The wealthy rulers of the United States are lying about the true objectives of their war moves. U.S. president William Clinton cynically claims Washington and other imperialist governments have unleashed their barrage of missiles out of humanitarian interest, to protect the Albanians in Kosova.
But Washington, London, Bonn, Paris, Ottawa and other imperialist powers are deadly enemies of the people of Kosova - and of Serbia and the rest of Yugoslavia. The U.S. rulers have exploited the conflict in Kosova as a pretext to expand the NATO occupation in Yugoslavia, keep tightening the imperialist military noose around Russia, and assert Washington's "indispensability" as the number one European power. From Greece to Italy to Germany, Albanian immigrants have been expelled en masse or treated as pariahs, like other foreign- born workers.
Yugoslavia is a workers state, where workers and farmers eliminated capitalist rule in the 1940s. During World War II, working people in Yugoslavia defeated the Nazi occupiers and overthrew their native capitalist and landlord exploiters, dealing a blow to imperialist rule in Europe. They established a single federated workers state. They benefited from land reform, nationalization of industry, and other social conquests. By fighting together against a common class enemy, workers and peasants who were Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Albanian substantially broke down the national and religious divisions fostered by the former capitalist rulers. The Stalinist misleadership that headed the Yugoslav government in the following decades, however, looked after a privileged bureaucratic caste and eroded the working-class gains of the socialist revolution. Despite important advances, the second- class social status of Albanians in Kosova was perpetuated.
In the early 1990s the ruling caste in Yugoslavia degenerated into warring gangs that grabbed for land and power under the cloak of nationalism. Taking advantage of this and fueling the conflict, the U.S. rulers let Yugoslavia bleed as these gangs of would-be capitalists fought over Bosnia. Then Washington stepped in, spearheaded a NATO bombing campaign, and forced the parties involved to accept a U.S.-sponsored accord in Bosnia. Under the Dayton accords, an imperialist occupation force remains there, with no departure date.
The opening of the Balkan Wars of the 21st century -now continuing in Serbia and Kosova - is a product of the breakdown of the capitalist world order. Through its intervention in Yugoslavia, Washington seeks to strengthen its position in relation to its imperialist rivals in Bonn, Paris, London, and elsewhere. At the same time, the U.S. rulers will be unable to reimpose capitalism without taking on and defeating the workers and farmers of that country in bloody class battles.
The struggle by Albanian working people for their self- determination in Kosova is part of workers and farmers increasingly becoming actors in politics and defending the remaining gains of their workers state against capitalists and would-be exploiters. That is why Washington and its cohorts are hostile to the Kosova independence struggle.
The NATO occupation of Yugoslavia is part of the pattern of growing confrontation with the workers state in Russia. Moscow reacted sharply to the U.S.-led bombing because it correctly senses Russia is the ultimate target. This fact is reinforced by the drive to expand NATO to the Russian borders.
Working people in the United States and elsewhere have no interest in this assault on our fellow workers and farmers in Yugoslavia. The bombing of the people there is paralleled by the stepped-up brutalization of working people here - increased police brutality from New York to California, accelerating raids against immigrant workers, greater use of cops against unionists on strike. Thus, the growing fightback by workers and farmers at home is an obstacle to the war aims of the U.S. rulers.
The truth about Yugoslavia must be told, the lies answered one by one. A working-class voice must be heard that points to our common class interests with the toilers of Yugoslavia.
Those who oppose the U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia should bring these facts, and bring fellow workers, to other social protest actions - from the protests against the killing of Amadou Diallo by New York cops, to meetings to hear the truth about the Cuban revolution, to union picket lines around the country. Demonstrations and picket lines that oppose the imperialist war moves and support the struggle for self- determination in Kosova are also needed.
One of the most powerful tools to explain the truth is the new Pathfinder book Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium. This is a time to campaign to get the book into the hands of as many workers, farmers, and politically minded youth as possible.