Re: [Marxism] Deciphering the Nicaraguan Student Uprising | NACLA
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 6/19/18 8:26 AM, Michael Marking via Marxism wrote: Oscar-René Vargas You can read more from Vargas in the ISO newspaper, including an article dated May 3 that stipulates: 27. The most important demands are: the formation of a provisional government with representation of the youth, honest academics, and other sectors of civil society (women, peasants fighting against the canal, miners). 28. The establishment of a Truth Commission to investigate and punish those responsible for the crimes and murders of 30 citizens, as well as the corruption of officials. 29. Call on the honest sectors of the Army and Police to support a Provisional Government. 30. The objective of an Interim Government would be, among other things, to change the logic of the "plunder state" (Estado-Botín), to abolish the current authoritarian system, to eliminate the political class's pervasive impunity, to defend natural resources (forests, water, biodiversity) and to fight to reduce social inequality. --- An Interim Government? What does that mean in the context of Nicaraguan politics today? The government will almost certainly be headed by a politician that garnered the largest vote in the last election, or a proxy for the party that ruled Nicaragua before Ortega's election in 2007. Unless this movement defines its political goals and challenges both Ortega/Murillo and the Liberal Party of Aleman and Montealegre, it will be a return to real Somoza-type policies, not the populism of the FSLN. Even Vargas understands this: 6. Without an existing leadership that is representative and visible, there is a fear that the social movement will move towards dispersion or anarchy. 7. An immediate meeting of youth leaders is necessary to establish a strategy and to lay out tactical steps to be taken. 8. It has to be noted that the social movement cannot be sustained without a recognized leadership. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Deciphering the Nicaraguan Student Uprising | NACLA
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 04:09:35PM -0400, Richard Fidler via Marxism wrote: > > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > >[...] > > See the recent report by Nicaraguan sociologist Oscar-René Vargas, > "Perspectivas tras la masiva Huelga General," in Viento Sur. A French > translation is available in À l'Encontre. I am unaware of any English > translation. > >[...] > (My Spanish isn't so good, but hopefully better than that of the robots... caveat lector) Perspectives/views after the massive general strike 15/06/2018 | Oscar-René Vargas 1. From 18 April to 13 June, 2018, Nicaragua endured 58 days of citizen protests, in which the people demanded the immediate departure of Ortega-Murillo from power. These demonstrations have been repressed by the state, at a cost of at least 168 deaths. 2. The Police, upon orders of Daniel Ortega, have been leading an offensive against the citizen insurrection, let by mercenaries, hit men, and riot squads that have caused terror among the Nicaraguan population. This strategy is said to be justified because the number of people in the civil rebellion, in different parts of the country, exceeds the number of regular police; for that reason the official strategy is to attack a different city each day. The Police have taken to the streets together with the hit men to intimidate the population and they destroy the barricades that the citizens have raised for their safety at the entrances to their neighbourhoods or cities. 3. The political action shows that the Ortega-Murillo Government doesn’t have the capability to confront all the situation at a national level. According to the 2016 annual report of the National Police, the most recent published, the country then had 15,139 on active duty to cover 121,428 square kilometers; that is, the republic had an average of 24 policemen for each 10,000 inhabitants in 2016, a figure which has not changed in April 2018, according to the 2018 General Budget of the Republic. 4. The government repression in various cities of the country, is a “strategy of terror” before the inability that the Police and the hit men have to stop the many marches and protests that have happened all over the country. Despite the brute force utilized by these para-police groups, the strategy of terror has produced no results for Ortega. 5. Ortega-Murillo have created, in two months, a criminal organization, because upon involving these marginalized groups into gangs, organizing them, arming them, and giving them a mantle of impunity, they are converted into the future criminal organization of the country, into the future gangs of Nicaragua. 6. It is necessary to be clear that Ortega-Murillo are not of the left, as many progressives at the international level think. Ortega-ism is a broken, corrupt, and backward system that discredits the left and progressive sectors of the world. 7. The Army has had a minimally passive complicity. There are various bad signs that point to partial Army participation, lending troops and military skills. According to the Political Constitution of Nicaragua, the Army is the only institution authorized to have a monopoly of force and of arms, in such a way that, at/upon not disarming the para-police, hit men, and thugs, it is placed at the side of Daniel Ortega. [I’m not sure what is said or implied here. The Constitution appears to allow the President to use the Army for internal purposes in case of major internal disorders, but immediately above the author says that para-police etc are being used by the President, so this seems contradictory. Maybe I just don’t apprehend the meaning. -translator] 8. Wednesday, 13 June, Ortega-ist paramilitary attacked, at night, people who maintained barricades at various points in the city of León. There was an attack in Masatepe by paramilitary and riot police, leaving at least four dead. People from different neighbourhoods in Managua reported gunfire at night. Furthermore, agents of the National Police captured every citizen who moved about at night. In the city of Diriamba, some 40 police that were stationed there, left their uniforms behind and went to observe the popular insurrections. 9. On Thursday, 14 June, all Nicaragua awoke to a national shutdown/strike, completely paralyzed by stoppages, empty streets and closed businesses. The stoppages remained without giving w
Re: [Marxism] Deciphering the Nicaraguan Student Uprising | NACLA
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 6/18/18 8:03 PM, DW via Marxism wrote: This has never been about day-to-day police actions...it started with the pension reform. I understand that. I was just trying to go slow on comparisons with Syria. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Deciphering the Nicaraguan Student Uprising | NACLA
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I'd also use caution with the validity of Nexus as well...not overly reliable with regards to the Nicaraguan press. This has never been about day-to-day police actions...it started with the pension reform. There hasn't been that much political activity in the streets whatsoever for quite a long time, something the gov't there is quite content with. Demonstrations are daily occurrence now or so say my family there, spreading about different cities of the interior. David _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Deciphering the Nicaraguan Student Uprising | NACLA
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 6/18/18 4:09 PM, Richard Fidler wrote: As she notes, the mass protests in Nicaragua resemble some of the popular uprisings in the Arab Spring. She mentions Tahrir Square in 2011, but the Nicaraguan protests, which are country-wide, more closely parallel the "decentralized, social network-based, and horizontal social movements calling for justice and democracy" in the initial anti-Assad uprisings in Syria. In Nicaragua, however, the reaction has closed ranks and enlisted US and OAS support in an effort to reach some accommodation with their erstwhile ally Daniel Ortega. You know, a little caution is necessary when making such comparisons. I just did a search in Nexis for Nicaragua and "police brutality" between Jan. 1, 2016 and Dec. 31, 2017 and not a single article turned up except one that referred to legislation sponsored by a Republican and a Cuban-American Democrat who was from a district in New Jersey with a heavy concentration of Cuban-Americans. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Deciphering the Nicaraguan Student Uprising | NACLA
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * As she notes, the mass protests in Nicaragua resemble some of the popular uprisings in the Arab Spring. She mentions Tahrir Square in 2011, but the Nicaraguan protests, which are country-wide, more closely parallel the "decentralized, social network-based, and horizontal social movements calling for justice and democracy" in the initial anti-Assad uprisings in Syria. In Nicaragua, however, the reaction has closed ranks and enlisted US and OAS support in an effort to reach some accommodation with their erstwhile ally Daniel Ortega. Lacking a clear political program as an alternative to the authoritarian and repressive Ortega-Murillo regime, the student leaders were vulnerable to manipulation by pro-imperialist class forces, including those such as the COSEP business interests, the Church, etc. that until recently were close allies of Ortega. Some went to Miami where they supported threats by right-wing Republicans to apply the Magnitsky law to Nicaragua, as the US and Canada have already done to Venezuela. Following a massive country-wide general strike last Thursday, June 14, in which the business interests collaborated in an effort to regain some popular legitimacy, the US ambassador Laura Dogu and Caleb McCarry, a representative of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, presented a proposal from Ortega to the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference (CEN) and the Civic Alliance, which were participating in an OAS-sponsored national dialogue operation. He had told the US government he was prepared to have early elections in the first quarter of 2019, but insisted on remaining in office until then. He is also proposing changes in Nicaragua's supreme electoral council, its Supreme Court and in some other state institutions. However, even if an agreement on these or similar terms is reached, it is unclear whether it would put an end to the popular uprising, the common demand of which is for the removal now of Ortega-Murillo. The death toll, mainly as a result of regime police action, is now above 175, with thousands of injured, some of them denied public hospital access because of a directive issued by Ortega's minister of health. Unfortunately, there is no real organized left political opposition in Nicaragua, Sandinista dissident currents having long been marginalized and often manifesting their own political disorientation in a variety of relatively right-wing positions. See the recent report by Nicaraguan sociologist Oscar-René Vargas, "Perspectivas tras la masiva Huelga General," in Viento Sur. A French translation is available in À l'Encontre. I am unaware of any English translation. Richard -Original Message- From: Marxism [mailto:marxism-boun...@lists.csbs.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Louis Proyect via Marxism Sent: Monday, June 18, 2018 11:03 AM To: rfid...@ncf.ca Subject: [Marxism] Deciphering the Nicaraguan Student Uprising | NACLA POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Lori Hanson, who co-authored this article, was one of the first "experts" to breathlessly hail the student protests in Nicaragua. Therefor her growing wariness must be taken into account. https://nacla.org/news/2018/06/15/deciphering-nicaraguan-student-uprising _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/rfidler%40ncf.ca _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Deciphering the Nicaraguan Student Uprising | NACLA
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Lori Hanson, who co-authored this article, was one of the first "experts" to breathlessly hail the student protests in Nicaragua. Therefor her growing wariness must be taken into account. https://nacla.org/news/2018/06/15/deciphering-nicaraguan-student-uprising _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
