War dan!

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Shot up the pace by introducing a hard-line management style, modelled on the recent experience of BL.

That means harsh discipline, no compromise when a strike takes place, and a policy of seriously undermining the trade union organisation. Halewood is in NICARAGUAN defence minister Humberto. Ortega has warned that there is a 'serious danger of war' with Honduras following the biggest - incursions by US-backed counter-revolutionaries since the Sandinista victory in July 1979.

Ortega pointed to the fact that Honduran troops are massing on the border, while a contingent of 1,500 "contras" have pursued their armed aggression within Nicaraguan territory over the past seven weeks.

In the most recent clashes, à two-pronged attack on the North and centre of the country was largely contained close to the frontier - but about 200 right wing troops of the so-called "Nicaraguan Democratic Front" (FDN) penetrated to within 100 miles of the capital Managua, and claimed to have captured two towns.

Invaders

The Sandinistas claim to have killed 200 of the invaders and wounded a further 300. And the government has strongly attacked the Reagan administration for "provoking war" by its heavy military and economic sponsorship of the FDN reactionaries, with aid funnelled by the CIA via the US embassy in Honduras.

In Washington the US regime has refused to comment, or even admit the latest clashes are taking place, declaring blandly that it is "watching the situation"

The CIA operation in Honduras is part and parcel of a continuing US attempt to undermine the Sandinista regime by military and economic means.

The FDN forces are composed of a motley gang of former Nicaraguan National Guardsmen, together with a number of Miskito Indians: they have been trained by CIA and Argentine "advisors" in camps in Honduras.

Harassment

The harassment they have mounted in repeated cross-border raids has forced the Sandinistas to budget an estimated $125 million on defence this year.

But despite the profound economic crisis of the Sandinistas, it is plain that the reactionaries have no popular support within Nicaragua itself.

The whole operation is reminiscent of the abortive 'Bay of Pigs'. invasion of Cuba mounted by the CIA in 1961: a 1,500-strong force of reactionaries set out from Guatemala expecting to catalyse a mass movement and overturn Castro. Within 3 days all 1,500 had been killed or taken prisoner.