Nicaragua: Somoza Totters Break from Capitalists! for Social

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Somoza's National Guard under fire in Managua for intervention by a military forcel from the Organisation of American States (OAS) to impose such a 'solution' This has been reststed by states such as Brazil and other dictatorships-not least because they fear the prospect of similar action in the future against themselves.

Moreover; the claims of Somoza and his allies in the US that Cuba is actively aiding the rebels are scarcely borne out by the facts.

It is not the Cuban Stalinist bureaucracy but the "social dempcracies" of Venezuela, Mexico and Costa Rica that are providing the major support for the FSLN.

And though the likes of Edward Kennedy in the USA fear the installation of a Marxist regime' in Nicaragua, there is precious little in the Sandinistas' programme or activity to suggest that this is their. aim.

Indeed, the dominant Tercerista wing of the FSLN is pursuing such a blatant strategy of 'popular front" alliance with Nicaraguan capitalists that the mass struggle is in real danger of simply handing over political power from Somoza to a different section of the bourgeoisie.

Danger Socialist Press has outlined this grave danger before; but it must now be spelt out in black and white so that the conquests of the masses are not syphoned off, prevented from accelerating and finally stamped out.

The FSLN itself has subordinated political differences for the sake of 'unity' in the armed This has meant that the 'Marxist' currents of the Tendencia Proletaria and the Guerra: Popular Prolongada factions within the FSLN have given way to the reformist policies of the Terceristas.

From 1 early on in ine rebellion the Terceristas made overtures to major sectors of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie, notably the pressure group 'Los Doce' ('The Twelve') and the FAO (Broad Opposition Front).

It was these groups that, in wee con: guer WOr to s Nati tatii guer brur trating the general strikes towns.

The masses, for their own reasons, responded heroically, and industrial production in Nicaragua has long since come to a halt.

It was on the back of the action by the urban masses that the guerrillas attacked and captured cities.

Unprotected However, up until recent ks these attacks were not solidated and in the wake of "rilla withdrawals •the kers were left unprotected uffer the wrath of Somoza's ional Guard.

The attrition has been devasng. It is the masses not the rrillas that have taken the nt of the civil war-partially least, as a direct consequence of the elitist military strategy adopted by the FSLN.

The division between the working people of Nicaragua and the direction of the rebellion has now been further widened by the appointment by the FSLN of a bourgeois provisional government.

This includes only one member of the FSLN itself. The other four are representatives of, the FAO, the Conservative Party, 'Los Doce', and the university.

The provisional government's ambassador to the OAS is a priest who is also a member of 'Los Doce'.

It is this group, described by the FSLN as "a well balanced array of opposition figures" that has attracted virtual diplomatic recognition from several Latin American states including most of the Andean Pact countries.

It should be borne in mind that at the height of the first guerrilla offensive last September the US actually pushed for acceptance of the FAO into the government; Somoza even offered them 50% of the positions in the cabinet.

Rhetoric While these groups produce a ceaseless stream of anti-yankee rhetoric they have not, as we might well expect, come out with a political programme beyond the call for "national unity"

To them 'imperialism' means no more than: Somoza. The removal of Somoza is the end of the game. It would enable them to proceed unhindered with their own exploitation Nicaraguan workers peasants.

The FSLN itself has sci bettered this programme. called for the nationalisati the Somoza family's exte property and industrial ings, the establishment educational reforms, and dom and fulfillment" fo working people.

They say they are fig tor "good and honour patriots of every hue.

In a FSLN film made e this year and recently shol this country no cOr demands were made or po programme put forward:

Virtually the production was spent eulo the military training of gur recruits and their 'revolutio interpretation of the Bible! of the and arcely It has on of ensive holdt of ir the shting earlier wn in crete litical entire gising errilla inary' the bourgeois parties and for the deepening and extension of the strugglę of the masses against all. forms of imperialist capital.

Workers' councils

Workers' and peasants' councils must be established and set up armed self defence squads in preparation for the inevitable clash with the capitalist 'transitional government of national reconciliation' urged by Vance.

Factories, workplaces and banks must be occupied and the books of the employers opened by workers' committees to expose the profiteering role of 'Los Doce' and build the mass movement that must force their nationalisation without compensation under workers' management.

Somoza's vicious National Guard and other state forces must be disbanded and replaced by 'armed workers' militia answerable to workers' councils.

Insofar as Somoza still survives, the struggle for these policies must be undertaken within the context of support for the armed movement. There is no one moment when fighting stops and politics starts.

The Terceristas and bourgeois parties by their dedication to a continuation of capitalism have made that clear: revolutionaries must answer in kind.

The defeat of a bourgeois resolution to the civil war must be fought for through the construction of a revolutionary party, a Trotskyist party, forged in the heat of the struggle, based on the independent strength and class demands of the working class and dedicated to the overthrow of imperialism in all its guises.

Somoza

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