In August the leadership of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) expelled the non-Nicaraguan members of the "Simón Bolívar Brigade" from Nicaragua. The world capitalist press has portrayed the Simón Bolívar Brigade (SBB) as "Trotskyist." The United Secretariat of the Fourth International, the worldwide Trotskyist organization, is issuing this statement to clarify its relation to the Simón Bolívar Brigade.
The Simón Bolívar Brigade was formed in June of this year by the Colombian Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores (PST—Socialist Workers Party). Its ostensible purpose was to recruit a military brigade to fight with the FSLN in the final offensive against the Somoza regime.
Although individuals who passed through the brigade found their way to the front and were integrated into the FSLN units, the brigade as a unit entered Nicaragua after the fall of Managua. Sections of the brigade went to Managua, Bluefields, and other cities.
The Simón Bolívar Brigade not only presented itself as part of the FSLN, but claimed to be acting for the FSLN and its leadership. However, it never in fact accepted the discipline of the FSLN, but instead set its own course. Falsely posing as an armed unit of the FSLN, the brigade endeavored to impose its own leadership on workers involved in organizing unions in various factories, in some cases through authoritarian and manipulative methods. It even introduced the outrageous rule of "double affiliation" of these unions to both the Sandinista Workers Federation (CST) and the SBB! This activity received broad notoriety in Nicaragua. In Bluefields, a town on the east coast largely cut off from the rest of the country where there were few FSLN cadres, the brigade presented itself as the FSLN leadership of the city and surrounding area. The FSLN was obliged to send in an armed unit into Bluefields to establish its authority.
Faced with this situation, the FSLN leadership publicly called for a meeting with the Simón Bolívar Brigade. The Brigade responded by organizing a demonstration of workers near the meeting site. The workers involved were brought to this demonstration under the false pretense that they were there to discuss their problems with the FSLN leadership.
The FSLN leadership held two meetings with the Simón Bolívar Brigade, lasting many hours, to try to resolve the situation. They proposed that the brigade become a disciplined and loyal part of the FSLN, as an international brigade. But the brigade leadership refused to place itself under the discipline of the FSLN, despite its public stance that it is a military, and not political organization. Consequently, the FSLN leadership expelled the brigade's non-Nicaraguan members. They were sent to Panama, as a first step on their way. When the Torrijos regime utilized the opportunity to arrest and beat members of the brigade before sending them on, which we condemn and denounce, the FSLN leadership issued a statement that it had not arrested or mistreated any member of the brigade, and that its intention was solely to expel them from Nicaragua.
The Colombian PST is a sympathizing organization of the Fourth International. However, the entire project of setting up the Simón Bolívar Brigade was not done under the guidance of, or in collaboration with, the elected leadership bodies of the Fourth International. It set its own course, against the policies of the Fourth International.
The disregard for and contempt of the Fourth International on the part of the leaders of the Simón Bolívar Brigade was exemplified by their refusal to allow a representative of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International who was present to attend the meetings between the FSLN and the Simón Bolívar Brigade, although this was agreeable to the FSLN.
Documents of the Colombian PST state that the project of the Simón Bolívar Brigade was largely conceived and executed as a factional operation against the FSLN and the majority of the Fourth International. The Colombian PST placed its own factional interests above those of the Nicaraguan revolution.
This behavior of the brigade could provide a pretext to forces opposed to the advance of the revolution to advocate the use of repression in the workers movement to settle political differences, against the policy of the FSLN.
The United Secretariat of the Fourth International condemns and repudiates the Simón Bolívar Brigade and its activities.
At the same time, the Fourth International considers the expulsion of the Simón Bolívar Brigade from Nicaragua to be a mistake. We don't want to minimize the fraudulent and irresponsible character of the Simón Bolívar Brigade operation. But we believe that the prestige and political authority of the FSLN are sufficiently great to have enabled it to solve the problem of the Simón Bolívar Brigade by using public criticism and condemnation.