Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.207
Object Name
T-Shirt
Title
Nicaragua Time for Peace
Place
Nicaragua
People
Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign
Date
1980
Description
Black t-shirt. Says "Nicaragua" in red capital letters, and "time for peace" in blue capital letters underneath. There are images of lots of white hands with blue and red outlines on the front of the t-shirt. In small white text on the bottom right of the t-shirt, it says "Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign." The Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign is the leading organisation in the UK supporting peace and progress for the people of Nicaragua. Through more than four decades of profound political change in Nicaragua, the UK and globally, NSC has facilitated deep bonds of mutual solidarity between the UK and Nicaragua. Over the years these links, based on the common interests of UK and Nicaragua organisations, have focused on interrelated themes of economic, social and environmental justice. This includes fair trade, climate justice, gender equality, co-operatives and community organising.
Nicaragua was under Spanish rule until 1821, and was occuped by America from 1909 to 1933. The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party which took over in 1979, overthrowing the Somoza Dynasty during the Nicaraguan Revolution. The Somoza family were a hereditary dictatorship. The U.S military were involved in Nicaragua by providing aid, suspending the aid, and then the Reagan Administration and the C.I.A funded rebel groups with money, arms and training - these people were remnants of the previous dictatorship and were branded "counter-revolutionary" which was shortened to contras. They engaged in a systematic campaign of terror among the rural Nicaraguan population to disrupt the social reform projects of the Sandinistas. This de-stabilisation was funded by America. and meant many poorer Nicaraguans were murdered, raped and tortured. The revolution became a proxy war of the Cold War. In 1984, the International Court of Justice judged that the United States Government had been in violation of International law when it supported the Contras. The contras used terrorist tactics and committed an array of human rights violations. The SFLN were backed by the Soviet Union - who committed human rights violations, including the mistreatment of the Miskito people and mass executions. The murder, torture, de-stabilisation, and imperial nature of the international presence in Nicaragua led to international solidarity across the globe.
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