Milan,
I noticed from your posts to the Stalinskaya list that your organisation is
anti-Serb chauvanism and anti-Milosevic and his SPS.
Since you are there in Yugoslavia, your views are worth consideration.
However, while as you say, Milosevic has destroyed workers' organisations
and is not socialist, don't you see Milosevic's arrest being a victory for
imperialism which would make it more difficult for you to fight and win your
struggle for socialism in the Balkans?
What is your opinion of this Workers World article on the matter below?
Charles
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
NEITHER ORDER NOR PEACE:
WHAT NATO BROUGHT TO THE BALKANS
By John Catalinotto
Rome
Two years after Washington and its NATO allies launched a
destructive 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, and
21 months after they began occupying the part of Serbia
called Kosovo, the U.S.-NATO occupation has proven it is
completely bankrupt.
They claimed the brutal bombing war was a humanitarian
intervention. That it would stop killings, bring peace,
restore order and--if the Milosevic government were ousted--
open the door to economic growth. But it has brought only
chaos and the threat of new wars to the Balkans.
The growing crisis has also increased tensions within the
NATO alliance. The European powers have been critical of the
U.S. policy of arming and giving a green light to aggression
by the reactionary KLA forces, which have been trying to
break Kosovo away from Yugoslavia and create a "greater
Albania." They fear this policy is destabilizing the entire
area.
In the last months before the bombing started in 1999, the
U.S. military had trained and armed the KLA. Washington has
continued to back the KLA in Kosovo, allowing it to use
terror and murder to drive out 250,000 Serbs and another
100,000 Roma and other nationalities, including anti-fascist
Albanians.
The U.S. also encouraged KLA forces--under a new name--to
cross the Kosovo border into Serbia proper and attack Serbs
in the Presevo region. These attacks continued to apply
pressure on the Slobodan Milosevic government before it was
overthrown last Oct. 5 by a pro-imperialist coup. They later
kept the pressure on the current Kostunica government to
continually make concessions to NATO.
Within Yugoslavia, growing disillusionment with the new
regime that replaced the government of Milosevic and anger
at the decline in the standard of living has revived a
movement of resistance to NATO. On the March 24 anniversary
of the start of NATO's bombing, Milosevic addressed a crowd
of tens of thousands of people in Belgrade demonstrating
against NATO in a strong sign of this growing resistance.
WAR IN MACEDONIA
The latest flash point is in Macedonia, a former republic of
Yugoslavia that now has a pro-West government and has long
been occupied by U.S. troops. Its population of 2 million is
about one-third ethnic Albanians.
The reactionary KLA was never disarmed by the NATO forces in
Kosovo, as required by the treaty that allowed the
occupation. Now it has launched attacks against Macedonia.
On the weekend of March 24, the Macedonian army--only 17,000
strong--launched retaliatory blows against the KLA.
Newspapers in Europe began to write about "the fourth
Balkans war."
The war in Kosovo had followed a similar pattern. Armed by
German and U.S. imperialism, the KLA attacked Yugoslav
forces throughout 1998. When the Yugoslav army responded,
Washington and the other NATO powers claimed that Belgrade
was committing a crime against humanity. They demonized the
Serbs, especially the Milosevic leadership, and used this
"Big Lie" to justify their attack on Yugoslavia.
For the last few weeks the KLA have been shooting at
Macedonian police and military troops. When the Macedonians
respond, the KLA propaganda machine charges them with using
brutal methods. The KLA leaders apparently believe that in a
showdown NATO will take their side, as happened in Kosovo.
In 1999, the U.S. and the other NATO countries' strategy was
to move toward military intervention against Yugoslavia and
break it up into small countries that could not defend
themselves. The KLA was a useful tool for carrying through
this strategy.
In the current fighting in Macedonia, both the U.S. and the
European Union have criticized the KLA. But neither has
taken definite steps to disarm this reactionary group, which
many observers charge with running the drug and prostitution
industries in the region.
Indeed, both the pro-KLA U.S. General Wesley Clark--who
headed the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia--and EU
leaders like Javier Solana have demanded that the Macedonian
government make concessions to the ethnic Albanian community
within Macedonia while negotiating with the KLA.
While it is hard to determine at this time if the U.S. is
encouraging the KLA or merely refusing to take steps to stop
it, the Macedonian fighting is more of a problem for the
European NATO countries than for Washington. The European
NATO powers are thrown back into the wartime situation of
dependency on U.S. military might to get out of a crisis.
Whatever the conscious strategy, it is apparent that neither
the U.S. nor its allies can bring peace and prosperity to
the region. They can only plunge it into another war.
RESISTANCE TO U.S.-NATO OCCUPATION GROWS
The NATO occupation was the focus of a series of
international anti-war conferences held in Athens, Berlin
and Belgrade on the anniversary of the attack on Yugoslavia.
In Belgrade, 30 people from 17 countries and 100 people from
Yugoslavia took part in the Belgrade Forum on March 22-23.
They also took part in a mass anti-NATO protest
demonstration on March 24.
Italian journalist Fulvio Grimaldi, who attended the
Belgrade Forum, told Workers World that "there were tens of
thousands on the demonstration organized by the Socialist
Party of Serbia. Many were young people, which is a new
development. Last fall the pro-SPS people were mainly older,
including former partisans. A new layer of the population is
coming into activity." Grimaldi is a senatorial candidate of
the Italian Communist Refoundation Party in the upcoming May
13 national elections.
The Belgrade Forum's closing appeal reviewed the crimes of
the U.S. and NATO against Yugoslavia and against peace, and
demanded an end to the occupation and reparations for
damages. It also ended with the following program of action:
"Raise public awareness in our respective countries on the
truth about NATO aggression.
"Demand the abolition of the illegal International Criminal
Tribunal for the Federation of Yugoslavia, also called The
Hague Tribunal. Defend the former president of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia--Slobodan Milosevic--as well as
Dragoljub Milanovic, former Director General of Radio-
Television Serbia, and all victims of political oppression.
"Raise the issue of the responsibility of Carla Del Ponte,
[British commander] Michael Jackson, Bernard Kouchner and
others for consolidating the Albanian terrorist groups.
"Insist on NATO-member countries paying compensation for the
damages done during the aggression."
In Berlin, a group that had held popular anti-NATO tribunals-
-like ones held in the U.S. by the International Action
Center--hosted the founding meeting of the European Peace
Convention on March 23-24. This too had Yugoslavia as its
main theme. Some 200 people from both NATO countries and the
formerly socialist countries met and again condemned the
imperialist criminals who launched the war.
NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia and its consequences
remain the major war-and-peace issue within the European
anti-war and anti-imperialist movement.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Partija rada" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 12:23 AM
Subject: Re: [MLL]Fw: [WW] WW news service will be offline temporarily
>
> Charles F. Moreira wrote on 31 March, 2001 9:35 AM
>
>
> >Comrades,
> >
> >I received this from Workers World last night and its implication for our
> >list is that we will also be affected by the closure of NorthPoint
> >Communications Inc www.northpoint.net which provides broadband services
to
> >Workers World.
> >
> >We'll have to look for an alternative host or wait till Workers World
find
> >an alternative to Northpoint in about three to six weeks as stated below.
> >
> >Fraternally
> >
> >Charles
> >Co-moderator
>
>
> Partija rada:
> Dear Charles!
> I hope that you will send us new information's if is there any of them.
> Also, I wish all the best to Comrades from Workers World in their efforts
to
> continue with this kind of struggle.
> Milan
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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