The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.14           April 13, 1998 
 
 
No Yugoslavia Sanctions!  
No to sanctions against Yugoslavia! That's what militant workers and youth should demand through forums, teach-ins and other activities. The arms embargo on Serbia and Montenegro imposed by the United Nations March 31, and economic and other sanctions pushed by Washington, have nothing to do with advancing the just struggle for self-determination of Albanians in Kosovo.

Many Albanians correctly denounce the charge by Washington and other imperialist powers that their just struggle is "terrorism." The U.S. government and other imperialist powers are, in fact, afraid of a "Balkan intifada," as a Greek newspaper put it. They are not content with an uncompromising fight for self-determination by the Albanian nationality in Kosovo - or for that matter by any oppressed nation. The U.S. rulers' aim is to cow fighters in Kosovo into following the "rules" Washington sets.

The pious concern of "democratic capitalism" for Albanians in Kosovo can be seen in the deportations of tens of thousands of Albanian immigrants by Bonn, Rome, and Athens. While attempting to portray themselves as defenders of the national rights of Albanians, Washington, Bonn and other imperialist powers are working overtime to take advantage of the turmoil to deepen the NATO military intervention into the Yugoslav workers state and tighten their encirclement of Russia. As Caspar Weinberger tells U.S. politicians who have doubts about expanding NATO, the U.S. rulers didn't quite get the job done when the Stalinist regimes crumbled in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. In order to reestablish capitalist domination of those countries they must now try to finish the job by using their military might.

Calls by pro-capitalist forces among Albanians in Kosovo for sanctions on Belgrade and military intervention by NATO drag working-class fighters into the trap of imperialism. They draw them into placing their confidence on the very powers that have been the biggest perpetrators of war, colonialism, and oppression of one nation by another.

It is the fighting Albanian people in Kosovo who - relying on their own strength and help from their Serbian brothers and sisters who oppose Belgrade's repression - can eventually win the struggle for self-determination and replace the Milosevic regime with a government of workers and farmers.

Inside the United States and other countries, class- conscious workers must both oppose any sanctions by the imperialist powers or military intervention in Yugoslavia and support the struggle for self-determination of Albanians in Kosovo. In doing so it is imperative to reach out to working people who are Albanian with a revolutionary perspective and the truth about Yugoslavia, and bring them in contact with other fighters like Puerto Rican independentistas. There are 500,000 Albanians in the U.S., many of them factory workers. There is plenty of work to do.  
 
 
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