Outpouring of support total pluralism regarding the Nicaraguan parties, so long as they do not openly support the contras! While it is true that La Prensa remains closed, I attended debates in the National Assembly (which were broadcast over TV) where the opposition continued to enjoy equal speaking time with the FLN!
The ban on strikes is not being
CELEBRATIONS of the anniversary of the Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FLN) on November 8 were an impressive display of mass support for the beleaguered revolutionary government. Alain
Krivine, a leader of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR), attended the ceremonies and gave the following interview on his return to the LCR's newspaper Rouge. [The text has been shortened slightly for space reasons.]
Question.
How do you explain the unprecedented
November 8?
Answer. I think that the Sandinista leadership had several objectives. First of all, in stressing the continuity of the FSLN's struggle - from the guerrilla war against Somoza to the seizure of power and to the present struggle to reconstruct a country at war - in putting forward the figure of Carlos Fonseca, the FSLN radicalized its language. It made the link between the revolutionary nationalism of Sandino, the fight against imperialism, and the revolutionary Marxism with which Fonseca identified
The central message of November
8 was in the slogans referring to the alliance between the working class and the poor peasantry as the pivot of the revolution. This "class-struggle"
language was new.
Secondly, in view of the state of war that the country is experiencing, bringing out such a mass tion had the value of being a test.
There were half a million people in the Plaza de la Revolucion. Nothing like this has been seen since 1984, at the time of the elections!
In spite of all that, from 6.00 in the morning, thousands of people foot from their neighborhoods and workplaces and converged on the Plaza. Buses brought peasants from every corner of the country.
By 10.00 am, a vast crowd was listening in blazing sunlight to Comandante
Daniel Ortega. An American Vietnam war veteran also spoke, along with
Captain Sankara, president of Burkina
Fasso. To shouts of "No pasaran!"
("They shall not pass"), the army, military service conscripts, reservists
(workers and peasants) and the militia marched on the Plaza.
This demonstration of the power of the Sandinista
People's Army was the third objective. Defence organization, still based on arming and invol.
ving the people, has made major strides in the past two years. This force has succeeded in striking grave blows to the contras, supposed to have lost 12 thousand since 1979. At present, contras suffer six casualties for every one suffered by the Sandinista army.
This is why the mercenaries are their tactics again. They are going back to ambushes aimed at Sandinista leaders or those who work with them in order to sow panic. But they are trying at any cost to avoid the army.
Q. What is the state of the Sandinista party today?
A. The FSLN also wanted to demonstrate its role as a vanguard party. It observes very strict criteria for recruitment, demanding as much from members today as it did of its members in the bloody years of the dictatorship. There must be about 12 thousand "candidates" and barely thousand full members. On November 8, 700 were taken into the party in Managua alone. But that was
I also want to point out that one of the Front's objectives was, in the ceremonies, to reaffirm its pluralist commitment, its international non-alignment, and to demonstrate once again the power of solidarity. One hundred and fifty parties responded Besides the communist parties of three continents, leaders of the Socialist International were present, as well as many revolutionary organizations.
Several Fourth Internationalist organizations were invited, including the LCR, our comrades of the Mexican Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores, the Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Action of the United States. Including the LCR and Democrazia Proletaria of Italy in the conference of delegates of the communist parties and the FSLN leadership was a deliberate choice.
In this area, the Front's line has not changed - no exclusionism against any who support the revolution;
enforced any more now than it was in 1982. Social conflicts are not
What changes did you notice in the Nicaraguan situation?
A. We should not try to play down the country's enormous difficulties. The war is absorbing 60 per cent of the budget and a lot of energy. There is a general decline in the standard of living, and it is the workers and poor peasants most of all who are feeling the weight of the crisis. Buying power has dropped
Outside the war zones, supply is more and more difficult. The parallel market, the black market, is con-
Continuing to try to solve the problems of production and those of the peasantry, the FSLN has resumed distributions of land in the form of individual titles. This retreat seems politically and economically unavoidable, but it is dangerous in the longer
Somozaism left a heritage of bureaucratic behavior, a taste for privileges and patronage. by the present difficulties and scarcity. The lack of technical cadres it possible for those remaining to hold onto big salaries and privileges. The technical incompetence of exguerrillas turned administrators or heads of services favors abuses. This is one of the problems of a revolution in an underdeveloped country. The FSLN leadership is aware of that. It is denouncing such behavior and punishing it as much as is possible Obviously such good intentions run up against weariness and discontent. But the Nicaraguan people don't want Somozaism anymore. They line up behind the FSLN against any possible invasion.
This is a unique experiment. In these difficult conditions, the Sandinista revolution is maintaining its original character, its democratic and internationalist nature. More than ever, it deserves our support. The Nicaraguan people and their leadership are aware of the continental and international implications of their struggle against imperialism. The price that has to be paid is enormous, and our efforts have to be worthy of this exemplary struggle.
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