NSCAG UPDATE APRIL 2022 Dear Friends
I hope this finds you well. Thanks to your support, NSCAG has kept going over some very difficult times, and we very much appreciate your continued solidarity which remains as important as ever to sister trade unions in Nicaragua. We are now able to resume a number of our usual activities, and we will be having stalls at this year at the NEU, CWU and GMB conferences, so if you are going to be there, do please come and say hello!
In spite of the remarkable social and economic progress made in Nicaragua over the last 15 years, the demonisation of Nicaragua by the US and UK governments, the EU and corporate media continues. Here is an excellent article by Stansfield Smith which addresses this issue, focussing in particular on the significant gains by women during this period – see link here
Women in Nicaragua: Power and Protagonism – Delegation to Nicaragua, August 2022
Alliance for Global Justice and its project the Nicaragua Network are teaming up with Casa Benjamin Linder, a solidarity cultural centre and education project of the Jubilee House Community-Center for Development in Central America to sponsor this important delegation to Nicaragua. For further information see here
Nicaraguan elections
An interview with Brenda Rocha, President of the Supreme Electoral Council (SEC) and Mayra Salinas, SEC member. Brenda, who is from Bonanza, North Caribbean Autonomous Region, lost an arm in a Contra attack in 1982 when she was 15. She was part of the militia defending an electricity tower and was the only survivor of the attack. She is a lawyer. To read the interview see here
Caribbean Labour Solidarity
On 2 April, Nicaraguan Ambassador to the UK, Guisell Morales Echaverry, gave a presentation to a meeting of Caribbean Labour Solidarity (http://cls-uk.org.uk/) – to view the presentation see here
Hurricanes In November 2020, the Caribbean coastal community of Haulover was struck by two catastrophic hurricanes in Nov 2020. A year on, British film maker Ahmed Kaballo visited to find out the progress made rebuilding their lives and livelihoods. See link here
UNE celebrates 44th anniversary
On 26th March, public sector union UNE celebrated their 44th anniversary. See link here
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
Nicaragua has been elected to occupy the Vice-Presidency of the 37th Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), where the 33 member states will discuss climate change and the transformation of agri-food systems for greater sustainability and resilience. Sacha Llorenti, Executive Secretary of ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) has congratulated Nicaragua, saying that it is ‘a recognition of the food sovereignty achievements of the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity.’ See link here In solidarity
Louise Richards
www.nscag.org
Twitter: @NSCAG_UK