Re: One Movement, many Tendencies, was Re: Sol Dollinger again

["Jose G. Perez" <jgperez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>I would assume, with Lou, that a future communist party in the
United States must allow (as did the Sandinistas, for example)
for a rather large variety of organized *tendencies* within it
-- but I can't see a party (or even a coalition) embodying
separate *movements*.<<

    The wording used in Nicaragua may have been misleading, but the FSLN
never formally recognized the right to form internal groupings such as
tendencies,at least not until AFTER the defeat of the revolution.

     The three pre-1979 tendencies were in fact three separate, public
organizations, each claiming to represent the FSLN. When the Somoza regime
entered its death agony, the three groups realized that much of what each
had been doing could be viewed as complimentary to the other two; and that
the revolutionary crisis imposed on them a need to reunify if they were
going to defeat the common enemy. Thus a new parity central leadership, the
"national directorate"  was formed, with equal representation of each of the
previous three "tendencies," although my understanding is it never met as a
group until after the victory. It is generally believed that Cuban leaders
played an important role in promoting the unification of the Sandinistas in
the struggle against Somoza, although it is unclear to me to what degree
this has ever been officially acknowledged or if any details are available
in the public record.

    Following the victory of the revolution in 1979, the FSLN tended to
function in top-down fashion. The highest decision-making body of the FSLN
was the nine-member national directorate; and very early on each of its
members was given the tittle "Commander of the Revolution," which no one
else had, and which implied a certain amount of individual and collective
authority over and beyond the FSLN itself. This was part of the the fight
between the bourgeois figures in the 5-member junta of national
reconstruction and the real motor forces of the process with each side
trying to define, so to speak, the nature of the new government.

    Once the Sandinistas had consolidated the new government as a
revolutionary government, they created a central-committee-type structure
called the Sandinista Assembly. I believe that the National Directorate
elected the members of this broader body, and throughout the years of the
revolution the assembly was a consultative body subordinate to the National
Directorate.

    At the time many Sandinistas believed that the war the country was
involved in precluded the creation of democratic party structures; after the
defeat of the revolution, I believe virtually all currents that came out of
the FSLN agreed that this had been a mistake. I do not know what formal
provisions the FSLN now has for tendencies or factions, but for a long time
there have been more or less open disputes within the FSLN that have been
settled by votes at party congresses or Sandinista Assemblies, sometimes
leading to splits. The assembly and national directorate are now elected
bodies, and the FSLN itself is associated with the "socialist" (2nd)
international and plays a big role in the political life of the country as
the main opposition party in the framework of a bourgeois-democratic regime.

José




----- Original Message -----
From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2000 7:16 PM
Subject: One Movement, many Tendencies, was Re: Sol Dollinger again


> Sol Dollinger wrote:
>
> >  His shifts from group to group was an independent effort
> > to build his tendency within the Trotskyist movement.
>
> I'm not sure how important these debates over factions and
> tendencies over 50 years ago are, but I am a bit bothered by
> this wording, "Trotskyist movement." Would it not be better
> to speak of a "Trotskyist tendency" within the workers'
> movement?
>
> I would assume, with Lou, that a future communist party in the
> United States must allow (as did the Sandinistas, for example)
> for a rather large variety of organized *tendencies* within it
> -- but I can't see a party (or even a coalition) embodying
> separate *movements*.
>
> Carrol
>
>
>

_____________________________________________
NetZero - Defenders of the Free World
Click here for FREE Internet Access and Email
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html