[The following editorial appeared in the February 20 issue of Inprecor, a fortnightly magazine published in Paris under the auspices of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. The translation is by Intercontinental Press. J
Free Nicaragua has always attached great importance to the solidarity movements that exist throughout the world. These solidarity movements reflect the impact of the revolutionary process that began with the fall of the Somoza dictatorship on July 19, 1979. They help to expose the activities of imperialism and the counterrevolutionary forces fighting the Sandinista revolution and work to isolate the patrons of the counterrevolutionaries.
In line with these initiatives, for several years the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the Junta of the Government of National Reconstruction have made efforts to welcome international solidarity brigades.
During the summer of 1983, hundreds of volunteers from West Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Chile, the United States, Denmark, Spain, France, the Basque country, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland took part in such brigades to show their concrete solidarity with the Nicaraguan revolution.
The participants in these brigades met in August 1983 and published a common statement calling on "the governments of [their] respective countries, civic and religious figures, all working-class, peasant, and intellectual organizations, all political parties and mass organizations" to condemn the Reagan administration, to support the FLN's peace efforts, and to step up protest actions in front of United States embassies in each of these contries, and to use all forms of response and mobilization: public campaigns, financial solidarity, sending more brigades of volunteers."
The Sandinista press regularly reports on the arrival of contingents of volunteers and on their activities with the population. This winter, for the coffee harvest, more than 700 volunteers (500 of them from the United States) have already gone to Nicaragua in solidarity brigades from different countries.
Such international solidarity brigades are in the interest of the Nicaraguan revolution for several reasons. First of all, the brigades provide material assistance in the campaigns to harvest coffee and cotton and to build schools, health centers, and various installations. In the summer of 1983, for example, two brigades of Swiss volunteers worked with local residents to build a bridge in a neighborhood in Matagalpa.
All these activities make real contributions to the reconstruction effort being mounted by the Nicaraguan revolution.
But the volunteer labor brigades have another very important significance. The brigades help provide concrete evidence to the Nicaraguan masses of the international political support that exists for the Sandinista revolution. The brigades show the working people that their country is not isolated in the gigantic resistance they are waging against the counterrevolutionary campaigns financed and organized by the U.S. administration.
This more strictly political dimension of the international solidarity is further heightened when the "brigadistas" are present in the border areas, where the Nicaraguan fighters are in the front lines against the attacks by the counterrevolutionary forces, and will be even more so if there is more direct foreign intervention.
Solidarity movement activists from West Germany are beginning to organize just such a presence. This can have an important role as a deterrent against actions fomented by the United States. In early January a Swiss brigade of 20 people went to the area of the San Juan River along the border with Costa Rica to carry out land-clearing work.
But establishing solidarity brigades is also a way of activating the solidarity movement itself in the countries from which the volunteers are recruited. Far from being an activity isolated from the rest of the solidarity effort, it is an effective tool to popularize the real situation in Nicaragua in order to involve the workers organizations and their individual activists in concrete solidarity tasks. Descriptions and reports of the trips and experiences in Nicaragua can also be used to build informational meetings and public protests.
It has been shown in practice that many of the solidarity activists who go through this experience of mass internationalism, coming into direct contact with a living revolution, find that they are a bit more committed to the revolution's cause on their return than they were when they left.
Sending fact-finding and trade-union solidarity missions is also part of the same effort. Moreover, these missions are in line with the goals of the Nicaraguan union movement, which has just issued a call for an "International Meeting for Peace" in Managua in April.
This side of the process of sending solidarity brigades is clearly illustrated by the experience of 40 Austrian brigade-members who left for Nicaragua in early January. The Austrian movement in solidarity with Nicaragua thought that it could get 15 or so volunteers in response to an appeal from the Rural Workers Association (ATC — the Sandinista peasant and agricultural workers organization). But within several days more than 300 people had applied. From among them, the Austrian solidarity committee selected 100 volunteers who will end up going in two trips.
For all these reasons, sending volunteer labor brigades to Nicaragua is an aspect of solidarity work that has exceptional importance for the defensive needs of the Nicaraguan revolution for expanding the solidarity movement. It is no exaggeration to say that the response in many countries has no parallel except the experience of the Spanish Civil War. Often these brigades concretely reflect an exemplary unity among different components of the local workers and people's movement. The Austrian brigade, for example, includes Social Democratic activists, members of the Communist Party, the Catholic workers movement, the Alternatives (the equivalent of the German "Greens"), Trotskyists, and activists who are not politically organized and who take part for a variety of reasons — some for purely humanitarian ends, others for more political reasons involving support to the revolutionary struggle of the FSLN and the Nicaraguan masses.
On Oct. 25, 1983, the national executive committee of the Sandinista Defense Committees (CDS) issued an appeal "to committees in solidarity with Nicaragua" to set up brigades of volunteer workers in the medical and technical fields and other specialties. Hundreds and thousands of brigade-members from Europe, America, and Japan are expected in Nicaragua in early 1984. This is an initial, positive response to the appeal made by the Nicaraguan masses and their organizations. It is now more necessary than ever to do everything possible to stay the armed hand of imperialism. Therefore we must further extend and build upon this initial response.
Facing imperialist aggression, Nicaragua is not alone! Our response to the appeal by the Nicaraguan revolution must be: "Present."