From 19-21 July, 400 FSLN delegates will meet for the first congress in the party's history. We are not going to deny that there's a vigorous struggle for political now that the elections and the Congress are coming up says ex-President Daniel Ored by their electoral defeat last year - they were not prepared. The reasons for their defeat plus the new, harsh and complex situation has led to considerable soul-searching. There are no clear tendencies in the debate, though there is a wide, sometimes contradictory, spectrum of opinion.
There is a left and a right, though many leading figures seem to aim for the centre. Tomas Borge, a member of the seven man National Directorate, is a radical. Rosario Murillo, ex-general secretary of Sandinista Cultural Workers is seen as the leader of the 'principlists'.
Pragmatists
The right wing known as 'pragmatists' or 'modernists, are led by Sergio Ramirez, exvice President, though some believe that General Humberto Ortega will take over when he is relieved of his post as Commander in Chief of the armv. At present he absents himself from oth the National Directorate and Sandinista politics.
The issues debated are limitless - the result of a first congress taking place in a period of change and struggle. Key issues include whether the party should define itself as anti-imperialist; and whether it should be a vanguard party of the workers and peasants, or an electoral front attempting to win votes and represent the majority of society.
Questions of the economic power base of the FSLN, including ethical questions of personal property, are also being discussed. Finally, the debate includes the question of the de gree of support to give to the present goverment.
The congress itself will be debating two texts - 'The principles and program of the FSLN' and the statutes of the Front. Given the debates that are raging, they have gone for a damage limitation process.
The author of the 'Principles and program', Jaime Wheelock, does not deny that that it focusses on the present and does not define the FSLN's strategic goals. He explains that 'this moment is strategic'- if the gains of the revolution are not defended now, the revolution is lost.
The 'front vs vanguard' debate is complex, given that the Sandinistas have implemented elements of both and that the National Directorate has endorsed both. But while the FSLN in government tended to block membership for the super-rich, some now argue that the Sandinistas themselves should aim to be millionaires.
As to the debate over 'ethics', the FSLN used to argue against the ownership of private property by their membership; it went with the assumption that they could not lose an election. But when the defeat occurred, houses, vehicles, land and money were distributed in large quantities.
Corruption?
Was this corruption or common sense? Sandinista leaders suddenly became wealthy, owning large houses, while transport workers owned their vehicles and peasants the state cooperatives in which they worked. Others got nothing and slid into deeper hunger and poverty.
Chamorro® has legally reversed many of these measures. But the Sandinistas believe that their survival lepends on property changes issociated with the revolution Hundreds of thousands of the poor - particularly ESLN supporters - face eviction from their omes or repossession of their farms or factories. The Sandinistas fear that they will lose their base if they cannot defend them, as well as seeing a massive shift in wealth and power to the rich minority.
Sandinistas have organised mass demonstrations, as well as armed actions, in defence of their property rights. Dâniel Ortega is facing poten- OUCH!! tial imprisonment as a result of his call for self-defence defend the gains of the revolution.But some Sandinista deputies, such as Rafael Solis, have denounced FSLN backing for such actions as 'destabilisation'.
But the FSLN is not only interested in the welfare of the poor - it also wants to develop a 'revolutionary economic group' - it is defending some 35,000 acres of the most productive coffee and cotton farms.
It has reacted to privatisation by the UNO government by ensuring that ownership passes to the workers, attempting both to defend them and, controversially, to develop its own resources.
But the congress is unlikely to produce very significant change. The present leadership will be expanded, and the policy of struggle against Chamorro's government, to curb the worst excesses, continued. At the same time, support for UNO against the extreme right is likePEOPLE'S POWER! PEOPLE'S POWER! (PEOPLES POWER!
IT'S YOUR FAULT FOR WA KNG ARDUND SCARING DEMOCRATIC ly to be maintained. The Sandinistas are keen that the congress • should not see a split. But the tensions are con siderable, given that the proSandinista police and army are being ordered to evict FSLN supporters and break up strikes, while leading deputies oppose self-defence against Chamorro's government. However, increased democracy in the FSLN may lead to a reater response to rank and ie cemnes This should strengthen the chances of maintaining a basically anti-imperialist framework for the Front, whatever the fudges and pro-capıtalsi compromises reached at the Congress.