notes@ucbcad.UUCP (10/23/83)
#N:ucbesvax:7500040:000:3906 ucbesvax!turner Oct 21 00:46:00 1983 I see that Congress just voted down CIA aid to the Nicaraguan contras. This is more of wrinkle than a victory, from my point of view, since the cut-off comes as a rider to an appropriations bill that is thought to have some problems with respect to civil liberties in our country. I also wonder if this really spells the end of the contras. Israel has pledged to send them PLO arms captured in Lebanon; the closing of the CIA sources probably doesn't affect the MOSSAD conduits. (Guatemala has muddled through for years with Israel as the U.S. arms-supply proxy; Israel's total advisor commitment to the region considerable exceeds that of the U.S.) Even assuming that the cut-off is a disaster for the contras, this action pushes the Reagan administration into a corner: their final play might be to instigate war between Honduras and Nicaragua. This is the worst possible outcome: Nicaragua's tentative Soviet alignment would be cast in concrete. The right-wing prophecy of a "mainland Cuba" is, perhaps, half true already--the existing pluralism is very much a function of the FSLN's need to show a democratic face to the West. They certainly need not show one to Russia. I can only hope that Honduras does not invade, and that the cut- off punctures the self-inflating balloon of Cubanization in Nicaragua. There is already an FSLN neighborhood-committee system, which is the backbone of the Cuban package of social controls. Universal conscrip- tion has been instituted, and many labor unions--notably, some of those on the left--are being slowly pushed out of the picture. However, the resentment and resistance evoked by such policies truly cannot be given free play as long as the U.S. (and its proxies) are supplying planes and bombs for blowing up bridges and oil-tanks. With the contras out of the way, and with some help to alternative organizations in Nicaragua, we could see in Nicaragua what should have happened in Spain had Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin stayed out of the picture: a small agrarian nation that doesn't oppress its people because it doesn't *need* to. This "help for the alternative" must come from the West--for too long, the left in this country has had to take the FSLN side--identifying the people of Nicaragua with its state apparatus. With the greater of the evils gone, it can afford to take a hard look at the warts of the Nicaraguan junta. Every effort should be made to supply aid as directly as possible--*from* individual organizations in the U.S., *to* individual organizations in Nicaragua. A certain amount of chaos is to be preferred, at this critical point. Material aid programs should be organized, to help heal the effects of years of tyranny, war, and natural devastation. No less important, however, is to take advantage of the Sandinista literacy program: the printed word is precisely the route by which democratic values can be affirmed. Right now, this avenue is subject to ideological controls. (The articles censored from La Prensa *can* be read--on a billboard outside its editorial offices.) This situation could change, if the agencies of outside aid took a firm stand on the issue of freedom of the press. In summary, I am glad that Congress wants to get out of Nicaragua. But I think the real crossroads lie ahead. We are, if anything, closer to war than previously. Even with that problem resolved, the left in this country must articulate--and act on--its own vision for Nicaragua: not a Cuban-model state, but an open society. Anything less than this would be plainly irresponsible. --- Michael Turner (ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner) P.S. Much of the information here can be found in this month's issue of The New Republic, a liberal magazine with which I seldom agree. I urge you to pick up this special issue on Central America, however; it doesn't hit all the bases, but it hits a lot of the right notes.