Re: [Marxism] Miskito leaders seek independence at the Hague courts (2 & last)

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Walter responds: I didn't disparage Alejandro Bendana, but
asked what his stand is in Nicaraguan politics. That's not an
unreasonable question, is it? Not attempting  to refute what
Bendana said, it's not fair to complain that I didn't do what
I didn't set out to do.

Mike says Bendana is STILL a Sandinista. Is that accurate?

Did he support the FSLN in the last election, with whatever
criticism he might have had, as I asked? I take it that Mike
knows much more about this than I do, who don't claim to
know a great deal about Nicaragua.

But as I did say before, it's much easier to write eloquent
criticisms than to actually make a revolution and retain
state power. Doing THAT involves making compromises with
what one might like to do in a textbook. When I first started
coming around politics, during 1961, I heard all sorts of very
revolutionary-sounding criticisms of Fidel Castro and the
leadership of the Cuban Revolution. That's where Wolforth,
Robertson, Posadas, and all of the rest clearly were.

In the Socialist Workers Party, for example, we ran that big
explanation by Fausto Amador about how the Sandinistas
were defeated not long before they won the power. It's so
easy to be a Monday morning quarterback.

The shadow of that 1990 Nicaraguan election certainly does
hang over today's Venezuela, so the questions which were
posed by Bendana are worth considering seriously and being
responded to by more knowledgeable people than I am.


Walter
======================================

MIKE FRIEDMAN SAID:
I want to take both Walter and Louis to task for their brush-off
of the Alejandro Bendana piece, which I found to be largely on target. Both
disparage the individual, but offer no substantive refutation of his
points. Bendana's points are most convincing precisely because he was for
many years -- during and after the revolutionary period -- part of Daniel
Ortega's inner circle and a major figure in the FSLN, recommended for a
slot in the National Directorate at one point (don't know what happened
there...). He is *still* a Sandinista. He, as much as anyone was in a
position to know about the direction of motion within the FSLN.




_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism