To Lead As Equals

by Gould, Jeffrey L.

• ISBN13: 9780807842751
• ISBN10: 0807842753
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1990-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

This book is a carefully argued study of peasants and labor during the Somoza regime, focusing on popular movements in the economically strategic department of Chinandega in western Nicaragua. Jeffrey Gould traces the evolution of group consciousness among peasants and workers as they moved away from extreme dependency on the patron to achieve an autonomous social and political ideology. In doing so, he makes important contributions to peasant studies and theories of revolution, as well as our understanding of Nicaraguan history. According to Gould, when Anastasio Somoza first came to power in 1936, workers and peasants took the Somocista reform program seriously. Their initial acceptance of Somocismo and its early promises of labor rights and later ones of land redistribution accounts for one of the most peculiar features of the pre-Sandinista political landscape: the wide gulf separating popular movements and middle-class opposition to the government. Only the alliance of the Frente Sandinista (FSLN) and the peasant movement would knock down the wall of silence between the two forces.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Labor and Politics, 1912-1949	p. 19
We All Remember Joaquín: State, Capital, and Labor Relations in the Ingenio San Antonio 1890-1936	p. 21
The Auspicious Fields: the Labor Movement in the Ingenio San Antonio, 1944-1949	p. 46
But We Were Hardly Beginning: the Chinandegan Workers' Movement, 1920-1948	p. 65
The Campesino Movement and Somocismo, 1950-1964	p. 83
So We Have Nothing to Discuss Doña Tesla: the Origins of the Campesino Movement in Chinandega, 1957-1959	p. 85
Elite Divisions and Campesino Unity: Toward a Community-Rooted Class Perspective, 1959-1961	p. 113
Sacred Rights and Social Peace: the Struggle for the Nuevos Ejidos, 1961	p. 133
The Village of Tonalá Combats Its Destiny, 1961-1962	p. 157
The Growth and Limits of Labor-Campesino Solidarity, 1962	p. 182
Andrés Never Understood: Educating the Liberator, 1962	p. 205
Beyond the May Rains: Women and Leadership in the Time of Juan Angel López, 1962-1964	p. 225
Campesinos and the Sandinista Revolution, 1964-1979	p. 243
The Campesinos and Agrarian Reform, 1964-1973	p. 245
Toward Revolution in the Countryside, 1974-1979	p. 270
Conclusion	p. 292
Chronology	p. 307
	p. 310
Notes	p. 313
Index	p. 367
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