Henri Weber, Nicaragua: the Sandinist Revolution, Verso, £2.95. George Black, Triumph of the People, Zed Press, £5.95. Jenny Pearce, Under the Eagle, Latin America Bureau, £2.50.
Nowhere in the world is the power of US imperialism being so thoroughly contested as in Central America and the Caribbean. 1981 saw the revolutions in Grenada and Nicaragua consolidated, the build up of revolutionary wars in El Salvador and Guatemala and the continued defiance of the Cuban Revolution in the face of increasing US threats. In Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and Haiti, 1981 was a year of increased poverty, indebtedness and repression, and one of growing resistance to the US-backed regimes there.
Central America and the Caribbean have become a critical arena of world politics — the increasingly fragile political systems besieged by mass movements of workers and peasants, led by revolutionary forces intent on taking the 'Cuban road'.
An important aspect of this process is the growing hostility to the US plans from its own working class and that of Western Europe. In trying to convince working people throughout the world that they have an interest in lending their support to the US's alliances with extreme right-wing, anti-working class regimes, the US has encountered the 'Vietnam syndrome'. One of the difficulties socialists face in trying to increase this sentiment in the labour and trade union movement has been the lack of good written material on the area. These books will play an important part in changing this situation.
In a recent statement, quite breathtaking in its arrogance and duplicity, Reagan has been quoted as saying that the process going on in Central America and the Caribbean is 'A new kind of colonialism ... not of our hemisphere, but it threatens our hemisphere' — a veiled implication that the process is an import from the Soviet Union. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fundamentally, the revolutions of this area arise from the economic and political relationships which these countries have developed with the United States over the last one hundred years. Under the Eagle is a detailed analysis of the way in which these dependent economies of Central America and the Caribbean were run for, and in many cases, by the big multinational companies of the US. Since the mid-1800s when coffee demand increased world wide, US companies have dominated the trade of the region. By 1914 coffee was the main foreign exchange earner of the region. It accounted for 85 per cent of Guatemala's exports, 80 per cent of El Salvador's and 35 per cent of Costa Rica's.
In the late 1800s the peasants were driven from the fruit producing lands and the great fruit companies — United Fruits, United Brands (Fyffes), Standard Fruit and Del Monte, which together control 60 per cent of the region's banana production and 90 per cent of the Export Trade — were built.
Alongside this dependent economy grew up a peculiar political system. Small elites (in some cases like Nicaragua, one family) received the patronage of the US and dominated political life. Their policies were dictated by the US State Department and their governments were summoned into existence or dismissed in the same way.
Such a transparent system of exploitation could only be maintained by oppressive regimes which stifled any form of independent political expression or action. Jenny Pearce outlines, in detail, the lengths to which the US is prepared to go to train and maintain various National Guards and police forces to keep it this way. Of course, when all else fails, the US government will use its own forces or those of its client states to intervene directly.
The special features of the relationship between these countries and the economy of the US go some way to explain why, for the moment, these countries are the weakest link in the imperialist chain. They all exhibit high levels of exploitation, inequality of income and income producing assets on a scale without parallel in the world, and a weak native bourgeoisie.
By themselves these conditions would not produce the crisis situation which is developing. Two other factors are present. First there is the inability of the US or the ruling oligarchies to win support among middle sections of the population, due to the effects of the world economic crisis, and second, there have developed over the past decade powerful revolutionary organisations whose influence is felt among broad layers of society.
Weber's book, Nicaragua: The Sandinist Revolution, is succinct and polemical. He sketches out the political and economic framework for the crisis as a backdrop for his main consideration, the strategy of the FSLN before and after the revolution, and its calibre as a revolutionary leadership. He is unequivocal in his conclusions: 'It was a revolutionary, Castroist organisation, that took power in Managua, 19 July 1979 ... it knew where it wanted to go. Its ambition was to make Nicaragua the second free territory of the Americas.'
With such an estimation of the FSLN it is not surprising that Weber draws a very complimentary picture of the strategic decisions the FSLN has had to make. He defends, without reservation, the importance the FSLN has given to its strategic alliance with sections of the bourgeoisie, even after the victory of 19 July.
He explains that the broad masses of Nicaragua: 'remembered the active role of the oppositional bourgeoisie in the struggle against the dictatorship. In the hour of victory they did not see that there was now an irreducible conflict of interests between the bourgeoisie and the people. One key function of the FSLN alliance policy was precisely to enable the working people to grasp this conflict through their own experience of the bourgeoisie's attitude in the transitional phase.'
Black's book, Triumph of the People, contrasts sharply with that of Weber. Black has produced a book of exhaustive detail which allows the facts to speak for themselves.
Black had access to the files and documents of the FSLN and was able to talk directly with many of the leading figures of the FSLN. Throughout the book this breadth of knowledge and his closeness to his subject is apparent.
The book is divided into three parts. The first is a detailed history of Nicaragua up to the revolutionary crisis. Much of this material has been previously unavailable in English. The second section details the history, growth and development of the FSLN and the leadership role it played in the insurrection. Much of this material is fascinating. Black details the discussions and debates in the FSLN which led to its fragmenting into three tendencies and its subsequent coming together as the mass struggle developed. He shows the way in which the FSLN related through the mass organisations to the developing mass struggle, and the degree to which the masses set the pace in the revolutionary upsurge. Finally he sets out in a detailed way the strategy which the FSLN has followed since the revolution. The difficulties which the FSLN faces in increasing production through the private sector, while carrying on the political battle against the bourgeoisie, the building of the mass organisations and of the Sandinista Party are all covered here.
It's an indispensible book for those who wish to understand the revolutionary process in Nicaragua, not because Black has attempted to draw out these lessons himself, but rather, because of the breadth of this work, and his comprehensive understanding of the processes at work, he allows the revolution to speak for itself.