Nicaraguan Democratic Front.
But while the contras operated from bases in neighbouring Honduras and Costa Rica -ting bloody cross-border raids and occasional CIA-orchestrated sabotage missions against ports and economic targets the revolutionary struggle has also found solid support in the hierarchy Nicaragua's Catholic Church.
In many dictatorial Church leaders have to some degree supported liberation struggles: but in democratic Nicaragua there has been running battle between the Sandinistas and Cardinal Obando y Bravo.
The Church has taken a particularly vicious stand against the conscription of soldiers to fight the contras • though it mounted no such campaign to prevent former dictator Somoza recruiting for his notoriously brutal National Guard. Indeed many of the NDF's contra forces today disgruntled and defeated National Guard thugs looking for vengeance and a return dictatorship.
The publication in October of a church-sponsored newspaper attacking the Sandinista government and conscription appears to have been one of the decisive triggers to a new clampdown on civil liberties.
President Ortega measures including curbs on freedom of the press, and restictions on the right of assembly and habeas corpus.
He blamed the crackdown firmly on the escalating American offensive
clamp down on Contras' allies to and of the A CONGRESO- have moun- counter- of regimes, and on "agents of imperialism in the interior" who are "developing actions sabotage and to defence of our homeland." are parties in Nicaragua the old-style Of course even announced other countries! the Socialist Viewpoint No. 9 December 1985 p23
NiCARAGUA But arms, production. some eradicate Jesuit priests. The firm movement rectionaries. A destablise the The extent to which the capitalist - more or less open supporters of the contra gangs - have been allowed to operate free- crush the ly has been the strangely exceptional feature of the Sandinista revolution. then not all were satisfied: journalists complained that detailed reportage of military matters to do with the war were being cen- sored — as if they are reported in But those who imagined that the Sandinistas could continue to allow such freedoms even while imperialist Campaign: pressure has grown were naive in the extreme. In a poor, blockaded coun try, where the forces of rection have
CARMEUPvast US resources at their disposal, the struggle to defend and extend the revolution of 1979 could never be reduced to some kind of large scale debate or ideological exercise.
To defend the revolution means physically and militarily to beat down those who are arrogantly threatening to overturn it and return Nicaragua to the dark ages of Somoza.
though the Sandinistas recognise this on one level - and have sought to mobilise the necessary
equipment and human resources to repel and inflict defeats upon the contras — there is another level on which they are opposed to carrying through the same fight.
Ortega and the Sandinistas fought the election pledged to maintain a "mixed" (capitalist) economy, within which the reactionary capitalist allies of the contras continue to own and control a majority of the means of
While the new restrictions may censor some publications and outlaw
gatherings of counter-revolutionaries, they will not
this wealthy and well-placed fifth column of imperialism or confront the power of the Church with a fullscale education campaign: leading Sandinista ministers are also
moves that have been taken must be seen in this context — not least becasue the new restrictions on civil liberties apply at least potentially to the Nicaraguan workers'
Tas well as to the counter-offensive against the NDF and its allies is legitimate even overdue. The censorship of the press in wartime is nothing extraordinary in itself simply extraordinarily late in this instance.
But in supporting measures to
contras, Nicaraguan workers should ask themselves how long the right wing capitalists are to be let off the hook — and in whose interests? Is it not high time that their factories, land and other assets were seized, and they were forced to join their real colleagues in the contra camps across the border or luxurious villas in Miami? Nicaragua Solidarity 20/21 Compton Terrace, London N1.
"International": a break from opportunism
A NEW star is twinkling among the galaxies of left groupings in Britain. A recent split in the Editorial Board of Socialist Action has brought the publica- tion of the magazine International, whose supporters are pledged to offer an alter- native to the opportunist line of that paper on national and international questions Little has appeared in print from either side of the split to explain the issues in- volved, but the decisive differences have without doubt centred on the misers' strike Britain and the in emergence within Socialist Action of a substantial current of opinion which favours abandoning the Marxist strategic conception of Permanent Revolution. During the miners' strike Socialist Ac- tion, like so much of the far left, oppor- tunistically followed the bandwagon of the NUM leadership, failing to offer either criticism or tactical proposals to advance the strike. Instead, those who in any way criticised the political weaknesses of Scargill, or exposed the cynical role being Victory against deportation Mohammed : Idrish to stay AS OVER 200 representatives of campaigns against deportations and labour movement bodies attended a successful conference in Hackney on November 18, there came news of a major victory in the 4-year fight to prevent the deportation of Mohammed Idrish. the campaign has been backed by his union, NALGO, and included a national demonstration. Eventually a tribunal decision that he was too valuable in his work as a community worker in the West Midlands for the deportation to go ahead. But the scope and duration of the fight required to beat back the outrageous attack on Mohammed simply underlines the racist brutality of the immigration laws: though he has won his case. hundreds have suffered the agonies of deportation. The victory must redouble the fight within the labour movement for the repeal of all immigration laws, and the immediate defence of all black workers threatened with deportation. The Hackney Anti-Deportation Campaign can be contacted at Box 139, Kingsland High St. London E8 2NS.
layed within the NUM by the Communis Party, were denounced as "sectarians"
But these disagreements over the role of Marxists in the strike - one of the most crucial tests of the revolutionary movement since the 1926 General Strike -were compounded by other, equally fundamental differences over orientation towards the leaderships of various nationa liberation struggles. Just as they refused to criticise Scargill, the leading elements on the Socialist Action editorial board have given uncritical support to non-Marxist lederships overseas — Including the reactionary Khomeini regime in Iran.
With one wing of the Socialist Action editorial board opting clearly for the Stalinist concept to revolution in "stages" in the underdeveloped countries, as peddied by Fidel Castro and the Communist Party-influenced leaders of many liberation movements, the paper has failed to offer a Marxist analysis or programme.
While Marx and Engels as early as 1850 were arguing that the completion of the national democratic revolution could only be achieved under the leadership of the ••: • • • Socialist Viewpoint No. 9 December 1985 p24
By HARRY SLOAN working class and interlinked with the socialist revolution, the pro-Castro forces have retreated from this stance.
The consequences included Socialist Action's continued support for Khomeini's regime as "progressive", "revolutionary" and "anti-imperialist" even while it persecuted and slaughtered women and gays, jailed and executed communists, and repressed national minorities strugg!ing for self-determination.
Today in South Africa Socialist Actior advocates an uncritical line towards the CP-influenced African National Congress, with its "Freedom Charter" which sets out to separate the democratic "stage" from the socialist revolution.
International supporters have correctly declared their opposition to such non-Marxist positions, and branded them as an adaptation to Staliniam. And in the first issue of their magazine there is also a clear sign of a more independent, critical stance towards the leadership of the liberation struggle in El Salvador.
While proclaiming Itself a paper of Marxists in the Labour Party, International supporters argue that their orientation towards the left leaders and the currents of the hard left will be substantially different from Socialist Action.
Socialist Action has adapted itself to the reformist politics and takes an uncritical stance towards leaders such as Tony Benn: International supporters have argued for a more independent line, while still seeking to link up with left Labour and trade union leaders in common campaigns. And while Socialist Action has stood in isolation from Labour Briefing and the Labour Left Coordination, International pledges to build such initiatives to unite the hard left.
Few of the issues raised as differences by International will strike readers as new in the politics of Socialist Action. So why, after so many years of opportunist politics, and the acceptance of a huge spectrum of political differences within the Socialist Action Editorial Board, should the split take place now?
Internotional supporters argue that a series of manoeuvres within the Editorial Board, since January, in which the preservation of political control by a small leading caucus took precedence over the programmatic positions put forward by the paper, finally decided them that a split was the only way in which a break could be made from non-Marxist positions.
They argue strongly that despite the split they remain committed to democratic discussion of political differnces, with the line of the magazine decided by collective votes.
Socialist Viewpoint welcomes the break by the comrades of International.
While many political questions remain to be resolved and their new magazine in only in its early stages of development - we hope that their