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Companero Issac:

Thank you for your informative reply to my questions.
That gives to me a more clear picture of the position of your movement regarding those questions. While my questions to companera Dianne were perhaps posed in an overly provacative manner, it was done with the intention of making sure she understood her comments had an impact in a negative manner, beyond which she might have intended. Of course, I hope my questions did not imply that Solidarity was supporting American imperialism or the activities of the oligarchy, merely that Dianne's language was echoing that of the right, and that other formulations might be more appropriate.

In regards to the position of Solidarity regarding the creation of a Fifth Socialist International, it is good to hear that this matter is being discussed in the serious manner which it merits. I look forward to seeing this discussion on the website. For your information, two of the left organisations in Canada, Socialist Project and Socialist Action have already endorsed this initative by compa Chavez, and I am sure there will be other discussions held elsewhere.

The creation of strengthening the links between the hemispheric left is a political as well as organisational question, not that the two can ever be seperated in the final analysis. The development of a network for the dissemination of information should be a top priority as part of a campaign to build a mass solidarity movement with the Latin American revolution. This of course has many aspects, but ultimately comes down to making the building of this movement a political priority for the forces of the revolutionary left. I have been a member and supporter of the IV International for 42 years, like many of the companeros and companeras of the Solidarity organisation. In all that time, and with the only exception being support for the Cuban revolution after its characterisation as a workers and farmers governement, has the North American left concentrated its attention on Latin America. This is a weakness which history now demands be overcome.
Perhaps I am bending the branch to much against the wind, but leaving aside conjunctural events like the Unidad Popular in Chile, and the victory of the Sandanista government in Nicaragua, there has been no systematic organisational plan to link the struggles. Not that it is easy, I am not suggesting that it is.
The companeros of the Cuban Communist Party have said that the North American left is not up to the task of defending the Latin American revolution. With them, I disagree, not based just on historical evidence, but based on what I believe is the capacity of the revolutionaries in the North to build movements when the politcal will and clarity of purpose are there.
The organisational capacity of the revolutionaries of the North will be shown when they are provided with adequate finding for the projects. The techno-organisational infrastructure can be quickly built with the resourses available: streaming broadcasts of "Radio Revolucion"; mirror sites; online, real time publications; guerrilla print advertising; distributive technologies such as these, like the YouTubes and Facebooks, etc. can keep the information flow going to teach the North Americans the reality of the mass struggles, to overcome the proaganda initatives of the bourgeois media. These things the Fifth Socialist International can provide. As an example, look at the information flow provided by websites such as "Venezuelaanalysis" or "Correro de Orinocco" in English, and the "Apporea.org" and "Mare Socialista.org" sites, in telling the true story of the Venezuelan revolution.
In other words, I am counting upon the fiscal resources to match the ingenuity to build a permanent, mass solidarity movement which will politically limit the capacity of North American imperialism to intervene against the Latin American revolution.
You did it for Vietnam as part of your internationalist duty. You can do it again, this time on a much richer and more vibrant matrix of political possibilities.
I think of the question of military spending versus spending for health care. Here in Costa Rica the armed people defeated and then disbanded the military in 1948. There has been no army, airforce or navy since that time. The people of Costa Rica, a small country with an export econmomy subject to the whims of the international market, have built a health care system which would be the envy of the United States with a public system financed by the tax money which ISN'T going to pay for military expenditures.
With the weak kneed liberalism of the Obama administration caving into the health lobby, and with none of the health financing problems of the American people really solved, to counterpose health care spending to military spending, and to insert the question of imperialisms aims in Latin America into the Afghanistan debate,gives the left a golden opportunity to raise the question of abolishing funding for the military, and returning defense of the country back into the hands of an armed people, a la Cuba and now Venzeuala with the workers and peasants militias. If a little country like Costa Rica can do it, why can't a big country like the USA. Doesn't the government trust the citizens of the USA to defend themselves. (Or is this too much like the NRA?)
Thank you again for responding to my questions, and forgive me if I am not brief. It is my sincere belief that the strong wind from the South will be the one which provides the oxygen for the liberation of the North. The destinies of Our Americas are one, we will struggle together to bring about the socialist transformation of our hemisphere, or we shall perish together in the fires of barbarism. There is not much time to decide. As both compa Castro and Bob Dylan have said: "The hour is getting late."

Elena Z