By Stephen Marks
MANAGUA — District Six in Managua's eastern section is a working-class area and a strong base for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Recently I was invited to a meeting in the district where representatives of two declared tendencies defended their platforms for the FSLN's Extraordinary Conference in May.
Before some 300 members and sympathisers, Carlos Gallo, National Assembly member from the district, supported the "For a Sandinism that Returns to the Majority" tendency, while William "Chele" Grisby, the director of Radio Primerisima, backed the "Sandinista Democratic Left Discussion Forum" tendency.
Announced last July in response to widespread concern about the party's statutes and program, particularly the question of relations with the right-wing UNO government, the May 20-22 conference will be a reconvening of the first FSLN congress, held in 1991.
Gallo addressed the issues presented in the document "For a Sandinism that returns to the majority", which was printed in the newspaper Barricada on February 15 along with some 500 names in support.
Heading the list of signatories were the two principal leaders of the Sandinista Bench in the National Assembly, former vice-president Sergio Ramirez and Dora Maria Tellez, who was health minister in the Sandinista government. Many other prominent officials in the previous government signed the document, as well as a number of cultural identities such as Ernesto Cardenal and Daisy Zamoro and the editors of the Sandinista dailies El Nuevo Diario and Barricada.
Declared supporters of the left current include former foreign minister Father Miguel D'Escoto and the Managua party political secretary, Victor Hugo Tinoco.
What has become known as "Sergio's document" calls for a more open membership of the party and the abolishing of the current categories of members and sympathisers. It emphasises a total rejection of any and all forms of violence to achieve political ends and stresses the importance of winning the next elections in November 1996.
Gallo, who was part of the peace commission taken hostage by recontras last year, even condemned the counter-kidnapping of right-wing leaders by pro-Sandinistas. Many believe this actually checkmated the right wing and so secured the eventual release of all hostages.
Grisby stressed the need to support popular struggles. Only by unequivocally supporting the poorest sectors, those most affected by the government's policies, could the party retain and win back grassroots support, whereas tragic incidents of violence came about when decisive leadership was not provided, he said.
Grisby also noted that the government's policies of throwing people out of work, encouraging evictions, introducing school fees and running down the hospital system are a more subtle form of violence.
Group of 29
Grisby based the left's stand on last July's declaration by the "Group of 29", which called on the FSLN's National Directorate to come out clearly against the government and its drive to overturn all the revolutionary gains made by the people. In January a national left meeting established a working commission to draw up the document, which was endorsed at a public meeting of 240 Sandinista members on February 4.
Prominent participants in this process and Democratic Left leaders were Managua councillor Monica Baltadona, Grisby and sociologist Orlando Nunez. National Directorate members Daniel Ortega and Tomas Borge are said to be associated with much of their thinking, but they, like most members of the National Directorate, have not declared support for any current.
Both presentations were followed by contributions and questions from the floor. The District Six Community Hall where we met is quite close to the Paralelos Vallejos Transport Cooperative depot, a stronghold of militant pro-Sandinista bus drivers. Representatives of these workers, who were a strong force behind January's national strike against fuel rises, wanted to know why leading figures associated with the "Return to the Majority" tendency had publicly criticised their struggle while they were on strike.
Other workers, such as a militant from the banking sector, questioned the tactical support given by the Sandinista representatives in the National Assembly to a government which was sacking workers. Another wanted to know why Sandinista campesinos in the north should be told that they should not have arms to defend themselves against recontra death squads.
The sympathies of the meeting lay clearly with the left tendency. Grisby struck a popular chord when he called on the FSLN to turn to the left and identify with the achievements of the revolution and the revolutionary, humanistic and democratic inspiration of socialism.
These leftist sympathies are reported to be widespread in the rank and file of the party. Political secretaries such as Isaas Perrales in Esteli and the secretaries in Leon and Matagalpa, important bases of party membership, support the left.
Women intervene
A quarter to a third of the audience in the six-hour meeting were women. The predominant age group was 25 to 50, the generation which had made and defended the revolution.
While they are in the leadership of both tendencies, women are intervening in the debate with their own analysis and demands. For example, in the March 8 Barricada, Sofia Montenegro announced that "a group of women militants of the FSLN has launched a discussion of the party's stance and attitude towards women and the results of the debate in the women's forum will be taken to the congress".
On March 19 the "Permanent Women's Forum" was formed; it reportedly attracted party and non-FSLN women inspired by the opportunity to debate and promote women's issues which the FSLN pre-congress discussion has offered.
While discussion continues throughout the country in barrio meetings, it also occurs in the pro-Sandinista media. Barricada and El Nuevo Diario have thrown open their pages while Radios Ya, Primerisima and Sandino in Managua and Channel Four TV station have aired debate.
Socialism
While social democracy versus revolutionary socialism is one theme of the discussion, both tendencies place themselves in a framework of support for the revolutionary process.
However, the assessment of history often differs markedly. In one sharp exchange, Oscar Tellez, brother of Dora Maria, responded to Miguel D'Escoto's criticism of "Sergio's document" by saying that the 1980s counter-revolution and war came about because Nicaragua consciously took sides in the Cold War.
In an address to a meeting in District Four in Managua, Tomas Borge was reported to have discussed the experience of applying to join the social democratic Socialist International (SI). He said that the SI recognised that the FSLN was a revolutionary party and as a result had only granted it observer status. Borge said that this provoked ideological confusion in the party and subsequently encouraged social democratic tendencies.
The ex-secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Alejandro Bendana, writing in Barricada on February 10, defended the socialist perspective by pointing out that Sandino himself had described himself as "communist rationalist" and had been very much influenced by the libertarian socialism prevalent among the oil workers of Mexico, among whom he worked for three years.
Both tendencies agree that it is critical to win the November 1996 elections. Sergio Ramirez has proposed himself as the FSLN's candidate. To illustrate the need to win the middle ground, he has pointed to the results of the recent elections in the two autonomous regions of the Atlantic coast.
The far-right mayor of Managua, Arnoldo Aleman, was able to fund an opportunistic alliance which gave his Constitutionalist Liberal Party a strong vote and an overall total of 36 council seats in the two councils. The FSLN won a total of 32 seats, while the other 22 seats were won by mostly regionally based minor parties.
While these results cannot be generalised due to the particularities of the Atlantic coast and the specific disadvantages faced by the FSLN's campaign, they do show that the right has the potential to put forward a strong presidential candidate in 1996. Although not without his own problems (serious corruption charges), Aleman, the overthrown dictator Somoza's former youth leader, looks likely to be the main right candidate.
The District Six meeting indicated that the pre-conference debate is running very deep in the party. Despite the obvious warm respect between Grisby and Gallo, the debate is cutting across traditional political friendships and allegiances. It is also clear that wide sections of the pro-Sandinista population are interested in the opportunity to discuss and clarify the political issues that affect ordinary people.