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p Dear Comrades,

p The delegation of the Nicaraguan Socialist Party, the Party of Nicaraguan Communists, conveys on behalf of its Central Committee warm fraternal greetings to the Communist and Workers’ Parties present here and to those Marxist-Leninist Parties which for reasons not connected with their tested loyalty to international proletarian unity and solidarity, are unable to take part in this Meeting, which is of historical importance not only for the communist movement but for all revolutionary, progressive and consistently anti-imperialist forces of our time.

p The Marxist-Leninist vanguard of the Nicaraguan proletariat is particularly grateful to the CPSU₃ the HSWP and other fraternal Parties which have performed tremendous, inestimable work to create the most favourable conditions for the preparation and successful culmination of the historical phase we are witnessing these days in the capital of the first socialist state.

p We are also fraternally grateful to all the detachments of Marxists-Leninists which, working with enthusiasm and with a sense of genuine socialist internationalism, participated in the preparations and contributed invaluably to the drafting and further elaboration of the documents now submitted for final consideration to this great international forum of the communist and workingclass movement.

p Comrades, several days ago, taking into consideration the importance of the proposals submitted by the Preparatory Committee to the Central Committees of Communist and Workers’ Parties, our Political Commission convened an extraordinary enlarged plenary meeting of the Central Committee to determine the Party’s stand on the draft documents adopted by the Preparatory Committee: the Main Document, "Tasks at the Present Stage of the Struggle Against Imperialism and United Action of the Communist and Workers’ Parties and All Anti-Imperialist Forces", the Appeal in Defence of Peace, the appeal "Independence, Freedom and Peace for Vietnam!" and the address "Centenary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin",

p The plenum of the Nicaraguan Communists unanimously decided to approve the general propositions of the Main Document, which had been thoroughly 562 studied and to which some comments—very important, in our opinion—had been offered.

p The drafts of the other three documents, were also unanimously approved at that important assembly of Nicaraguan Communists.

p The plenum authorised its delegates to the Meeting to sign the documents, indicating our Party’s approval of their content. It also instructed its delegation to help secure the unanimous approval of the documents by the delegates of the Communist and Workers’ Parties represented at this Meeting.

p We want to make clear that in speaking about the remarks made by our enlarged extraordinary plenum regarding the draft Main Document we have in mind not divergences with regard to formulations and the content, but omissions which we think have been made.

p To be more concrete, Jet us take the passage which develops the thesis about the character, content and main trends of our epoch and about the three main revolutionary forces fighting against imperialism. It contains a detailed analysis of the first part of the thesis, but the passage which expounds the idea of the "third force" or, to be more exact, refers to the national liberation movement and primarily the Latin American national liberation movement, appears to us to be rather superficial.

p Possibly the blame for this rests largely with us, Communist and Workers’ Parties of Latin America, for we did not devote sufficient attention to the obvious need of formulating and thoroughly elaborating, through bilateral, regional and continental meetings, a general strategy of the antiimperialist struggle and of joint action by our Parties and the other antiimperialist forces of Latin America. This, however, cannot justify the inadequate treatment of the given theme in the draft.

p On the other hand, it seems to us that the problems will not disappear or become less sensitive if we simply try to evade them. In our view, we cannot influence living reality in a positive way by keeping silent about it. One cannot shut out the sun with one’s hand. We seem to forget sometimes that MarxismLeninism has given us an excellent and effective weapon for surmounting difficulties. We Communists should never be afraid of using this weapon, we should never give it up. That weapon is constructive criticism and self- criticism.

p For this reason, despite the objections to such procedure, our delegation wants to say a few words about what we think are issues of principle, issues which are treated too timidly or passed over in silence in the draft. We do so because we consider it our right and duty to act that way here, for we are in our own family and not in the field of battle against alien ideologies. If we Communists cannot speak here plainly out of fear of offending anyone, then we think we cannot do so anywhere.

p To us Nicaraguan Communists the question of the attitude of the contingents, of our movement towards the Party of Lenin, the CPSU, towards the first bastion of the world proletariat, the Soviet Union, is a question of principle. We cannot understand why at a time when we, moved by fraternal revolutionary gratitude, assign to socialist Cuba and its Party the merited place of vanguard in the Latin American revolutionary movement, die first detachment 563 laying the foundations of socialism in our continent, there are people who try, sometimes in an impudent form, to deny the vanguard role played by rights in the world communist and revolutionary movement by the great Party of Lenin, the Party which ushered in a new era in mankind’s history by the glorious October Revolution, and built the first proletarian state, the first socialist fatherland, which has for more than 50 years steadfastly fulfilled the internationalist duty placed upon it by history.

p That is more than enough for us Nicaraguan Communists to regard the country and Party of Lenin as the tried and tested vanguard of the world communist and revolutionary movement.

p Exposure and condemnation of any splitting activity, whatever its origin, in our movement is a matter of principle for us.

p Our international duty commands us to wage a resolute struggle against anti-Sovietism emanating from the imperialist enemy. Our repudiation of this despicable campaign should be all the greater if its source lies within our movement itself.

p Also a matter of principle for us is defence, preservation and development of the successes of socialism by all necessary means. Only by doing so can we remain consistent, having proclaimed that "defence of socialism is an internationalist duty of Communists”.

p And is condemnation of Rightist deviations in our movement less a matter of principle than condemnation of Leftist deviations, particularly at the present moment when, we hold, Rightist deviations are not less dangerous than Leftist ones ?

p These and other observations were made by our extraordinary enlarged plenum when discussing the Main Document, and we see it as our duty to mention them here.

p However, taking into account the motives and considerations that served as the basis for the Preparatory Committee in drafting the Main Document, our Central Committee, as we have said earlier, unanimously approved the draft in the form in which the Committee ’had submitted it to us, regarding the Document as "a solid success, a step forward in the fight for the unity and cohesion of the communist and workers’ movement, the best guarantee of consistent, powerful and effective action by all the anti-imperialist forces of our time”.

p But, comrades, facts are stubborn. That is why, contrary to our intentions, we, like others, felt compelled, to our deep regret, to raise some questions here, for they, in our opinion, concern principles.

p In his speech the head of the CPSU delegation, Comrade Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, exposed the new anti-communist and anti-Soviet manoeuvres of the Mao group. How can anyone call in question the restraint, firmness and Marxist-Leninist consistency of all the actions of the comrades from the CPSU and the Soviet government in the face of the provocations on the part of the present leadership of the CPC? We think that inconceivable. If so, should the communist movement content itself with the role of a mere onlooker? We consider that adventuristic positions deserve principled criticism. Moreover, we ask, for how long can those who are daily betraying the movement in their 564 practical activity be regarded as members of this movement? What we mean here is the practical activity of the Mao Tse-tung clique and not the Chinese Communists or the Chinese people.

p Comrades, we are convinced that it would be a grave error to identify the specific conditions in which our Party is working with the general conditions of the whole communist movement. It stands to reason that, while being members of the great communist family, we should reckon with the special conditions in which we are fulfilling our revolutionary duty, and should live up, to the necessary degree, to the demands of the actual situation in which our Party is working.

p This situation is characterised, first and foremost, by the anti-democratic and anti-communist repressive activity of the dynastic dictatorial regime of Somoza, The repressions were intensified after the advent to power on May 1, 1967, of General Anastasio Somoza Debayle. An upsurge of popular discontent was a logical consequence of the openly anti-national, anti-popular policy in all areas of social life.

p One of the natural reasons for the intensification of repressions was the growth of our Party’s capacity for action and also the actions—premature, in our view—of groups of young patriots. They were impelled by good intentions, but their ultra-Left positions and absolutisation of armed struggle do not correspond to the present concrete reality of our country.

p In recent years, regrettably, our Party has been unable to devote itself wholly to the Nicaraguan people’s anti-imperialist, anti-oligarchic and anti-dictatorial struggle, being compelled to engage a part of its forces in a fight to eliminate Right-wing opportunism in our own ranks, which had for many years distorted the Marxist-Leninist character of our organisation and weakened its capacity for action, rousing distrust towards us among considerable political and social strata of our people. Admittedly, the actions of Right opportunism in our Party had helped pave the way for the shift of some comrades to Leftist positions, and we were compelled again to divert part of our forces to combat the ultraLeft elements who tried to split our ranks by subversive work in which they used our struggle against Right opportunism as a cover.

p Fortunately, the historic plenum of April 23,1967, which we called Leninist, routed Right opportunism, condemned the ultra-Left positions and laid the groundwork for the consistent revolutionary Marxist-Leninist activity of our Party.

p We know that these trends will not disappear for good so long as their gnosiological and class roots continue to exist, but we can say that in our country, owing to the consistent work of our Party, the working people are offering these trends ever stronger resistance.

p It is interesting to note also that in this straggle Right opportunism and the ultra-Left deviation use the same labels to vilify our Party and its leaders: "CIA agents", "modern revisionists", “Trotskyites”, “pseudo-intellectuals”, and the like, chanting them in unison.

p For the past two years outstanding leaders and functionaries of our Party have been languishing in the prisons of the dictatorship. I alone have managed, observing the strictest security rules, to leave the country and come here, 565 whereas the other two comrades who were to have accompanied me, are now jailed in the infamous La Aviacion prison. Because of the scarcity of our contacts with the rest of the world we do not have the benefit of the support and solidarity of many fraternal Parties.

p We will never rest content with our achievements. Indeed, something will always remain unfulfilled, or half-fulfilled. We have still to rid ourselves of the many ills inherited from the twenty-year period of influence of Social- Democratic liberalism. And we have to exert considerable efforts and observe discipline to become accustomed to new forms of work. We all know very well what force of habit can do.

p The shortage of cadres has frequently hampered our work in specific areas. In emergencies we have often been compelled to extemporise in promoting new cadres, which sometimes resulted in poor work.

p Consistently pursuing our policy of many-sided and multiform struggle, we have opened new fronts involving considerable additional efforts and expenditures and this, in turn, called for the effective militant solidarity of all our brothers.

p Summing up the results of our activity, it can be said that the revolutionary trade union movement and the organised struggle of the rural working people, who doubtless constitute the main force of the movement for the social and economic demands of the masses in our country, are directed by our Party.

p The country-wide protest against the high cost of living, the fight for the release of political prisoners, in defence of constitutional rights, and most of the local actions for better conditions and for progress—all these are aspects of the mass political movement guided by us. It seems, however, that we still have to find the necessary forms and master the methods of work which would make our efforts fruitful in respect to the women’s movement and the organisation of permanent committees for large-scale actions over the issues of international solidarity and the fight for peace. We have partially made up for this deficiency by including these tasks in the general practical and political work of the Party.

p Political work among the intelligentsia is a new aspect of our activity, but we have already attained a certain measure of success in it.

p In the work among the youth and students we came up against certain difficulties, which emerged approximately’four years ago when, as a result of the divisive and openly anti-communist actions of some ultra-Left youth groups, the democratic and revolutionary forces lost the student movement to the Social-Christian Right. However, we have gradually restored the lost positions, and in the coming academic year the correlation of forces is very likely to change in our favour. Our Party’s understanding of the problems of the youth has proved decisive in this process of recovery of positions.

p The perseverance of our Party in pursuing the tasks of uniting all progressive forces in the fight against the military dictatorship and imperialism is bearing fruit. At the present moment we have given support to an initiative aimed at securing joint action by the anti-imperialist, democratic and revolutionary forces active in the national political arena. Our stand and our good relations with some organisations and politicians have contributed to progress towards this important goal.

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p We can assure you that there is not a single front of democratic and revolutionary struggle where our Party is not providing guidance or firm support.

p These and other kinds of activity, which we shall not enumerate here, are part of our modest contribution to the national liberation struggle of our people and to the common struggle for socialism and communism all over the world. It is our contribution to the struggle for peace. In all its activities our Party takes into account the perspective of the violent confrontation which is bound to take place in the country between the forces of the dictatorship, oligarchy and imperialism, on the one hand, and the forces of democracy, national liberation and socialism, on the other.

p A large segment of the population of our country is still ideologically and politically influenced by the liberal-conservative oligarchy. The masses are still struggling in the clutches of the traditional bipartisan system. Hence the prime importance which our Party attaches to painstaking work among the masses, an indispensable condition for the successful development of our tactics in anticipation of the changes bound to arise as we go over to higher forms of struggle.

p We know that this is a titanic struggle. Conscious of the fact that at present there is no single political force in the country capable of shouldering the entire burden of the struggle and consistently waging it to the end, we take a positive view of the idea of unity of all the anti-dictatorial, anti-oligarchic and antiimperialist forces of Nicaragua.

p Furthermore, we think that this stupendous task can be carried out only on the condition that in our patriotic and revolutionary efforts we can count on the material and moral support and solidarity of the fraternal peoples on all continents and in the first place of their proletarian vanguards. We do not ignore but, on the contrary, see ever more clearly the possible eventuality of having to wage a direct struggle against hordes of imperialist invaders. That is why we Nicaraguan Communists value highly the striving for the unity and cohesion of the communist and working-class movement. We must cherish it as the apple of our eye.

p Dear comrades, this Meeting, whose main task is to clear the way to the unity and cohesion of the international communist movement, has been convened on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the leader and teacher of the world proletariat, whose life and work are to all of us a source of inspiration in our struggle. We therefore consider that on this glorious anniversary the best way for all of us to pay homage to Lenin’s memory and emphasise the immortality of his ideas is to uphold firmly the invincible ideological weapon bequeathed by Lenin—Marxism-Leninism—and to carry out the historic pledges we have assumed before our peoples and the peoples of the whole world. And if tomorrow an opportunity presents itself to meet again as we have met here, I am sure that we will be able to say that only Lenin’s ideas, correctly and consistently applied in practice by each of our Parties, and by all our Parties together, have helped eliminate all the disagreements that arose on the road to the unity and cohesion of our great communist family, of our international Marxist-Leninist movement.

p And in conclusion, comrades, it would not be out of place to stress that at 567 present the gaze of the peoples of all the world is riveted on Moscow, on this hall, on the problems posed here. The peoples of the world believe that their finest sons will be able to chart the best ways of struggle which will bring nearer victory over imperialism, the common enemy of all the peoples. We are positive that we will justify their confidence.

p Long live Marxism-Leninism, the invincible ideological weapon of the proletariat!

p Long live proletarian internationalism!

Long live communism!