Popular Revolution Research Articles

Computer literacy for the rest of us

computers? For that matter, what should we teach any students about computers? For some, these questions have lost their relevance. Not only are computers more available than ever before, information about them is easy to find. Mall bookstores and those on college campuses are filled with titles about personal computer software and hardware. Computers have become a commodity technology partly because of this mass of documentation, for the goal of much of it is to make the private, coded discourse of technical professionals accessible to those with no formal training in computers. Not even the advent of the automobile, which marked the previous popular revolution in technology, called forth so much explication of technical matters. Of particular relevance to educators in higher education is the fact that more and more students are exposed to computers before they get to college. According to Snyder and Hoffman (1992, p. 432), the percentage of public schools using microcomputers jumped from 18.2 in 1981 to 97.2 in 1990. This huge growth in under ten years reflects the (banal, but inescapable) impression most of us share: computers are everywhere.

Spatial Inequalities in Sandinista Nicaragua

THE spatial distribution of the Nicaraguan people and economy has been an explicit concern of geographers, economists, and planners since the earthquake of December 1972 completely destroyed downtown Managua. The Nicaraguan population and economy are generally viewed as excessively concentrated in Managua, while the rest of the country is underdeveloped or even undeveloped. Before and after the overthrow of the forty-five-year-old Somoza family dictatorship by the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN), or Sandinista Front for National Liberation, its political rhetoric emphasized three implicit and explicit spatial commitments. The goals were to diminish the overall importance of Managua, to equalize development among the three principal regions, and to reduce inequalities between urban and rural dwellers (Brundenius 1985, 1987; Fonseca 1985; Slater 1986). This article examines the efforts of the Sandinista government to address spatial inequalities, through investments in the productive sector of the economy. It has been argued Nicaragua represented a socialist revolution differed from previous ones (Vilas 1984; Zwerling and Martin 1985). President Daniel Ortega in 1989 argued that socialism should be applied and advanced in accordance with the specific conditions of each society (Zamora and Garcia 1989, 2). The Sandinista leaders thus maintained they were applying socialist principles in the light of Nicaraguan realities. To many observers the Sandinista revolution held out the possibility for exciting approaches to spatial restructuring of the economy, because its policies would seek not only to alter the spatial distribution of economic benefits but also to transform the underlying forces had produced unequal spatial growth and development (Coraggio 1985). Yet the Sandinista popular revolution did not launch a radically new approach to development in Nicaragua. HISTORICAL LEGACY Nicaragua faces three spatial problems are frequently encountered in third-world countries: excessive size of the primate city, regional disparities in development, and inequalities between rural and urban areas (Gore 1984). According to the Sandinistas, all three problems were attributable, directly or indirectly, to the development policies pursued during the twentieth century by the Somoza regime, especially after 1945. The agro-export model of development followed in the 1950s and 1960s worsened impoverishment and landlessness as large-scale capitalists drove campesinos off their land (CIERA 1984; Martinez-Heredia 1985; Williams 1986). The result was massive migration to the cities, chiefly to Managua. Managua was the focus of much of the migration not only because it was the capital but also because the Somoza regime's main economic interests were there. Centrally located on the Pacific coastal plain of the country, Managua was at the hub of the post-World War II agro-export boom in the production of cotton, sugar, and beef. That boom further accentuated the disparities of development between the coastal plain and the other principal regions, the central highlands and the Atlantic coastal plain. Most of the benefits of the boom accrued to landowners and other capitalists whose business interests were concentrated on the Pacific coastal plain. The Nicaraguan industrial boom of the 1960s further solidified the dominance of region in population and economic activities, with the opening of many factories in Managua by the Somoza regime and its agents. In the wake of these trends, the Pacific coastal plain, which constitutes only 19 percent of the territory of the country, accounts for 60 percent of its population and produces almost 80 percent of its gross national product (GNP). The rich volcanic soils of the region underlay its high agricultural productivity and agro-exports of cotton, sugar, and beef. The central-highlands region, with 39 percent of the territory, has almost 35 percent of the population and produces 19 percent of the GNP. …

Ethnography or Ethnohistory? Reading the Popular Revolution of the People of Nicargua:Nicaragua's Other Revolution: Religious Faith and Political Struggle.;Women and Revolution in Nicaragua.;State, Class and Ethnicity in Nicaragua: Capitalist Modernization and Revolutionary Change on the Atlantic Coast.

Ethnography or Ethnohistory? Reading the Popular Revolution of the People of Nicargua:Nicaragua's Other Revolution: Religious Faith and Political Struggle.;Women and Revolution in Nicaragua.;State, Class and Ethnicity in Nicaragua: Capitalist Modernization and Revolutionary Change on the Atlantic Coast.

Postmodernism and Its Discontents

Towards the end of the 1980s, the decade in which postmodernist modes of thinking asserted themselves, and in so doing laid siege to a whole range of positions in theory which had grounded a socialist politics, 'actual existing socialism' collapsed under the pressure of popular revolution in Central and Eastern Europe. The net effect of this combined intellectual and political convulsion has been severely to disturb the equanimity with which many of us on the Left have in the past defined ourselves as socialists. In one sense this is paradoxical given that throughout the same decade many of us were also being extremely vocal in our denunciations of Soviet 'socialism' and working for an end to the old order in Eastern Europe; and given, too, that included among us were a number who were influenced by, and were themselves employing, insights derived from postmodernist theory. But if there is rather more sensitivity than previously now about the vocabulary of socialism, I think this is because theoretical and political developments have brought home more forcefully than ever before how difficult it is going to be to dissociate the socialist idea from what has been implemented in the name of it within the Soviet bloc. These developments have also made us more self-critical of the confidence, even at times complacency, with which we were wont to invoke the notion of an 'authentic socialism', as if this directed to us to a clearly desirable and obviously workable alternative to Communist orthodoxy. However, then, we view the relationship between the postmodernist turn in theory, on the one hand, and the recent events in Central and Eastern Europe, on the other (and it is arguable that although the former was tending to a rethinking and undermining of socialist commitments in the West, it had little direct influence on the rebellion against socialism in the East), it is clear that their overall effect has been a dramatic alteration of the context which any form of socialist argument is now addressing. Indeed, so much has this

“Jodido, Pero Contento"Urban Economics and the Popular Revolution in Nicaragua

The People of Nicaragua have struggled through a decade that was torn between revolutionary triumph and counterreactions to that triumph. They have been stymied in finding a political economy for their revolution. Nicaraguans under the Sandinistas referred to theirs as a mixed economy, where the private and social sectors pursue cooperative instead of exploitive relations. When asked to explain their economic state, the Nicaraguans often said, "Jodido, pero contento,” which can be paraphrased as "poor, but happy.” Having failed with centralized regulative planning, the government decided to allow local‐level generative planning to become a major factor in Managua's economic life. [Nicaragua, urban economics, planning, popular revolution]

革命状況と説教者 -イラン立憲革命の場合-

革命状況と説教者 -イラン立憲革命の場合-

Popular Revolutionary Republic of Guinea v. Atlantic Triton Company

State immunity — Attachment and execution — State corporation — Independent legal personality — Whether entitled to immunity from attachmentArbitration — Procedure — Competence — ICSID arbitration — Whether competence of tribunal excludes jurisdiction of municipal courts — Interim relief — Whether parties entitled to seek interim relief from municipal courts in order to guarantee execution of subsequent award — Washington Convention for the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States, 1965 — Article 26Economics, trade and finance — State contracts — ICSID arbitration — Whether recourse to municipal courts for interim relief excludedTreaties — Interpretation — Powers of municipal courts — The law of France

The Enchanted Burro, Bayonets and the Business of Making Sugar: State, Capital, and Labor Relations in the Ingenio San Antonio, 1912-1926

Since the 1920s, the San Antonio sugar mill in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua has been that country's largest manufacturing establishment. The ingenio (the sugar mill along with the plantation) employed close to 2,000 workers in 1920, and has since consistently employed far more workers than any other single enterprise. The owners of San Antonio were—and continue to be—the most economically powerful group within the Nicaraguan elite, In contemporary Nicaragua, the above affirmations remain valid: San Antonio is still the largest employer and economically most powerful financial group in the country.Any consideration of the development of Nicaraguan capitalism must take into account the history of the Ingenio San Antonio (ISA). In this article, I will examine the development of relations among labor, management, and the state in San Antonio from the 1890s until 1930 using archival and oral sources. Throughout this period, politics and economics were inseparable for the workers. Particularly after the U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua in 1912 and bolstered the Conservative regime, the political Liberalism of the San Antonio workers was something of a popular revolutionary

THE DEATH OF THOMAS SANKARA AND THE RECTIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION IN BURKINA FASO

Introduction Ouagadougou the 'Ghost Town' IT WAS just over three months after the military eoup d'etat whieh overthrew Captain Thomas Sankara as President of Burkina Faso had taken plaee, and all was still quiet on the streets of the eapital Ouagadougou. The people of Burkina Faso, eommonly known as the Burkinabe, maintained their silence or even indifference concerning the events whieh took plaee on Thursday 15 Oetober 1987 when President Sankara was shot, along with thirteen others, just outside the Conseil d'Entente, the central parliament. The presidential post was immediately claimed and taken by Sankara's right-hand man and close colleague Captain Blaise Compaore. He, while regretting the death of his grand frere, nevertheless proceeded to rate him a traitor to the 'Popular Revolution' which, ironically, Sankara had himself instigated on 4 August 1983. The Burkinabe are now experiencing the 'rectification of the revolution' whieh Compaore promised as a justification for the ousting of the existing President. Now that a reasonable amount of time has elapsed since the change in regime in Ouaguadougou, it seems appropriate to make an assessment of the legacy of Thomas Sankara and of the progress of Compaore's reetifieation proeess. Apart from the token redistribution of uniforms in the armed forces, little has changed in poverty-stricken Burkina Faso. Still rated as the third poorest country in the world, it offers little promise to large scale agricultural development due to its geographical location in the dusty and barren wasteland of the Sahel. 1 Along with its neighbours Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso attracts virtually no foreign-backed industrial investment or development, and the few remaining aid organizations are not only low on funds, but also in morale.2 At best, Ouagadougou resembles a small-scale Abid jan with an over-large diplomatic community and a minority of wealthy European (mostly French) ex-patriates who lead a life of tedious and isolated luxury. Unlike Abidjan, the prosperous and cosmopolitan capital of the Ivory Coast, Ouagadougou does not, due to its landlocked location, reap the financial benefits of a thriving international port. For this reason and

Grenada and the IMF

Certainly in the last decade, the relationship between the International Monetary Fund (IMF or Fund) and the world's developing countries has been the subject of fairly detailed research (Gold, 1970; Payer, 1974; Guitian, 1981; Bird, 1982; Killick, 1984). In the Caribbean, the relevance and appropriateness of IMF policies continue to be fiercely challenged (Girvan, Bernal, and Hughes, 1980; Brown, 1981; Thomas, 1982; Sharpley, 1984; and Bernal, 1984). The resolution of a number of issues raised in the wide-ranging debate can only be achieved through in-depth studies of the experiences of various countries with IMF programs. This study deals with specific aspects of Grenada's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program with the IMF, which was approved in mid-1983 and aborted in October of the same year, following the U.S. invasion of the country. It is important to document this experience not only for historical reasons but also because Grenada (in 1983) was characterized by certain economic and geopolitical features that contributed to the almost unprecedented nature of the experience. Grenada is a very small country (133 square miles; 110,000 people) with an open (foreign trade/GDP ratios of nearly one) and dependent economy; in 1979, a popular revolution took place and the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) explicitly stated its commitment to a socialist-oriented path of development,1 while initiating some of the development policies and programs identified as consistent with the preliminary stages of such an approach. Equally important is Grenada's membership in a regional currency system (Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, then an Eastern Caribbean Currency Authority-ECCA) which contributed to the peculiarly specific nature of the country's monetary and financial framework; among the important implications here was the

The establishment of democracy in Russia: The origins of the provisional government reconsidered

The events of February-March 1917 that ended the 300 year reign of the Romanov dynasty and brought democratic government to Russia have traditionally been viewed as a popular revolution. At the forefront of these events, according to this view, were the workers and soldiers of Petrograd, Russia’s capital, whose actions toppled the regime of Nicholas II and spurred the formation of the Provisional Government. Not yet confident of their ability to govern the nation, the workers and soldiers entrusted this task to representatives of the country’s propertied classes who organised the Provisional Government in a spontaneous response to the collapse of the monarchy. To ensure that the new government represented the will of the people, so this interpretation runs, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies forced it to adopt a radically democratic program significantly at odds with the government’s own moderate inclinations.’ In the words of one adherent of this view, the members of the Provisional Government ‘were the creations of the Revolution rather than active participants in it’.2 In the more than seven decades that have passed since the February Revolution, few historians have challenged this interpretation of the establishment of democracy in Russia in 1917.3 Yet the traditional view is inadequate in a number of respects. This study will briefly examine the circumstances surrounding the formation of the Provisional Government to suggest, first, that this government was not a completely spontaneous creation of the Revolution and, second, that the politicians who constituted the government were themselves responsible for the formulation of its broadly democratic program.4 The history of Russia on the eve of the 1917 Revolution leaves no doubt that popular discontent, often expressed in spontaneous, public outbursts, was responsible for creating the situation that would give rise to the formation ofthe Provisional Government on 2 March 1917. Russia’s entry into World War I had placed severe strains on the country’s still backward economy. The patriotic support that greeted the outbreak of war in 1914 had quickly turned to generalised discontent in the face of mounting hardships and deprivations. Food shortgages were chronic, and rapid inflation compounded the country’s misery. By the summer of 1915, the war weariness, anger and despair of the masses had begun to manifest themselves in public demonstrations of popular discontent. Most frequently these took the form of workers’ strikes.s In the summer of 1916, the strikes had reached an intensity not seen since the tumultuous pre-war years and, despite a brief hiatus at the end of the year, by

The Political Transformation of Lybia under Qadhafi

In the Third World, the function of political leadership is more pivotal than in western countries. The subjective factor of Qadhafi has vital bearing on developments in Libya. There was no historical neccessity for Libya to have developed along the revolutionary path that it has. The formation of the Arab Socialist Union, the Popular Revolution, the creation of the Jamahiriya, the inauguration of the Revolutionary Committee movement and the programme of militarisation - all these issues are a result of Qadhafi's wish to "revolutionarize" Libyan society. His ultimate aim was to eliminate all intermediaries between the people and the political power. In practice, real power remained in the hands of Qadhafi and the Revolutionary Committees . A drastic fall in oil revenues and the arrogance and arbitrariness of Qadhafi1s revolutionary zealots led to growing discontent among the Libyan population. The American raid on Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 was meant to precipitate Qadhafi's downfall. But his regime was not overthrown and the Libyan leader proved to be a master of political survival. A (temporary) political and economic liberalisation has boosted his popularity. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the Libyan revolution, his position still seems to be secure.KEYWORDS : Qadhafi, Libya, Islamic state

Sankara and the Burkinabé Revolution: Charisma and Power, Local and External Dimensions

Captain Thomas Sankara, Comrade President of Burkina Faso, was assassinated on 15 October 1987, allegedly in accordance with the wishes of Captain Blaise Compaoré, Major Jean-Baptiste Lingani, and Captain Henri Zongo. These three officers, said to have feared for their lives, had ordered the arrest of Sankara in order to avoid plunging their country into a blood-bath. The radio broadcast announcing the execution referred to Sankara as a ‘renegade’, a ‘traitor to the revolution’, ‘an autocratic mystic’, and a ‘paranoid misogynist’. It added that the ex-President's ‘high treason’ was illustrated by his trampling upon all organisational principles, his betrayal of the noble objectives of the democratic and popular revolution, his personalisation of power, and by his ambitious use of mysticism to solve the concrete problems of the masses. ‘This’, the broadcast concluded, ‘was inexorably leading us towards total chaos.’1 When he finally broke his silence, Compaoré, the alleged leader of the coup d'état, accused Sankara of ‘wanting to lead the world revolution’.

The Political Transformation Of Libya under Qadhafi

In the Third World, the function of political leadership is more pivotal than in western countries. The subjective factor of Qadhafi has vital bearing on developments in Libya. There was no historical neccessity for Libya to have developed along the revolutionary path that it has. The formation of the Arab Socialist Union, the Popular Revolution, the creation of the Jamahiriya, the inauguration of the Revolutionary Committee movement and the programme of militarisation - all these issues are a result of Qadhafi’s wish to “revolutionarize” Libyan society. His ultimate aim was to eliminate all intermediaries between the people and the political power. In practice, real power remained in the hands of Qadhafi and the Revolutionary Committees. A drastic fall in oil revenues and the arrogance and arbitrariness of Qadhafi’s revolutionary zealots led to growing discontent among the Libyan population. The American raid on Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 was meant to precipitate Qadhafi’s downfall. But his regime was not overthrown and the Libyan leader proved to be a master of political survival. A (temporary) political and economic liberalisation has boosted his popularity. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the Libyan revolution, his position still seems to be secure.

Popular Insurgency and Social Revolution in Central America

This essay discusses certain aspects of the revolutionary process in Central America-the social transformation in Nicaragua and the struggle for the conquest of political power in Guatemala and El Salvador. It focuses on the problematic of the actual protagonists. The first section affirms the multiclass nature of these processes, in their insurrectional stage as well as in the initial stages of revolutionary transformation. In the second section, it is argued that this complex social profile is the result of the type of capitalism that has developed in the region, which is characterized by a slow and problematic proletarianization of the labor force. In the third section, we discuss the importance of the political project of these revolutions, in order to arrive at the class character of the leadership of the national popular bloc. Finally, in the fourth section we focus on the internal differentiation that occurs within the national popular bloc as the revolutionary process proceeds from the struggle for the liquidation of the oppressive state to the stage of political, social, and economic transformation. We also touch upon some of the contradictions that occur within this process. Although the main point of reference for this essay is Central America, we have included illustrations from other revolutionary processes when they contribute to a clarification of the arguments presented. Social revolutions always fuse together a multiplicity of questions and objectives. The transformation of the economic structure and the construction of a new kind of political power involve efforts of a varied nature and diverse range: the development of the productive forces

From popular revolution to theocratic absolutism: Iran 1979–1981

From popular revolution to theocratic absolutism: Iran 1979–1981

Neoindigenismo and the Ethnic Question in Central America

Bernard Nietschmann, a North American geographer and distinguished member of the Indian Law Resource Center, has published an article (Nietschmann, 1985) expounding the idea that certain differences exist between the Sandinistas and the directors of MISURASATA, which can be explained by a theory of the Fourth World. As always, his text is riddled with attacks against the popular revolution in Nicaragua; his pretext being the defense of the Miskito Indians. Who is this Nietschmann? This author has become quite well known in the last few years due to his dedication in battling the Sandinistas, his frequent testimony before any court willing to listen to him, as well as his writings, which he turns out in an equally prolific fashion. He also acts as an adviser to Brooklyn Rivera, the General Coordinator of MISURASATA, and he seems to have considerable influence upon Mr. Rivera and other members of this organization. In fact, Nietschmann compiles documents and policy statements for MISURASATA and has accompanied and counseled its leaders in all the negotiating sessions that they have held with representatives of the Sandinista government. He also plays an active role in the United Nation's Task Force on Indigenous Populations and appears before the Human Rights Commission of the OAS (or instructs Indians to appear) in order to testify concerning the allegedly anti-Indian policies of the Sandinistas. But a closer look at the situation reveals that Nietschmann is neither an original thinker, nor does he act on his own. The notion that native American populations are subjects of a Fourth World is not a new one. At best, it adheres to a widely held viewpoint on ethnicity that has

Revolution and Freedom in Theodor Mommsen's "Romische Geschichte"

IN THE HALF-CENTURY BEGINNING AROUND 1830, German readers of narrative history were presented with a great number of histories of revolutions and of revolutionary ages. The authors of these histories were almost all liberals, among them many of the most illustrious names of two generations of German scholarship, including Carl von Rotteck, Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, Johann Gustav Droysen, Georg Gervinus, and Heinrich von Sybel.1 This interest in revolution as an historical event was not mere fashion. An array of the most important and troubling political questions of that explosive age hinged on the interpretation and evaluation of revolution, such as the question of the legitimacy and the limits of popular political expression and resistance, and of the nature and integrity of law and the state. Through an evalution of revolution, liberals hoped to formulate their stance vis-a-vis the progressive currents of the day, and to secure their position against their chief opponents in the first half of the nineteenth century, the conservatives, and later, during and after the revolutionary events of 1848, against the nascent left.2 Liberals were convinced, moreover, that an evaluation of the potential and significance of popular revolution was impossible without a serious consideration of the role that revolution occupied in history. Despite the diverse character of the periods studied and the divergent

Le double code afghan. Marxisme et tribalisme

The Soviet strategy in Afghanistan has always aimed at controlling the state apparatus rather than encouraging a popular revolution. The belated creation of the communist party was perceived as a means of pressure on the state. The party was set up around 1965 by members of the lay intelligentsia and officers trained in the USSR. Behind the debutes dividing the party into the khalqi and the parcham factions there are, in addition to tactical differences, divergences linked with the social and tribal origins of these two factions. Most importantly, beyond thé ideological débutes thé functioning of thé party follows thé tribal pattern : that does not mean that the tribalism of Afghan society persists in the party, but that the party's factions are structured according to the modes of tribalism and clientelism, indenpendently of the sociological origins of their members.

Microcomputers in Informal Learning Centers

The microcomputer revolution was a popular revolution that put computers under the control of individuals. The proliferation of micros in homes, schools and public places made many believe that a revolution in education would follow. But, the spread of computers was not matched by the development of quality software or by the guarantee of equal access for poor people. The paper entitled “Microcomputers in Informal Learning Centers” presents an overview of the use of computers in public places and in homes; it raises questions about the responsibilities of public centers, the need for quality software, and the issues of equal access.