The outcome of the US elections, the victory of the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan elections and the overwhelming support for the Cuban resolution in the UN General Assembly opposing the US blockade of Cuba add up to a week up to significant developments in the world-wide struggle against the policies of the Bush administration and other reactionary governments.
A few weeks earlier the Brazilian people gave the working class President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, a 60 percent vote of confidence. Before much longer we should have the results of the Presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is expected that the progressive candidate, Joseph Kabila, will win this election.
The US election does not mean to say that we should put our trust in the Democrat Party which differs from the Republican Party only on some issues. A resolution adopted by the Central Committee of the CPA at the weekend makes the point: "We support and applaud the efforts of the American people to bring an end to their government's criminal policies which have led to a huge loss of life among the citizens of Iraq and devastated their country."
The victory is in the vote of the American people. Bush's response is to maneuver while continuing the war but these tricks are not what the American people want. The vote will also force the Democrat majority to take a stronger stand against the war or suffer the same fate as the Republicans. In the past the American people were swept along behind the war-mongering propaganda and drum beating of Bush. Now, they have moved ahead of Bush and made their opinions known – they want an end to the war.
The vote of the United Nations General Assembly on the question of the 40-year-long US embargo on trade with Cuba was also a heavy defeat for Bush – 183 to 4, in which the four were comprised of the US, its quasi-colonies Palau and the Marshall Islands, and Israel. It is an overwhelming vote if ever there was one. It was also a kick in the pants for the Howard Government. The Australian Government moved an amendment to the Cuban resolution which would have completely negated the resolution by attempting to justify the US embargo. This amendment was thrown out by 126 votes to 51.
The US had at first approached the European governments but they refused to be in this dirty trick although many of them voted for the Australian amendment when it came up in the Assembly. Having been knocked back by the Europeans, the US then approached Downer. Our lick-spittle government, as always, agreed to do what the US wanted.
The vote in Nicaragua returned Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas, the leftist national front to office. Ortega had been in office 20 years ago but was forced out by the war of the "Contras" which was organized, financed and armed by the United States. His earlier government was replaced by a series of right-wing governments none of which solve the economic and social problems of the ordinary people and left them poverty-stricken as before.
Once again the significance of the election is in the votes of the people rather than in the personality of Daniel Ortega who will also be pushed along by the people who want to be liberated from their poverty and get the jobs, education, health services and housing that they so desperately need.
What is being confirmed by last week's events is the Marxian belief that it is the people who make history and that it is their actions and demands that eventually put governments and individual leaders in power or throws them out if they neglect the wishes of the ordinary people.
