Solidarity against Reagan

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Troops Out Now! CENTRAL America and the Caribbean are politically turbulent an violent areas.

What is the cause of all this violence? Since the end of the 1800s the countries of Central America have been dominated by a tiny elite of landowners. These landowners used the law, the police and the military to push peasants off the land so that they could grow coffee, bananas, cotton or sugar on it.

Sometimes the landowners were big American firms, for example the United Fruit Co. grew bananas in Guatemala and Honduras. This process still continues today and those peasants who organise unions or attempt to claim back their land peacefully usually end up dead in a ditch.

Many peasants have given up on peaceful means. In El Salvador, workers, peasants and student radicals started forming guerilla groups in the early 1970s. These groups came together in 1980 to form the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) which today controls one third of the national territory and is militarily active in at least another third.

imperialism is so keen to destroy any popular movements in the area because their demands represent a threat to its interests. In 1904 the Panama Canal was completed. This canal is today controlled by U.S. soldiers and provides a vital link for seatraffic between the East and West coasts of the U.S.A. Not only are American firms big landowners in Manchester Gorton YS Central America, since the 1950s they have invested in manufacturing in the area because of its abundant supplies of cheap labour.

British Imperialism also has interests in the area. For example, the microchip for Sinclair computers are made in El Salvador. So is Lea and Perrins Worcester sauce. Thatcher provides arms to the Hondurans that would certainly be used in an invasion of revolutionary Nicaragua.

"Class Fighter" supports the struggles of the people of Central America. That is why we are involved in campaigns like the El Salvador Solidarity Campaign. We believe it is an urgent necessity for comrades to build active solidarity in the labour novtment with those wno arc fighting imperialism in Central America and the Caribbean now.

However, we also believe that the existing programme of the FMLN in El Salvador or the Sandinistas in Nicaragua is not adequate. These organisations often associate revolution with simply military struggle rather than the self-emancipation of the oppressed classes. Because they are not working class revolutionaries they often make alliances with middle class forces who are hostile to socialism. For example, in Nicaragua the Sandinistas formed an alliance with Factory owners. Now, the Sandinistas have undoubtedly done much to improve the living standards of workers and peasants but, in order to keep their bourgeois allies happy, they have also attacked independent workers organisations and outlawed strikes. The FMLN in El Salvador would possibly do something similar if it came to power.

Even though we criticise the guerillas we have to win the labour movement to support them. You can't just criticise, they need our support and we should give it them.