How, after all, could a small nation such as Nicaragua defeat a mighty imperial power alone, without a class content to the movement.For Sandino it was thus “essentially a national thing”. Things didn’t work out that way. It has been the fear of revolution throughout Central America, with its inevitable consequences in South America, which has compelled Reagan and US Imperialism to try and ‘snuff out’ the ‘example’ of Nicaragua.There can be no doubt that the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship heralded a tremendous step forward for the workers and peasants of Nicaragua, especially when weighed against the nightmare of increasing poverty and misery throughout the continent. Don't you see a split between the Church in Nicaragua and the Pope's declaration that priests should not intervene in politics?A. Exhaustion from the war makes it likely they will succeed. For in reality they have accepted the so-called two stages theory. As a result of its negotiations with Somoza, the FAO lost most of the influence which it had built up amongst the masses. This rate has now been reduced to 14% and 1,200 schools have been constructed.Such developments are clearly supported by all activists in the Labour movement. In Nicaragua today, ,there is no recourse other than revolutionary violence. For this to take place capitalism, and therefore imperialism, must be overthrown in at least in a number of the most advanced capitalist countries, or, alternatively Stalinism overthrown in the Soviet Union. The explosive growth of these organisations after the revolution is undeniable and illustrates the support for the Sandinistas and the enthusiasm for the revolution. Walker was defeated in 1857, whereupon he returned to North America to launch a further attack in 1860.At this stage the Northern states of America clearly did not want a victory for Walker which would have bolstered the position of the Southern states. The establishment of a workers’ democracy in a small country like Nicaragua will not immediately lead to a socialist society. The army within Nicaragua, with demoralisation, drug abuse, alcoholism etc would begin to disintegrate as it did in Vietnam. The masses may not be quite clear on what they want but they are perfectly clear on what they do not want: they will fight like tigers against any attempt to reimpose the old Somoza dictatorship by armed force.As we have stated before, if Reagan could wait some years, there might be a serious possibility that the Nicaraguan revolution, stuck half-way, would succumb to its internal contradictions and permit the triumph of bourgeois counter-revolution from within. They have attempted to find some theoretical justification for this policy by resorting to the absolutely false and discredited theory of the “two stages” invented by Stalin.

Thus we have seen the development of a revolution which has lacked the decisive leadership of the proletariat in conscious form, and impregnated with the false ideas of guerrillas.Compare this with the October revolution in Russia, which had been consciously prepared by the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky and where the proletariat was embed with the perspective of the international revolution to ensure the success of the revolution and allow for the construction of a socialist society.In other similar situations the revolution has been carried through, but instead of a regime of workers’ democracy, a bureaucratic one party totalitarian state was established. The experience of the Russian Revolution in this respect is essential for the international workers’ movement. Since the revolution 500 doctors have qualified every year and have visited patients 6 million times annually.A massive literacy campaign has been carried out, sending armies of teachers and students to the countryside to help eradicate illiteracy. Despite the refusal of the Sandinistas to nationalise the economy the bourgeois and US imperialism will not accept the continued existence of the Sandinista state. Between 1946 and 1973, 4,120 officers and soldiers were officially sent to the US for these purposes. With over 50% of GNP committed to defence expenditure the economy has simply collapsed. The grave digger of capitalist society, the industrial proletariat, moved into action during this period, as a young and fresh working class. These struggles were mirrored by a movement in the countryside of land seizures and vicious battles involving the National Guard. because the United States gave them to the National Guard and the Sandinistas and the people took them away. The policy of so-called ‘dollar diplomacy’ was adopted. However, between 1969 and 1974 a recession hit the Nicaraguan economy which had devastating effects. For Sandino the struggle was purely military, the aim being to force US troops from Nicaraguan soil. The failure of the international revolution, although paving the way for a political counter-revolution in the form of the Stalinist bureaucracy, still did not result in the loss of the social revolution and the gains secured by the nationalised planned economy. Because politically we were a center of revolution. Me, a radio engineer, a fighter in the revolution, a Sandinista brigade commander and I had to go to the rubbish dump to collect paper to sell to feed my children… It wasn’t me who changed it was the Sandinistas who let me down. An estimated 120,000 participated. As we shall see later, the same was true in Nicaragua.In these countries the immediate task posed has been that of resolving the issues of the bourgeois revolution. Similar enthusiasm existed not only in Yugoslavia, China and Cuba in the early stages of the revolution, but also in Stalin’s Russia in the period of the first Five Year Plans, before the nightmare of the purge trials drowned the last remnants of October in a sea of blood.