COMMENTARY
U.S. HANDS OFF NICARAGUA!
Karl Marx once commented that many historical events have occurred first as tragedy and a second time as farce. I do not know any tragic part of the Nicaraguan revolution of the 1980’s except the U.S. sponsored Contra War which led to the closing down of revolutionary progress and eventually to defeat of that revolutionary upsurge. However, the apparent resurrection (perhaps, literally as he has reconciled himself to the reactionary Catholic Church) of Daniel Ortega, the old Sandinista leader as President of Nicaragua definitely fits into that second category of historical experience. In order to achieve office Ortega has refined the art of master chameleon and has changed political allies in search of the main chance as often as he changes his stockings. Gone is the old socialist–oriented program that animated the revolution and the young generation of Sandinista revolutionaries who defended it. Now it is the fight for the main chance of parliamentary office- and let the desperately impoverished masses be damned.
This is hardly the first time a formerly progressive organization or politician has degenerated with time or a change in fortunes, but it does remind this writer of the old commitments of leftists in America to the fight against U. S. imperialist intervention in Nicaragua in the 1980’s. Despite Ortega’s and his fellow Sandinistas political demise those commitments remain. Why? One George W. Bush and his dwindling coterie of die-hard supporters who have never forgiven the "lost" of Cuba, continue to have fits over the upstart Hugo Charvez and see "red" when the name Ortega comes up. The United States State Department has issued a statement that it wants to be friendly with the Ortega government. That is the kiss of death. Beware and be ready!
In the 1980's many of us defended the Nicarauguan Revolution against American imperialism’s efforts, through its proxy- the wholly United States funded Contras, to send that regime back into the Stone Age. And they finally succeeded. Nevertheless leftists saw this upheaval as a sign of a renewal of the revolutionary struggles in Central and South America in the aftermath of the death of Ernesto “Che” Guevara in failed guerilla warfare in the hinterlands of Bolivia and the failed popular front parliamentary socialist experience in Chile under Allende.
Many leftists I knew then fought against American policy under the principle that a small country had a democratic right to national to self-determination against the designs of the United States to “prevent” the establishment of a "Soviet" beachhead in Central America. Those were the days of Cold War and Nicarauga, after Cuba, was in the crosshairs of American imperialist fury. American policy treated the stodgy Soviet bureaucrats of the time as if they were some kind of "global class warriors" spreading revolution everywhere rather than the narrow devotees to "socialism in country" they were. To give a funny, if not bizarre, example of the way that American policy responded to the Sandinista threat I recall a speech by the supposedly rational President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, who stated that the Sandinista’s army was only two days march to the east coast side of the Texas border. A small, ragtag army, assuming that it wanted to make that trek, was thus suppose to threaten the mightiest military power on earth on its home ground. Weird, even for those times.
Many of us also argued, unlike Fidel Castro and others, that the Sandinistas needed to push the revolution forward by major expropriations and nationalizations like those that had occurred in Cuba and pushed the Cuban Revolution forward. The Sandinistas backed off from any such strategy. Today, fifteen years after the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas Nicaragua stands as one of the poorest nations on earth, the land question is still unresolved and the country is desperately in need of investment in industrial infrastructure and immediate aid. However, for a very long time the Nicaragua has been off the radar of the world's concerns. Only with the resurfacing of Ortega, as a faded reminder of past conflicts, has the American government expressed any interest in conditions there-mainly to blast the election of Ortega. In any case, although leftists are not now called upon to defend a left wing government like that formed in the 1980’s by the then subjectively revolutionary Sandinistas it is still necessary to call on militants to say- U.S. HANDS OFF NICARAGUA!
U.S. HANDS OFF NICARAGUA!
Karl Marx once commented that many historical events have occurred first as tragedy and a second time as farce. I do not know any tragic part of the Nicaraguan revolution of the 1980’s except the U.S. sponsored Contra War which led to the closing down of revolutionary progress and eventually to defeat of that revolutionary upsurge. However, the apparent resurrection (perhaps, literally as he has reconciled himself to the reactionary Catholic Church) of Daniel Ortega, the old Sandinista leader as President of Nicaragua definitely fits into that second category of historical experience. In order to achieve office Ortega has refined the art of master chameleon and has changed political allies in search of the main chance as often as he changes his stockings. Gone is the old socialist–oriented program that animated the revolution and the young generation of Sandinista revolutionaries who defended it. Now it is the fight for the main chance of parliamentary office- and let the desperately impoverished masses be damned.
This is hardly the first time a formerly progressive organization or politician has degenerated with time or a change in fortunes, but it does remind this writer of the old commitments of leftists in America to the fight against U. S. imperialist intervention in Nicaragua in the 1980’s. Despite Ortega’s and his fellow Sandinistas political demise those commitments remain. Why? One George W. Bush and his dwindling coterie of die-hard supporters who have never forgiven the "lost" of Cuba, continue to have fits over the upstart Hugo Charvez and see "red" when the name Ortega comes up. The United States State Department has issued a statement that it wants to be friendly with the Ortega government. That is the kiss of death. Beware and be ready!
In the 1980's many of us defended the Nicarauguan Revolution against American imperialism’s efforts, through its proxy- the wholly United States funded Contras, to send that regime back into the Stone Age. And they finally succeeded. Nevertheless leftists saw this upheaval as a sign of a renewal of the revolutionary struggles in Central and South America in the aftermath of the death of Ernesto “Che” Guevara in failed guerilla warfare in the hinterlands of Bolivia and the failed popular front parliamentary socialist experience in Chile under Allende.
Many leftists I knew then fought against American policy under the principle that a small country had a democratic right to national to self-determination against the designs of the United States to “prevent” the establishment of a "Soviet" beachhead in Central America. Those were the days of Cold War and Nicarauga, after Cuba, was in the crosshairs of American imperialist fury. American policy treated the stodgy Soviet bureaucrats of the time as if they were some kind of "global class warriors" spreading revolution everywhere rather than the narrow devotees to "socialism in country" they were. To give a funny, if not bizarre, example of the way that American policy responded to the Sandinista threat I recall a speech by the supposedly rational President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, who stated that the Sandinista’s army was only two days march to the east coast side of the Texas border. A small, ragtag army, assuming that it wanted to make that trek, was thus suppose to threaten the mightiest military power on earth on its home ground. Weird, even for those times.
Many of us also argued, unlike Fidel Castro and others, that the Sandinistas needed to push the revolution forward by major expropriations and nationalizations like those that had occurred in Cuba and pushed the Cuban Revolution forward. The Sandinistas backed off from any such strategy. Today, fifteen years after the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas Nicaragua stands as one of the poorest nations on earth, the land question is still unresolved and the country is desperately in need of investment in industrial infrastructure and immediate aid. However, for a very long time the Nicaragua has been off the radar of the world's concerns. Only with the resurfacing of Ortega, as a faded reminder of past conflicts, has the American government expressed any interest in conditions there-mainly to blast the election of Ortega. In any case, although leftists are not now called upon to defend a left wing government like that formed in the 1980’s by the then subjectively revolutionary Sandinistas it is still necessary to call on militants to say- U.S. HANDS OFF NICARAGUA!
