The following is from a statement on the 45th anniversary of the victory of the Sandinista Revolution from members of Workers World Party and the Bronx Anti-War Coalition on a Solidarity Delegation in Nicaragua this July 19.
Members of U.S. delegation in Nicaragua to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the July 19, 1979, liberation of Nicaragua from the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship. Credit: Cesar Perez
We are honored to stand beside the Nicaraguan people on the anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, which liberated the Nicaraguan people from U.S. occupation and ended the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship.
For 200 years, the United States has been interfering in Nicaraguan affairs since the Monroe Doctrine, which asserts U.S. hegemony in the Western Hemisphere even today.
The brutal dictatorship of Somoza worked at the behest of U.S. capital, trampling on the dignity of Nicaraguans through the use of the U.S.-built Guardio Nacional. After a series of striking blows to the Somoza regime, the people’s insurrection against U.S. imperialism through guerilla tactics was solidified when Managua was liberated.
Following an 18-year armed struggle against the repressive regime that ended in 1979, the Sandinistas began to rebuild their nation from the ashes of the war while the dictator fled to Miami.
Over the following decades, the U.S. did all it could to crush the Sandinista revolution. From the 11-year terrorist campaign of the U.S.-funded Contras to the age of neoliberalism following the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990 to the 2018 U.S.-backed attempted coup, these are not blips in time but continued imperialist transgressions against the sovereignty of Nicaraguans.
Despite these attempts, the revolution and its legacy have prevailed, which we had the honor of witnessing during our visits to the many beautiful corners of Nicaragua.
A society run by the people
Many comrades were moved to see a society truly run by the people and in which the well-being of the people is the top priority. The Nicaraguan people are politically conscious, active and powerful, exercising agency over all aspects of Nicaraguan society. Our delegation met with union deputies, health care professionals, churchgoers and other community members.
We connected with doctors and nurses in Nueva Vida and joined them in house visits. We saw how they offer holistic, accessible and free health care, ensuring nobody gets left behind or denied. We spoke with high school students who tended their school’s garden and saw how they practiced food sovereignty and taught others in their community to do the same.
We heard from the water safety committee and leaders of hydroponic projects in Ciudad Sandino who are able to supply their communities with food and water. We saw the uplifting of the Afro-descendant people on the Caribbean coast through cultural autonomy.
We witnessed martyrs being honored in church ceremonies in Managua and on placards throughout the streets of León. We noticed that the people constantly express gratitude for those who sacrificed their lives for the Sandinista revolution so that the Nicaraguan people could live a life of dignity and agency.
The Sandinista government’s primary goal is poverty alleviation. The infrastructure development we saw — newly paved roads, new health clinics, new water treatment facilities and new electrical grids — significantly improved the quality of life, providing the dignity promised by the 1979 victory.
Every day, people recognize Russia, China and Iran as strong allies who have helped them secure food, medicine and building materials so that they can continue to develop their nation’s infrastructure. This internationalist approach has been mutually beneficial for the well-being of the Sandinista struggle.
Despite the U.S. government’s attempts to demonize these states, we were able to see the life-saving material support that these states have offered to Nicaragua. Whereas the U.S. has only ever played the role of killing and suffocating Nicaraguan life, Russia, China and Iran have been key international players in protecting Nicaraguan sovereignty and ensuring dignity.
It has been 45 years since the people liberated themselves from U.S. occupation, and the success of preserving Nicaraguan sovereignty is a model to all. The people are proactively participating in determining priorities and addressing their own material needs while simultaneously asserting the right of self-determination for movements abroad, such as Palestinian liberation.
Palestine and Nicaragua
Nearly every person we spoke to saw the Palestinian struggle as their own. Palestinian flags can be seen everywhere, hanging alongside FSLN flags. We noticed many parallels between the two liberation movements, including but not limited to the role of armed struggle, the religious foundation of the revolutions and the honoring of martyrs. Because of their shared fight against Western imperialism, the people of Nicaragua have an intuitive understanding of the Palestinian struggle and the necessary means for national liberation.
Delegations such as our own are determined to return back to the belly of the beast and dispel the propaganda and myths about Nicaragua that are fed to us by the CIA/U.S. State Department. Through conversations with working people, we learned that our primary task as revolutionary anti-imperialists in the imperial core is to actively wage a struggle to lift the deadly U.S. sanctions on Nicaragua and demand a complete cessation of imperialist policies in the Western Hemisphere.
Connecting directly with migrant diasporas, who understand that forced migration is a product of imperialist military interventions and economic sanctions, is also an avenue to mobilize against the U.S. war machine.
The success of the Sandinista victory is a source of education and inspiration for our struggle in the imperialist United States. Major literacy campaigns in Nicaragua bolstered support for the revolution, teaching us that we should be involved in meeting the material needs of our community members.
We understand that education and raising class consciousness is fundamental to an anti-imperialist struggle. We must genuinely build trust and love the people, cultivating a culture of care that counters the individualism and opportunism that capitalism instills.
We want to thank the Nicaraguan people and the FSLN for welcoming us into your beautiful nation. We will continue to uplift the successes of the Sandinista revolutionary struggle, which is a model for those fighting for the liberation of all peoples from Western imperialism.
¡Viva la Revolución Sandinista! Long live the Sandinista Revolution!