Leadership crisis holds back Nicaraguan struggle

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The general strike which followed the hi-jacking of the Nicaraguan parliament by the Sandinist Liberation Front has now brought the economic life of the country almost to complete halt.

Dictator Somoza has declared "a state of economic emergency". And government departments have been placed in a state of siege.

At the same time parts of Nicaragua are completely out of the control of the Somoza dictatorship.

Last week however the National Guard regained the cities of Matagalpa and Leon which had for a time been captured by the Sandinist Liberation Front and groups of.

armed youth.

Despite the mobilisation of virtually the whole population against him, Somoza has once •again arrogantly reasserted that he has no intention of resigning before his term of office ends in 1981.

Full-scale war

On the face of it, few statements could be more unconvincing.

Somoza now confronts not only a general strike, but also fuli-scale war with the Sandinist guerrilla army.

The stage seems to be set for the final act in the 43 year-long dictatorship of the Somoza family.

•But, while this is by far the most extreme of the many crises faced by Somoza in the last year, he has been able to survive situations which would almost certainly have toppled many other regimes.

This is partly the result of "I, promised the leaders of the Patriotic Front skulking in Lusaka and elsewhere that they who seek to ride the wind will reap the whirlwind". So said Bill Irvine Joint Transport Minister in the Rhodesian Government.

But Prime Minister Smith's sound and fury in his Sunday broadcast appeared to signify nothing new.

Martial law

He declared limited martial law; he banned the acently legalised ZANU and ZAPU organisations (arresting number of their leaders).

the long established and firmly maintained policy of ruthless repression towards all opposition.

A number of strikers and demonstrators have been killed in recent clashes and 700 oppositionists have been arrested since the beginning of the latest crisis.

The second reason for the regime's ability to survive without visible means of support has been the continued backing of US impérialism.

Closest friend:

Self-styled champion of 'human rights" President Jimmy Carter is the closest political friend of this regime of gangsters and exploiters.

Carter even went so far a few weeks ago of congratulating Somoza on his recent human rights record!

Naturally the imperialists are worried that their old client has become so universally hated in his own country.

And they have been looking for a way of ditching him which would not at the same time provoke serious dangers for capitalism and imperialism in Nicaragua and the whole of Central America.

The reason why Somoza's many capitalist opponents have shrunk from replacing him up to now is that their allies in the American State Department have urged them to hold back.

This shows up clearly the third and main reason why Somoza is still in power-the failure of leadership in the opposition to him.

Although the success of the general strike so far has been due to the semi-spontaneous action of workers, no clear working class leadership for the And he made some veiled threats that, despite the pleas of the imperialists, he might shortly launch reprisal attacks into Zambia in return for the downing by Nkomo's guerrilla forces of a Rhodesian aircraft last week.

Gross hypocrisy

All the propaganda surounding 'the alleged slaughter of civilian survivors of the aircrash is gross hypocrisy on the part of the Smith government steeped as it is in the blood of the Zimbabwe masses.

If there are any raids against Zambia they will be designed to placate Smith's base, indicate the continued power of the racists, and force Zambia to intensify pressure on Nkomo to strike has established itself.

It is 'the Nicaraguan capitalists who claim to be the leaders of the general strike!

And their aim in agreeing to close down their businesses (in many cases after the actions of the workers forced them to do so) is no more than to try to break the Somoza family's virtual monopoly of trade industry and capitalist agriculture in These "opposition" capitalists have no objection to dictatorship as such-only to one which reserves all the most Jucrative and profitable parts of the economy to itself.

talks with Nkomo.

Smith, therefore, continues to go along with the imperia. lists' plan for a negotiated handover with, if possible, the squeezing out of Robert Mugabe who despite his personal willingness to negotiate, is still falling under pressure from within his own. organisation, ZANU, to continue the war to victory.

Refugees from the Eritrean capital of Asmara have confirmed reports of the treacherSomoza The Nicaraguan officiallysponsored equivalent of the CBI (INDE. or Nicaraguan Development Institute) claims to support the general strike.

Pro-imperialist

And it has become more closely involved with the organisation which claims to be the spearhead of the oppositionthe Broad Opposition Front (FAO).

•This is a pro-imperialist class-collaborationist front supported by capitalists, "liberal demo crats" and Stalinists.

Among its most prominent Nyerere members are the group of lawyers, priests and capitalists known as "The Twelve" who were associated witht the anti-Somoza newspaper . editor Chamorro whose murder earlier this year sparked off the recent series of political crises.

This capitalist-dominated opposition fears to move before receiving the go-ahead from Carter.

By-pass And it is terrified that any serious attack on the interests of Somoza, who is by far Nicaragua's largest capitalist, will uncontrollably spill over into general attack on capitalism itself.

Nonetheless these opportunists and self-seekers face another danger-that the mass struggle against Somoza will completely by pass the leadership they want to impose on it.

The events of the last few days pose this danger very sharply.

The Sandinist Liberation Front now generally recognised as the focus, if not always concretely the leadership of the mass struggle has moved away from • its spectacular one-off guerrilla operations towards a more permanent state of war with Somoza's National Guard.

But the Sandinists have so far been unable to give even the clear and decisive political leadership necessary to get rid of Somoza.

And there is no possibility that this politically confused petty-bourgeois nationalist group can offer the leadership which the Nicaraguan masses require if the almost inevitable fall of Somoza is not to be followed by some new form of capitalist dictatórship.

One faction of the Sandinists (the "terceristas") is close to, if not actually part of the FAO itself and can be expected to capitulate to its bourgeois component if Somoza falls.

Other Sandinist factions claim to be more radically anti imperialist.

If so, they have failed to take the concrete steps towards the political independencé of the bourgeoisie which are necessary for a genuine anti imperialist struggle in Nicaragua.

Only. in Peru at present is imperialism in greater danger.

But it will survive unless a Trotskyist leadership capable of directing the masses of workers and peasants towards political independence. independence.

The highest level of possible betrayal of the Palestinian national struggle is being planned this week at the Camp David hideout of President Carter.

Amidst the diplomatic posturing, the much publicised security precautions and the censorship even of news photographs, the main function of the talks is clear.

The aim is to find agree-. ment between the Zionist leaders and Arab bourgeoisie about a ghetto state for the Palestinians on the so-called 'occupied territories' of the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza Strip:

Sadat At Camp David the method being proposed is either Zionist Begin's idea of running a West Bank

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Camp David sell-out hatches