By Stephen Marks
MANAGUA — Workers and campesinos affiliated to the National Workers Front (FNT) marched on the offices of President Violetta Chamorro in Managua on November 25 as negotiations started between FNT leaders and the Nicaraguan government.
The 15,000 marchers protested the deterioration of public health, privatisation, the sacking of teachers' union activists, lack of jobs and job security, and the expulsion from school of students involved in protests in September.
Addressing the marchers before joining the rest of the negotiating team FNT leader Lució Jiménez emphatically rejected any return of property to the Somozistas.
The Somoza family and cronies swindled and robbed Nicaraguans at will until the 1979 Sandinista revoltuion ended their 50 year reign. Somozista businesses were nationalised and their lands were distributed amongst poor families. Many of Somoza's former clique are now US citizens and have returned to resteal their old properties.
The government is using privatisation as a cover to return many of these properties or "compensate" the Somozistas. Workers are demanding that the government abide by previous accords that promised the privatisation of all or a part of state enterprises in favour of the workers.
The rally mobilised people from around the country. Barricada newspaper reported that 39 vehicles bussed 2500 people down from Jinotega and Matagalpa in the North. Many of the roads in central Managua were lined with these trucks and trailers during the protest.
Four marches fed into the demonstration from various points around the capital. Workers filed out of large enterprises such as the Victoria Beer Company and metal workshops. They joined up with striking electricity workers fighting privatisation, hospital workers demanding improved pay and hospital budgets, and peasants demanding the legalisation of their land titles.
Called "Plan B" by the union leaders the march is part of an ongoing campaign by the popular movements to remedy the drastic poverty inflicted by 70% unemployment and government policies.