Event in Tribute to the X Anniversary of the Transit to Immortality of Comandante Tomás Borge Martínez
and Celebration of the Day of the Workers
April 30, 2022
Remarks by Dr. Gustavo Porras President of the National Assembly and National Coordinator of the FNT
Good afternoon, Compañer@s, Relatives of our Beloved Comandante Tomás Borge. Good afternoon, to our Chiefs, our Leaders, who are negotiating this difficult, but Victorious, Path of the Revolution: Comandante Daniel and Compañera Rosario. Good afternoon.
We are present here, representatives of the ten Organizations of the National Workers' Front; also Representatives of the Social Coordinating Body, and, beyond question, Representatives of Nicaraguan Youth, Glorious Youth, Heroic Youth, Sandinista Youth.
On behalf of all Workers, we are pleased to be here, alongside our Comandante and Compañera Rosario, Compañero Adrián Martínez, Leader of the Self-Employed Workers; Compañero Rafael, Leader of the University Workers who are also present here.
We have Professor Indiana López, from the ANDEN Executive, together with Professor Zepeda, General Secretary of ANDEN.
We have the Founder of FETSALUD, our Colleague Evelyn Umaña, a colleague of Silvia Ferrufino and Yolanda Mayorga, Founder of FETSALUD from the strike of '70 until 1974, which was the year FETSALUD was founded, when the name FETSALUD appeared.
We have our Comrade Leader of the SCAAS, and therefore Leader of the CST "José Benito Escobar", Comrade Luis Barbosa is with us. And the General Secretary of UNE, because our Organizations have male General Secretaries and female General Secretaries, because that's what they have taught us, they have taught us 50 and 50, and for Women more than 50, whatever it takes, to make progress, she is Compañera Ana Yelitza Gómez, General Secretary of UNE.
And with all of us here we have, in the front row, General Secretaries of our Confederations, who have encouraged the Young Comrades who are here in representation; well, the youngest and the not so young, of all generations. The Trade Unionists of the various eras are here, but I especially want to present Comrade José Ángel Bermúdez, Executive Secretary of the FNT.
Well, here we all are, and definitely together too with our Young Comrades, united, we say: Comandante Daniel... At your command! Compañera Rosario... At your command! Workers committed to Victory, Always to Victory!
Long live the Sandinista National Liberation Front!
Long live the FNT!
Long live Daniel!
Long live Rosario!
Thank you very much.
Address by Daniel
Good afternoon, beloved Nicaraguan Brothers, beloved Families of these Blessed Lands, of Nicarao, Diriangén, José Dolores Estrada, Andrés Castro, Benjamín Zeledón; of the General of Free Men, Augusto Calderón Sandino; of Comandante Carlos, of Comandante Tomás, who together with other brothers were the Founders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, we are commemorating May Day, we are welcoming you to May Day, today. Already tomorrow, already in other Countries the Workers are marching, in Asia, in Europe, the Workers are already marching, it is already daylight there.
And we're here to talk about the Sandinista Front, to pay tribute to Comandante Borge, on the Tenth Anniversary of his Transition to Immortality, which is to talk about the very reason for being of the Sandinista Front. The roots of the Sandinista Front come from our History, come from our People, from the Workers, the Urban Workers and the Peasants, as well, as General Sandino said, when he was facing the US troops: “Only the Workers and Peasants will make it to the end, only their organized strength will make us win through.” And that's a wise remark.
If there is Capital, if there is Wealth, who produces that Capital? Who produces that Wealth? Workers! The bourgeois, the capitalists and those who accumulate and concentrate the Wealth of the Planet in their greedy hands have done nothing but steal that wealth from the Workers. And they rob the Workers of that Wealth based on the Model they have imposed on most of the Countries and Peoples of the World, which is Savage Capitalism. But history is made, as Dario would say and as Dario said, "of Vigor and Glory”, and that is why the Revolutions, the Rebellions, the “assault on Heaven” of the Workers, of insurrectionists in France, of insurrectionists in Germany, with Rosa Luxemburg giving her Life in that struggle for the Workers, against the enslavers.
And in the middle of this policy of slavery in the economic field which was installed in the World, and later modernized, and called Liberalism, neo-Liberalism, Capitalism, came the First Workers ' Revolution: The October Revolution, led by Lenin, the genius of Lenin leading that Revolution. A Revolution that came to vindicate the Workers of the World, a Revolution that saved all Peoples, all Nations. The European peoples, even the United States itself, it saved them from Nazism, from Fascism.
Because Capitalism involves this, capitalism in its voracious practice has generated confrontations between the very same capitalists, confrontations between the very same countries that were fighting to become owners of the Planet, colonizing it. Back then the Europeans confronted each other. How many wars were not fought in Europe itself, and how many wars were not also fought with Europe trying to take over Russia, which at the time was itself a gigantic empire dominated by a regime that was neither democratic nor popular.
But that was the struggle of the savage capitalists, committing crimes, murdering their own peoples as never before, hurling them into war with each other there in Europe, and also launching them in wars to occupy territories in Africa, in Asia, in America, from Canada onward, which was occupied by assault.
In other words, those who arrived from Europe were assailants, who with the story of the Cross and the Sword came to subjugate those Peoples and exterminate those Peoples, the owners of these Lands, of these Territories, removing their Values, their Cultures. There was nothing democratic about that.
No one said to those Peoples, when they came, since they supposed they were more civilized and they were very Catholic, very Christian, and came with a Cross, no one told the Indigenous Peoples, Empires of the Aztecs, none of them, "Look, we're going to carry out a process here that is democratic and we'll invite you to join efforts to bring greater well-being to these Peoples."
No! They came looking for gold.
And we cannot forget here in Nicaragua, 500 years ago now, in the month of April, at the beginning of April, when the Conquistadors met with Nicarao, and Nicarao had to make an offering there, or otherwise get cut down right there. And the offering? Gold! They were looking for gold. First the Gold, and then the Peoples had to be baptized. Under threat of the Sword, mind... I baptize you with the threat of the Sword! When was Christ ever going to commit such a crime! And all, of course, with the blessings, the papal bulls, the approval of the Popes, who had concubinage with the Kings and Queens. It was the Empires of the Popes and Kings and Queens destroying a part of Humanity.
And here, Nicarao and Diriangén had an agreement: Receive them, let them think we are receiving them in Peace; because they knew there was resistance here, there was rebellion. Yes, you let yourself be baptized there, let them baptize you, give them the Gold, and then let them continue looking for the town where Diriangén was waiting for them, also with quantities of Gold.
The Conquistadors reach Diriangén, and how happy they were when Diriangén received them with quantities of Gold, content because they said to themselves that this one is the same as Nicarao. They got confident, they started taking the Gold, and then they said to Diriangén: We are going to baptize you. At that moment Diriangén said, No! And he started to put them under pressure, he had a big ambush there, and he made them flee. It was the first defeat of the Conquistadors in Nicaraguan lands.
I was telling you that with the passage of time the October Revolution took place. There was already the struggle of the Workers, in blood and fire, because they repressed the Workers, murdered them, persecuted them, imprisoned them, and the October Revolution raised the morale of the Peoples. That Revolution also had its impact here in Latin America and the Caribbean, why? Because Workers identified with that Revolution.
And the Revolution gave strength to Russia, when Hitler emerged from Capitalism itself, from the polluted bowels of Capitalism... Hitler was a child of the devil, the demonic capitalist, supported by the great capital of Germany, supported by US capital, great US capitalists supported Hitler in his campaign working out how to take power in Germany, and he already had his fascist groups, assaulting, persecuting striking Workers, killing Workers; but it was tolerated, logically, because at the end of the day that was an expression of capitalism.
And when Hitler turned against them, he was doing nothing but put into practice what was a European practice, pitting the European Powers, the European countries against each other, and at the same time moving to dispute territories in the rest of the World. And when Hitler takes over Europe and starts occupying Europe, and occupies France, look what kind of example for the world, the example of Capitalism... Savage practices! Terrorism!
That is to say, capitalism is the most developed expression of the evil that can take hold of the Human Being; that is why Darío said: In Man there is always bad leavening. And that bad leavening is concentrated in Capitalism, and was what led Hitler to wage a victorious war occupying the countries of Europe.
This was similar to the war Napoleon had waged in the time of the Czars, just the same, Napoleon occupied Europe, occupied Spain, appointed a brother of his as Emperor there in Spain. Then Napoleon moved against Russia, and there he could not prevail! Despite using all the force he had, which at that time were the most organized, most powerful existing military force, and he set out with that Force.
And what did General Kutuzov do, who was head of the resistance of the Russian People and at the head of the Russian Army? What he did was let him advance, let him advance, let him advance, and there Napoleon was advancing with his forces, and he let them advance to Moscow, and he emptied Moscow ahead of them; and when the conquering French arrived in Moscow, they found that Winter was already starting around then. That had been the great strategy of General Kutuzov, which many of his Generals did not understand saying to him: Why are we retreating? Why are we backing down? Why don't we confront them? But he was waiting for Winter, the cold winter which there reaches temperatures below zero, 20, 30, even 40 degrees below zero.
Then, when winter did arrive, it was already difficult for Napoleon's Army to maintain logistics, because it had spread out too much, it had stretched too far. So then the Russian army began to attack from the flanks, making a kind of guerrilla warfare, to wear down the French army, and the French army did not resist. In the middle of Winter, already without enough logistics and being hit on their flanks and attacked on those flanks they suffered the great defeat of that European Empire which we know today under the acronym of NATO. They are the same, they are the very same, with the same roots, they are the same.
Then as I was relating to you, when Hitler had occupied Europe, there comes a moment when the Europeans who previously were making war on Russia have no alternative, because earlier they blockaded Russia, immediately after the Triumph of the October Revolution, came the blockade and the Counterrevolution using entire armies. So to support Hitler, armies were formed in Ukraine, because a Nazi Force existed there for ethnic reasons, who are the ones now also causing that bloodbath there .
And when Hitler had dominated Europe, with the United States they organized that famous operation, “D-Day” they called it, after Hitler had already launched himself against Russia, sure of Victory, when in fact they met with Resistance, thanks to the leadership, the genius, the leadership, of Joseph Stalin.
In fact, no one can ignore that, with all the barbarities that they talk about Stalin, with all the bad things they attribute to Stalin, no one can ignore the genius of Stalin: How he managed, in the middle of that war, to manufacture weapons to stand up to the great military force that the Nazi Army had. And how they fought, in the famous siege of Leningrad, a siege that was the resistance of that People there... It did not fall, Leningrad could not fall!
And then, later the advance of the Soviet Army, the Red Army, striking blow after blow, advancing, dismantling Hitler's Army. Such that, it was not those who disembarked on D-Day who were the first to arrive at the bunker in Berlin where the Command Post of Hitler's Presidency, was located, they were not the first; the first to arrive were the soldiers of the Red Army.
We had the honor of meeting one of those Soldiers, decorated, a Hero of the Soviet Union: Konstantin Kurin. He was a tank soldier, and he is the one who appeared with his tank in the moments when they were storming Hitler's barracks, tearing down the Nazi flags, and the first Flag the placed there was the Red Army Flag.
At that time of course they feared that Hitler might occupy the United States so they had no choice but to strengthen relations with Russia, and the best proof is given by the fact that, at the end of the war, in Yalta, there is that historic photograph, who were gathered there in Yalta? Churchill, the Englishman, the British leader; Roosevelt, the Gringo leader, and Stalin. All three of them there. That is, they couldn't ignore Stalin, they could not say: No, Stalin is bad! Whereas now, they say, God forbid, Stalin! Of course, later they spoke extremely ill of Stalin. At the time, no...
They sat there with Stalin! There is the photograph for history, which reflects the truth of that historical fact.
And the thing is this, that Russia brought the Workers and Peasants to Power for the first time in the History of Humanity, led by Lenin and in those decisive battles for Humanity, that Russia led then by Stalin was the one that defeated Nazism, defeated Fascism.
In this World that is shaken by that war, a war to which we are not going to shut our eyes, in which Russia is fighting for its Security, fighting against the Nazis who were ruling and murdering in Ukraine, where they carried out a coup d'état in 2014, there was indeed a coup d'état there and it was brutal, there they are, the images are there for all to see.
The acts of terrorism that they have practiced in Venezuela, or here in Nicaragua, are of the same school... murdering people! Setting people on fire!
They burned a Workers' Center in Kiev where the Workers were resisting the fascists, because of course most Workers were against the Coup d'état, and the Workers took refuge there looking to resist with sticks, with stones. And what did the Fascists do? They set the building on fire, more than 40 workers were killed, and all this with the blessing, the encouragement, the conspiracy, the resources of US imperialism and the European Empire. All of them gathered together to provoke that coup d'état, and ever since then Fascism, Nazism, the same Fascism that has committed such horrendous crimes, has imposed itself there again.
Fascism is the child of Capitalism, Fascism is the child of that Europe that claims to be Democratic and is said to be Democratic. But that same Fascism invented ovens to consume whole families there, simply because they had Jewish blood... Adult children, the elderly, wherever they were found, in whatever country in Europe they were found, they were put on the train and sent to the concentration camps. And then, already installed in the concentration camps were the ovens where they were murdered, they even experimented with making soap from the remains... More than 6 million killed that way! Ah, but it's as if they've never killed even a single fly.
Now the Yankee Defense Minister makes an appearance, who is sad case because he is of African descent, and of course, they install them precisely for that, they pick them for that reason, to make a good impression, as if they have respect and affection for black people, when they spend their lives murdering them continuously, but they install them as Defense Ministers.
And this poor fellow seems to know hardly anything of History, because in a statement that he made in the last couple of days alleging that Russia has committed the greatest crimes in the History of Humanity, imagine anyone saying that, and he called on Russia to comply with International Law, the Charter of the United Nations; and even reminded President Putin that large countries can not invade small countries... What an affront! What a nerve! Betraying total ignorance.
It would be enough to bring him here to Nicaragua, or for him to visit the offices that exist in the United States which hold historical information of the self-same American Army, and which make clear the defeats that the United States has suffered, in Nicaragua and in Vietnam. Because here they could not defeat Sandino... They simply couldn't!
And speaking with so glibly, when the United States has been a country that now is a great power, because the United States is nothing more than the transfer of Europe to Territories that belong to the Native Peoples of the United States. They exterminated, took ownership, and developed, just as the Germans did, they developed and have committed crimes all over the World, invaded all over the World, looting entire Peoples.
Just as Cuba is a nation that has been sequestered by a blockade of more than 61 years now oppressing Cuba. They have surrounded and tried to destroy Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, all here in Our America. And how can we not recognize the Cuban People, accompanied by Martí, Fidel, Raúl, Díaz-Canel, the Cuban people resisting... Resisting and overcoming! For 61 years, and the US has not been able to prevail and will not be able to with the Cuban people!
And I was explaining to you, in the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, how they encouraged and provoked the coup against the Eternal Comandante, Hugo Chávez. The coup conspirators gathered there were happy as could be, in the capital, all the high-ranking prelates were there, the Cardinals, the Bishops, all there celebrating the destruction, as they believed at the time, of the Bolivarian Revolution.
They had taken the President's Residence and read out the Decrees where they stated that all the legislative Deputies were to disappear, the Supreme Court, the Electoral Power; that is, they abolished everything so as to take over without due process. And all this was applauded and recognized by the Yankees, by the Europeans. But they failed to take into account that there was a People there in Venezuela by then, the same People led by Bolívar which had managed to defeat the Spanish colonialists in incredible battles, liberating whole Peoples, seeking the Unity of the Peoples, with that extraordinary, incredible warrior, Bolívar, riding thousands of kilometers. And then Chávez, son of Bolívar.
And just when they felt themselves ruling from the Presidential Palace in Venezuela , the People came and said to them: Get out! Out!
Out! And they could not prevail, nor will they, against the Venezuelan people!
Although they have indeed continued lay siege to the Venezuelan people, stealing billions from the Venezuelan people, they have quietly stolen them, money that the Venezuelan state had deposited as a result of oil sales and various other normal operations... They've been stolen! And it is governments that call themselves ”democratic" that are stealing that much-needed money from the Venezuelan people.
And they have made attempts against President Nicolás Maduro, they have tried to assassinate him, and they have blockaded Venezuela in a thousand ways. But the Venezuelan People are a People of Strength, of Dignity, of Honor, and Venezuela is making progress. That is why we can affirm that in Venezuela, They could not prevail, nor will they!
So then, look at how Yankee Government representatives rend their garments, simply because we did what any Sovereign State would do that is being disrespected. We have not responded with atomic bombs, we do not have them, nor do we want to have them.
Let us remember though that the only ones who have dropped atomic bombs in the history of humanity are the US leaders... A crime against humanity that cries out for justice!
They dropped atomic bombs on 2 cities, simply so that the Government of Japan would be forced to surrender. Instead of confronting the Japanese army so as to defeat it, what they did was drop atomic bombs on thousands of Families, more than 250,000 people in the two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In other words, the Yankees have carried out and have committed massive crimes such as no other power or empire has committed in the history of mankind.
I was telling you about the OAS, and they talk about the OAS as being respectful of International law; they talk about the United Nations as being respectful of International law. Because one has to recall how many times the United Nations has voted to lift the blockade of Cuba? Up to 190 countries have voted, that is, almost 100%; there have been two or three countries that have voted against it along with the United States in the General Assembly.
And what happens? Nothing! Simply because the Yankee cares little for the law. Ah, but when our Peoples defend their Dignity, their Sovereignty, they come out saying that in that case they are not respecting the law.
They withdraw from any International Body, as they have done in the past. They were not doing well in the Human Rights Commission, they withdrew; they withdrew from Environmental Commissions, from how many Agencies they have not withdrawn, while in other cases they have returned. They do whatever they want! And there are no democratic European or Latin American countries there that raise their voices, they simply keep their heads down, why? Because the US has enslaved a good part of the world, the US Empire has enslaved a large part of the world.
And now that we decided to communicate to the OAS that we no longer have anything to do there, because they have been used to invade countries like the Dominican Republic. And this is good to remember, History cannot left to sleep, History has to be a living element, ever present.
In the Dominican Republic, at the time of the US invasion, with the Resistance the heroic General Caamaño and Professor Juan Bosch, gave to the coup, when the invasion of the OAS, with the US troops in the lead of course, and in those years, Latin America was plagued by dictatorships, tyrannies imposed by the Yankees. And as an example, the troops of Somoza's National Guard, the Somoza government ordered a detachment of its National Guard to participate in that action of invading and occupying the Dominican Republic to rescue Democracy for the Dominican Republic. Just imagine! And there were military dictatorships in the Southern Cone and they all sent their troops too.
And now that we do not want to go on and we decided not to continue, and it was already decided, but they wanted to keep us there by force, but no People that accepts impositions when it has Dignity, and the Nicaraguan People has Dignity and does not accept impositions. We are a small People, but we are a small People with the vigor of Dario and with the combativeness of General Sandino's Crazy Little Army, and we are willing to give battle against Goliath, if Goliath attacks us. We don't sell out, nor do we surrender, as our General Sandino said.
So once we withdrew and sent the Police so as to protect those offices while we were working on what legal steps to take for the expropriation and to tell them to leave Nicaragua already; in other words, the Police came to keep watch over the offices, not to occupy them; to protect them because provocateurs could have been involved there, or even criminals, looking to seize things now the office was empty and they might steal things which would then be the fault of the Government.
And without having touched a piece of paper there, or even a Biro, well, the decision was made know, and what did the Secretary General of the OAS do? He made a scandal, calling a meeting of the Permanent Council in the OAS and told them that we had committed an outrage, a crime. Why? Because we had occupied and looted the OAS Offices here in Nicaragua. Immediately, those whose Peoples may be heroic but who are vassals of the Empire began to condemn us; others simply believed the Secretary General of the OAS, who is completely untrustworthy, and began to condemn us as well.
In other words, they let themselves be fooled by a lie into condemning Nicaragua, a condemnation that of course for us is an Honor, because, who is condemning us? The quislings, the traitors, those who have neither Love for their People nor Dignity on their behalf.
And put simply, as regards the US, the US is well combined there with the Canadians, when so many crimes have been committed in Canada, which passes for being a saintly country, when recently came the report of the thousands of children in an orphanage who had been killed. Ah, there is no Human Rights Commission that stand up to complain, there is no European Union making pronouncements calling for a Special Commission, much less the United States calling for a Commission to be formed because they are crimes against humanity, crimes against children whose spilled blood stains the hands of the Canada's leaders.
So they work in combination there and as often as not the gringos let Canada take the lead, because they know they have so little credibility that sometimes they prefer for Canada to lead; at other times they come out talking glibly like this US Minister of Defense.
So, imagine, in the meantime, right under everyone noses, for everyone to see, they have gone about over the last few years, first, inventing a President in Venezuela, where they made this Guaidó fellow President, but who elected him President? And then they proceeded, one by one, in Latin American countries, in the United States, let's not even mention Canada, or in European countries, to forcibly occupy the Embassies and Consulates that belong to the Bolivarian People of Venezuela. By force, with the support of the governments of these countries, and there they are still occupying those offices by force.
And who condemns these facts? The Peoples condemn it. Because they do not believe the worth of votes in Organizations like the OAS, they do not believe in them, the OAS is an instrument of the Empire set in a swamp, and there it sinks, because the Peoples do not support that body, the Peoples do not support the blockade against Cuba, nor the aggression against Venezuela or Nicaragua, or against other Peoples of the World, because right now they are launching aggression everywhere.
Rosario is pointing to the time, but I think its worth noting this is a date with a double meaning: First of all, May Day, we already know that May Day meant the murder of Workers in the United States of America.
And here in Nicaragua a Workers' Movement was founded, a Movement of Workers and Peasants was organized, which gained strength with the Triumph of the Revolution, and then the Unions multiplied, here I see the face of many compañeras and compañeros who are at the head of different labor unions, from different sectors, and there class consciousness was coming to the fore, because we know very well that class consciousness has to be forged.
Because unfortunately Capitalism has had a powerful instrument that is the Media, and now the Social Networks, to work out how to deploy the illusion among Peoples that everyone can be a billionaire, and there are naive people who believe it, impoverished people who although they are in poverty are not aware that Capitalism has them in that poverty. But class consciousness was forged and here, after the Triumph of the Revolution, that class consciousness has gained strength.
And we passed a trial by fire that I cannot forget: one February 26th exactly, the Inauguration was in April, the Election was on February 25, then on February 26th in this place, the Olof Palme Center, we said here that we were going to respect the decision of the People, beyond the fact that we were all convinced a good part of the People gave their vote to the Right with tears in their eyes, because the dilemma was, if the Frente had won the war would have continued.
I remember that we met with mothers, when we were on the election campaign trail, and Tomás reminded me of it now in an interview that Marcio did with him broadcast on Channel 4. Tomás recalled that I told the National Directorate: Look, Compañeros, I'm worried about the issue of Military Service, because wherever I go, the mothers come out, who are Sandinistas, receiving me there and they tell me: Please send me my children, I already have one dead and two more are in Military Service. I already lost one, he already gave his life. And so that was being repeated by the Sandinista Mothers who had children in Military Service. Those mothers, despite the pain of going against their beliefs, voted to save the lives of their children.
Because close at hand was the threat from the Empire saying: If the Front wins then the blockade will continue, the war will continue. It was a choice that cannot really be called an election, why? Because they simply told the People, putting a gun on their heads, as said by the President of the United States himself at the time, when he called for support for Señora Chamorro.
So we understand, we have to understand, we understood it then very well and we assimilated it very firmly, why? Because our nature as Revolutionaries and as the Sandinista Front is not electoral, the Front has never been that. If we were an electoral party we would have disintegrated after losing those elections.
Of course, always, as is normal in difficult moments, Compañeros and Compañeras who had accompanied the struggle and then in the Government had done a good job, simply decided to withdraw. Some did so respectfully, since they felt that they could no longer fight in those conditions from below; others chose betrayal, lacking loyalty, in what way? Because they started talking as if they had been merely tame pigeons throughout the struggle against the Somoza tyranny, and subsequently in the years of the Sandinista government, from the 80s to the 90s.
They started railing, criticizing... Why didn't they criticize before? Ah, but when they started criticizing, it was as if they never did anything wrong, and naturally that pleased the Yankees. That's why Sandino mentioned traitors, and Tomás also talked about traitors, Tomás could not forgive betrayal.
After that election result, what did we say? We met and said: We are going to continue the struggle, and we are going to govern from below, because with the People you govern from below.
At that time we no longer had any role in Government, because the government passed into the hands of the Empire, managed by the Empire, at that time we had no instruments of power in the Government, a few Mayors, yes, we had some Mayors and the Sandinista Front of course was a well-established Power, but who were the people most threatened by that new Government, the new Neoliberal Government? Workers, because they started throwing thousands and thousands of Workers into the street... Health Workers, Education Workers, Transport Workers, Customs Workers - and that was the time to move to a new stage of Struggle.
And in that time we, and I say we, because then along with the National Front of Workers we said: We are setting out to give battle to defend the Right to Work, the Right to the Land, the Peasants, the Right to Property, which had been delivered to households, to families who were being evicted; that is to say, the Right to Businesses that had been delivered to Workers, and that that were being stolen. And we set out with the National Front of Workers and with the Sandinista Front to give the battle to order to defend the interests of the Workers. And it was 17 years of battle.
I see faces here of the Comrades with whom we met back then to prepare the Struggles that had to be given every day. It was 17 years, and over those 17 years the National Workers' Front and the Sandinista Front stood with all the Strength of Unity that marks Revolutionary commitment, as our Comandante Borge and Comandante Carlos Fonseca said.
Beloved Sister and Brother Nicaraguans, beloved Nicaraguan Families, our Love, very much Love, for the daughters of Comandante Borge, and the granddaughters of Comandante Borge who are here with us, and for the sons and the daughters of the Comandante Borge that are there in Peru with Marcela; and also our memory, our affection for Jane that left us, going to another Plane of Life; for the children of Yelba, the mother of the other young women who are not present right now, and who was killed by the National Guard.
For them on this day, on this Tenth Anniversary of the Transit to Immortality of our Brother, Comandante Tomás Borge Martínez, how much I felt it, I relived it now watching the program, listening to it there, I stopped to watch the whole program, there with Tomás talking with all his energy, with all that strength.
Because really Tomás is an Extraordinary Being, so extraordinary, and it is difficult to make comparisons here, like Carlos, because Tomás was older than Carlos, quite a bit older. And Tomás was already being persecuted by the National Guard when Rigoberto executed the tyrant, and since Tomás was already being tracked by the National Guard, they captured him, and Carlos, who was a student there in Matagalpa, already with revolutionary feeling himself, he fought for Tomás' Freedom. Tomás, Carlos, Silvio, all the compañeros who founded the Sandinista Front.
Greetings to all Nicaragua's Workers, may you enjoy being with your Families on this May 1st, wishing you always, wishing you with the greatest affection that as the country manages to sustain itself in these adverse conditions and manages to develop Programs for the benefit of Workers, that you with every Right continue to receive them. And we are committed to continuing to guarantee these Workers' Rights, as regards Health, which is an elementary Right, as regards Education, Employment. That is, we are committed to multiply these efforts in these times of enormous challenges.
I see here a large representation of Sandinista Youth, and here in the front row are Sandinista Veterans. And you know, many of you, the Nation's Flag, the Flag of Sovereignty, the Flag of the Working People, of Working Families, of Peasants, of Producers now remains in your hands.
This Flag is being trusted to your hands, little by little you are taking hold of it, and this is a transition where there must be harmony, not confrontation. The relay is taking place in harmony, happening in harmony, not confrontation, because those who feed confrontation threaten the Unity of the Sandinista Family and Nicaragua's Families, and the Nation.
So, beloved Young People present here and beloved Young People who are listening to us and watching us on television, you know, that is the challenge we have: To make our way together, as Children, as Young People, the Middle-aged, the Elderly and Fourth-aged, all together making our way towards New Victories.
Long live Workers' Day!
Long live May Day!
Sandino lives... The Struggle Continues!
A Free Nation or Death!
Long live Peace!
Long live Peace!
Long live Peace!