Nicaragua under threat Alain VITOLD
Since the beginning of July tension has mounted yet another notch in Nica-
The noticeable increase in the (counter-revolutionaries), and killed in these operations, have forced the government to take a lot stiffer attitude to its neighbouring countries. Daniel Ortega, co-ordinator of the governing junta, announced to the 100,000 people gathered in Masaya for the third anniversary of the revolution on July 19 that Nicaragua was the victim of a 'silencing inva-
Commandant Luis Carrion, viceminister of the Interior, was more precise: "The aggression has already begun. We can no longer go on saying that we must prepare for war because the war has already started.'
Between Thursday July 1 and Sunday July 18 the Sandinista People's Army (EPS) was involved in its biggest battle since the fall of Somoza, with a military unit of over two hundred which was enNicaraguan border, in the Atlantic Coast
They were from Honduras and had a considerable supply of weapons, incluthem to bring down a helicopter. After two weeks of fighting the EPS put this battallion to fight, killing seventy five 'contras', but losing around fifty men.
According to the Sandinistas the fifty-odd armed attacks between May 1 and August 1 have caused more than a hundred deaths among the civil popu-
The main attacks have -Monday July 19, a two-engined aircraft from Honduras launched two rockets against the fuel depots at the port of Corinto. These are the biggest depots in Nicaragua and their explosion would have caused the death of thousands of people.
-Saturday July 24, a group of 'contras' tried to blow up a hydroelectric power plant near Bonanza on the Atlantic
Seven militia, including one woman, were killed.
-Saturday July 25, one hundred 'contras' from Honduras attacked the village of San Francisco del Norte. The de. fence of the village was undertaken by two score of peasant-militia, but they were unable to stop the attacks. Fifteen militia were killed, and several were tortured beforehand. Eight others were captured. The attackers painted the symbol
FDN (Nicaraguan Front) and slogans like 'With God and patriotism we will fight communism!' Then they retreated across the Honduran border where army lorries and troops were waiting for them to protect their re-
According to Miguel d'Escoto, Minister of the Interior, the United States want to make Honduras 'the Israel of
Women militia in Nicaragua on the alert (DR) Central America', the policeman for imperialist order and interests in the region. The US general Nutting stated publicly that there were 120 North American advisors in Honduras. In the New York Times of Thursday July 8, Raymond Bonner quotes a Honduran official who said, •We cannot accept a socialist government in Nicaragua. It will be us or them.'
The Reagan administration has just spectacularly increased its economic and military aid to Honduras. Twenty-one million dollars will be for the extension of three airports. It has already been agreed to give 41.2 millions for the purchase of goods and military materials. Another hundred million will have been promised to president Suazo Cordoba and the Army chief, General Alvarez, during the trip they made to Washington in midJuly. New combined American-Honduran manoeuvres took place between Monday 19 and Saturday July 31, at some 20 kilometres from the Nicaraguan border. ever unstable. Strikes break out regularly. For example, the teachers went on strike in mid-August in pursuance of their demands for wage increases and democratisation of the primary schools.
Present North American strategy is to encircle Nicaragua, to keep up the internal tension and completely isolate El Salvador. The formation of Democratic Central American Community (CDCA), which includes El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and, since July 7, Guatemala. Strong pressure has been put on Panama to join.
Internally the most significant of fensive has come from the Church and religious orders. These have grown amazingly in number and wealth. The Minister of the Interior has counted nearly two hundred, of which 99 are in the capital, Managua. As they are violently anticommunist they are a base for the regroupment of the opposition to the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
The Catholic hierarchy tries to isolate the progressive sectors of the Church, in particular the four priests who are governmental ministers. The Sandinistas are sure that it is around the campaign to defend religion under threat' that the next big international propaganda campaign will be made.
The level of mobilisation of the masses reflects the importance of what is at stake. The militias are more and more numerous (at least 200,000 women and men) and can mobilise with impressive speed at times of danger. All the local centres and the important economic objectives are guarded day and night by militia in arms
The day after the killings at San Francisco del Norte an almost spontaneous demonstration gathered more than 50,000 people, proof of an extraordinary level of combativity. Three years after the fall of Somoza, despite immense economic difficulties, despite imperialist plans, the Nicaraguan revolution has shown itself to be deeper and stronger than ever. International solidarity also must continue to be as strong as is necessary for the stakes involved.
Barseback-Focus of the Danish and
Swedish antinuclear movements in the March 1981 referendum in Sweden a large hard core that is not giving up." "The antinuclear movement is not dead, even if you could get that impression from the press."
This is the way that the most prestigious of the Swedish dailies, Stockholm's Dagens Nyheter, began its report of the August 28 antinuclear-power demonstration at the Barseback reactors in southern Sweden, on the shores of the strait that separates Sweden and Denmark.
The defeat of the antinuke position Astrid SODERBERGH WIDDING
The Swedish antinuclear movement experienced an unprecedented upsurge in connection with the March 23, 1980, referendum on nuclear power.
An extraparliamentary mass movement crystallized around the campaign for a "no" vote in the referendum, which offered an extraordinary opportunity to get a hearing. This campaign also became an arena for party bureaucrats pursuing their own interests. This was true in particular of the bourgeois Center Party and the VPK (Vansterparteit Kommunisterna-Left Party of Communists, the Swe10 was a major setback for the antinuclear movement, putting its future in question.
However, the August 28 demonstration appeared to mark the start of recovery for the movement. Dagens Nyheter
"The organizers were delighted. wrote: The numbers, of course, were not as large as the 25,000 peak in 1977 or the 8,000 in 1980, but the 6,000 who showed up this year demonstrated that there remains dish CP), the two parties represented in parliament that supported the call for a
Attempts by these parties to exploit the movement for their own ends blocked the building of a mass movement in areas where they gained a dominant influence and wrecked the possibilities for
The Center Party and the VPK were worried that after the defeat of the campaign for a "no" vote in the referendum, the antinuclear movement (the Folkkampanj might continue and either give rise
The following article explains the importance of the Barseback issue for the Swedish and Danish antinuclear movements and for the international movement against nuclear power. At the same time, it goes into the history of the anti-nuclear movement in the two Scandinavian countries, the reasons for past setbacks, and the prospects for struggle now. to a party or remain a strong independent mass movement.
Either way, the continuation of the campaign would threaten the position of the two established parties. So, they pressed for dissolving the organization. They did not succeed, but they managed, through control of the leading bodies, to keep it effectively from giving impetus to any new struggles. The weariness of the activists after the referendum campaign also militated against any new struggles.
It was impossible to get a new campaign going against nuclear power as such.
tisk Arbejderparti (Socialist Workers Par- For example, the Danish antinuclear
But it was possible to focus activity on certain immediate questions, such as uranium mining or the disposal of nuclear waste. Activity on both these questions was given impetus by strong feelings that existed in the local areas concerned, and it developed outside the framework of
But today the question of uranium mining has lost its immediacy and there-
Likewise, the activity around the question of the disposal of nuclear wastes has lost its impact since those leading this work lacked political perspectives and did not understand how to conduct an effective campaign.
the antinuclear movement has come to focus around another question, ty, Danish section of the Fourth International), has a strong orientation to the trade-union movement.
The SAP has helped considerably to get the activists to see building opposition to nuclear power in the unions not just as one area of work among others but as the focus for most campaigns.
In Demark, the campaign against Barseback has been carried on in one form or another since 1974, when the OOA was founded. Barseback is also strong outside the OOA
In 1980, a poll taken in Copenhagen showed that 53% of the popula tion of the main Danish city wanted the movement was long denied information about the contacts between the Swedish and Danish governments on this question and the facts presented in these discus-
Certain "admissions," however, were made by politicians in high places. For example, in 1977, Premier Thorbjorn Falldin acknowledged that "if we had known what we know today about the dangers of nuclear power, would never have been built." In 1978, the Danish minister of the environment Ivar Norgard, said in parlament that the site of Barseback had been badly chosen.
The four parties represented in the power plant shut down, and only 26% Danish parlament that oppose Barseback one that has much grater immediacy, breadth, and impact than the others the question of the nulear power plant at Barseback. How does this question differ from the issues of uranium mining and the disposal of nuclear wastes?
There is a long tradition of opposition to Barseback.
Because of the location of the plant, not just .Swedes but Danes have building the campaign against it. Over time, Barseback has become a symbol for both the Swedish and the Danish antinuclear movements.
"if we stop Barseback, we stop nuclear power." mark, which has no nuclear power plants of its own, Barseback offers a foeus for the movement against the introduction of nuclear power, since it concentrates all the risks of nulear power. ceivable argument against nuclear power can be used against Barseback
Before going into the history of the various actions against Barseback, it is useful to take a look at the Danish anti-nuclear movement and how it functions.
In part in reaction to the mistakes made by the Swedes, the Danish anti-nuclear activists have organized movement, the OOA, in quite a different way. Far from being dominated by political parties and having a hierarchical structure, it is a genuinely broad grass roots
In fact, if anything, it is Thus, the O0A lacks an elected leadership because the activists are afraid that such a leadership might steer the organization in an Out of fear of becoming dominated by one or several political parties, antinuclear activists have away from trying to gain support for their own organizations in any activities run by the various parties.
On the other hand, the Danish movement is extremely broad. with a great mass of individuals (who of course represent various tendencies), it includes four parties represented in parliament, as well as one large group that is not, the Communist Party. Within the Social Democracy, there is a strong current that supports the OOA on the Barseback question.
The OOA also, largely because of the work of our comrades in the Socialisthought that it should continue opera-
This broad opposition to Barseback has been expressed in many ways since 1914, protest rallies, demonstrations, petitions, and appeals. The call for the Oc. tober 1981 demonstration was signed by 137 organizations, including many trade unions, which organized their own contingents in the march. The SAP has continually stressed that the struggle against Barseback will have to be a prolonged one with many phases but that it must be
The Socialist Party (Swedish section of the Fourth International) has argued the same line.