The labor movement must demand that, instead of shipping thousands of Kosovar Albanians to concentration camps around the world - including the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba - Washington and other capitalist governments open their borders and offer jobs and full rights to our fellow toilers fleeing Kosova.
The wealthy rulers of the United States, whose empire is built on blood, couldn't care less about the humanitarian concerns they profess to justify the bombing. Washington's real objectives are to assert its military and political hegemony in Europe and advance toward its goal of dismembering the country and reestablishing the domination of capitalist social relations in Yugoslavia. The goal of the NATO bombing campaign is to pressure Belgrade to negotiate a deal - at the expense of the Albanian people - that will give U.S. imperialism a stronger military foothold in the Balkans. And it is a deadly dagger aimed at the workers states in Russia and throughout Eastern Europe.
Washington is opposed to the struggle for the national rights of the Albanians, who are subjected to second-class status in Yugoslavia. In fighting against imperialism and its wars, class-conscious workers should take the lead from the example set by the Bolshevik party under the leadership of V.I. Lenin, which consistently supported the fight for self- determination by oppressed nationalities - a stance that made possible the victory and survival of the October 1917 revolution.
To go to war, including the possible deployment of ground troops, the U.S. rulers must build up nationalist sentiment in support of "our American boys." This is the aim of their current propaganda barrage, including their "yellow ribbon" campaign around the three U.S. soldiers captured on the Kosova- Macedonia border. The patriotic, pro-war campaign is tied to moves by the Clinton administration to establish a North American command for the Pentagon, which would give the U.S. military policing powers and structure inside the United States, as well as recent mock invasions conducted by the U.S. Navy and Marines in northern California, Florida, and elsewhere. The stated goal of such military moves is to prepare the U.S. government to confront "terrorism" at home, that is, to target alleged domestic supporters of what Washington calls "rogue states" - North Korea, Iraq, Cuba, and other nations on its hit list.
At the same time, the ruling U.S. families are stepping up the use of the police, the death penalty, and other measures aimed at clamping down on working people in anticipation of increased working-class resistance to the employers.
William Clinton and the Democratic Party are the most aggressive promoters of Washington's bipartisan policy of military intervention in the Balkans. In this, Clinton follows in the footsteps of liberal Democratic administrations from Franklin Roosevelt to John Kennedy, who have dragged working people into imperialist slaughters from World War II to Korea to Vietnam. Clinton was groomed and brought into the presidency to carry out this job for his wealthy masters.
The employers, however, have been unable to close down political space for workers and farmers to debate and engage in political activity. The job of class-conscious workers is to turn to our class and become more deeply involved in political activity in our trade unions, joining in labor skirmishes as we seek to convince fellow working people of the need to oppose the U.S. rulers' war both abroad and at home.
The workers and farmers of Yugoslavia are both the target of the imperialist warmongers, and a big obstacle to them. Working people there carried out an historic socialist revolution in the 1940s. They did so by forging unity in struggle among all the different nationalities - giving the lie to the capitalists' claim that the Balkan peoples are somehow prone to "age-old ethnic conflicts." As long as there are people -there are many today - who don't view themselves as Serbs or Croats or Muslims, but affirm "I am Yugoslav," there will be resistance both to imperialism and to the ruling chauvinist gangs in Yugoslavia.
The U.S.-led assault has generated deep opposition among millions of working people in the former Soviet Union and other nearby workers states, who sense they too are targeted. Moscow, as well as sections of the government in the Czech Republic, have denounced NATO's bombing campaign.
Moscow and the regimes of other workers states in the region, including those that are NATO members, should lend unconditional aid and solidarity to the people of Yugoslavia in order to help them defend themselves against the U.S.-led onslaught.
The Militant urges its readers to organize and join demonstrations and other protests against the imperialist assault on Yugoslavia. In many cases, the organizers of these protests promote pacifist slogans limited to stopping the bombing; many lend political support to the Belgrade regime. Working-class fighters should join these actions, bringing our own signs with demands for an end to NATO intervention, unambiguous support to the self-determination and independence of Albanians in Kosova, and calling on the U.S. and other governments to open their borders to those seeking refuge. Where the predominant character of the protests is against the right of self-determination for Kosova - or where such actions attract a native fascist element such as the Buchanan Brigades, who have joined at least one such "antiwar" protest - opponents of U.S. war moves should not join them.
A central aspect of this campaign against imperialism and its wars is the systematic effort to provide fellow workers, farmers, and students with the facts and an accurate explanation of what is behind the unfolding events. The most effective weapon is the drive to sell the book Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium, together with other political weapons such as New International and Pathfinder books. Above all, this multifaceted campaign must be waged by getting more involved in solidarity with union and farm struggles, as well as accompanying other workers to broader political actions - from anti-police brutality pickets to protests for immigrant rights to meetings that tell the truth about the Cuban revolution.