are the material constraints within which the revolution is now operating?
The first is the legacy of underdevelopment which was inherited Somoza. Nicaragua is an which depends on the export of four major agricultural products. It has to use the dollars market.
Another cause of the labour shortage is the land reform. The poorest peant to a rand debt bondage hunger to provide wage harvests before the revolution now flave tel own land and can produce themselves. So would evaluate economic policies of the FSLN?
In the first yes on the revolution did extraordinarily well While the rest of Central America suffered a 16 per Product beween 1980 and 1983 per capita income 1l increased by In comparison with the experience of other radical regimes the have managed to maintain pro. duction 1n the capitalist sector at reasonable levels. However most of the investment has been in the state sector. A number ol combined with the provision of collective goods like health care, educa tion, subsidies on basic foods, and the big expan sion of basic food produc tion which has led to self-sufficiency in some basic products — nas meant thai resources have been directed particularly to the poorest sectors of society.
In laying foundations for the future the very strong investment programme has laid a basis for an independent path of development There are lessons for other countries. What has been very important are the new forms of organisation that have been evolyed. The state has very few resources so that it has been forced evolve forms of social regulation that don't depend on large state sector. So while one quarter of production state does not have to run - although there is strong social supervision of this capitalist sector.
The six basic foods are distributed via a territorial network small private shops. this distribution system doesn't have to be rin hi the state but is closely supervised by the neigh bourhood committees • that 1s SD COLU popular and social regula. tion.
Nicaragua has reduced its economic dependence Mom the shifting : US and towards Europe, Latır America and the Soviet bloc You've talked about the policy of a mixed economy in Nicaragua. In what waj does that differ from the way it is talked about by sections of the Party in Britain?
The most important difference is that in the capitalist sector has lost power, and this means that the policies of the govern ment and the state are directed in the interests of the popula sector. While the capitalists still continue to control important parts of the economy they do so very firmly under the hegemony of a government dominated by the interests of the workers and peasants.
Sheffield Town Hall
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A TE VAS CAER
the cooperative are also TRADE UNION