In 1979, after 45 years of murderous rule by the Somoza family and their henchmen, a revolution swept through Nicaragua. A mass movement led by the FSLN (better known as the Sandinistas) wrested power from the US-backed dictator.
For the first time since American Marines landed in Nicaragua in 1909, it seemed that ordinary Nicaraguans would control their own destinies
Yet in 1990, the Sandinistas were defeated in "free" elections, supervised by the Americans The election of the US-backed, "free enterprise friendly," right-wing UNO party, led by Violetta Chamorro stunned the world.
What happened? Why had the revolution failed? Was it true, as Western commentators claimed, that this was a triumph of US-style "democracy'?
Imperialism
The starting point for any analysis of Nicaragua has to be the brutal legacy of imperialism in the country, particularly American imperialism.
American Marines invaded Nicaragua in 1909 to oust the Zelaya regime.
Zelaya's "crime" was to dare to look to Europe for investors. The American government saw this as a violation of its "sphere of influence" in the region, a policy codified in the Monroe Doctrine.
After the invasion, to ensure Nicaraguan docility, the United States government appointed presidents, US banks controlled the railways, banking, even tax collection and customs.
The response was a repeated series of uprisings. In 1926, to try and placate the rebellions, the US agreed to install Moncada as president, However, one of Moncada's generals, Sandino, refused to lay down his arms.
For the next seven years Sandino led an armed insurrection against Moncada and his US backers
Sandino shared a common background with the other rebel leaders. He was a populist, who sought to combine the interests of the poor peasants and the workers with the "national bourgeoisie."
But his politics were much more radical than those who had led the previous uprisings He called for independent national development, and for a battle against imperialism.
In 1934 Sandino was assassinated by paid thugs, hired by Anastasio Somoza Senior. A former used car salesman and counterfeiter, he was installed as leader of the National Guard by US authorities.
After Sandino's murder he became president for life. He also became the biggest land owner in Nicaragua. By 1944 he owned 51 cattle ranches, 46 coffee plantations and eight sugar plantations, in addition to a $60 million fortune.
The contours of Nicaraguan history, then, were shaped by American imperialism working in consort with corrupt local landowners to safeguard the region for the rich, and to brutally repress any who resisted.
Sandino's name was erased from official history, but he remained a heroic figure among peasants in the countryside.
The life of the workers and peasants deteriorated under Somoza, and continued to do so after the presidency was passed on to his sons, first Luis and then Anastasio Junior.
The terrible conditions of life for the poor in Nicaragua created deep pools of bitterness and resentment.
Peasants were forced off of their land to make way for coffee plantations, then hired on as virtually slave labour during picking season. For the rest of the year, there was no income While the plantation owners got rich the peasants literally starved
In 1961 the Frente de Liberacion Nacional was formed as a student movement. In 1963 the word Sandinista (after Sandino) was added, thus creating the FSLN.
Conceived as a peasant guerrilla army, their politics were split between those who looked to an anti-imperialist guerrilla war and those who wanted to extend the group's politics to include anti-capitalist class struggle ideology.
By 1976 a third grouping -- called the Terceristas -- emerged, calling for a strictly anti-Somoza armed struggle.
Mass uprisings
In 1978 and 1979, all of these political currents were suddenly put to the test.
Mass risings in Matagalpa, Leon and Estelin shook the dictatorship to its foundations.
Somoza's brutal National Guard moved in to "clean up" the rebellion, and left 6,000 dead.
The FSLN retreated to the hills with large numbers of new recruits.
In the spring of next year, several thousand armed fighters moved in to confront the National Guard.
On June 4, the Sandinistas issued a call for an insurrectional general strike.
The next day, everything stopped. Managua, the capital, rose in insurrection on June 10. By the next month, it was over.
Somoza wreaked terrible vengeance, even in defeat. Helicopters dropped 500 pound oil drums full of explosives over densely populated working class areas of the capital. They killed and tortured thousands.
But on July 17, Somoza fled the country, and the Sandinistas were in power.
Euphoria
There was euphoria in the country. Across Central and South America, peasants and workers looked to the Sandinistas as offering a way out of decades of oppression and exploitation.
The Sandinistas did bring in real reforms. They introduced free health care and education for all.
They expropriated Somoza's property. This was no small matter, since he controlled 20% of agriculture, 25% of manufacturing and 95% of mining -- representing 40% of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
The banks and insurance companies were nationalized.
But two factors were to lead to the defeat of the revolution.
The first was the terrible war that was launched against the regime led by US-backed contras.
American president Ronald Reagan devoted much of his efforts during the 1980s to covertly funding and backing the contras in an attempt to destabilize the revolution.
By 1988, 18,000 had been murdered by the contras. The simplest things -- like operating a farm -- became a matter of life and death.
But the second factor was the response of the Sandinistas to this brutal assault. Militarily, the fight was heroic.
But on the social and economic front, concessions were made down the line.
The war impoverished the nation. The living standards of the masses fell significantly. But not all shared the burden equally. Mike Gonzalez, who has written the most comprehensive analysis of the revolution to date, described the problem in 1988.
"[T]he most startling aspect of this period of austerity and war is that the burden of scarcity has not been evenly distributed. The Nicaraguan bourgeoisie has been shielded from its worst effects from the very outset, with privileged access to consumer goods, state subsidies to support its investments and a range of social and political privileges."
This alienated many from the revolution. What was all the sacrifice for -- to replace one elite with another?
The compromises happened on every front. The terrible contra war could have been broken if a front against the United States had opened elsewhere. And in fact, there were massive anti-imperialist movements in El Salvador and Guatemala.
But the Sandinistas, in an attempt to appease the United States, refused to allow El Salvador guerrillas to continue training on their territory.
They compromised with the Catholic Church. In order to try and appease the church, abortion remained illegal throughout the Sandinista's rule. More women died from botched back-street abortions in the 1980s than were killed by the contras.
Gonzalez sums up the result perfectly.
"The result, by 25 February 1990, was that the mass of Nicaraguans had come to realize that this state for which they had fought, and the sacrifices that they had made and were continuing to make, would not come to their own benefit ... If so many voted for UNO it was because that, at least, might bring an end to Contra aggression, when the aspirations for which they had made a revolution seemed no longer attainable."
Socialism
In the years since the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas, rural poverty has dramatically increased Over 70% of rural children are malnourished, and rural unemployment is between 65% and 89%. Some 32,000 families are surviving on roots and empty tortillas with salt.
The impressive gains of the Sandinistas in health, education and land reform have all been reversed But the rich are richer. It is back to "business as usual.
In its heroic first years, the Sandinistas were an inspiration to millions. Bruce Cockburn's "If I had a rocket launcher" was an impassioned plea for solidarity with the embattled regime. Thousands of young people in Canada and elsewhere joined together to fight for that solidarity.
When Nicaragua rises again, we will need a similar solidarity movement.
We will also need to learn the lessons from the 1979 to 1990 period of Sandinista rule.
In Nicaragua, it is not enough to stop at a "national" struggle against imperialism. It must become a socialist movement to bring real political and economic equality to the country.
In Canada, we have the responsibility to build the forces of the left to build a challenge to the imperialist intervention that follows every attempt in the third world to break the chains of imperialism.
In both Nicaragua and in Canada, that will take building a party to lead the revolution, arguing for and organizing workers power.