Nicaragua rejects talks with contras

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But grant them Every day, the U.S. government increases its offensive against the Nicaraguan Revolution, demonstrating its clear intention to overthrow the Sandinista government.

With the signing, on Oct. 24, of the executive order that will provide $100 million in aid to the contras, the U.S. government and the CIA will now be able to do openly what they have been doing covertly all along. Reagan administration officials explain, for example, that it will now be legal to mine Nicaragua's harbors and train contra troops.

According to interviews conducted by The New York Times with high administration officials on Oct. 22, the purpose of the U.S. government's support to the contras has been "to do whatever is necessary to either radically change the present Nicaraguan government or to remove it from power."

A central component of this U.S. strategy has been to try to push the Nicaraguan government to lay down its arms and negotiate some form of powersharing with the contras as part of a so-called regional "peace" settlement.

The Reagan administration stated openly in June 1986 that the purpose of the contra aid was to force the Sandinistas to the bargaining table with the contras. A major argument in Reagan's appeal for the $100 million in additional aid was that the Sandinistas had so far "refused to seek internal reconciliation as offered under the Contadora regional peace plan."

such "internal reconciliation" would legitimacy to the contras, provide with an internal foothold, and ultimately pave the way for the overthrow of the Sandinista government itself.

The FSLN government has refused to negotiate with the contras. It has vowed neyer to talk to the contras, stating that only traitors support such talks. The Sandinistas have also systematically rejected the imperialist-backed demand that they disarm.

Pressure to negotiate

Tremendous pressures are being exerted from various quarters on the Sandinista government to negotiate with the contras. On Sept. 1, a petition was signed by five political parties in the Nicaraguan National Assembly demanding a two-month delay in constitutional drafting proceedings in order to carry out what was termed a "national dialogue."

The five parties included three capitalist opposition parties—the Democratic Conservative Party (PCD), the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), and the Popular Social Christian Party (PPSC)-as well as the two pro-Moscow Stalinist parties-the Communist Party of Nicaragua (PCdeN) and the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN).

In a recent issue of Avance, the official organ of the PCdeN, party leader Eli Altamirano stated that the "thesis of national dialogue is the most patriotic thesis that can be defended in our country The official response by the FSLN government to the five-party proposal was immediate. FSLN Commander Carlos Nunez rejected it outright, stating that "such a dialogue would open the door for the counterrevolutionary forces to obtain a political foothold in the country to accompany the interventionist escalation that has worsened with the approval of the $100 million."

UNERALIA LOWING CONTRABTLOR 1964 Other so-called friends of the Nicaraguan Revolution have also urged the FSLN to capitulate to U.S. imperialism.

In June 1986, the Socialist International (SI) congress in Lima, Peru, "moved away from declared support for the Sandinista government and toward a position calling for dialogue and compromise on both sides," according to political analyst Lucy Komisar. (Miami Herald, June 28, 1986)

And the list goes on—from the so-called Contadora nations of Latin America to the Soviet bureaucracy itself. All agree in condemning the Sandinista government for its refusal to sign a Contadora "peace plan" that would demand that Nicaragua disarm while placing no such conditions on the U.S. government.

Still, despite the pressures, the Sandinista government has pledged to defend the revolution. "The battle we will wage will be with rifles and millions of Nicaraguans with rifles," Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said at a recent news conference.

United States Out Now!"

The U.S. government is rapidly heading toward another Vietnam in Central America. In order to roll back the Nicaraguan Revolution, more than aid to Socialist Action/Joe Ryan the contras will be necessary. The step from having advisers training the contras to having U.S. troops directly involved in the fighting is a short one-as Vietnam demonstrated.

Working people in this country have no interest in waging a war in Central America. They have no interest in going to fight and die in a war against a people whose only crime was to say they wished to determine their own destiny, free from U.S. interference.

Yet if the U.S. war in Central America follows its course, it will be the sons and daughters of American working people who will be forced to shed their blood to defend the interests of U.S. imperialism in this region.

This is why the demand of Out Now!" is the most effective slogan for mobilizing masses of American people.

Poll after poll in this country has revealed that a majority of the American people are opposed to U.S. aid to the contra terrorists. They oppose the current bipartisan policies of the government.

It is possible to build a powerful antiwar movement in the streets of this country today to demand that the U.S. government end its intervention in Central America. I