Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 09:50:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Nicaragua discussion


Louis:

People who have been on the list for a while know by now that when I sink 
my teeth into a subject, I tend to not let go until I have exhausted the 
subject or my audience. This is my intention with Nicaragua. I am far less 
interested in trying to come up with a rebuttal to every point someone 
makes about Nicaragua pro or con than in deepening my own understanding of 
what happened there.

My aim is to cover the following topics in the weeks to come:

1) Sandinista accomplishments in perspective: land reform, literacy, 
health care.

2) Permanent revolution as a theoretical tool: Some groups (the American 
SWP, eg.) interpreted the Sandinista revolution as a reason to dump 
Trotsky's theory. I want to take a fresh look at Trotsky's theory and 
weigh it against the problematic cases of "peripheral" countries like 
Nicaragua, Grenada, Burkin-Faso, etc. that underwent transformations in 
the 1970s but don't exactly fit into the mold of the countries Trotsky 
was examining. At this point, I don't know what my conclusions will be. 
This is as it should be.

3) The collapse of the Sandinist revolution and Sandinista errors: I want 
to arrive at a measured, coolheaded understanding of why Chamorro was 
elected and why the Sandinistas went into disarray.

On all of these topics, I will be providing bibliographical references, 
including the post I made 2 days ago on the working-class in Nicaragua.


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