I experienced the Sandinista revolution.
Well, almost. The FSLN took power in Nicaragua in July 1979. In December 1979, I was a passanger onboard a commercial Spanish airliner which temporarily stopped at Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Due to the "security situation" we weren't allowed to leave the plane. A couple of hours later, we resumed our flight, leaving Nicaraguan airspace. The "security situation", of course, was the Sandinista revolution!
:D
"Sandinistas Speak" is a book published by Pathfinder, the publishing arm of the ex-Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party. It's a thin volume, a pamphlet more than a book. Also, the contents are pretty thin. It only contains two interesting documents, "The Historical Program of the FSLN" and an article by FSLN founder Carlos Fonseca called "Nicaragua - Zero Hour".
Otherwise, it's a rather motley collection of speeches, articles and interviews with various Sandinista leaders. One article affirms freedom of religion and states that revolutionary Christians might become members of the FSLN. Another is a speech by FSLN leader Daniel Ortega at a meeting in Cuba, outlining the foreign policy of the new Nicaraguan government. There is also an extensive interview with Humberto Ortega by the Cuban-Chilean reporter Marta Harnecker.
Yet another text is a transcript of a presentation by Tomás Borge, forthrightly dealing with some of the problems besetting the Sandinistas immediately after the revolution, including looting and revenge killings. As a sidepoint, Borge tells a weird anecdote about his imprisonment by Somoza's dictatorship. The prison guards were obviously dull: they allowed Borge to read Karl Marx's book "Capital", believing it to be a capitalist book, while prohibiting him from reading a New Age book on "psychic energy", fearing that this might help him escape!
What a pity you can't make a revolution with the help of psychic energy. It would solve a lot of problems...
Still, I was dissatisfied with this book overall. "Sandinistas Speak" may have worked as inspirational literature for political activists when it was first published, but it seems to be of little use to serious students of the Sandinista revolution
Well, almost. The FSLN took power in Nicaragua in July 1979. In December 1979, I was a passanger onboard a commercial Spanish airliner which temporarily stopped at Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Due to the "security situation" we weren't allowed to leave the plane. A couple of hours later, we resumed our flight, leaving Nicaraguan airspace. The "security situation", of course, was the Sandinista revolution!
:D
"Sandinistas Speak" is a book published by Pathfinder, the publishing arm of the ex-Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party. It's a thin volume, a pamphlet more than a book. Also, the contents are pretty thin. It only contains two interesting documents, "The Historical Program of the FSLN" and an article by FSLN founder Carlos Fonseca called "Nicaragua - Zero Hour".
Otherwise, it's a rather motley collection of speeches, articles and interviews with various Sandinista leaders. One article affirms freedom of religion and states that revolutionary Christians might become members of the FSLN. Another is a speech by FSLN leader Daniel Ortega at a meeting in Cuba, outlining the foreign policy of the new Nicaraguan government. There is also an extensive interview with Humberto Ortega by the Cuban-Chilean reporter Marta Harnecker.
Yet another text is a transcript of a presentation by Tomás Borge, forthrightly dealing with some of the problems besetting the Sandinistas immediately after the revolution, including looting and revenge killings. As a sidepoint, Borge tells a weird anecdote about his imprisonment by Somoza's dictatorship. The prison guards were obviously dull: they allowed Borge to read Karl Marx's book "Capital", believing it to be a capitalist book, while prohibiting him from reading a New Age book on "psychic energy", fearing that this might help him escape!
What a pity you can't make a revolution with the help of psychic energy. It would solve a lot of problems...
Still, I was dissatisfied with this book overall. "Sandinistas Speak" may have worked as inspirational literature for political activists when it was first published, but it seems to be of little use to serious students of the Sandinista revolution
Come to think of it, Sandino was a Spiritualist, so who knows...maybe you *can* make a revolution with the aid of psychic energy.
ReplyDelete