New International no. 9: The Rise and Fall of the Nicaraguan Revolution

Lessons for revolutionists everywhere from the workers and farmers government that came to power in Nicaragua in July 1979. Based on ten years of socialist journalism from inside Nicaragua, this issue of New International magazine recounts the achievements and worldwide impact of the Nicaraguan revolution.

It traces the political retreat of the Sandinista National Liberation Front leadership that led to the downfall of the revolution in the closing years of the 1980s.

Documents of the Socialist Workers Party.

Also available in Spanish (ISBN: 9780873487726)

“Provides a partisan but fascinating perspective on the Nicaraguan revolution.”
—Irish Journal of American Studies

Jack Barnes (1940– ) is national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. He joined the SWP in May 1961 and has been a member of the party’s National Committee since 1963 and a national officer since 1968.

Since the mid-1970s Barnes has led the political course of the SWP and its sister parties worldwide to build communist parties whose members and leaders in their large majority are workers and unionists organizing workers to forge and strengthen trade unions and lead the working class and its allies toward a successful socialist revolution.

Barnes is a contributing editor of New International magazine and author of numerous books and articles on revolutionary working-class politics and the communist movement.

His writings include:
Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? (2016)
The Turn to Industry: Forging a Proletarian Party (2019)
Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power (2009)
The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record: Why Washington Fears Working People (2016)
“The Stewardship of Nature Also Falls to the Working Class: In Defense of Land and Labor,” in New International no. 14 (2008, coauthor)
Cuba and the Coming American Revolution (2007)
Their Trotsky and Ours (2002)
“US Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War” in New International no. 11 (1998)

Larry Seigle was a member of the National Committee of the Socialist Workers party from 1971 to 1991. He is author of:
50 Years of Covert Operations in the US: Washington’s Political Police and the American Working Class (2014, coauthor)
The Rise and Fall of the Nicaraguan Revolution (1994, contributor)
Workers’ Rights versus the Secret Police (1981)
“Cuba and the Castro Leadership” in Revolutionary Cuba Today: The Record of a Discussion (1980) The Rise and Fall of the Nicaraguan Revolution (1994, contributor)

Carlos Fonseca (1936–1976) founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua in 1961 and was its central leader until his death in combat against the US-backed Somoza dictatorship.

He is the author of:
“Historic Program of the FSLN” in New International no. 9 (1994)
“Nicaragua: Zero Hour” in Sandinistas Speak: Speeches, Writings, and Interviews with Leaders of Nicaragua’s Revolution (1982).