Class, Ethnicity, and the State Among the Miskitu Amerindians of Northeastern Nicaragua

Abstract

There are marginalized ethnic minorities in almost all countries of the American continent. In many cases, these superexploited autochthonous populations constitute national minorities and require an effective process of decolonization in order to achieve full cultural and economic emancipation. Not all ethnic groups necessarily qualify as distinct nationalities, of course, and not all national minority movements automatically represent the exploited classes. Nationhood is born out of the historical, cultural, and political economic formation of a people; it implies a unified collective consciousness and is usually expressed through struggle. When a population constitutes a distinct nationality, however, and is included in a dominated fashion within the frontiers of a larger state, the feasibility of a socialist liberation strategy based on the creation of autonomous administrative and cultural structures becomes a central issue. In order to determine whether regional autonomy will actually benefit the poor majority, however, the dynamics of the class struggle must be carefully examined. Narrowly nationalist sentiments are too frequently amenable to manipulation. The right to self-determination should not be seen as an abstract truism that legitimizes all secessionist movements. The validity of the demands of an ethnic group ultimately have to be judged by their class content as the struggle for socialism and the interests of the oppressed should always be the primary concern. In Nicaragua, the first continental state in the western hemisphere in