[Though the bloodthirsty CIA run "contra" mercenaries -including…]

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Though the bloodthirsty CIA run "contra" mercenaries -including large numbers of notorious ex-National Guardsmen of ousted dictator Somoza — have lamentably failed to stir any popular support whatever in their cross-border raids, and have been repeatedly driven back by army and militia units, the US imperialists feel that they could still count on important potential allies inside Nicaragua in any takeover.

One is the capitalist class, which despite extensive nationalisations still retains ownership and control of more than half the Nicaraguan economy.

Though these business people have been prepared (to greater or lesser extent) to go along with Sandinista rule, in the event of a military invasion they would be more than likely to switch allegiance to provide a valuable point of support for a "democratic" US puppet regime.

The second is the Catholic Church, which is currently resisting new Sandinista conscription laws designed to provide maximum forces to defend the country against US aggression and "contra" murder squads.

Bigger project

But there is no doubt that any attempt by the US to invade and control Nicaragua would be an entirely different scale of project from the invasion of Grenada.

Unlike the top-level coup which led to the Grenadian 'revolution' , the Sandinista revolution of 1979 was the product of mass-based guerrilla struggles going back 20 years.

Even after four years of heavy-handed and often bureaucratic rule by the Sandinista leadership under conditions of deprivation and economic blockade, the revclution has yielded tangible gains in rights and living standards for most Nicaraguan workers and peasants, and retains a strong popuRodchenko in the workers' costume he designed (1920) Desion for a monument to the Third inter

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(1919-20) by Vladimir Tatlin