Nicaragua: An Eye-witness Report on the Electoral Process, a Report by a Delegation of the National Lawyers Guild. 26 pp. $2 (paper). Copies available from: Chicago NLG, 205 West Wacker Drive, Suite 2122, Chicago, IL 60606. In September of this year, the Na- tional Lawyers Guild sent a group of 10 lawyers and one law professor to examine the nature and validity of the Nicaraguan elections. They studied the legal structure of the electoral pro- cess and monitored political debates and advertisements on the radio and television. The delegation also inter- viewed representatives of the FSLN, the Independent Liberals and the right-wing Social Christian Party, which did not participate. The views of workers and peasants and a politi- cal officer from the U.S. Embassy are also cited. The delegation considered the elec- tions to be broadly representative, free and open. The report also concludes that the deaths, abductions, adminis- trative burdens and costs of the contra war have seriously disrupted registra- tion and campaign procedures. The International Crisis in the Caribbean by Anthony Payne. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 173 pp. $18.50 (cloth). Anthony Payne is a British political science professor who served as an adviser to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee during its study of Central America and the Caribbean in 1981 and 1982. This book is a useful compendium of the political forces extant in Caribbean change and instability. The opening chapter looks at the thinly disguised U.S. military percep- tions behind the geographically artifi- cial “Caribbean Basin,” the name preferred by U.S. State Department officials for what they until recently liked to call the “sea of splashing dominoes.” Brief profiles of the more volatile island states follow with a look at the swinging fortunes of the Left and Right and the eccentricities that have characterized Caribbean heads of state. Payne discusses the roles of the United States, Cuba, European and Latin American coun- tries and analyzes pan-Caribbean con- cerns, especially in the aftermath of Grenada, in this sharply analytical study of the “Caribbean crisis.” Memoirs of Bernardo Vega: A Con- tribution to the History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York edited by Cesar Andreu Ig- lesias. Monthly Review Press, 223 pp. $10 (paper). Bernardo Vega is a key figure in the history of New York City’s Puerto Rican community. Vega was a mili- tant in Puerto Rican trade union and political movements, before emigra- ting to the United States in 1916. He founded the Liga Puertorriquena e Hispafia and the weekly Grdfico, which he edited for many years. He joined Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party and became national director of the party’s hispanic section. He even- tually returned to Puerto Rico where he remained active in the pro-indepen- dence movement. These memoirs are beautifully writ- ten, providing vivid profiles of New York’s socialists of the World War I era-a truly internationalist and exotic group, with the hispanic community playing a major role. Most interesting are the descriptions of the cigar fac- tories where Vega worked throughout his life. Each worker donated a part of his salary to hire men who read aloud from newspapers, novels or political treatises every morning and after- noon. Vega also describes the many cultural mechanisms that provided an ultimate safety net for the poor. Fi- nally, there is a fascinating history of the Puerto Rican/Cuban alliance dur- ing the war of independence, and of Jos6 Marti’s life in New York. No Free Lunch: Food and Revolu- tion in Cuba Today by Medea Benja- min, Joseph Collins and Michael Stout. Institute for Food and Develop- ment Policy, 250 pp. $7.95 (paper). Copies available from the IFDP, 1885 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. The IFDP is well-known for its in- depth studies of hunger and develop- ment issues. In this book, three highly qualified authors have sifted through every detail of every aspect of eating in Cuba. The authors clearly consider Cuba’s rationing system superior to food distribution systems in most Third World nations-hunger and malnutrition have been eliminated. But the authors do describe the sys- tem’s many shortcomings while look- ing at private farmers markets, barter- ing, home cultivation, agricultural methods, the black market and cor- ruption. Problems are widespread. Shor- tages are common, rations do not last and must be supplemented by deregu- lated supplies, restaurant service is abysmal and long queues make shop- ping a prohibitive task. (This point provides one of the authors’ few weak arguments, namely that queues pro- vide a useful social function-people can complain together.) Traditional food prejudices die hard and nutritional problems persist. Cor- pulence is still a sign of prestige in Cuba. Starches, sugar and coffee are consumed in huge quantities. The government has tried to encourage healthier eating habits, but with little success. But temporarily divorcing food dis- tribution from the rest of the state ap- paratus, the reader will most likely agree with the authors that it is the most tangible success of the revolu- tion. Banking on Poverty: The Global Impact of the IMF and the World Bank edited by Jill Torrie. Between the Lines, 336 pp. $12.95 (paper). The IMF and the World Bank held their 1982 conference in Toronto, a site keenly attuned to the monetarist policies now in vogue with the in- ternational lending institutions, sitting as it does between the governments of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. To express opposition to the institu- tions’ handling of international fi- nance vis-A-vis the Third World, a co- alition of church, research, human rights and labor groups sponsored “The Global Impact of the IMF and the World Bank” conference at the University of Toronto.
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