Somoza doomed but who will take over?

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In the last week the diplomatic intrigues to remove dictator Somoza and salvage Nicaragua for imperialism have been feverishly pursued.

The war, of course, continues unabated and even the mandarins of Washington accept thai it will determine the political future of the central American state.

This is why the US rejected Somoza's offer of resignation last Friday which was made on the condition that the US continue to pour funds into the National Guard.

Such a course of action could only deepen the warwith or without Somoza.

A State Department official said: "One side is negotiating, but we are not"

The US imperialists may well have given up trying to cajole Somoza but they are now working overtime on the new provisional government recently established by the Sandinistas (FSLN).

A whole series of plans have been cascading down upon this bourgeois body in an effort to wean it from the Marxist' elements of the FSLN which obviously still influence the armed struggle.

The first effort was a pompous and idiotic "constitutional settlement' not dissimilar to that put forward for Zimbabwe by the imperialist powers last year.

This was rejected out of hand because it was dependant on Somoza's agreement.

Now the provisional government has denounced a new US effort to persuade "moderates and businessmen" to break with it.

The Nicaraguan capitalists cannot afford to break with the FSLN at the moment; indeed their alliance with the reformist Tercerista wing seems to be consolidating rapidly.

However, the downfall of Somoza will compel them to call an immediate halt to mass mobilisation and the revolutionary movement.

Despite continued antiyankee invective there is a real danger that the junta will accept US intervention in one form or another in order to rid itself of Somoza, which it has already declared is its prime objective.

Such a situation may be brought about under cover of a military stalemate.

But it is clear that the junta remains a capitalist body, dedicated to the exploitation of the masses and palpably incapable of instituting the vague and grandiose reforms it has touted about.

As each day passes it becomes clearer that the departure of Somoza is not the end of the struggle but the beginning of new struggles which must continue until they achieve the overthrow of capitalism in Nicaragua and the establishment of a workers and peasants In a desperate bid to con inadequacy of the Retail Prices Index as a basis for workers to calculate the real cost of living.

As a sum total of the price of a huge range of goods and services-from absurd luxuries to household soap-the Index fails to account for the fact that a disproportionately large proportion of a worker's pay packet goes on essentials such as food, clothing, travel and housing-the cost of which tends to rise faster than luxury goods.

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