Jose, Fred on FSLN

[Dayne Goodwin <dayneg@xxxxxxxx>]

I agree with the analyses (understood as partial, not complete) of the
defeat of the Nicaraguan revolution that have been given by both Fred and
Jose. I agree with the factor Fred emphasizes:
        " . . . But the Sandinista leadership has to be held
responsible for their own course.  The capacity of the workers and
peasants to resist the counterrevolution was never exploited to the full.
        Washington committed horrible crimes against the people of Nicaragua in
order to defeat their revolution, but not all the decisions that contributed
to defeat were  made in Washington.  Some of them, in my opinion, were made
in Managua."

        I think someone once wrote something to the effect that
revolutionary socialist resolution of 'the historical crisis of mankind is
reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership' (not that an
outstanding revolutionary leadership in Nicaragua alone would surely have
led to a different outcome in Nicaragua).

        I don't consider myself currently *especially* well-informed of
the detailed history and empirical course of events in Nicaragua or of the
timing and exact content of policy decisions made and programs initiated
by the FSLN, but i have the impression that the FSLN - along with the
specific policies which Jose and Fred have discussed - generally went to
questionable lengths in a largely unsuccessful and counterproductive
attempt to please and try to win over the local bourgeoisie.
        My impression is that the tendency led by the Ortega brothers
'knew' how to build a working alliance with anti-Somoza bourgeois elements
in making the insurrection and dominated the FSLN from the time of the
Triumph.  I think this segment of the FSLN leadership always had somewhat
'social-democratic' political perspectives and conceptions.  Within a few
years the FSLN developed an official friendly relationship with the
Socialist International and eventually the FSLN became a full member party
of the Socialist International (and is today).  Not that i think or have
reason to believe that either of the other two tendencies would have done
a better job if their perspectives had been dominant . . .
        I think the SWP (U.S.) zigzagged from an overly negative
evaluation of the FSLN before July, 1979, to an overly positive evaluation
of the FSLN after July in an effort, which became characteristic, to
identify the SWP - in word and especially image - with successful
revolutionary leaderships elsewhere.
        Dayne Goodwin






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