Ana Criquillon and Olga Maria Espinosa1
In recognition of March 8th, International Women's Day, we want to salute the effort to build our Nicaraguan women's movement, AMNLAE (Asociacion de Mujeres Nicaraguenses Luis Amanda Espinosa), and pause to share the lessons we learned from both our setbacks and our successes.
On the occasion of the II National Assembly of Agricultural Workers, Commandante Victor Tirado told us that we were starting something that is, perhaps, not yet apparent, not fully visualized. The truth is that despite our capacity to make theoretical contributions to the revolution... helping to build our developing socialism, we ought to realize that our work as women is often guided by pure intuition. There is a need to develop an historic memory of the road we have traveled and reflect more on our work to better define our strategies and course of action for the future.
Keeping this in mind, in light of the last five years of organizing women in the Asociacion de Trabajadores del Campo (ATC), our principle gain may be to have integrated concepts that are usually thought of separately: economic production/female reproduction, economics/ideology, private life/public life, and class struggle/women's emancipation.
ideology and work will guide the course of the revolution
Noting the economic growth produced by the Revolution, our goal is to continue increasing productivity. To achieve this will require more than just physical effort, since we have already reached the limit of our strength. We are searching for new ways to increase our productive potential and to assume the lead in the workers' response to the economic crisis and aggression.
We women are interested, perhaps more than anyone, in improving the organization of work. We are aware that the double day limits our individual productivity. Instead of accepting this limitation as a natural incontrovertible fact and resigning ourselves to being less productive, or even asking for lower production goals, we began to redistribute household tasks. We organized collective daycare services and fought for a basic social infrastructure (running water, laundries, collective corn mills, prepared foods and eating places, etc.) to relieve the domestic workload and have it shared by all family members. In this way we integrated family work with economic work. Better social organization of the first affords us greater productivity in the second.
At the same time, raising productivity is the best way to cultivate happiness within our relationships and our family. Our needs as workers are not limited to vital ones like housing, decent wages, education and health. We also need affection, eroticism, personal relationships, solidarity and mutual respect among couples and their children, and much more. By linking the private sphere to the public, and production to policy, we can integrate all aspects of daily life. The gains of one sex are not exclusive but are related to the overall aims of the Revolution.
both men and women must defend the revolution
Unity among groups or social sectors is possible when all are aware of the common objective and when existing conflicts are appropriately handled. The first issue we had to address was the inequality of rights and opportunities between men and women— inequality in the home, in the workplace and in political organizations. It was not enough to just recognize our subordination as women and the chauvinism of many of our companions. We had to objectively study the causes of our situation, and determine how to overcome it. In doing this analysis, we asked ourselves about issues that we had never dealt with before as members of a labor union. Women and men developed a more self-critical awareness and greater sensitivity to women's oppression. The dreaded male-female confrontation that supposedly divides the class never occurred. To the contrary, we are beginning to overcome the true division that existed as a result of customary inequality of the sexes. We promoted the participation of women in the formulation of basic labor demands and economic management, not just to add a specific point to the collective agreements or to be on the production councils, but to support the collective effort. We believe that labor production and the unions still bear a heavy male stamp, since they have historically been the domains of men. We do note, however, the presence of more women in organizations and in labor unions, and hope to transform both through a greater representation of women.
Among our achievements was that of doing away with the concept of "women's work" and overcoming social divisions by gender. We also strengthened the role of the union. It no longer plays the traditional role it held in the last century and early part of this one. It also assumes defense tasks, supply tasks, adult education, health care, and influences the management of the country. By connecting personal life to union life, the union plays a broader and more decisive role in the construction of the new society.
we have confidence in our revolution
To discuss the obstacles to the greater incorporation of women in the revolutionary process is not to admit that we are the weaker sex, but simply to describe the challenges that still face us. The way we present the problems is what counts. If we really consider ourselves to be part of the working class, the fundamental base of the Revolution, then to whom are we to direct our problems, if not to ourselves? When we complain that we feel discriminated against, abandoned by the Revolution, victimized by men, we forget that we also have to struggle against our own behavior which perpetuates such treatment. We take an important step when we rely on ourselves and recognize our own successes and failures, and in such a way earn (not ask for) our place in the Revolution. We should be assertive and creative and consider our participation to be as constructive as that of men.
the role of AMNLAE as a women's movement
These years of revolution have taught us that the "popular" individual is a heterogeneous one. Every person participates in a series of diverse social relationships which are based on multiple characteristics (religion, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.). We cannot suppose that one single characteristic determines the make-up of the individual or a political action.
Thus, there is no one unique and exclusive model for the whole population. That is why the Revolution emphasizes the importance of democracy and pluralism for social harmony. We believe that correct politics requires a global vision which includes the inter-relationships of different social actors and the articulation of their interests.
the movement's central task
In order to integrate all women into the revolutionary process, AMNLAE's main task is to link women to the other forums of popular power and to promote their interaction. For example, women join the labor movement to the degree that the labor movement responds to their particular interests. At the same time, women's active participation contributes to strengthening the organization and allows women to confront their own limitations and those imposed upon them by the union.
Eliminating women's subordination becomes both a necessary condition and a result of women's participation in the Revolution. The saying that the best way to struggle for women's emancipation is to struggle for the defense of the Revolution, is only a half-truth, however. For when the time came to put this saying into practice, women's participation was stagnant, as happened in the first years of the Revolution.
Just as it is not the sole responsibility of the Women's Secretariat of the ATC to integrate women into union life, it is not the exclusive task of AMNLAE to integrate women into the revolutionary process. Nevertheless, it is a specific task of the women's movement to encourage women's participation in all of these processes.
the strategy
There is no women's concern that is not relevant to any other sector of society. Even "personal" problems such as physical abuse, rape, family planning, abortion, prostitution and paternal desertion are problems that can be dealt with among the Sandinista Defense Committees, for example.
In fact, such problems require a community solution. The Institute of Welfare and Social Security, the Office of Women's Legal Affairs, the Ministry of Health (MINSA), and the Sandinista Police are all involved in finding solutions to these problems. But the role of the women's movement in such areas is critical because the neighborhood and the home are the traditional domains of women. AMNLAE's function is not to compete with the Sandinista Defense Committees but to broaden involvement in these affairs. In general, we believe that the political and ideological work of the women's movement should extend to all sectors. This leads us to mobilize women within each organization to strengthen all organizations. At the same time, we have to ensure that the values, the needs and the interests of women are not sacrificed to other priorities. This means that we have to raise women's demands to a strong position. Our experience in the ATC shows that it is not enough to have a special committee at the directorial level. The women members themselves have to be active in solving their own problems.
It is important in this process that women have a place to freely discuss certain topics without male censure. Women's meetings allow them to think about their subordination, to speak out, to articulate needs and demands, and to develop new values.
The aim of this massive political and ideological work is to increase the number of women in positions of authority who are conscious of both their class and gender interests. A gradual process of integrating women will guarantee the equality of the sexes within the exercise of popular power and internal democracy.