Source: Daily Worker, January 10, 1931
Transcription/Markup: Paul Saba
Copyleft: Internet Archive(marxists.org) 2018. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the Creative Commons License.
Three years of active marine occupation and military control of the elections in Nicaragua, repeated abuses of the American marines and the virtual military dictatorship of the Puppet Moncada government of Nicaragua and the intolerable conditions of the poor peasants, are the main causes for the renewed offensive of the Army of Liberation now in a guerilla warfare against the foreign invaders, leading up to the killing of 8 marines and the wounding of more.
American imperialists, in order to cover up their greedy and rapacious dealings for the complete subjugation of Nicaragua, have mobilized their press for war against “banditry” in Nueva Segovia. An undeniable fact is that the poor, downtrodden peasants in that region and in fact, throughout Nicaragua, are swelling the ranks of the revolutionists in a desperate fight against the invaders and the Moncada regime.
The most vivid indication of the imperialist regime of terror installed by the American government which has complete control and supervision of the National Guard is the result of the last elections which took place in Nicaragua in September of 1930. No more than 40 per cent of the electorate appeared before the polls to cast their votes. A more important event that clearly demonstrates the great discontent of the oppressed masses against the “national” government and the demagogues of the Pan-American Federation of Labor, is the withdrawal of the Nicaraguan Federation of Labor from membership in the Pan-American Federation of Labor last August and its affiliation to the revolutionary Latin American Confederation of Labor. The revolutionary recrudescence of the masses in Nicaragua is now shown by the attempt of the peasants and workers to blend together, in spite of the fascist terror, in a joint struggle against imperialism and the feudal landlords. The present revolt of the peasants and tenant farmers against the enormous taxes imposed upon them by the big landlords who constantly call upon the American-controlled National Guard to stifle any discontent, has taken its highest expression in their joining the Army of Liberation in an attempt to put an end to their unbearable conditions of ruin, misery and starvation.
The people of Nicaragua are now fighting for land, against the extraction of tribute by the big coffee growers, against the exploitation of the United Fruit Co. that owns rich lands, against their government which is selling out the country to United States bankers and against American marine rule. In this desperate struggle, the imperialists of the United States recruit the support of many demagogues, charlatans, and “caudlllos” who speculate with Wall Street with the blood shed by the people of Nicaragua. Dr. Zepeda, the announced official representative of Sandino and Jose Constantino Gonzales, self-styled secretary to Sandino, are now “appealing” to Senator King for the withdrawal of American marines, assuring him that “Sandino would lay down arms and our country would be completely pacified if the marines are withdrawn.” In the first place, Senator King is no more interested in the withdrawal of marines from Nicaragua than he is in the independence of Haiti of which he so demagogically tries to fool the Haitian masses as a “sponsor” of their independence. These Latin American lackeys of imperialism do not and cannot speak for the oppressed people of Nicaragua. In spite of the fact that the Army of Liberation has no program for a solution of the land question and the ousting of foreign robbers (we have in the past again and again pointed out the danger of the lack of such a program), the people resort to the armed struggle in which they find an effective means to curb the power of their exploiters, national and foreign. All true anti-imperialists, particularly the Communist parties, must give full support to this struggle in which the peasants fight for their national liberation.
In spite of the basic shortcomings, particularly, the tendency to compromise with imperialism, Yankee or British, by Sandino himself, the support given to the present struggle is a support against imperialism and its national tools. However, we are confident that the discontent of the workers, as expressed in the severance of the Nicaraguan Federation of Labor from the Pan-American Federation of Labor, will crystallize itself into a class conscious movement that will lead the future struggles of the peasants for a revolutionary struggle for national liberation.