When Sandinistas Clash

Jesse Walker | January 16, 2009

The socialist magazine In These Times carries an interesting dispatch from Nicaragua, where Sandinista President Daniel Ortega's authoritarian ways have been earning him enemies on the left as well as the right. An excerpt:

Until last summer, in Leon--a longtime Sandinista stronghold and the country's second largest city--it seemed possible, if not probable, that the FSLN [Sandinista National Liberation Front] would lose November's municipal elections for the first time since the 1979 revolution. The Sandinista Renovation Movement, or MRS--a reformist, social democratic opposition party that criticizes Ortega as authoritarian and corrupt--posed a serious challenge to FSLN.

Over the last six months, the MRS, feminist leaders and other critics of the Ortega administration have encountered intimidation and physical violence, leading international organizations--such as Reporters without Borders, Human Rights Watch and the Catholic Church--to criticize the government's heavy-handed tactics. In June, the FSLN-controlled Supreme Electoral Council--which organizes the country's elections--stripped the MRS of its right to participate in the November elections, citing irregularities in the party's formation.

Elsewhere in Reason: Glenn Garvin wrote about the first era of Sandinista misrule in our March 2000 issue. Turns out he gave then-president Arnoldo Alemán more reformist cred than the man deserved (though he's right that the pol "would have been at home in Mayor Daley's Chicago"), but his entertaining portrait of the country in the '80s is well worth rereading.

Comments

Warty|1.16.09 @ 12:22PM|#

Sandanista was the perfect name for that album: an ambitious failure.

Jesse Walker|1.16.09 @ 12:26PM|#

The dub experiments put me to sleep, but there's some good songs in the mix. And I honestly like the kids' version of "Career Opportunities."

Warty|1.16.09 @ 12:33PM|#

Yeah, it has some great songs, but they could have fit nicely on one LP.

|1.16.09 @ 12:40PM|#

I just wanted to say that "Sandalista" is one of the cleverest neologisms ever.

Paul|1.16.09 @ 12:53PM|#

I loved P.J. O'Rourke's take on the Sandy government.

nobody u no and big fan of joe|1.16.09 @ 12:59PM|#

this is just more cia noise to try to make the revolution look like it is failing.

Jesse Walker|1.16.09 @ 1:02PM|#

Yeah, it has some great songs, but they could have fit nicely on one LP.

There's a lot of double albums like that. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Wilco.

|1.16.09 @ 1:04PM|#

Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Wilco.

You know what would have made Sgt. Pepper even better?

A whole bunch of piano pieces by Billy Corrigan interspersed between the songs, that's what.

|1.16.09 @ 1:31PM|#

Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Wilco.

"They should of called it Still Here."

-My friend upon first listen.

Hogan|1.16.09 @ 2:06PM|#

I'll stick up for Sandinista, mostly cuz I like dub a lot more than anyone else seems to. And "Street Parade" was one of the best songs of their career. But yeah obviously a ton of meh filler.

|1.16.09 @ 3:25PM|#

The best double album set to this day remains.
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends..Emerson, Lake and Palmer. At least Palmer grew into being a great drummer and a shrewd business man

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20060822b2.asp

The Clash were major apologists for communists in "Nee car war gua." They'll never be able to live that down even with Stay Free an ironically decent song.

|1.16.09 @ 10:44PM|#

Politics aside, Sandinista has more than a few good songs. Seriously, make yourself a playlist/CD/tape of these 21 songs:

The Magnificent Seven
Hitsville U.K.
The Leader
Something About England
Rebel Waltz
Look Here
Somebody Got Murdered
One More Time
Lightning Strikes
Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)
Corner Soul
Let's Go Crazy
The Sound Of Sinners
Police On My Back
Midnight Log
The Call Up
Washington Bullets
Charlie Don't Surf
Kingston Advice
The Street Parade
Version City

And, if you choose, spice it up with:
Lose This Skin and/or Career Opportunities

I would say you are listening to one of the 10 best *double* albums of the 80s.

green mamba|1.17.09 @ 5:36AM|#

Calling the album "Sandanista" was a major act of douchebaggery. "I'm so bored with the U.S.A." Well you certainly sold a lot of albums over here so fuck off.

Hacha Cha|1.17.09 @ 2:18PM|#

don't agree with their politics at all but it was a good album.

Guy Montag|1.17.09 @ 7:32PM|#

I am still a huge Clash fan, but Sandinista was the longest load of crap on vinyl that did not feature William Shatner or Leonard Nemoy.

Wasn't it a triple album and not a double, or did it just seem that way?

|1.18.09 @ 1:41PM|#

Memo to Guy:

If you want to sound like "a huge Clash fan" on the internets, don't publicly announce that you don't even know whether their famous triple album (priced as a single, almost) was a triple album.

Lamont Cranston|1.18.09 @ 5:06PM|#

If you want to sound like "a huge Clash fan" on the internets, don't publicly announce that you don't even know whether their famous triple album (priced as a single, almost) was a triple album.

How many people can name more than one triple LP anyway? The fact that it is a triple is the most famous thing about it.

Personally, I love all the songs that aren't sung by children. It was my first Clash album; behind "London Calling," it's my second favorite.

Jesse Walker|1.18.09 @ 11:24PM|#

I had forgotten that it was a triple LP -- mostly because my copy is a double CD.