Comment
Readers are invited to address letters to: Comment, NACLA, 151 W. 19th Street, 9th floor, New York, NY 10011. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Implicity Pro-Soviet In the May/June...
...Doris Kitson New York, NY George Black responds: I am sorry that anyone should have taken the publication of Sir Eric Gairy's lunatic ramblings as "legitimizing" him editorially...
...While it is clear that there are, for Nicaragua, positive aspects of its relations with the USSR and its allies, there are also a number of negative aspects which we described in our articles...
...Paul Zarembka Editor, Research in Political Economy Buffalo, NY The authors respond: While it is true that the FSLN newspaper Barricada supported the imposition of martial law in Poland, it still appears to us that Professor Zarembka is guilty of the same fallacy of which he accuses us: namely, accepting that "the words" of Sandinista foreign policy are also its "substance...
...If so, it would certainly be pro-Soviet, not non-aligned...
...Implicity Pro-Soviet In the May/June issue of the Report you present Sandinista foreign policy as a struggle for non-alignment...
...We also noted that FSLN activists have a history of independence from Moscow-oriented Marxism (p.14, 20, 35...
...the limited relevance of central planning to Nicaragua's mixed economy and the "lack of comprehension" of some Eastern European economic advisers (p.48...
...Indeed, superpower approval or disapproval of a country's non-alignment depends considerbly on that country's past status...
...The photograph on page five of our July/ August issue, "Mare Nostrum," was incorrectly credited...
...But is it not true that the Sandinista leadership supported martial law in Poland in December 1981 and January 1982...
...Our statement that the USSR has generally supported non-alignment was not based simply on Soviet rhetoric, but on commonly accepted facts with which most scholars would agree...
...Our analysis examined the pattern of Sandinista rhetoric and behavior and concluded that it did not compromise Nicaragua's non-aligned status...
...dominance...
...The greatest irony is that the revolutionaries in places like Grenada, who actually suffer under the likes of Gairy, invariably do so with more humor and equanimity than their pious supporters abroad...
...George's will prove the point...
...Richard Gillespie Department of Politics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England...
...Peru, for example, has followed Soviet votes in the United Nations more closely than has Nicaragua and it has received considerably more Soviet military equipment and assistance than Nicaragua, yet nobody in Washington questions Peru's non-aligned status or its right to exist...
...And it is that same fear that is primarily responsible for keeping the alliance in one piece today...
...Of course, Gairy's rule was corrupt and brutish, and most Grenadians spent it in abject poverty...
...A progressive periodical should not provide a forum for the despotic former dictator of Grenada, regardless of how amusing or "bizarre" you may find his comments...
...immigration authorities and needs our support...
...We stated in our supposedly proSoviet article that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan "challenges the Soviet commitment to its founding principles" (p.16...
...and the higher interest rates of socialist country loans (p.42...
...We are baffled by Professor Zarembka's assertion that "in general, the tone of our articles seemed implicitly pro-Soviet...
...the socialist countries' inability to pay hard currency for Nicaraguan products and their lack of flexibility in trade relations (p.43...
...Dessima Williams, Grenada's former ambassador to the OAS and a leading spokesperson abroad for the Grenadian people's aspirations, has been harassed by U.S...
...Breaking New Ground I was extremely impressed by your excellent article on "Nicaragua and the Socialist Countries...
...Our apologies to Rick Reinhard, who took the photo in Morazin, El Salvador...
...As George Orwell once remarked, socialism is certainly the answer, but its biggest problem is "the dreary tribe of highminded people" who flock to its cause...
...INS has stated its intention to appeal a recent decision allowing her to remain in this country-the same country which gave Gairy refuge for more than four years while the People's Revolutionary Government tried to extradite him to face criminal charges in Grenada...
...A quick conversation with almost any former PRG official in St...
...This was not, of course, the case with Yugoslavia...
...We assure Professor Zarembka that pro-Soviet publications are loathe to discuss these issues...
...This implicity accepts that the words of Soviet foreign policy are also its substance, and not a tool of its struggle with U.S...
...Far more useful and disturbing, however, than invoking the "fear in the hearts of Grenada's masses," is to explore the baffling mystery of why, after four and half years of revolution, those same masses should have given 35% of the vote to this buffoon, who remains visibly the most popular politician on the island...
...As Zarembka suggests, rhetoric in international forums is not usually the best yardstick for judging a nation's foreign policy...
...Legitimizing Despots...
...The legitimizing of a man judged by the international community as a buffoon, whose name evoked fear in the hearts of Grenada's masses for more than two decades, would be expected from a right-wing think tank, not from NACLA...
...But I am even sorrier that the Left seems so determined to add its own humorlessness to the formidable list of real obstacles it already faces...
...In general, the tone seemed implicity pro-Soviet, unlike the usual NACLA independence...
...In the UN Nicaragua generally votes with the Third World "Group of 77...
...Since most countries which embraced non-alignment did so to distance themselves from their former Western colonial masters, the USSR tended to view a country's entry into NAM favorably since it would be a loss for the West...
...I would like to express strong objections to the publication of "A Talk with Eric Gairy" (March/April...
...It was only the fear of Gairy's return to power that gave birth to Herbert Blaize's rickety U.S.engineered alliance...
...In any case, I missed reference to Poland in your article (while you did use the example of Afghanistan to support your own argument...
...It voted with the United States for sending reconstruction relief to Chad, which the USSR opposed...
...In what was in my view the best issue of the Report in a long time, Marc Edelman's contribution stood out because of the major piece of original research on which it was based and for its readability and persuasive line of analysis...
...Sometimes this means that it votes with the USSR, but not always...
...Nicaragua voted for the suspension of nuclear testing, while the USSR abstained...
...As we go to press, in fact, Blaize is being threatened by an allout strike called by Gairy...
...Nicaragua's efforts at non-alignment cannot be reduced to its position on the Polish Solidarity movement...
...These include the problems of poor quality socialist country technology (see pages 14, 43, 49...
...While The New York Times, for example, recently displayed alarm at the thought that Andreas Papandreou might "try to run Greece into a non-aligned one-party state," it also called for "international pressure" to induce Cambodia "to permit a nonaligned, broadlybased regime...
...There are many pressing topics concerning Grenada...
...For example, on page 16, "the Soviet Union has generally supported [non-alignment and the non-aligned movement...
...It has, as our Report pointed out, abstained on the Afghanistan issue and argued for non-intervention during the relevant debates...
Vol. 19 • September 1985 • No. 5
