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Historical Materialism #127
What Went Wrong? The Nicaraguan Revolution: A Marxist Analysis
When the Nicaraguan Revolution overthrew the Somoza Regime in 1979, it inspired radicals across the globe. And yet its promise and potential was extinguished by the early 1990s. This insightful and penetrating analysis traces the origins of this failure to politics of the Sandinistas, specifically their lack of rank-and-file democracy that left all power in the hands of Daniel Ortega.
- GenresNonfiction
400 pages, Paperback
Published April 17, 2018
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About the author
Dan La Botz
17 books5 followersDaniel H. La Botz is a prominent American labor union activist, academic, journalist, and author. He was a co-founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and has written extensively on worker rights in the United States and Mexico. He is a member of the socialist organization Solidarity.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 25, 2023
The Sandinistas (FSLN) were a troubled yet successful revolution in Nicaragua. The remarkable nature of a small, splintered group of communist guerrillas and organizers to a broad coalition against the Somoza dictatorship. The FSLN placed a spectacular literacy campaign, nationalized healthcare, nationalized land and banks, and the creation of women’s organizations. But like all socialist revolutions, it was plagued by the imperialist forces of the US and the critical lack of labour discipline.
Ultimately, the FSLN were never able to fulfill a collectivist communist country like Cuba or even a Bonapartist revolution like Mexico. The incomplete capitalist structures before, the guerrilla foundation, and rival ideologies all made the revolution hard to realize itself. The war with the Contras exacerbating the draft, an embargo, and economic destruction only finalized its defeat. In the Marxist theory of state and revolution, the FSLN were successful in destroying the old state and attempted to create a new one. But being neither a workers’ or peasant party, faltered in what Cuba and China did.
Dan La Botz does an excellent job going through the history of Nicaragua and how Somoza’s dictatorship and the FSLN came about. For La Botz, “Somoza’s dictatorship created the economic and politically conditions that prepare a revolutionary situation…[and] the Cuban Revolution of 1959 changed everything.” With little chance to change the country’s politics through elections, armed struggle was the obvious path. My issues with this account is the abstract and the main argument for the failure of the Nicaraguan Revolution boils down to the FSLN being too aligned to Soviet and Cuban Communism, and therefore were never genuinely looking for democracy in Nicaragua. He is stuck within social democratic dogma of a two stage theory of revolution. Which he effectively proves himself wrong because all the workers’ rights won during the revolution were lost in a liberal democracy. La Botz is aware of the material conditions of an aristocratic dictatorship that was incapable of moving towards a bourgeois revolution but refuses to acknowledge the realities of only armed struggle defeating it. I believe when he fleshes out his argument between pages 242-249, it is much more comprehensive, in that it isn’t some “Stalin-esque” desire for a one-party police state.
Overall, it is very well-sited history of Nicaragua, but the political opinions throughout are left with an obvious halt in a Socialist Democratic Tendency. It is unfortunate that Ortega has changed from his 80s self. But hopefully we can see the 21st century socialism/communism finally be realized.
Ultimately, the FSLN were never able to fulfill a collectivist communist country like Cuba or even a Bonapartist revolution like Mexico. The incomplete capitalist structures before, the guerrilla foundation, and rival ideologies all made the revolution hard to realize itself. The war with the Contras exacerbating the draft, an embargo, and economic destruction only finalized its defeat. In the Marxist theory of state and revolution, the FSLN were successful in destroying the old state and attempted to create a new one. But being neither a workers’ or peasant party, faltered in what Cuba and China did.
Dan La Botz does an excellent job going through the history of Nicaragua and how Somoza’s dictatorship and the FSLN came about. For La Botz, “Somoza’s dictatorship created the economic and politically conditions that prepare a revolutionary situation…[and] the Cuban Revolution of 1959 changed everything.” With little chance to change the country’s politics through elections, armed struggle was the obvious path. My issues with this account is the abstract and the main argument for the failure of the Nicaraguan Revolution boils down to the FSLN being too aligned to Soviet and Cuban Communism, and therefore were never genuinely looking for democracy in Nicaragua. He is stuck within social democratic dogma of a two stage theory of revolution. Which he effectively proves himself wrong because all the workers’ rights won during the revolution were lost in a liberal democracy. La Botz is aware of the material conditions of an aristocratic dictatorship that was incapable of moving towards a bourgeois revolution but refuses to acknowledge the realities of only armed struggle defeating it. I believe when he fleshes out his argument between pages 242-249, it is much more comprehensive, in that it isn’t some “Stalin-esque” desire for a one-party police state.
Overall, it is very well-sited history of Nicaragua, but the political opinions throughout are left with an obvious halt in a Socialist Democratic Tendency. It is unfortunate that Ortega has changed from his 80s self. But hopefully we can see the 21st century socialism/communism finally be realized.
February 13, 2019
Banana republics are the greatest. I don't know what the appeal is, but there's something cool about jungle/guerilla/revolutionary stories. Maybe it's because anything can happen in South and Central America. The population is just fearless that way. I really should stop romanticizing the Sandinista revolution. But, then again, I'm a Clash fan, so what can I do?
My initial interest in Nicaraguan history led me to Kinzer's book Blood of Brothers and many of Chomsky's writings discussing the Sandinista revolution, putting it in a global context. La Botz's book claimed to take a more left-leaning perspective (more left than Kinzer at least) and cast a wider net on the whole thing: going from the creation of the Sandinista movement in the 60s up its evolution into the current political party. The Marxist analysis basically meant that La Botz was going to actually discuss how/which Marxism the Sandinistas used to carry out their goals.
What Went Wrong? is a pretty thorough and detailed book. Sure, it was tough getting through the tiny font on the page (which made these 300+ pages feel more like 600), but La Botz does this great thing where he segments his analysis into topics within the chapters. His writing is clear and almost conversational at times while at the same time being highly detailed. This way, it might feel like a lot more work getting through the pages, but the information is much easier to retain. This style is one of the many strong points of this book.
What we lean in What Went Wrong? is that the Sandinistas were initially a Stalinist group that chose to adopt Leninist/Marxist/Cuban style communism once they came to power. While they were good guerillas they were quite unprepared to take on the political machinery and creating the bureaucratic system needed to run the country. Mistakes were made (along with some successes that are BARELY covered), and corruption within the party along with the Contra war escalating, the Sandinistas were simply voted out of power (and accepted this fate). However, the political aspirations and slyness of leader Daniel Ortega helped keep the Sandinista as a viable political alternative for decades until at last they were leading the country again.
While I learned a lot from this book, I wish La Botz discussed a little more where the Sandinistas succeeded and how they helped improve living conditions for the citizens. These accomplishments are almost completely ignored and makes it hard to understand how the Sandinistas have had a mixed history. Sure, the book is called What Went WRONG, but to focus solely on the shortcomings of the Sandinistas makes them look completely incompetent.
I would still highly recommend this book for anyone willing to read about Nicaraguan and Sandinista history in general. It's dense, but stick with it and it will pay off.
My initial interest in Nicaraguan history led me to Kinzer's book Blood of Brothers and many of Chomsky's writings discussing the Sandinista revolution, putting it in a global context. La Botz's book claimed to take a more left-leaning perspective (more left than Kinzer at least) and cast a wider net on the whole thing: going from the creation of the Sandinista movement in the 60s up its evolution into the current political party. The Marxist analysis basically meant that La Botz was going to actually discuss how/which Marxism the Sandinistas used to carry out their goals.
What Went Wrong? is a pretty thorough and detailed book. Sure, it was tough getting through the tiny font on the page (which made these 300+ pages feel more like 600), but La Botz does this great thing where he segments his analysis into topics within the chapters. His writing is clear and almost conversational at times while at the same time being highly detailed. This way, it might feel like a lot more work getting through the pages, but the information is much easier to retain. This style is one of the many strong points of this book.
What we lean in What Went Wrong? is that the Sandinistas were initially a Stalinist group that chose to adopt Leninist/Marxist/Cuban style communism once they came to power. While they were good guerillas they were quite unprepared to take on the political machinery and creating the bureaucratic system needed to run the country. Mistakes were made (along with some successes that are BARELY covered), and corruption within the party along with the Contra war escalating, the Sandinistas were simply voted out of power (and accepted this fate). However, the political aspirations and slyness of leader Daniel Ortega helped keep the Sandinista as a viable political alternative for decades until at last they were leading the country again.
While I learned a lot from this book, I wish La Botz discussed a little more where the Sandinistas succeeded and how they helped improve living conditions for the citizens. These accomplishments are almost completely ignored and makes it hard to understand how the Sandinistas have had a mixed history. Sure, the book is called What Went WRONG, but to focus solely on the shortcomings of the Sandinistas makes them look completely incompetent.
I would still highly recommend this book for anyone willing to read about Nicaraguan and Sandinista history in general. It's dense, but stick with it and it will pay off.
June 21, 2018
LaBotz is an irredeemable petty bourgeois sectarian who gleefully writes obituaries for popular revolutionary governments. The inaccuracies in the Preface alone would not have passed muster with a bourgeois publisher.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews