The following message was delivered by Comrade Joti Brar as part of a day of virtual celebrations on 19 July, the 41st anniversary of the victorious Sandinista revolution.
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On this joyous occasion, on behalf of communist and socialist workers in Britain, I send my warmest revolutionary greetings to the people of Nicaragua, to the Sandinista movement and to the Nicaraguan government.
I was a young child when the Sandinista revolution took place, but growing up in a socialist family I learned early to identify my interests with the interests of the oppressed peoples everywhere, and to understand that the imperialist powers who were appointing rulers and waging wars for plunder around the world were also responsible for unemployment, poverty and inequality here at home.
Your revolution has a special place in the heart of people everywhere, and in Latin America in particular. After Cuba, it was the first country on the continent where the people’s war that was raging in nearly every part of your continent was able not only to come to power but also to hold onto it for long enough to make real and meaningful changes in people’s lives.
In my own travels in Latin America I have been struck by the vibrance of your struggle; by your success in building a movement that embraces all sectors of society, and in which so many working-class women have been mobilised and brought to the fore. I have never met so many women socialists as I have in Latin America!
Your beautiful revolution, like so many before and after it, was drowned in blood by the imperialists. But your people remained unbowed and determined. They did not accept that a defeat in battle means the end of the war.
The return of the Sandinista movement to power in Nicaragua has once more given heart to the whole continent that no matter what reverses our movement suffers, no matter what crimes the imperialists commit to hold back our progress, in the end the people will be victorious.
The imperialists’ future is in the past, while the future of humanity belongs to socialism.
The strength and determination of the Nicaraguan people in overcoming so many obstacles, and their steadfastness in the face of relentless and ongoing attacks by the imperialists, gives courage to the masses all over the continent that, ultimately, their struggle for freedom will be victorious.
On this day, comrades, we send you our warmest greetings and fraternal solidarity. Your struggle is our struggle and your victory is ours.
In the words of Karl Marx: “Workers of all countries, unite. We have a world to win.”
Venceremos!
