I thought the following comment (excerpted) at the marxist.com site was particularly interesting (though I find the references to Africa here gratuitous and invidious):
New World Disorder
The barbarous bombing campaign against Yugoslavia is the latest manifestation of a new period of convulsions on a world scale. Ten years ago they spoke of a New Word Order. Now we see the reality of a New World Disorder. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the United States has emerged as the sole word super power. Never in the history of the world has so much military and economic might been concentrated in the hands of a single power. Before the Second World War Trotsky predicted that the United States would emerge victorious from the War, but would have dynamite built into its foundations. Now America has displaced Britain as the world gendarme. But whereas Britain succeeded in enriching itself as a result of its world domination, America's world role in the period of capitalist decay saps its wealth and threatens it with internal convulsions. If the USA is compelled to commit ground troops in Yugoslavia, it would find itself trapped for years, as in Vietnam. Such a development would have explosive consequences, not least in the USA itself.
Kosovo is not Rwanda. It is part of Europe. One can fly there from Italy in one hour. European tourists used to go to Yugoslavia on holiday. Now the former Yugoslavia lies in ruins, its people reduced to a bloody pulp. This is a most graphic manifestation of the impossibility of resolving the national problem on the basis of capitalism. This poses a deadly threat to the whole of Europe. One hundred years ago, Kropotkin said that "war is the normal condition of Europe". This was true. Only for the exceptional period of capitalist upswing of 1948-74 did the threat of war seem to recede into the distant past. Now the waves of the world crisis are pounding the shores of Europe. The nightmares of the past--war, national hatred, genocide, concentration camps--have put in their appearance, not in Central Africa, but in the midst of a civilised European people. This is a sombre warning to the European proletariat of what can happen if the working class does not put an end to the monstrous rule of Capital.
The veneer of civilisation is far thinner than most people suppose. Marx predicted that there are only two alternatives before humanity: socialism or barbarism. On the path of nationalism only the second alternative is possible. Only by fighting capitalism and imperialism, for the socialist transformation of society, can this horror be averted. Those who depart from a class point of view on the national question inevitably fall into a reactionary position. During the first Balkan Wars before 1914, Lenin and Trotsky did not support any of the warring parties, although at least in the first stages, one could argue that a certain progressive content was present in the form of the struggle of the Slav peoples against Turkish rule. The position of the Marxists was to fight for the Democratic Federation of the Balkans, as the only way out for the peoples of the Balkans. Now this revolutionary and internationalist policy retains its full force--with one important amendment. Today the only way of solving the problems of the Balkans is The Socialist Federation of the Balkans, as an important part of the struggle for the Socialist United States of Europe and ultimately, a Socialist World Federation.
Alan Woods London March 26, 1999
(Author Alan Woods is interested in receiving any views, comments or criticisms of this article. Send e-mail to alanwoods at socappeal.easynet.co.uk)
Carl Remick