>From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> NY Times, September 20, 2000 >> >> Milosevic, Trailing in Polls, Rails Against NATO >> >> By STEVEN ERLANGER >> >> BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 19 - In his race for re-election, President >> Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia is running against NATO and the United >> States, not against his democratic opposition. >> >> He is not entirely mistaken to do so. The United States and its European >> allies have made it clear that they want Mr. Milosevic ousted, and they >> have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to get it done. >> >> (clip) >This is the key point: If there was a revolutionary Marxist group on the >verge of power, I suppose we could extend help/solidarity to that >organisation. There isn't. It may be a bit "unpalatable" for the pure >comrades, but it is our unmistakable duty to try to stave off Nato-isation >of Yugoslavia through the electoral process. Comrades (mostly) understood >that one cannot back the dismemberment of the Yuog Federation through bombs, >but an election, seemingly so benign in the countries they live in, don't >get the same treatment. A touching faith in bourgeois democracy perhaps, but >to persist in keeping the SPS at arms length (despite/because/in lieu...) of >their lack of revolutionary credentials means missing the boat. > >Comrades have really missed the main lesson of the fall of the USSR. We can >not afford to run around asking every possible opponent of Imperialism to >live up to the perfect program "Carte Blanche". When we do that, we weaken >ourselves grotesquely. Right now, a regime that has refused to hand over all >the property relations created by Tito's League of Communists and the >sovereignty borne out of 1944 is under extreme pressure to cave in once and >for all and turn into yet another Bulgaria. Some comrades go so far as to >say that the SPS already is doing that, and they will need the destruction >of Yugoslavia to prove them otherwise. Milosevic is not Tito. But Milosevic >is not the question. The question is opposition to Imperialism, and support >to the people who resist. That, in this case, means the Serbian nation. > >Any waffling on this fact is the same as condemning Stalin and washing your >hands of the USSR while the Nazis were outside of Moscow, with one important >difference: There are no Allies helping Yugoslavia defend herself. This >time around, that job belongs to us. And we are failing miserably, like a >bunch of liberals. Nato has drawn a line, but some of us want to see a wall. >Unfortunately the wall will be built around the few factories currently >social property, when they are privatised and the workers kicked out to >stare at a closed building. Even then, some of us won't get it. And that is >depressing, not a cause for "I told you so's". > >At the time the East European states were dismantled, many of the citizens >there celebrated. I run into many, some tourists, some immigrants. The irony >is these are the lucky ones I meet, for they obviously have the money to >travel. They still lament (in apolitical terms) what has been done to the >people- pensioners, workers, women- at home. Many Czechs even curse Havels >"mismanagement". If Nato is successful, we will soon here this from Serbs >and other Yugoslavs. But hey, Milosevic panders to "bourgeois nationalism", >so let the Yugoslavs starve, yessiree. That's what a Marxist should say! > >Woe to the original Communist movement. This is your continuance. > >Macdonald > > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
