RONALD RADOSH
73
use the CIA financed war to move ahead with their preordained
agenda of Leninization. The Reagan policy worked to isolate demo–
cratic opponents of the regime within Nicaragua, who were quickly
branded as subversive
contras
by the FSLN. Yet examination of San–
dinista repression reveals that it has little to do with armed struggle.
The absurd censorship of
La Prensa,
for example, exists primarily to
shut off any flow of information that would erode the legitimacy of
the regime. Thus, at the time of the crushing of Solidarity in Poland,
the censors gave orders that coverage had to reflect the position taken
by TASS or by the Cuban
Prensa Latina.
Christian also reveals the limitation of programs otherwise her–
alded with much enthusiasm by the Revolution's defenders. The
agricultural reform, she notes, "concentrated on the ideological for–
mation of peasants and small landowners and their acceptance of the
FSLN view of things," particularly since the ranks of the
contras
came
from peasants who wanted their own land and feared confiscation by
the State. An effort was made to destroy the unions of the urban work–
ers - some quite radical and led by the Communists - and force the
urban working class into a new Sandinista labor federation. Strikes
were declared illegal, and wage increases forbidden. Signs of mili–
tancy were often met by the calling out of the Sandinista goon squads
-the so-called
turbas
or "divine mobs," whose readiness for action in–
cluded bashing heads with lead pipes and breaking picket lines. The
literacy campaign, which was modeled on the Cuban effort, scored
some success. But here too Christian emphasizes that its graduates
were left with "skills equivalent to only the first year or two of pri–
mary school," barely enough to read and interpret primitive FSLN
propaganda.
If
there is a problem with Christian's book, it lies in those sec–
tions in which she discusses policy alternatives. Like critics of the
left, Christian does not seem to realize that the nature of the Sandi–
nista regime is a question separate from consideration of policy alter–
natives to be taken towards Nicaragua. Whatever the harsh reality
of the internal Nicaraguan system, this does not mean that the
Reagan policy of seeking to overthrow the Nicaraguan ,government
is morally desirable or politically shrewd .
If
the issue is the ability to
negotiate a security treaty with guarantees, then good relations could
ostensibly exist with a Sandinista-Ied regime - despite our dislike for
their government .
Christian ignores the contradictions in the Reagan administra–
tion policy towards Nicaragua - its endorsement of the
contra,
as we
