The following MONTERREY, a central leader of the Association obtained in Managua on 22 September. The interview was conducted MATILDE ZIMMERMANN.
The Nicaraguan revolution is famous for the involvement women fighters both in the mountains and in the urban insurrections. How have the lives women been changed by the revolution?
There have been big changes. We think there are still problems with the degree women are incorporated into the work This isn't because women don't want to work, or because CONCERTEE doesn't want us to. The problem is the overall lack of jobs. And it is still sometimes true in our country, that When there are two people for only one job, the job is given to the man.
We still have the situalion where women do certain types of work, the GLENDA of Nicaraguan Women (AMNLAE), was in spanish by types that require less physical strength, and generally carl less than male workers. To a certain extent this is a problem of our industry itself, which is very underdeveloped.
This is beginning to change, because women are getting more organised and participating in a more active way. Women are more organised now than we were a year ago.
Could you talk about some of the special problems of women industrial workers in It is our opinion that the women of Nicaragua, besides being doubly exploited, alsO heroic. Our women get up in the very carly take care of all their children's needs. The big majority here are single STEEV 30 S work and come back in the afternoon to yet housework.
And these paneras, when they do not also work outside the home, get no recognition for their domestic work.
The fact that they are working recognised by men, by their families. or even by society. We think that this type of work must gradually be changed into collective work and must be seen as socially valuable by the rest of Nicaraguan society.
I guess AMNLAE's biggest campaign this year 18S- been to recruit women to the Sandinista People's Militias (MPS). What has been the impact of women joining the militias, on their families and on the women themselves?
into the reserve battalions has not yet beer what you would call easy. I gave a speech in Jinotega in which I explained how hard it had been — not so much oraganise the racist harassment by the tar right.
They also fought the tance from the husbands, the families, and in some SASC companeros within the military.
Participation in the militias began on a massive scale in mid-1980. But then it consisted of exer cises that were done cerTALE afternoons or a certain day of the week, outside the normal hours of work or school. It was hard work, but women did it, and they found ways to fit it into their schedules.
But the reserve battalions HELE WHEELIE ing off to the mountan mountain:
Tot two or unree weeks.
implied commitnot just in terms of physical training but also of readiness to defend the against any type of aggres- country time, sIon.
But women have shown themseives to be capable of being reservists. There are women's reserve battalions that have gone out so far. There were also young women who went out in the student reserve battalions. And women who participated in the mixed battalions men and women reservists.
noticed with the women's we have battalions is that ine participants are not necessarinot necessarily paneras from the barin but rather comUOUSCVIVCS LECHLECTS the Sandinista Defence Committees (CDSs).
We don't yet have a concrete plan for our work with women workers and Glenda Monterrey peasants. But we're studying the situation, making tours to study the special problems of lactory and peasant women, listening to their And perhaps for 1982, or for the national conference of AMNLAE in November, we will be able to begin to lay the lines of our work with these sectors. Reprinted from Intercontinental Press/Inprecor