>>Alan Jacobson wrote:
>> >I supported NATO
>> > intervention in Bosnia not only because the Serbs were murderous
>>thugs and,
>> > at least initially, Bosnia was a multiethnic state attempting to assert
>> > self-determination but also that US imperial power was not materially
>> > strengthened by doing so.
>>
>>You and Solidarity were so profoundly wrong.
>
>Soli did NOT Support the Nato intervention in Bosnia. We have NEVER,
>as group, supported any US intervention.
True. What Solidarity said concerning Yugoslavia, instead, simply reflected misinformation (about the character of KLA and its relation to the US power elite, the nature of problems that confronted Serbs and Albanians, etc.) that afflicted many leftists (not at all limited to those in Solidarity), resulting in profound disorientation, as suggested by the following statement which is obviously torn in different directions (perhaps pulled by different scholars/activists with different takes on the situation at hand):
***** A Letter from the Editors: NATO's Road to War/Ruin
an Against the Current editorial (Issue #80)
...What Can We Do?
We support the Kosovar Albanians' right of self-determination. No one with democratic values can deny the legitimacy of their struggle, which is a fight for physical and cultural survival as well as political rights. Even further, under circumstances of threatened annihilation or mass dispersal of the population, an independent Kosovo is the only real-life solution.
But the Kosovars' absolutely legitimate struggle is only one element in what has become a much larger and reactionary imperialist war. The United States always regarded the Kosovars as bargaining pawns, never supported Kosovo independence--and even welcomed the defeat of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1998, when the Yugoslav military launched its first assaults. Yet even aside from that, we do not support "liberating" Kosovo through NATO destruction of Serbia's cities and people.
In this tragic situation, we believe there are several "wars within the war" where socialists with consistent democratic loyalties can take sides and, in some cases, small practical steps.
* Obviously, we cannot influence in any way the struggle between the Kosovo Albanians and the Yugoslav Army. But as a matter of principle we uphold the right of the Kosovars to struggle for their survival by any means available to them, whether through the pre-war movement of civic resistance or the struggle of the KLA.
The KLA itself is no left-wing force: It appears to be politically incoherent at best, and (probably for that reason) vastly overestimated its prospects for military success against Milosevic's army. But it is fighting a justified war for independence and against a threatened genocide.
* Given imperialism's responsibility for this tragedy, we can only demand that all the Kosovar refugees receive immediate asylum wherever they wish to come. For those who choose refuge in the United States, that means the right to come here--with unconditional rights to permanent residency or citizenship or return to their homeland whenever they may choose--not the unspeakable plan to put them in detention in Guam or Guantanamo.
* Equally important, we must do everything in our power to reach out to the doubly besieged democratic opposition activists in Serbia, who are being bombed from the air by NATO and hunted down by the regime on the ground, in some cases threatened with being drafted into the Serb army or the ethnic-cleansing paramilitaries for duty in Kosovo.
Both the imperialists and the Milosevic regime will seek to exploit, by blaming each other for, the suffering of the ordinary people of Serbia and the destruction of democratic forces. Thanks to the internet and to the distribution the international progressive media can provide, dissidents in Serbia have some chance to continue to speak for themselves. Their uncensored voices must be heard, and all possible material and political solidarity must be extended as they seek to rebuild a democratic opposition that will be neither a tail to Milosevic or a pawn for imperialist occupiers.
* Finally, in the military conflict that now dominates the ruins of former Yugoslavia, let's be clear: There is no side to support, neither Milosevic's genocidal post-stalinism nor NATO imperialism. Neither side is a lesser evil. Freedom for Kosovo! Abolish NATO!
<http://solidarity.igc.org/ATCOnKosovo.html> *****
My thoughts on the problem of muddled thinking exhibited by the above ATC statement and most leftists at that time: <http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/9910/1054.html>.
In contrast, Solidarity's statement on international terrorism in 1998 was clear.
***** Reject The War Against International Terrorism!
Talking Points from Solidarity
In response to the U.S. bombings and declaration of "war against international terrorism," we urge comrades to take advantage of openings to write letters or op-ed pieces in local papers, to participate in teach-ins or hold forums or educational events--in collaboration with other antiwar forces where we can, or else organized by Solidarity branches. The following are a few basic ideas that we think should be put forward.
To begin with the basic and principled point, we must state our complete and unconditional opposition to the U.S. bombings of Afghanistan and Sudan. "Unconditional" means that we condemn these attacks even if the targets are what the Clinton administration charged them to be. Not that we believe this or any other U.S. government claims, of course; more important, however, we reject this response even if the claims are true.
We reject the U.S. response because we oppose the entire U.S. imperialist project of controlling the world, from which this whole situation arises.
How can we get this point across to people who are understandably angry or frightened about U.S. embassies being blown up, or the possible targeting of ordinary U.S. tourists, etc? There are four important angles:
a.continual acts of violence by the United States against civilian victims (including sanctions against Cuba and Iraq, a long record of CIA covert operations etc);
b.U.S. complicity in assisting the very forces that are now marked as enemies;
c.the fact that one of the main targets of the U.S. "war against terrorism" will be our rights in this country;
d.the fact that these kinds of actions deepen the legitimate mass anger in many countries against the U.S. government's insistence that it has a right to police the world
Let's look at these in order.
a.Example: During the Gulf War in 1991, the U.S. military sent "smart bombs" that destroyed an air raid shelter in Baghdad, with large numbers of women and children inside. Supposedly it was thought to be a "military installation."
Every single day, 150 children in Iraq die from the effects of sanctions (malnutrition and disease). This is terrorism every bit as much as blowing up embassies or manufacturing poison gas. All these acts are heinous; those acts committed by the most powerful states with the highest-tech weapons are not morally superior.
People in Sudan and other Middle Eastern countries do not trust the United States government--and neither should we. The Pentagon and CIA claim they had a "soil sample" proving the Shifa plant was producing a precursor to VX gas. Yet the vast U.S. intelligence apparatus was (it claims) unaware that the plant was a major producer of medicinal drugs! Above and beyond rejecting any U.S. claims that it has a "right" to bomb other countries at will, there is no reason to trust its factual claim in this instance. Indeed there is widespread skepticism on this point, even among pro-establishment journalists and commentators.
For ordinary people in the Middle East--including those who have no sympathies with terrorism or loyalty to religious fundamentalism--the United States has no moral standing, given the too-obvious double standards it applies to actions by Israel against the Palestinians as compared to its punitive campaigns against Iraq. This popular anger is entirely justified. We'd like to get people in this country to see the U.S. government as others see it.
Remember: We are not trying to generate some kind of understanding or sympathy for states or organizations that kill innocent civilians. The point is to get people thinking about what their own government does, completely independent of whether the claims made by the "intelligence community" turn out to be true. That's the beginning of radical consciousness.
b.With regard to Osama bin Laden, in any case, the CIA certainly knows all about him since they assisted him as an anti-Soviet "asset" during the Afghan war of the 1980s. We should try to popularize the following demand: That all the classified records of the United States' involvement with Osama bin Laden and his associates be immediately published (as well as those of all other covert CIA operations around the world). This would have educational value in cutting through the mystifications about the real roots of "international terror."
This character is yet another in the series of fantastic examples of the kinds of "friends" U.S. imperialism has cultivated, from the contras who set up shop to sell crack cocaine in South Central LA, to Saddam Hussein while the U.S. sought to prolong the horrible war with Iran, to Ramzi Yusuf (the World Trade Center bomber, also a figure in the CIA's operations inside Pakistan in support of Afghan fundamentalists).
If our government, in the process of trying to control the world, does business with people who are perfectly happy to kill people by the tens of thousands in Nicaragua or Afghanistan for the pursuit of their economic or ideological goals, what right does it have to act morally outraged when these same forces make Americans their target?
c.We should take seriously the administration's statement that the U.S. is embarking here on a long-term "war." This has several implications: (i) increased harassment and deportation of immigrants under the secret-evidence, closed-hearing provisions of the despicable "anti-crime" legislation signed by Clinton. (ii) an escalation in the ideological war against the religion of Islam. This war (contrary to the usual stereotypes) is waged not in the popular press but primarily by elite intellectuals and journalists in ostensibly learned books, as well as by the Christian religious right. (iii) in order to sustain the necessary level of public interest and tension, a series of events, attacks, exposures, etc.
This declaration of "war against international terrorism" is of course timed partly to try to save Clinton's political-legal ass, but there is more to it. In fact, the main "front" in this war is going to be at home, in the form of attacks on civil liberties and the rights of immigrants and the Arab-American community. Whatever happens next in Afghanistan or anywhere else, whatever the outcomes of Clinton's domestic scandals or the 1998 or 2000 elections, this "war" at home will last for years to come.
d.The fashionable cliche among U.S. elites was coined by Madeline Albright: "We are the indispensable nation. We see further." In fact, U.S. political leaders tend to be short-sighted by normal standards of bourgeois politics, but that's not the main point, which is this: The "indispensable nation" crap allows the world's most powerful imperialist state to wrap its oppressive acts in a cloak of supposed morality and good intentions. From the point of view of hundreds of millions of people on the receiving end of these acts, if the U.S. is world cop then there's some pretty serious police brutality.
The feeling of masses of people around the world that their fate, and the fate of their countries, is determined in Washington produces frustration and anger that provides a fertile ground for right-wing nationalists and religious fanatics. Even if U.S. air raids could effectively wipe out some particular "terrorist threat"--which all indications are they cannot--they simply add to the resentment which assures that these forces and their political influence will grow.
<http://solidarity.igc.org/Reject.html> ****
The statement above has an added historical value of reminding us that "the war on terrorism" and crackdowns on civil liberties justified in its name were already underway during the Clinton Administration. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>