European tour Two representatives of the Sandinista Youth-19 July (JS-19 July) have been making a very successful tour of Western Europe at the invitation of youth organisations in solidarity with the Fourth International.
Alvaro Porta, member of the national council of JS-19 July and secretary for ideological work in the Manauga region, and Lautaro Sandino, head of the Western Europe section and of the commission for international relations, visited seven countries to carry the message their revolution to the young workers, students and unemployed of Europe.
The movement against the imperialist war drive and the attacks on democratic rights and living standards, have brought thousands of young people into political activity over the last few years. These young people, less weighed down by the hold of reformist politics, are an enthusiastic audience for the message of a living revolution, under daily and increas ing threat from US imperialism.
It was the appeal of young people at the forefront of the revolution in Nicaragua to these thousands of young people in Europe, who by their activity in the anti-war movement, the solidarity movements are also confronting the No one can doubt mass support for FSLN (DR)
threat of imperialist war, which was the cornerstone of the Sandinista comrades tour in Europe.
Wherever they went, they took the opportunity to explain not only the nature of their revolution but the role of young people within it. Lautaro Sandino explained the specific role of young people to Rouge, weekly newspaper of the French section of the Fourth International:
"The main objective of the Sandinista Youth-19 July is the defence of our country. We don't only mean military defence but also defence on the economic, social and political fronts. In addition, the JS works to stimulate the development of the mass movements such as the student movement, the cultural movement, the sports movement. We want to make it possible for young people to participate in rebuilding the country, building the new society we intend to construct?
This message was put over in numerous meetings organised by solidarity committees, youth organisations, in towns, on university campuses, wherever there was an opportunity. An important feature of the tour was the opportunity for the Sandinista youth to explain their message to representatives of the mass youth ormore length. This followed two local public meetings organised by local branches of the LPYS.
In West Germany Porta and Sandino met with members of the SPD youth organisation as well as supporters of Roter Maulwurt, the youth newspaper in solidarity with the Fourth International, and addressed a meeting organised by the solidarity committee.
An interesting meeting in the Netherlands was with the leadership of the soldiers' trade union, who are active in the opposition to their own country's involvement in the imperialist war drive.
A highlight of the tour was the meeting organised by the Nicaraguan solidarity committee in Paris on April 26, attended by over 400 people. While in Paris the JS representatives also spoke at a number of university sites, and met leadership representatives of both the Socialist Party and Communist Party youth organisations. Their visit coincided with the funeral of veteran Fourth International leader Pierre Frank, whom they honoured with a wreath 'to the revolutionary Pierre Frank'
The traditional workers' celebrations of May Day had more revolutionary bite than usual in Belgium where the Sandinista representatives spoke at a celebration organised by the PSO/SAP, Belgian section of the Fourth International, and in Zurich, Switzerland. Here, not only did they address the May Day demonstration of some six thousand people, but they spoke directly to several hundred young people at a meeting organised by the Fourth International youth organisation.
After attending a meeting in Turin organised on a united front basis, the JS representatives then returned to Geneva where they addressed a rally along with representatives of the Izquierda Unida of the Dominican Republic and of the Chilean movement. Participating in this event was the singer Angel Jara, the brother of the well-known Chilean singer
NO PASANAS
Victor Jara who died in prison under the dictatorship.
The last days of their tour were spent in Italy and Switzerland addressing meetings, seeing members of the youth commissions of the trade unions, and so on.
In each of their meetings, with each current of the workers movement they met, the young Sandinista representatives insisted on the need for practical solidarity actions with Nicaragua. As they also explained to Rouge the necessity is:
"To make the effort to reconstruct everything that the imperialists have been able to destroy in Nicaragua. If imperialism mines the ports, we have to make the effort to remove the mines. This is not only true for the Nicaraguan people but for the French people, and revolutionaries from throughout the world.'
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