NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY_ Revolutionary youth's answer to the imperialist summit At the beginning of May, at the same time as the imperialist summit in Bonn, a delegation from the Sandinista Youth visited West Germany as part of a two-month tour of the German-speaking countries.
During their visit the members of the delegation learned of the refusal of the US House of Representatives to appropriate another 14 million dollars for "aid" to the contras and of Reagan's declaration of a total trade embargo against Nicaragua. Their assessment was that the House's decision meant only a delay in granting more aid to the contras, but that the growing protests in the US itself against Reagan's aggression against Nicaragua were strengthening the tendencies within the bourgeoisie itself that fear the results of a military escalation.
visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp could hardly have been exceeded. Nazism was presented simply as a one-off historical mis-step for which fundamentally only a few fanatics around Hitler were responsible.
This way of "overcoming the past" naturally suits a state where today thousands of ex-Nazis (today wearing the clothes of defenders of freedom and democracy) are sitting in key positions of power in the banks, the big companies, the parties and associations, and even in parliament and in the top positions in the state.
A still more sinister high point of this extravaganza was Reagan's "Speech to German Youth." The site he chose for this was the Hambach Castle, where in 1832 there was a big demonstration of students against the authoritarian state.
To a selected audience guaranteed to applaud his words - they were mostly members of the Christian Democratic vouth organization - Reagan offered youth organization - Reagan offered his patent medicine for youth unemployment, running down of education, and the feeling of youth that they have no future.
"I would like to encourage you today to think over whether with your friends you might want sooner or later to start a business, so that you can become part of this new great movement of progress -the age of enterprise." [Retranslated from the German.]
Reagan and Co. are indeed preparing the way for a new age - the age of the decline of human civilization. The economic summit was to work out the plans for this perspective for the future.
On at least two points, there was a common denominator:
- a common declaration of war on free Nicaragua and the anti-imperialist liberation movements throughout the world world.
- a common declaration of war against the workers in the imperlalist countries themselves, who are supposed to pay the costs of the capitalist crisis in unemployment, cuts in social services, and poverty.
However, the summit also showed the fragility of the imperialist world structure facing the expected deep recession in the international capitalist economy. European imperialism is still not in a position to challenge seriously the military and political supremacy of the US. In the economic arena, on the other hand, cut-throat competition among the "allies" is already in full swing. The only thing they really agreed on in this summit is who their victims will be.
The youth organizations in sympathy with the Fourth International will continue to oppose this policy by defending the revolution in Nicaragua strengthening the antiwar and anti-NATC movement, and by giving impetus to the fight of young people for a life withou war, exploitation, hunger, and oppression It's socialism or barbarism! No pasaran!
Wolfgang KREMER
Companeros Noel and Francisco expressed the response of Nicaraguan revolutionists to US threats:
"They may destroy our country, they may kill a lot of us, but they cannot extinguish the idea of freedom and international solidarity among the oppressed."
The first stage of their tour in West Germany showed that more and more young people are coming to understand this message.
In twenty cities, political youth organizations, solidarity committees, church and trade-union youth groups organized meetings, press conferences, receptions and visits in order to strengthen solidarity with the youth of Nicaragua.
The Roten Maulwuerfe [Red Mole Nicaraguan militias discuss with supporters (DR)
groups], the youth organization in political sympathy with the Fourth International in West Germany, took the initiative for the solidarity actions in many cities. In their visits to schools, youth centers, unions, and with "prominent" politicians (such as the mayor of Cologne), as well as in rallies, festivals, and demonstrations, the Sandinista youth were able to tell tens of thousands of people about their work as a revolutionary youth organization and to denounce imperialist aggression against their country.
The Nicaraguan comrades also took part in the protests against the world economic summit. In fact, the motto for this "grand meeting" could have been "There's no business like show business." In particular, the bad taste of Reagan's