The program of the Movimento del Pueblo Unido (MPU) is the plan for a post-Somoza government with
the broadest support from the left. In addition to the more than 20 member organizations of the MPU, all
three tendencies of the FSLN have endorsed the plan. This program differs from that of the Frente Amplio
Opositor (FA O) in its emphasis on the radical economic restructuring of the economy under state direction to
assure a minimal standard of living for the entire population. The FA 0 program emphasizes the protection
of civil and political rights, basically the same rights recognized in the MPU program, but the FAO
program leaves economic goals and reforms largely undefined. The obvious reason for the differences between
the two programs is that the MPU was organized primarily to represent workers, peasants and the urban
poor while the FA 0 is directed by progressive sectors of the bourgeoisie, trying to appeal to both labor and
business.
PROGRAM OF THE MOVEMENT OF POPULAR UNITY
1) UNITY: The Movimiento del Pueblo Unido (MPU) considers fundamentally important the unity of all
progressive forces of the country interested in eliminating the Somoza dictatorship and promoting a change in
government that would profoundly transform the nation’s economic, social, political and cultural structures,
constituting a response and a concrete solution for the needs of all sectors of the Nicaraguan people. Without a real
struggle on the part of all active forces, the fight against Somoza becomes an idle dream…
2) GOVERNMENT: The MPU proposes to form a government with the representative participation of all politi-
cal, economic, labor and cultural forces committed to raising the country from the stagnation, dependency and
underdevelopment imposed by the dictatorship and its allies. To this end the government will declare a TOTAL
AND UNCONDITIONAL AMNESTY for all prisoners jailed for acting to bring about a just change in
Nicaragua and will permit the immediate return of all those exiled for the same reason …. The government will
guarantee respect for civil rights and liberties:
a) freedom of thought and of the press;
b) freedom to form union, worker, peasant, youth, student, cultural and sport organizations;
c) freedom to travel and to work.
3) ECONOMY: To raise the nation out of its economic stagnation and promote economic development, the unity
government will take the following measures:
a) expropriation of all goods, property, haciendas and companies of the Somoza family and the formation of a
government organization to administer them;
b) nationalization and expropriation of all natural resources and of the companies that exploit them (minerals,
petroleum, wood, etc.);
c) nationalization and expropriation of all maritime and air transport and mass-passenger land transport and the
creation of a ministry responsible for their regulation and administration;
d) price regulation for goods of basic necessity, thereby putting an end to speculation and unwarranted increases
in the price of foods;
e) the creation of a National Economic Plan to coordinate the private and state sectors of the economy with the
goal of initiating economic development that corresponds to the social necessities of all Nicaraguans.
4) FINANCE: The resources required to guarantee fulfillment of public financing objectives will be obtained from
three principal sources:
a) the total revision of all direct and indirect taxes, abolishing those that are detrimental to the majority of con-
sumers, principally direct taxes on foodstuffs, and articles used in education, medicine, sports, and on recrea-
tional and cultural activities;
b) nationalization of the domestic and foreign banking system and regulation of the financial institutions serving
the private sector;
36 NACLA ReportNovJDoc. 1978
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c) a review and proper use of all foreign loans contracted by the Somoza government, renegotiating the terms
and repayment of those that were actually used for works for the public good and national interest.
Likewise, the government will begin negotiations to obtain foreign aid from any country, regardless of its ideology,
always at the most favorable terms.
5) NATIONAL PLAN: The National Plan will provide domestic industry with guidelines to follow for the fulfill-
ment of national goals in both the state and private sectors of the economy. The participation of private interests in
the economy will be promoted and directed toward those productive sectors that require a technology obtainable
under more favorable terms by private companies and whose production will not be in contradiction with the
collective or national interests. A coherent industrial policy will be formulated for both the state and private sectors
with participation of all the active forces (government, unions, entrepreneurs, etc.) in such a way that the economic
actors will have concrete knowledge of the effect on their personal prospects and on the national interest.
6) COMMERCE: The government will suppress all archaic forms of commerce of the people’s basic necessities,
regulating prices so that each Nicaraguan will be guaranteed the highest standard of living permitted by our natural
resources …. To this end, a body will be created and charged with the regulation of interior and exterior commerce
whose objective will be to obtain the best conditions for buying and selling and to guarantee prices for national
producers of commodities subject to price speculation in international markets.
7) AGRICULTURE: A comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program will be developed to put an end to the forma-
tion of latifundios and to institute, with the lands expropriated from the Somoza family, a program of cooperatives
and state enterprises in which will participate all landless peasants or those with land insufficient to maintain a
family. In the agricultural sector the emphasis will be on the production of basic grains and on those products
necessary to maintain a balanced diet for the nation (fruits, vegetables, etc.).
Through the state finance system the government will grant loans for agricultural production to all producers,
large, medium and small. The government will also provide technical assistance, especially to small producers, to
raise harvest yields and guarantee an income level which will enable them to meet the needs of their families
(education, housing, health, food, etc.).
8) WORK: A Labor Code will be formulated which will guarantee workers and peasants a 48-hour week
divided in a manner appropriate to the particular exigencies of each economic sector and always respecting rest
periods and time dedicated to collective union activity. There will be an end to unemployment and underemploy-
ment with work guaranteed for all. “Black lists” will be abolished and all workers will have wages guaranteed to
cover their personal and familial needs. Sexual discrimination against women in labor practices will be ended.
Women will be incorporated on a large scale into all economic, political, social and cultural tasks (establishing the
principle of equal work for equal pay). Exploitation of child labor will be prohibited and school attendance will be
mandatory ….
9) EDUCATION: Measures will be put into immediate effect to end illiteracy through a massive national plan
involving all students, teachers and voluntary workers who will carry education to every corner of the country.
Programs of teacher training and school construction will be increased so that there will be no valley or district
without access to education. The university budget will be increased to meet the great demand from all those,
mostly workers and peasants, who have the capacity for higher education but lack the resources to obtain
it…. Education will be obligatory and all Nicaraguans will have access to it.
10) HEALTH: The unity government will initiate health and hygiene programs for the large numbers of poor
workers, peasants and Indian communities, and will eradicate the diseases which now ravage children and affect
great sectors of the population, such as malaria, gastroenteritis, tuberculosis, etc., as well as those diseases caused
by malnutrition and hunger. Medicine will have a social character and all Nicaraguans and resident foreigners will
have access to it. The government will regulate the cost of medical services of those doctors and specialists who are
not part of the national system of social security, immediately abolishing commerce in the health of the people. To
fulfill these objectives, rural “health centers,” regional first aid hospitals, and specialized hospitals for treating
more serious cases, will be built…
11) HOUSING: The popular unity government will develop programs to guarantee a home for each family,
immediately undertaking new construction programs in both urban and rural zones .. . Rent will be regulated so
that it will neither be the intolerable burden that it now is nor constantly threaten eviction by the merchants of
workers’ necessities.
12) MILITARY: The popular unity government will take immediate steps to create a national army which will
watch over the national interests of the people and the defense of the nation. It will cease to be an instrument of
repression in the hands of one family that has used it to perpetuate its power. In the formation of this army, purged
of its corrupt and evil members, the rank and position of all officers who take an active stand against the dic-
tatorship will be respected. The pedagogical, technical and professional levels of all privates and ranked officers will
be raised. The special stipends and privileges of military men of high or low rank will be abolished- Parasitism
within the ranks will be eliminated and the army will be made to take an active part in the development of the
country.
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