No 49 May 1983 20p BRITAIN Crush Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua! II rl The Central American isthmus has today been thrust centre stage in the international class struggle -- and in the Western imperialist drive to 'roll back Communism' from Havana to East Berlin and Moscow. While leftist guerrillas con­ tinue to score dramatic battlefield victories over the blood-soaked US-backed junta in EI Salvador, the left-nationalist Sandinista (FSLN) regime in nearby Nicaragua faces a brazen US­ sponsored counterrevolutionary invasion. The international working-class movement must come to the defence of Nicaragua against this imperi­ alist-engineered onslaught, aimed at overthrow­ ing the government which came to power in 1979 after a bloody struggle to bring down the US­ backed tyrant Somoza. The international Spartacist tendency (iSt) says: Kill the in­ vaders! Drive the US out of Central America! Complete the Nicaraguan Revolution! The American government does not even deny that it is providing support for the murderous counterrevolutionary mercenaries based in Honduras who have repeatedly invaded Nicaragua, killing hundreds of people. Early last month it was revealed that the CIA has spent 30 million dollars to arm and train an estimated 2000 of Sandinista army border patrol targets the CIA-backed counterrevolutionaries. its contras (counterrevolutionaries) who revolution. It was to this fifth column that out a social revolution from above. Even in the presently operate in Nicaragua's northern prov­ Polish pope Wojtyla -- godfather of Solidarnosc, latter case political power would remain in the inces, and the US has twice staged provocative the only 'trade union' that the likes of Reagan hands of a nationalist, petty-bourgeois caste 'war games' along the country's northern border and Thatcher support -- appealed when he visited which is hostile to the extension of the revol­ in conjuction with Honduras. Meanwhile followers Nicaragua in early March. But Managua is not ution. The Sandinistas' narrow nationalism is an of the former FSLN leader turned imperialist Warsaw, and the pope was nearly driven off the obstacle to Victory in what is becoming a puppet Comandante Zero (Eden Pastora) have moved stage as scores of thousands chanted 'We want Central America-wide civil war; they are un­ into Nicaragua from Costa Rica from the south. peace' and 'Popular power', overwhelming right­ fortunately telling the truth when they deny In 1961 CIA-backed Cuban exiles invaded Cuba ists shouting 'EI Papa!' A few days later 500 supplying aid to to the Salvadoran leftist and were ignominiously defeated at the Bay of wealthy Nicaraguans chanting 'Long live Catholic rebels. Pigs. This time round, each time the contras Nicaragua' marched through the streets, while This is particularly criminal given Reagan's have seized a village they have been driven out the CIA's 'Nicaraguan Democratic Front' radio continuing threats to escalate US imperialism's by the Sandinista army, while suffering heavy station announced 'With God and with patriotism, intervention on behalf of the pathological casualties. Good! For everyone of these mer­ we are combatting Communism. ' killers of the Salvadoran regime. Over the past cenary killers the Sandinistas take out there few months the guerrillas of the Farabundo will be that 'many fewer gusanos (Latin American Class collaboration spelJs defeat Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) have counterrevolutionary exiles) roaming the streets virtually seized control over the economically of the US, pushing drugs, bombing leftist book­ Yet the Sandinistas continue to spread vital eastern sector of the country. But with shops and attempting to assassinate diplomats. illusions with slogans such as 'between military victory increasingly in their sights, Remember, it was CIA-trained anti-Castro Cubans Christianity and the revolution there is no con­ the FMLN and its coalition partners in the who murdered Allende's ex-foreign minister tradiction'. The invitation to the pope was in Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) are busy Orlando Letelier in 1976. itself an expression of their attempt to follow trying to negotiate a 'political solution' with But there is a crucial difference between the impossibie 'middle road' of a 'mixed econ­ the butchers of San Salvador. Once again, a Cuba 1961 and Nicaragua today. By 1961 the Cuban omy' and political 'pluralism'. But this is strategy of class collaboration -- popular capitalist class had fled to Miami after having completely untenable: either the Sandinistas front ism -- threatens to prove a deadly danger been expropriated of its economic holdings. And will act as the Loyalists of the Spanish Repub­ for the masses of Central America. although the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie's state lic did in the 1930s, sacrificing the revolution What we see in El Salvador is an attempt to power was smashed by the 1979 revolution, it on the altar of 'pluralism' and private property combine a Cuban-style 'guerrilla road' with the still owns 60 per cent of the country's econ­ in an effort to placate the imperialists -- or popular front. But whether presented as a 'pro­ omy. These junior partners of imperialism con­ they will take the 'Cuban road', expropriating longed people's war' or 'popular armed insurrec- stitute a potent internal base for counter- the capitalists and bureaucratically carrying continued on page 9 Spectre of Trotskyism haunts YCl conference ... P4 CPGB 'leninists': left apologists for Stalinist betrayal .. pH Another road to defeat for workers, Kurds, women - First Khomeini, now Bani Sadr? On ~arch 19 some 300 people attended a con­ socialist revolution to establish the dictator­ Like Tsarist Russia Iran is a prison house ference in London called by the 'Iran Solidarity ship of the proletariat supported by the of nations. The main enemy is at home, not Iraq Front' to protest against repression in Iran. peasantry. Iran in 1953 and in 1979 shows just or the Soviet Union. In the conference's Many of the faces were familiar from the anti­ what a bloody disaster all attempts at 'revolu­ Kurdish workshop no Iranian organisation could Shah committees and protests of five years ago. tion by stages' are, And this is exactly what offer a programme to consistently defend and This time however their target of protest was supporting the NCR means,. Instead of socialist promote the liberation of the Kurdish and other Khomeini -- the ayatollah so many organisations revolution it means fighting for a more 'demo­ national minorities. (Indeed until an SL spokes­ and individuals present once claimed would lead cratic' and 'populaY' Islamic regime, But when­ man raised the question no one even mentioned the way to 'democracy' and 'freedom' in Iran. ever speakers, and particularly speakers from the non-Kurdish national minorities like the A struggle against repression in Iran needs the SL, so much as mentioned the dangers of Azerbaijanis.) While the Fedayeen Minority goes a proletarian perspective, not a rehash of the supporting this bloc, the conference organisers no further than demanding 'stop the repression policies which paved the way for Khomeini. A admonished that 'this is not the place to dis­ of the Kurds', the UCM/Komaleh bloc calls for gathering of exile Iranian leftists such as cuss differences'. 'autonomy' and 'withdrawal of the army to the this conference should be a place where poli­ There is widespread unease with the idea of borders' -- presumably the better to fight cies are fought OUc and clarity sought. Instead tailing the NCR. And no wonder! Khomeini's ex­ Iraq or threaten the Soviet Union (Kurdistan the organisers strove to keep it as tame an af­ PM Bani Sadr is the butcher of Kurds and left­ News and Comment no 3, undated). Revolutionary fair as possible. The conference was testimony ists. This murderer symbolises the NCR's com­ internationalism needs more than just eschewing to the disorientation and demoralisation in the mitment to defend capitalism no matter what and support to the Iranian ayatollahs, especially Iranian left, but also to a genuine questioning graphically reveals the real meaning of the since Komaleh promotes Kurdish religious of perspectives. Stalinist 'stagist' schemas. leaders, saying of Sheikh Ezzedin Hosseini: Supporter8 of various Iranian organisations were present -- from the virtually disinte­ grated Peykar,' to the currently fragmenting Fedayeen Minority and its recent left split, the Revolucionary Socialist Tendency, and the 'third campist' Unity of Communist Militants (UCM) which has recently fused with the Kurdish Maoist group, Komaleh. Representatives of the Islamic populist Mojahedeen of Masoud Rajavi -- today united with exiled former prime minister Bani Sadr in the National Council of Resistance (NCR) -- set up a literature stall and lurked about the conference hall. Aside from the Spartacist League, the British left was conspicuous by its absence. The Revolutionary Communist Party and Workers Power showed up, but the former could only mumble about how 'the masses are demoral­ ised' and 'we have to waic and see what hap­ pens', while the latter 'didn't even try to speak. Doubtless -- and correctly! -- they felt chey had nothing to say, given their own scan­ dalous role in cheering Khomeini to power (from the sidelines to be sure) in 1978/79. Drawing the lessons of the 1978/79 defeat is the vital task facing subjectively revolutionary Iranian leftists. That means facing up to the \ i% -.... p role chat the left played in supporting Summer 1979: Only months after the 'Islamic revolution', Khomeini's 'Revolutionary Guards' begin Khomeini's rise to power, not hiding behind executing Kurdish partisans. talk about how 'the masses weren't ready' and the like. ~any still speak of the supposed The UCM, which didn't exist at the time of 'We see him as a revolutionary bourgeois who 'gains of the Iranian revolution', but the Khomeini's rise to power, today seeks to be a is decisively standing up for his position mullahs' 'revolution' has brought only war, fur­ pole for disoriented eX-Peykar, ex-Fedayeen and defending the rights of the Kurds.