The strike, organized by the national teachers union, ANDEN, has shut down 90 percent of public schools throughout the country, affecting at least 1.2 million students.

The union is demanding that the 705 córdobas end-of-the-year-bonus approved by the national assembly be added to their monthly wages, and that the government come up with additional funds to provide the yearly bonus, as established by the country’s labor laws. This will bring the teachers’ wages closer to the cost of the basic food basket presently set at about 3,250 córdobas ($209), ANDEN general secretary José Zepeda told the Militant in a phone interview. Current wages are 1,400 córdobas for elementary school teachers and 1,600 córdobas for high school teachers, he told the Cuban daily Granma.

About 10,000 teachers and their supporters marched February 8 in the country’s capital, Managua, in defiance of a government decision four days earlier to declare the strike illegal, and threaten to hold up this month’s wages and begin replacing the strikers.

The Bolaños government has based its refusal to release funds for the wage increase on cuts in social programs his administration has agreed to with U.S. and other finance capitalists acting under the umbrella of the IMF and World Bank.

Managua had agreed to a plan under the IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries program to help it cover a $200 million budget deficit. Under the banner of “debt relief,” the imperialist lending institution is trying to ensure a steady flow of payments siphoned off from the wealth created by Nicaraguan workers and farmers.

The IMF conceded to an increase in teachers’ salaries for 2004 in order to “maintain social peace and support for the program.”

“This is blackmail,” said Zepeda, referring to the government’s attack on the strikers. “They want to starve us into submission.”

The first day of the strike coincided with the opening of the academic year in Nicaragua. In many of the schools the teachers met with the students to explain their demand for better wages before they sent the students home. “The parents have not complained,” William Rocha, a teacher at the Experimental México school in Managua, told the Nicaraguan daily La Prensa. “Instead, they are in agreement with our demands,” he said.

The strikers and their supporters have carried out actions in support of the strike throughout the country, blocking government buildings and city streets. Students, health-care workers, and other unionists at the February 8 march joined the striking teachers.

In his efforts to impose greater austerity measures on working people, Bolaños has taken advantage of the many cases of corruption involving politicians from across the political spectrum to promote himself as a “strong hand” against corruption, and for “good management” of the government’s assets.

While the Bolaños government has made some headway in its attacks, it has bumped into working-class resistance.  
 
 
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