The war was hypocritically carried out the banner of defending self-determination for the Albanians in Kosova and of bringing peace to the region, but both were set back by the imperialist onslaught. Rather than these lofty goals--similar to proclamations that have accompanied every military assault by Washington aimed at extending its empire and imposing its domination--the real aim of Washington is the return of capitalism as the social system in Yugoslavia.

The imperialists have learned since the fall of the Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union that goal cannot be achieved short of a bloody military imposition of what is an outmoded and reactionary social system--something that can only be done by breaking the spirit, fighting capacity, and unity of working people in Yugoslavia.

The federated Yugoslav workers state the imperialists are trying to tear apart was a gigantic accomplishment of the Yugoslav revolution of 1942-46. Workers and peasants who were Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and from other nationalities forged unity to oust the Nazi occupation forces and their local collaborators, carry out a radical land reform, and expropriate the capitalist exploiters. It was one of the truly great revolutions of this century, a proletarian socialist revolution.

The arrogance and imperialist mentality of bourgeois mouthpieces, government officials, and the military brass who speak on Yugoslavia, give an indication of Washington's real goals. It shows the disdain with which they hold working people in the region, and the casual disregard with which they view the national sovereignty of any country other than their own.

Protestations by some Democrats, Republicans, and Reform party leaders about a long-term military occupation in Kosova notwithstanding, the U.S. rulers must more and more use their military as a main vehicle to defend their interests in the world. The war and military occupation of Bosnia and Kosova are not an aberration: this is what the imperialists have to offer working people the world over.

Washington hopes fighting workers, farmers, and youth in the United States will become inured to its military forays and susceptible to the rationalizations and lies with which it justifies them. But as struggles and battles continue against the employers' offensive at home, seeing refugees, immigrants, and any working person under attack anywhere in the world as first and foremost a fellow worker becomes a necessary stance to effectively advance struggles here.

Demanding Washington and its allies get every soldier, war plane, tank, and weapon out of Yugoslavia is the most important contribution workers around the world can make to the prospects for reinitiating the revolutionary goals workers and peasants in the Balkans so heroically advanced coming out of World War II.  
 
 
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