WW News Service Digest #288
1) Socialists Rally in Belgrade
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) NATO Chaos in Macedonia
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
4) Fighting Racism and Homophobia
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
5) Bulletin...Bulletin
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 28. kesäkuu 2001 11:50
Subject: [WW] Socialists Rally in Belgrade
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SOCIALISTS RALLY IN BELGRADE TO STOP HANDOVER OF
MILOSEVIC TO NATO WAR CRIMINALS
By Pat Chin
In a transparent capitulation to Washington, the ruling
"Democratic Opposition of Serbia" regime on June 23 adopted
a decree that clears the way for the extradition of former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and others to the
International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.
Milosevic's party, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS),
called for a demonstration in Belgrade on June 26 and for
worldwide solidarity from the progressive movement to stop
the extradition.
Milosevic, who is still president of the SPS, denounced the
decree from his jail cell in central Belgrade, where he's
been held without trial since April 1 on corruption charges.
Milosevic dismissed the allegations against him as political
fabrications.
On the outside, demonstrators rallied for his immediate
release.
The DOS resorted to the decree after its coalition partner,
the Socialist Peoples Party (SPP) of Montenegro, a separate
republic within Yugoslavia, refused to back a draft law in
the federal parliament on cooperation with the tribunal. It
was a reflection of the popular opposition to DOS's
capitulation.
SPP ministers boycotted the cabinet meeting that approved
the measure. They also offered to resign from the
government, which could cause it to collapse. The
Montenegrin party's main board is considering the offer.
The DOS has indicated it will flout legality even at the
risk of its first parliamentary setback. The DOS seized
power last October in an electoral coup backed by U.S. and
West European funds and planning.
On June 22, SPP Secretary General Zoran Andjelkovic had said
that "passing of the regulation on cooperation with the
Hague Tribunal that includes extradition would be an anti-
constitutional act." (Blic News) The SPP also criticizes the
war crimes court, based at The Hague in the Netherlands, for
being biased against Serbs.
WASHINGTON TIGHTENS PURSE STRINGS
The decree was hastily passed less than a week before an
international "donor conference" set for June 29 in
Brussels, Belgium, where the DOS regime hopes to raise over
$1 billion in financial assistance.
Washington is making it known that its participation depends
on whether Belgrade turns Milosevic and others over to the
tribunal. On June 25, the French News Agency reported that
"U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia William Montgomery is to tell
Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic that Washington
remains skeptical about Belgrade's progress towards
cooperation with the Hague Tribunal."
An anonymous State Department official has also told the
news outlet that the U.S. government would decide by June 27
if it would participate in the "donor conference." In other
words, they'll put up money only if the Yugoslav regime
hands over Milosevic.
Toma Fila, head of Milosevic's 10-member defense team,
branded the decree "legal piracy." He also said that "This
was a political decision, and it renders the law helpless
against such bullying methods."
Fila further explained, according to a June 24 MSNBC Web
report, that "cooperation with the war crimes tribunal can
be regulated only by law and not by government decree." An
appeal has been filed accordingly with the constitutional
court.
On June 25, a delegation of top officials from the Socialist
Party of Serbia met with Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica, who is also a constitutional lawyer. They
demanded an explanation for his support of the illegal
measure, which amounts to a reversal of one of his campaign
pledges.
"In a veiled way, he admitted it went against the
constitution but said that out of two evils, the country
chose the lesser one," SPS Vice President Zivadin Jovanovic
told Tanjug, the state news agency.
To Kostunica, selling Milosevic to the same people who
bombed Yugoslavia mercilessly in 1999 is the "lesser evil."
This is a far cry from the proud traditions of the Yugoslav
Partisans, headed by Tito, who resisted Nazi occupation
during World War II.
MILOSEVIC SAYS HIS ANTI-NATO STANCE IS WHY HE'S IN JAIL
Veselin Cerovic, a defense attorney, quoted the embattled
Milosevic as feeling "proud to have led the nation against
the horrible NATO aggression against the territorial
integrity and sovereignty of our country." (MSNBC, June 23)
Three days before, Milosevic had told a Belgrade magazine
that he's being kept in prison "because I stopped NATO." He
said he's "won a moral victory," even though NATO's "long
arm" is keeping him jailed, reported Radio B92. Of the
summons from the UN war crimes court, the magazine wrote
that, "He has never even looked at it, and shows no
intention of doing so at all."
After the decree was passed, the SPS issued a proclamation
accusing the DOS of "treason" and recalling NATO's
"thousands of victims." It blistered the measure with
criticism, calling it unconstitutional and "a disgraceful
fraud on the people, who will never recognize such an act."
DOS's capitulation, affirmed the SPS, would nullify the
country's right to war reparations, as well as create
"amnesty for the NATO criminals, and the imposition of
collective guilt on the Serbian people for all past and
future sufferings of the region."
With the Yugoslav economy ruined from years of imperialist-
imposed sanctions, the widespread NATO bombing during the
war, and the IMF "free market" policies of the new regime,
the collaborationist regime now at the helm in Belgrade has
been threatening a disaster if the country doesn't submit,
colonial style, to Washington's every demand.
"The sky will fall on our heads if we fail to write off at
least 65 percent of our foreign debt," moaned Serbian Prime
Minister Zoran Djindjic in explaining why he wanted Serbia
to cooperate with the tribunal. (Associated Press, June 14)
These dire warnings are calculated to promote fear,
paralysis and dependency. They're part and parcel of a
campaign--along with recent media reports of mass graves
being "discovered" in Serbia--to sway public opinion in
support of handing Milosevic over to the real criminals in
the NATO den of thieves.
The imperialist military cabal in NATO and its Yugoslav
puppets control the Yugoslav media and can easily manipulate
events to serve their propaganda needs. Their immediate aim
is to create an atmosphere that allows them to commit yet
another crime, even if they can't prove any of their charges
later.
The so-called Racak "massacre" of January 1999, which was
later shown not to have happened, was invented to justify
the brutal 78-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. And now mass
graves are being conveniently "discovered," with exquisite
timing, to justify the crime of extradition to a court that
was instigated by Washington and illegally established under
UN cover.
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 28. kesäkuu 2001 11:50
Subject: [WW] NATO Chaos in Macedonia
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EDITORIAL: NATO CHAOS IN MACEDONIA
Will U.S. troops become targets of the next Balkans war in
Macedonia? That may not be the most important question for
the world or for the Balkans population, but it's a question
with important political repercussions here and worldwide.
The Pentagon's general staff were so proud and happy after
they got through the brutal war against Yugoslavia with not
one U.S. combat casualty reported on CNN.
Now NATO's intervention in Kosovo and Macedonia has led the
latter country, once a republic of Yugoslavia, to the brink
of civil war. There's the possibility that a mass rebellion
could throw out the NATO-friendly Macedonian government. In
this conflict, U.S. troops are in the middle and on the
ground.
A creation of the imperialists is again spreading turmoil.
It's the KLA, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army. This
group wasn't much until it started to get arms and training
from German and U.S. imperialism. It is no real liberation
force but a right-wing nationalist gang that pretends to
represent people of Albanian ethnicity. By serving as a U.S.-
NATO cat's-paw against Yugoslavia, the KLA wound up running
Kosovo, using terror to run most non-Albanians and
progressive Albanians out of the area.
Operating within Macedonia with neighboring Kosovo as its
base, the KLA has now opened a war against the Macedonian
government. U.S. troops have occupied Macedonia, and the
government of this small country considers itself a friend
of the U.S. and NATO.
But instead of stopping and disarming the KLA, NATO and the
U.S. put pressure on the Macedonian government to negotiate
with the rightist gangsters. Then the Pentagon went one step
further, escorting armed KLA fighters out of an area they
had been operating in while protecting them from the
Macedonian army.
This open intervention was too much for the Macedonian
people. They turned their anger against the regime of
President Boris Trajkovski, calling him the "NATO traitor."
And they rose up against the U.S. and NATO troops and the
European Union. Some 15,000 people stormed the parliament
building on June 25, turning the president's Mercedes upside
down and ripping apart a NATO flag. The Macedonians consider
NATO protectors of the KLA and supporters of partitioning
Macedonia.
When U.S. troops returned to their base that night,
thousands of angry Macedonians lined the highway, according
to the June 26 New York Times. Earlier in the day, a U.S.
diplomat was "wounded slightly after being shot, apparently
accidentally, by Macedonian soldiers."
The NATO countries, with Washington at the head, are
imperialist powers whose only relationship with less
powerful countries is to oppress and exploit them. This
lesson should not be lost on the current pro-NATO regime in
Belgrade, which has decided to sell out its sovereignty by
sending Slobodan Milosevic to NATO's tribunal in The Hague,
in the unlikely hope of getting some material aid.
Milosevic, demonized though he was in the imperialist media,
was not the cause of the turmoil in the Balkans. He sits in
a jail in Belgrade, his party out of power. Meanwhile NATO
troops are right on the scene, and NATO clients are on both
sides of the fighting in Macedonia.
It's the U.S., Germany and the other imperialist powers that
are bringing nothing but chaos and war to the region.
Sometimes they maneuver among themselves for the greatest
share of the spoils. Sometimes they work together against
anyone who resists their rule. But they cause the trouble.
If the International Tribunal in The Hague were a real
international court of justice instead of an imperialist
tool, it would be bringing NATO's political and military
leaders up on war crimes charges--most especially that of
fomenting new wars in the Balkans.
If U.S. troops enter combat over the Macedonian conflict,
there can be a new kind of crisis in U.S. policy in the
region. The anti-war movement here must be alert to the
dangers and demand the troops be brought home. These young
soldiers, who come overwhelmingly from the working class,
must not be sacrificed to further the Machiavellian schemes
of the billionaire rulers of this country.
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 28. kesäkuu 2001 11:50
Subject: [WW] Fighting Racism and Homophobia
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FIGHTING RACISM AND HOMOPHOBIA: "AN INJURY TO ONE IS
AN INJURY TO ALL"
I was an anti-racist and anti-war activist here in Buffalo,
N.Y., in the 1960s. In fact, Youth Against War and Fascism,
the youth group of Workers World Party at that time, used my
apartment as an organizing center for several years.
The U.S. Secret Service broke into the office the night
before presidential candidate George Wallace brought his
racist campaign to Buffalo in 1968. All they found were anti-
racist and anti-Vietnam War signs and banners. It was
probably in that apartment, or in the corner restaurant
across the street, that one morning in late June 1969 I
opened up the New York Times and saw the headline,
"Homosexuals Riot in Greenwich Village."
To me this article represented news of the birth of a new
political movement, and it filled me with hope and fear at
the same time. I knew my own life was going to be changed in
some fundamental and profound ways. But that's what struggle
always does. It opens up new possibilities. It touches and
changes even those not directly involved. It inspires us to
believe in the possibility of a better, more just world. It
inspires us to get involved. Frederick Douglass said it
best: "Without struggle there is no progress."
I was going to focus tonight on some of the theoretical
insights birthed by the Stonewall Rebellion and the truly
global movement that it sparked. But when I got into
Buffalo, I heard about the racial targeting here, and so I
decided to shift the focus of my presentation somewhat.
I want to talk a little bit about what's been happening with
the movements for social justice in southern California and
especially San Diego, where I've lived for the past 12
years. There are some strong parallels with developments
here, both in terms of the increase in repression and in the
response.
FRESH WINDS OF STRUGGLE
There's a fresh spirit of struggle among lesbian, gay, bi
and trans youth in southern California. I'm involved with a
coalition called the Stonewall Initiative for Equal Rights
that has been organizing in Los Angeles, Orange County and
San Diego.
This coalition had its origins several years ago when a
number of Los Angeles groups and activists got together to
discuss the mounting police harassment of gay men in the
Sunset Junction area of Los Angeles. The police were
targeting men in front of gay bars and on streets. The
police message was clear: "We want the gays out of this
community."
A strong, defiant rally organized by the Stonewall
Initiative on a busy street corner at the very center of the
community gave our answer: "We know the police are acting at
the behest of the real estate interests that want to
gentrify this community. We know the police don't serve us.
We will organize larger and larger protests until the police
stop targeting us."
But this one powerful rally did the trick. At least for the
present, the police have pulled back.
This past February in San Diego, the ultra-right-wing
Changing Gays movement called a conference for teachers and
parents of lesbian, gay, bi and trans youth. The idea was to
spread the homophobic and homo-hating idea that these youth
can and should become straight.
Well, a spirited six-hour picket line and rally outside the
conference sent a very different message--a message of pride
and resistance. This Stonewall Initiative action drew youth
from Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.
In April, an outpouring of about three times as many
lesbian, gay, bi and trans activists--mostly youth--
descended on Newport Beach, a very conservative town in
Orange County. They came to protest another right-wing,
racist, sexist, anti-gay conference.
The impetus for the action was the homophobia and homo-
hatred of the ultra-right conference organizers and
attendees. But many of the rally speakers addressed the need
to fight racism, the prison-industrial complex and the
racist death penalty. There were many youths of color in
attendance at this demonstration.
And when an announcement was made about an upcoming West
Coast mobilization in San Francisco in support of death-row
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, many of the lesbian,
gay, bi and trans youth expressed an interest in going to
show support for this brave and uncompromising
revolutionary.
This kind of solidarity--this instinctive understanding by
the youth that an injury to one is an injury to all--is
exactly what's needed to advance our struggle. It is the key
to victory for all the struggles of working and oppressed
people.
RACIST POLICE KILLINGS IN SAN DIEGO
In San Diego, the Committee Against Police Brutality began
several years ago as an ad hoc coalition following the
police killing of unarmed Black athlete Deme trius DuBois.
The police were called in response to a minor
misunderstanding among neighbors that was completely
resolved prior to their arrival. But in a typically racist
manner, the cops saw a young, muscular African American man
and immediately assumed he was the problem.
A minute later Demetrius DuBois was dead of 12 bullet
wounds, six of them in his back.
Hundreds of people immediately pro tested at the site of the
murder. And for 12 weeks running, those of us who had
actively worked to build the first protest gathered downtown
outside the county courthouse every Friday afternoon for an
angry picket line denouncing the police.
But the killing spree of the San Diego police didn't begin
with Demetrius DuBois and it didn't end with him. In the two
years since his death at least 12 other unarmed people have
been gunned down by San Diego law enforcement agencies. And
this pattern is being repeated in city after city all across
the U.S.
What has been unleashed is a nationwide campaign of terror
that targets the most oppressed, especially people of color.
Its purpose is to instill fear and hopelessness. It
complements another instrument of repression, the new growth
industry: the prison-industrial complex.
With over 2 million people in prison--more and more of them
women--and another 3 million people awaiting trial, on
parole or on probation, the U.S. has a larger percentage of
its population entangled in the so-called justice system
than any other country in the world. Racial profiling and
three-strikes laws help to feed this monster.
And there's the racist death penalty. Almost 4,000 people
are on death row, disproportionately people of color. And
all of them are poor. You don't get put on death row if you
can afford a decent lawyer.
UNITED WE STAND
Could all this repression have anything to do with the
obscene disparity of wealth in this country? How could it
not? While most of us, gay and straight alike, scramble to
pay higher and higher utility bills and rent, the Congress--
with Democrats and Republicans basically united on this--
pass a tax cut bill that will hand over billions and
billions more to the already immensely rich.
While the cities decay, hospitals close and other urban
problems mount, the municipal governments can find nothing
better to do with our tax money than finance new stadiums
and hire more police. In the last 10 years California has
built 22 new prisons, but only one new university.
Yes, the rich are in control, now more than ever. They
expropriate the wealth that our work produces. While
millions are forced to forego health care in order to pay
the rent, the big banks, oil companies, military-industrial
corporations and other corporate giants ravage the planet in
constant search of ever-greater profits.
We are faced with a system based on unbridled greed, a
system that has total disregard for the needs of this and
future generations. A system that, in truth, is destroying
the very basis for the continuation of life on this planet.
The class that rules finds homophobia, sexism and especially
racism indispensable weapons in its ongoing war against the
overwhelming majority of humanity: the working people and
oppressed of the world. And as long as the capitalists can
keep us divided, their system of profits before human needs
will continue to function unchallenged.
Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people need
equality. Women and people of color need equality. Workers
need equality. And to get there, we need solidarity with
each other's struggles. Together, we can build a powerful
movement. Together, we can win a better world.
- END -
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 28. kesäkuu 2001 11:50
Subject: [WW] Bulletin...Bulletin
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BULLETIN...BULLETIN...
As we go to press, Yugoslavia, under intense U.S. pressure,
is about to deport former President Slobodan Milosevic to a
NATO country. Ramsey Clark and Gloria La Riva
of the International Action Center have been denied visas to
travel there in a move denounced by Yugoslav socialists as
illegal. For more information, see the IAC website:
http://www.iacenter.org .
