Event to honor the 9th Anniversary of the Transit
to Immortality of Comandante Tomás Borge Martínez
and the Celebration of International Workers' Day
April 30, 2021
Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, families, Workers, of the city and the countryside, of this Blessed and Forever Free land of Diriangén, of Andrés Castro, of Zeledón, of Sandino, of Carlos, of Tomás... Today is the 9th Anniversary of the transit to immortality of our brother Tomas, founder of the Frente, together with Carlos, together with Colonel Santos Lopez, and other brothers who sowed in difficult times.
And Tomás is present in all these battles that we Nicaraguans are fighting, all the Heroes, the Martyrs, who throughout our History have fought for a more Just World, and that as the beautiful Hymn of the Internationale says: “Men are brothers to Men, Women are sisters to Women, inequality is over....”
Because the greatest injustice that exists on the Planet, the most terrible virus established on the planet, is the virus of capitalism, accumulating wealth for a very few, and hunger, poverty and unemployment for the immense majority. Savage capitalism that prides itself on being Democratic and Humanist, but which brought about human trafficking, slave trafficking, treating human beings as slaves, dealing in them, selling them as slaves.
Entire families there in Africa were captured by European colonialists, subjected to torture, put in chains, and then the merchants arrived to pick their merchandise, and that merchandise was then shipped to Europe, and large shipping companies, especially the British, enriched themselves.
And then, when Europe invaded the territory of Our America, they also trafficked slaves to our lands. Because slavery was also practiced in the United States, that is, so-called North American Democracy was born out of slavery. Slavery was also practiced in these countries, not only the native population was subjected to barbarism, but also sisters and brothers who were brought as slaves from Africa.
What did Capital seek at that time, seeking the economic development of those countries, those Nations which had the most economic power and the greatest military power? What did they seek? They were looking for manpower, for labor. They had no concept of Workers, that concept was later recognized, but they treated Workers almost in the same way as they treated the slaves.
This explains the struggle that Workers waged in different parts of the world. When there was still slavery, slavery was condemned, but it was installed as something legal, as completely legitimate, and the demands of Workers were only conceded after they had been subjected to 18 hours of continuous labor.
And of course, the rich, the capitalists, the businessmen, the merchants, the feudal lords of the time were happy with a workforce that had no right to claim better conditions or a better salary,but simply had to work like slaves to enrich the capitalist, to enrich business.
But the demands began there, early in the 1880s, around 1882, the demands began, and with great strength in different parts of the world, especially in Europe and in the United States. And in the United States protest was growing, the demands, and there the workers agreed that, taking into account some regulations that were approved but that not all the authorities of the United States complied with, they considered then that it was the moment to press hard, and so was born the First of May, because they said, as of May 1st the 18-hour working day is over in all the territory of North America, and let's insist on the 8-hour working day. That is when May Day was born, at that moment it was born.
But of course, it was not to the liking of capital, it was not to the liking of industry, nor was it to the liking of the bankers. And they resisted, and the Workers began to demonstrate in their thousands, in hundreds of thousands, to demonstrate peacefully. And they began to be attacked by the forces of order, as they are called, at the service of Capital, firing on Workers, murdering Workers, imprisoning Workers. A brutal repression! In the lands of the North, in the lands of the United States of America, there was this brutal repression, but also global solidarity with the struggle that the Workers, the North American Workers, were waging.
And then there was the revenge of the powerful, who judged eight leaders, they put more than 30, 40 leaders on trial, but in the end these eight leaders, simply for having demanded the 8-hour working day, were put on trial, brutally attacked by all the news media at the service of capital. All the American Press attacked them, denigrating the Heroic Workers who had raised that banner, and they were tried and condemned to death.
And those brave Workers at the moment they were going to be executed, faced death with much valor, with much pride. And they executed them not in the electric chair, but they executed them by hanging them in public view, by hanging them, by strangling them.
In that way they wanted to establish the principle that the place of Workers was to serve the rich, so that they would not dare to raise their voice against capital, against the rich, because then the rich had their instrument of death to murder the workers. And to kill them not only during demonstrations, but to kill them in accordance with laws established by capital; to kill them for complaining, and to put them on trial, and all this applauded by the forces that were in the service of capital.
I want to read here, so that our People, Peasants and Workers.... Look at what the Workers who were in what were called Trades Unions said here; on May 1st, 1886, 200,000 Workers went on strike, while other Workers also went on strike.
And it was in Chicago where conditions were harsher than in other US states where these confrontations were taking place, and the risk that the leaders ran was already well known, it was the gallows that awaited them. But well, they continued the fight, the battle, and a proclamation was then circulated, a denunciation that was distributed, hand to hand, it was not published nor was it edited in any printing press, because the newspapers were enemies of the Workers, but it was printed manually, and it said:
"Workers: the class war has begun. Yesterday, in front of the McCormick factory (which was where the demonstration was), Workers were shot. Their blood calls for revenge!
Who can doubt that the jackals who rule us are greedy for the blood of the Workers? But Workers are not a flock of sheep. To white terror we will respond with red terror! Death is preferable to misery".
Yes, death is better than misery... and this reminds us of the poem of Dario where the Ox is discussing with the Bull, because they are talking there at the bullring, in that enormous bullring where the bulls appear, and there are the bullfighters, and it is well known that when the bull appears, what awaits the bull in the end, no matter how brave the bull is, what awaits him is death.
And the ox says to the bull: Does he too have to go out, is it going to be his turn to go out? Well, if he does go out, it's because he's going to die. Then the bull tells the ox that it is not like that, because he is going to die and the ox is going to stay there, alive. He says to him: Blessed are you who are going to stay alive.
It was a long dialogue between the bull and the ox, and at the end when the crowd are already crying, "Another bull! Another bull!" And the bull is ready to go out; then the bull asks the ox: "And what could be more terrible than death?" Because of course, the bull goes to his death, after being free in the fields, he goes to his death. Then the ox replies: "What is more terrible than death? The yoke!"
And the yoke is the yoke that the workers endured in those times, with brutal working days of 18 hours. And there was a reaction, a protest by the Workers, and as I was saying, then came the summary judgment by the Supreme Court, and all eight comrades were condemned; eight were condemned to death, various others were sentenced to long prison terms.
A Methodist Pastor who was a textile worker, Samuel Fielden, English, 39 years old, was condemned to life imprisonment; another American Citizen, 36 years old, Oscar Nick, a salesman, was condemned to 15 years of hard labor; Michael Schwab, German, 33 years old, a typographer, was condemned to life imprisonment. And sentenced to death were: George Engel, a German, 50 years old, Typographer; Adolph Fischer, another German, 30 years old, Journalist; Albert Parsons, an American, 39 years old, Journalist, husband of a Mexican, Lucy Gonzalez; August Spies, German, 31 years old, Journalist; Louis Lingg, German, 22 years old, Carpenter. The condemned were executed on November 11, 1887.
José Martí, who was then working as the Chicago Correspondent for the Argentine newspaper La Nación, wrote: "They come out of their cells. They shake hands, they smile. The sentence is read to them, their hands are held behind their backs with handcuffs, their arms are tied to their bodies with a leather girdle and a white shroud is put on them like the tunic of the Christian catechumens. Below is the audience seated in a row of chairs in front of the scaffold, as in a theater.... firmness in Fischer's face; prayer in Spies', pride in Parsons', Engel makes a joke, Spies shouts: "the voice that you are going to suffocate will be more powerful in the future than any words I could say now".
And how well he spoke, because later, in time, the strength of the United States' Workers and of the World, would multiply, although the battles are still being fought, because we are still under the domination of slave capitalism, of Savage Capitalism.
Here are many facts about the Heroes of Chicago, here is the photo of them, of the Eight Heroes of Chicago.... And these Chicago Heroes have been present in the struggles of Workers all over the World, including the struggle of the Nicaraguan Workers, in the same way that Carlos, Tomas, the Heroes and Martyrs are still present in these current struggles.
Beloved Comrades, beloved brother and sister Workers, we are in this battle that is also being fought by Workers all over the World: The battle against the virus of capitalism. Therein lies the root of the problem. Because pandemics like these have been many throughout Humanity's history, whereby millions of human beings have died.
But a pandemic that occurs and causes so many deaths, so very many deaths, in developed countries, in the wealthiest countries, in the United States, in the countries of Europe, is inconceivable, because they are supposed to have enough resources to be able to protect their populations, and in the case of an epidemic like this, they are supposed to also have a health service that is going to act quickly. But what this epidemic has revealed is that these supposed concepts do not exist really, and instead we see how hospitals in developed countries are saturated, how restrictive measures are imposed, how confrontation between the population and decisions taken by governments are already taking place.
There is desperation in the World, and governments are not capable of managing this crisis, and instead are fighting among themselves, among the rich, fighting, confronting each other to see who gets the vaccines, to see who will put up more money to buy the vaccines. Because there are not enough vaccines being produced in the world to supply demand in the capitalist countries, let alone the demand in developing countries, in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America.
We are only talking about demand for vaccines in the rich countries, and they say, calm as can be, that they want to ensure, firstly, the health of all their citizens, which is fine, that is fine, and that they want to vaccinate all their citizens, which is fine. But the fact that they are arguing among themselves over vaccines and that they are preventing access to vaccines for developing countries, that they are not willing to administer vaccines in a fair way, that is to say, that they should indeed get a larger quota, but that a quota should also be given to developing countries.
Because there are the Agreements, there are Mechanisms, there is funding for vaccines to reach the Developing Countries. But what happens? An argument among developed countries that does not even allow the vaccine to circulate among themselves, but the most powerful ones, among all those powerful countries, appropriate the vaccine and refuse to provide vaccines through the system that would bring, maybe not 100% of the vaccines needed by the developing Countries, but it would bring a flow of vaccines that would then allow a high degree of protection for all these countries. That is the reality.
And how the world's Workers are suffering. Why? Because unemployment has reached figures that were unknown before, due to the number of companies that have closed, due to the restrictive measures that have been taken; so all of this has affected the World economy.
Of course, there are some economic groups that come out winning with this situation, they make more money: In the first place the big companies that manufacture medicines make a lot of money; the big companies that work with communications equipment make a lot of money, because now everyone is looking for equipment to communicate and hold meetings via computers.
But many other companies have gone bankrupt, huge airlines in the United States, in Europe, are practically bankrupt, and there are thousands of unemployed. And one day they shut things down, another day they open them up, in other words, there is no coherence in the measures that are being taken; in other words, there is no coordination between the developed countries to devise a plan for the Life of the citizens of the whole planet, not thinking solely of the lives of citizens of certain countries, of the rich countries. There is no such thing.
This explains why the epidemic has lasted so long, why they continually make erratic and contradictory decisions among themselves, and meanwhile, the fate of the people, the fate of the Workers... although of course, in many countries, we are not going to say in all countries, but in many countries, like here in Nicaragua, workers have been able to face this epidemic.
The epidemic, it is true, is a threat, but workers have not stopped working, because stopping work would simply deny them the basic income to be able to feed themselves; and then they are not going to die from the virus, but they are going to die of hunger.
The peasants have not stopped producing off the land, they continue to produce, in spite of the calls from those who say that we must confine ourselves in quarantine. What do we gain from being locked up? What does the worker gain from being locked up? What does the peasant gain from being locked up? To wait until they die...!
On the other hand, working as we have been working... And we want to congratulate all the Workers of the cities and of the countryside, and we want to congratulate the Workers of the free trade zones, and we want to congratulate the producers, small, medium and large, who have not stopped working, who have not stopped producing, and there is no lack of food in our country; we can even export, part of this food we can export to other sister and brother peoples that do not have a large production of basic products such as beans, corn, coffee or meat. All of this continues to be produced, the economy continues to turn.
So here we see how the evil of those who murdered Workers there in the United States is always there, but hidden. That evil is everywhere in the world, and we have it here too. They would like to put a noose around the necks of all Nicaragua's Workers.... They would like to! They have tried and they are still dreaming about doing it, and they are still asking the great powers to come and put a noose around the neck of Nicaragua's People.
And they will continue with that evil attitude, because that is what it is, evil, cowardice.... evil!
All of that displays no love for this country, no identity with Nicaragua, they are really US citizens, born in Nicaragua maybe but really they are US citizens, that is the truth. Their mentality is subordinated to US politics, and that is why they want the country to be paralyzed in the face of the pandemic, and for the country to collapse, and for the economy to stop.
But not even in the most difficult moments during the acts of terrorism in April 2018, and in the most difficult moments of the pandemic, at no time has Nicaragua's People stopped working, nor has this People stopped producing, building schools, health centers, hospitals, highways, roads, housing... and we are progressing, and we will continue building, and those others, they will carry on with their evil deeds, plotting their evil deeds. May God forgive them, because the People and the Law will never forgive them!
Long live the Workers of Nicaragua!
Long Live the Workers of the World!
Long Live May Day!
Long Live the Heroes of Chicago!
Remarks by Compañera Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
after the Act in Homage to Comandante Tomás Borge,
and Celebration of the International Workers' Day
April 30, 2021
Good afternoon, good evening, beloved Families of this our Nicaragua, of us All. Nicaragua for Nicaraguans. Nicaragua of the Nicaraguans. Nicaragua, where we live the ways of Peace, we travel Paths of Peace among Nicaraguans. We are, by the grace of God, this People of God that lives out its processes, without interference, without meddling, without strident voices, without those servile people, who, as Comandante Daniel said, are not Nicaraguans, they were born here, but they think about and long for what their Owners command them.
Here we Nicaraguans live, our families, our homes, working families. In our Nicaragua the whole family works, and for that reason, tomorrow May 1st we celebrate the Working Families, who enhance this Economy, who enhance this Country, with dreams, with legitimate aspirations, in the sure hope of getting ahead, working and prospering, and with the support of a national Project, a Program, a State and a Government that serve them with Love, with Pride, that supports all their efforts, and that takes on, above all, the obligation of this Nation to fight against Poverty and to overcome it.
Spiritual misery may still go existing for a few, but material misery, which is sacrilege, which is a sin, must be eradicated by means of the effort and cooperation of us all.
"Raise up the poor of the World" is a phrase, a hymn, an invocation, a cry of freedom of the Peoples and Working Families of the World. "Rise up, slaves without bread...". Let us have bread, bread that must be multiplied, Thanks to Our Father, to Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer, Our Savior, who allows us to have a fertile country, of fertile, sacred lands, with waters, with patrimony, and potential...!
The greatest Patrimony is the working potential of Nicaraguans which allows us to cultivate and harvest, to multiply the loaves of bread, and also to cultivate Love, to cultivate Concord, to sow every day, to harvest the Triumphs that will inevitably come, because that's how History marks those paths of the victories of the excluded, of those brothers and sisters always despised, unfortunately despised by those servile to the powerful, the forever indifferent, the egocentric, the egomaniacs.
How we would all like to learn to be better every day, to open our hearts, to open our minds, and to use our intelligence to recognize that it is only together that we can arrive safely to our destination.
I was saying yesterday, the day before yesterday, when I heard the Holy Father speaking to the Venezuelan People: Here, in this World, in the face of all the problems natural to the Human Family, either we are all saved, or no one is saved. That is why we insist every day that only together can we go forward and leave behind those who want to live in other times, unfortunately, in times of slavery. Times long gone, transcended.... Times that will not return !
There are those who want Nicaragua's families to remain as slaves.... That is not possible! This People has grown up, we have all grown up, we have all learned, and the voices that want to condemn the Nicaraguan Families to slavery, to misery, pleading for economic aggression against Nicaragua, sound ridiculous. That is what they go about asking for, that is what they are looking for.
What kind of hearts do they have, what kind of futility are they immersed in, that they have to go looking for "sugar daddies", because they are not capable by themselves of articulating credible proposals. Who is going to believe them, after all the evil they did in April 2018? Who will believe anything they propose?
Nobody ! Because in truth our People are wise, we know where we have come from as Nicaraguan People and we know where we are going.
Who can believe the destroyers? Who can believe that they will build anything? Who can believe that they will distribute resources? That is the essence of Christianity: Sharing, as brothers and sisters.... Love thy neighbor... Living together harmoniously, in Peace and Goodness ! But to do so you have to be coherent, consistent, you can't do one thing, then say another, just for the sake of profit. In any case, what those servile to the powerful say is absurd, no one believes them.
How can we think that without their Owners' curses, because blessings they certainly are not, they can do anything to make themselves credible? No one believes them any more, because here our Nation was going well, here we were making gains for everyone, growing economically for everyone, and now, we have to hear, listen, see, those who were previously part of that successful model, railing...
They have no shame! There is no coherence.... Yesterday one speech, the day after tomorrow another speech, the day before yesterday a different speech, always with a view to personal profit, to selfish, egocentric ambition, and none of that makes them credible any more, nor will it make them credible.
A day like today, when we remember Tomás with his splendid Humanity, when we remember Tomás with his teachings, and above all that loyalty proof against any trial, loyalty to our People, to Nicaragua's families That firmness with which he spent long days on hunger strike, a hunger strike that was known everywhere. We saw the figure of Tomás, weakened, and yet with his Soul, his Spirit, his Heart, undefeated. That was Tomás: Strength of the Soul, the Strength of Victory!
On a day like today, our way ahead, with all its challenges, is there and we are taking it: Welfare for our People, Victories over Poverty, Victories over Evil and Perversion. Love for our Neighbor ! Victories for Work, Security, Stability and Peace. Victories of Peace. That is what we all want. That is what we are about. That is what we are calling for.
And we are sure, Compañer@s, that we are pressing forward, and it is a commitment of us all, for the Good of All: Press forward, and may God enlighten those who are still confused, may He allow them to open their understanding, and maybe learn to be Nicaraguans, with Love for Nicaragua, Love for the Nation... Nicaraguans by the Grace of God! Meanwhile, those of us who love Nicaragua, here we are, and we move forward valiantly, with Courage, with Vigor, knowing the Glory of this People to whom we owe every moment of our Lives.
May we have a good weekend celebrating our Working Families. May we know always how to identify the continuing lies, the continuing slander, the continuing Spirit of Evil and Wickedness. To identify them and not be taken in, because we cannot believe people who have no credibility, precisely because they belong not to our Nicaragua but to a different Nicaragua, a Nicaragua they have unfortunately invented in a fantasy world that benefits only them. They want the benefits for themselves and to exclude, from the benefits of this Nation of us all, the very families that generate the country's wealth, by working hard in this Blessed and Forever Free Nicaragua.
May we have a good weekend. May we enjoy the union of our Family, and may we have, above all, splendorous dawns and auroras as we continue building the future we deserve. Thank you, Compañeras y Compañeros. Thank you very much.