[Marxism] 1980s Nicaragua solidarity (was Nicaragua: The Revolution in 1985)

[Nick Fredman <sra@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Anfrew Pollack mentioned the uncritical nature of Central American
solidarity work in the US in the 1980s, and Tom O'Lincoln in his
article says:

> > here as elsewhere I was careful to say that the problems "do not of
> > course diminish in the slightest our responsibility to display
> > principled solidarity with the Sandinistas against imperialist
> > aggression."<<

From my recollections of the press and activity of the late 1980s
left in Sydney (when I was unaffiliated and reading all the different
papers though most sympathetic to the DSP), the International
Socialists at least offered no solidarity at all towards the
Nicaraguan revolution, only criticism. At the time there were quite
large solidarity fundraising gig, public meetings etc, involving most
of the far left, the still significant (Eurocommunist) CP, trade
unions, and left liberal figures including well-known performers. As
I recall the IS abstained completely.

At one point I took this up with Alistair Huillett, an IS member who
was a fairly well-known lefty musician in Sydney (now back in native
Scotland), and he said something like "well no we don't sell their
coffee", and I had to reply "well you don't do nuthin". The DSP
seemed to be disparaged by the IS as uncritical Sandanista
cheerleaders and apolitical Third Worldist trinket sellers. Maybe the
stick was a bit bent, the 1990 defeat was certainly a shock, but in
my experience Nicaraguan solidarity campaigning at the time educated
a lot of people about capitalism and imperialism, and what a
socialist alternative could be, as well as providing significant
material aid. Questions of the severe limitations that the revolution
faced, the need it to supported by further revolutions and to develop
working class power it it were to ultimately survive etc, weren't
ignored either (though maybe the details were restricted too much to
internal education).

The abstract propaganda approach of the IS was focused more
pontificating on what a more pure socialist revolution could look
like, rather than working in a united front of the left to offer
political and material support to an actual revolution, while
educating people on what socialists in Nicaragua at that time could
realistically do and were doing, and why and how imperialism was
trying to destroy the Sandinistas. The IS approach, even when making
formally correct points, seemed to a lot of radicalising young people
in the 1980s as sterile.

Tom has stated that the IS in the late 80s was quite sectarian, maybe
his group at the time, Socialist Action (which I didn't ever come
across) had, before they fused again with the IS, a more nuanced
approach to this question.
--

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