Sandra Ramos - Nicaragua
interview with
Sandra Ramos
Women's rights activist - Nicaragua
by Richard Swift
New Internationalist magazine,
May 1996
Sandra Ramos doesn't strike one at first
as a likely leader of Nicaragua's foremost feminist organization.
Sure she looks street-wise in her black leather jacket. But she
giggles disarmingly when I ask if it's okay to take her picture
in the course of our interview, and leans down to put on her lipstick.
She tries to straighten her dark-brown, curly hair which flies
off every which way.
But appearances can be misleading. And
my North American cultural prejudices quickly melt away. When
she starts to talk in rapid-fire Spanish there is little doubt
that Ramos is a formidable spokesperson for the rights of Nicaragua's
women. She is currently the National Co-ordinator of the Movement
of Working and Unemployed Women. The movement has 7,000 members,
12 paid staff and runs vocational training programs, a women's
leadership program and a legal-aid office.
Ramos earned her spurs as a Sandinista
activist in the 1980s but gradually became disillusioned with
the male-dominated Sandinista Party and particularly its associated
trade union the CST. 'We got to a certain point where the issues
that were important to us as women were not the issues
being taken up by the male leadership.
Our proposals got no air time and the candidates we put forward
for leadership never got selected. The male leadership of the
CST were quite afraid of the emerging leadership of women, afraid
to be displaced by us. We decided to set up our own movement.'
Here Ramos can barely disguise her lingering
anger. 'Two days after that there were arrest orders issued for
us and for a year we were trying to get away from the police.
They said that we had stolen their money and taken over a housing
project that did not yet exist. They couldn't debate with us politically
so they decided to use force.'
I was curious as to whether, after this
experience, Ramos still identified herself with the Sandinista
movement. Her 'yes' was very qualified. 'I have my own way of
looking at things, my own space and my own way of judging. I no
longer consider myself to be subordinate to the perspective of
the "masses". I am among those who believe that the
popular movement should be more autonomous with its own agenda
and its own ways of negotiating with political parties. I do not
believe that the social movement should be subordinate to political
parties. We are looking for other ways to achieve political power.'
Ramos sees the everyday effects of the
neo-liberal model that is being imposed on a post-Sandinista Nicaragua
as the central issue for the new autonomous women's movement.
'Some 70 per cent of the labor force is unemployed. So jobs and
the right to healthcare and education are the basic demands for
women. Neo-liberalism is working towards the privatization of
healthcare and education, and also to reduce the number of jobs
required to produce goods.
'The Government's only alternative in
terms of jobs is to go work in the maquilas (export-only factories).
This strategy is based on the poorly paid labor of women workers.
There are 20 international companies investing here - mostly Korean
and Taiwanese all producing for the North American market. The
women who work here have no benefits and are entirely outside
the normal labor-law requirements. Women earn an average of $70
a month - less than a third of what they need to survive. They
work 10 to 15 hours a day. We are organizing women in the maquilas.
We are hiring a lawyer full-time to deal with women's cases. We
are making links with the Asian workers from where these investments
come.'
But any change in maquila labor conditions
must come from political influence on the national scene. Here
Ramos is encouraged by the gains of Nicaragua's autonomous women's
movement. 'It has set in motion a process around the November
election to negotiate with all women politicians, no matter what
party. We will start up a campaign office to support all women
politicians who will support our basic demands. Even right-wing
women will oppose violence against women, and support daycare.'
Ramos gives a hearty belly laugh when
I ask her about the outcome of the upcoming national elections.
'I am no clairvoyant,' she claims as she waves me off. 'But 52
per cent of the voters are women and 48 per cent are between the
ages of 16 and 19. So the parties will be making their promises
to women and youth. All 26 of them will promise. But how many
will keep their word?'
Ramos worries that Nicaraguan politics
will become polarized between the Sandinistas (20 per cent currently
in the polls) and a resurgent Somocista right wing (40 per cent)
led by Arnoldo Aleman in 'a highly ideological campaign with few
concrete proposals that actually benefit either women or youth'.
.
Ramos recalls the heady days of Sandinista
government with mixed feelings. 'While there were important gains
in social welfare, women's demands for equal pay, equal rights
and against violence were put on hold, subordinated to the global
demands of the revolution. But, today women are no longer prepared
to tolerate this.'
Ramos' face breaks into a wide grin: 'I'm
really sorry,, but it is our turn.'
Heroes
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