Informazione
http://www.b92.net/english/news/
b92_focus.php?yyyy=2003&mm=12&nav_id=26140
B92 Focus, December 2003.
Campaign cash
Serbia’s sacred cow | December 24, 2003.
While westerners traditionally shy away from questions about religion,
sex and income, Serbia’s great taboo – at least as far as public
discussion goes – is the question of political campaign financing. B92
asked around this week about where the money comes from for the
eighteen parties contesting this week’s parliamentary election.
Serbia for the past two weeks has been awash with billboards, posters
and a flood of political advertising on radio and television. The
larger of the eighteen parties standing in the parliamentary elections
on December 18 have also mounted major campaign rallies in Belgrade and
other centres. But none of the parties are willing to talk much about
where the money comes from.
The new Party Finance Act introduces restrictions on the source of
funds for parties and campaign, but does not come into effect until the
new year – too late for this election.
While party campaign managers spoken to by B92 this week couldn’t – or
wouldn’t – say how much money has been spent so far or who their donors
are, some did promise that final figures might be announced after the
elections.
Democratic Alternative campaign manager Radisa Blagojevic, who has
saturated media with the party’s advertisements, says the financing
comes from a number of sources, including donations.
“We are giving the impression that we are everywhere: we have charted
the media map of Serbia and billboards have been strategically
positioned,” he told B92.
Blagojevic claimed that the Democratic Alternative had introduced a
novel, but simple method of campaign financing.
“It was agreed that, before the campaign began, each of the 15,000
party members should pay a thousand dinars (about 15 euros). Further
up the hierarchy, local branches were obliged to collect 100,000
dinars, city branches three times that sum and MP candidates were
required to find donations of at least 1,000 euros,” he said.
Otpor, the former student movement now turned political party, has
announced that its campaign costs are about 1,250 euros per day and
have called on other parties to publish their expenses.
But the Democratic Alternative campaign manager said that such data was
not available to him at this point.
This was echoed by Democratic Party campaign chief Milos Jeftic, who
said however that the party had decided the campaign should not be
overly expensive. As a framework for securing finance, said Jeftic,
the regulations of the new legislation were followed, although the Act
has not yet come into force.
“The law prescribes membership fees as the sole source for finance. We
have more than 130,000 members and we think the donations we are
receiving from individuals and organisations for this campaign are
quite enough to finance it,” he said.
Both the Democrats and the Democratic Alternative say they receive no
donations from abroad, although Jeftic says he cannot be certain of
this because he is not involved in party finance.
Like Blagojevic, Jeftic pledged to announce the Democrats’ campaign
budget after December 28.
Asked to comment on reports that some parties are being financed from
sources outside the law, Blagojevic was dismissive.
“I’m not saying there is no possibility of that but I am seriously
saying that the Democratic Alternative has no problem with finances
from the grey area, nor do we have any contact with such people.
“I think that the creativity of the party is the main factor
influencing the campaign and its content,” he said.
The new legislation which comes into force three days after the
election prohibits foreign financing and puts restrictions on the size
of donations from individuals and organisations.
But in the meantime, the source of party financing remains the one
untouchable topic in this election campaign.
b92_focus.php?yyyy=2003&mm=12&nav_id=26140
B92 Focus, December 2003.
Campaign cash
Serbia’s sacred cow | December 24, 2003.
While westerners traditionally shy away from questions about religion,
sex and income, Serbia’s great taboo – at least as far as public
discussion goes – is the question of political campaign financing. B92
asked around this week about where the money comes from for the
eighteen parties contesting this week’s parliamentary election.
Serbia for the past two weeks has been awash with billboards, posters
and a flood of political advertising on radio and television. The
larger of the eighteen parties standing in the parliamentary elections
on December 18 have also mounted major campaign rallies in Belgrade and
other centres. But none of the parties are willing to talk much about
where the money comes from.
The new Party Finance Act introduces restrictions on the source of
funds for parties and campaign, but does not come into effect until the
new year – too late for this election.
While party campaign managers spoken to by B92 this week couldn’t – or
wouldn’t – say how much money has been spent so far or who their donors
are, some did promise that final figures might be announced after the
elections.
Democratic Alternative campaign manager Radisa Blagojevic, who has
saturated media with the party’s advertisements, says the financing
comes from a number of sources, including donations.
“We are giving the impression that we are everywhere: we have charted
the media map of Serbia and billboards have been strategically
positioned,” he told B92.
Blagojevic claimed that the Democratic Alternative had introduced a
novel, but simple method of campaign financing.
“It was agreed that, before the campaign began, each of the 15,000
party members should pay a thousand dinars (about 15 euros). Further
up the hierarchy, local branches were obliged to collect 100,000
dinars, city branches three times that sum and MP candidates were
required to find donations of at least 1,000 euros,” he said.
Otpor, the former student movement now turned political party, has
announced that its campaign costs are about 1,250 euros per day and
have called on other parties to publish their expenses.
But the Democratic Alternative campaign manager said that such data was
not available to him at this point.
This was echoed by Democratic Party campaign chief Milos Jeftic, who
said however that the party had decided the campaign should not be
overly expensive. As a framework for securing finance, said Jeftic,
the regulations of the new legislation were followed, although the Act
has not yet come into force.
“The law prescribes membership fees as the sole source for finance. We
have more than 130,000 members and we think the donations we are
receiving from individuals and organisations for this campaign are
quite enough to finance it,” he said.
Both the Democrats and the Democratic Alternative say they receive no
donations from abroad, although Jeftic says he cannot be certain of
this because he is not involved in party finance.
Like Blagojevic, Jeftic pledged to announce the Democrats’ campaign
budget after December 28.
Asked to comment on reports that some parties are being financed from
sources outside the law, Blagojevic was dismissive.
“I’m not saying there is no possibility of that but I am seriously
saying that the Democratic Alternative has no problem with finances
from the grey area, nor do we have any contact with such people.
“I think that the creativity of the party is the main factor
influencing the campaign and its content,” he said.
The new legislation which comes into force three days after the
election prohibits foreign financing and puts restrictions on the size
of donations from individuals and organisations.
But in the meantime, the source of party financing remains the one
untouchable topic in this election campaign.
[en francais:
George Soros : Magicien impérial et agent double
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/3021%5d
http://www.left.ru/inter/2003/december/soros.html
George Soros: Imperial Wizard/Double Agent
Covert Action Quarterly
e-mail: info@...
by Heather Cottin
December 9, 2003
This is not a case of narcissistic personality disorder; this is how
George
Soros exercises the authority of United States hegemony in the world
today.
Soros foundations and financial machinations are partly responsible for
the
destruction of socialism in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. He has
set
his sights on China. He was part of the full court press that dismantled
Yugoslavia. Calling himself a philanthropist, billionaire George Soros'
role
is to tighten the ideological stranglehold of globalization and the New
World Order while promoting his own financial gain. Soros' commercial
and
"philanthropic" operations are clandestine, contradictory and coactive.
And
as far as his economic activities are concerned, by his own admission,
he is
without conscience; a capitalist who functions with absolute amorality.
Master-builder of the new bribe sector systematically bilking the world
He
thrusts himself upon world statesmen and they respond. He has been
close to
Henry Kissinger, Vaclav Havel and Poland's General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
He
supports the Dalai Lama, whose institute is housed in the Presidio in
San
Francisco, also home to the foundation run by Soros' friend, former
Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Soros is a leading figure on the Council of
Foreign Relations, the World Economic Forum, and Human Rights Watch
(HRW).
In 1994, after a meeting with his philosophical guru, Sir Karl Popper,
Soros
ordered his companies to start investing in Central and Eastern European
communications.
The Federal Radio Television Administration of the Czech Republic
accepted
his offer to take over and fund the archives of Radio Free Europe. Soros
moved the archives to Prague and spent over $15 million on their
maintenance. A Soros foundation now runs CIA-created Radio Free
Europe/Radio
Liberty jointly with the U.S. and RFE/RL, which has expanded into the
Caucasus and Asia. Soros is the founder and funder of the Open Society
Insti
tute. He created and maintains the International Crisis Group (ICG)
which,
among other things, has been active in the Balkans since the
destruction of
Yugoslavia. Soros works openly with the United States Institute of
Peace -
an overt arm of the CIA...
When anti-globalization forces were freezing in the streets outside New
York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in February 2002, George Soros was inside
addressing the World Economic Forum. As the police forced protesters
into
metal cages on Park Avenue, Soros was extolling the virtues of the "Open
Society" and joined Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samuel Huntington, Francis
Fukuyama
and others.
WHO IS THIS GUY?
George Soros was born in Hungary in 1930 to Jewish parents so removed
from
their roots that they once vacationed in Nazi Germany. Soros lived
under the
Nazis, but with the triumph of the Communists moved to England in 1947.
There, Soros came under the sway of the philosopher Karl Popper, at the
London School of Economics. Popper was a lionized anti-communist
ideologue
and his teachings formed the basis for Soros' political tendencies.
There is
hardly a speech, book or article that Soros writes that does not pay
obeisance to Popper's influence.
Knighted in 1965, Popper coined the slogan "Open Society," which
eventually
manifested in Soros' Open Society Fund and Institute. Followers of
Popper
repeat his words like true believers. Popperian philosophy epitomizes
Western individualism. Soros left England in 1956, and found work on
Wall
Street where, in the 1960s, he invented the "hedge fund."
"...hedge funds catered to very wealthy individuals... The largely
secretive
funds, usually trading in offshore locations. . produced astronomically
superior results. The size of the "bets" often became self fulfilling
prophecies: 'rumors of a position taken by the big hedge funds prompted
other investors to follow suit,' which would in turn force up the price
the
hedgers were betting on to begin with."
Soros organized the Quantum Fund in 1969 and began to dabble in currency
manipulation. In the 1970s, his financial activities turned to:
"Alternating long and short positions... Soros won big both on the rise
of
real estate investment trusts and on their subsequent collapse. Under
his
20-year stewardship, Quantum returned an amazing 34.5% a year. Soros is
best
known (and feared) for currency speculation.. . In 1997 he earned the
rare
distinction of being singled out as a villain by a head of state,
Malaysia's
Mahathir Mohamad, for taking part in a highly profitable attack on that
nation's currency."
Through such clandestine financial scheming, Soros became a
multibillionaire. His companies control real estate in Argentina,
Brazil,
and Mexico; banking in Venezuela; and are some of the most profitable
currency traders in the world, giving rise to the general belief that
his
highly placed friends assisted him in his financial endeavors, for
political
as well as financial gain.
George Soros has been blamed for the destruction of the Thai economy in
1997. One Thai activist said, "We regard George Soros as a kind of
Dracula.
He sucks the blood from the people." The Chinese call him "the
crocodile,"
because his economic and ideological efforts in China were so
insatiate, and
because his financial speculation created millions of dollars in
profits as
it ravished the Thai and Malaysian economies.
Soros once made a billion dollars in one day by speculating (a word he
abhors) on the British pound. Accused of taking "money from every
British
taxpayer when he speculated against sterling," he said, "When you
speculate
in the financial markets you are free of most of the moral concerns that
confront an ordinary businessman.. .I did not have to concern myself
with
moral issues in the financial markets."
Soros has a schizophrenic craving for unlimited personal wealth and a
desire
to be thought well of by others:
"Currency traders sitting at their desks buy and sell currencies of
Third
World countries in large quantities. The effect of the currency
fluctuations
on the people who live in those countries is a matter that does not
enter
their minds. Nor should it; they have a job to do. Yet if we pause to
think,
we must ask ourselves whether currency traders.. .should regulate the
lives
of millions."
It was Soros who saved George W. Bush's bacon when his management of an
oil
exploration company was ending in failure. Soros was the owner of Harken
Energy Corporation, and it was he who bought the rapidly depreciating
stocks
just prior to the company's collapse. The future president cashed out at
almost one million dollars. Soros said he did it to buy "political
influence." Soros is also a partner in the infamous Carlyle Group.
Organized
in 1987, "the world's largest private equity firm" with over twelve
billion
dollars under management, is run by "a veritable who's who of former
Republican leaders," from CIA man Frank Carlucci to CIA head George
Bush,
Sr. The Carlyle Group makes most of its money from weapons expenditures.
THE PHILANTHROPIST SPOOK
In 1980, Soros began to use his millions to attack socialism in Eastern
Europe. He financed individuals who would cooperate with him. His first
success was in Hungary. He took over the Hungarian educational and
cultural
establishment, incapacitating socialist institutions throughout the
country.
He made his way right inside the Hungarian government. Soros next moved
on
to Poland, aiding the CIA-funded Solidarity operation and in that same
year,
he became active in China. The USSR came next.
It is not coincidental that the Central Intelligence Agency had
operations
in all of those countries. The goal of the Agency was exactly the same
as
that of the Open Society Fund: to dismantle socialism. In South Africa,
the
CIA sought out dissidents who were anticommunist. In Hungary, Poland
and the
USSR, the CIA, with overt intervention from the National Endowment for
Democracy, the AFL-CIO, USAID and other institutions, supported and
organized anticommunists, the very type of individuals recruited by
Soros'
Open Society Fund. The CIA would have called them "assets." As Soros
said,
"In each country I identified a group of people - some leading
personalities, others less well known - who share my belief..."
Soros' Open Society organized conferences with anticommunist Czechs,
Serbs,
Romanians, Hungarians, Croatians, Bosnians, Kosovars. 17 His
ever-expanding
influence gave rise to suspicions that he was operating as part of the
U.S.
intelligence complex. In 1989, the Washington Post reported charges
first
made in 1987 by the Chinese government officials that Soros' Fund for
the
Reform and Opening of China had CIA connections. 18
TAKING ON MOSCOW
After 1990, Soros funds targeted the Russian educational system,
providing
the entire nation with textbooks. 19 In effect, Soros ensured the
indoctrination of an entire generation of Russian youth with OSI
propaganda.
Soros foundations were accused of engineering a strategy to take
control of
the Russian financial system, privatization schemes, and the process of
foreign investment in that country. Russians reacted angrily to Soros'
legislative meddlings. Critics of Soros and other U.S. foundations said
the
goal of these maneuvers was to "thwart Russia as a state, which has the
potential to compete with the world's only superpower." 20 Russians
began to
suspect Soros and the CIA were interconnected. Business tycoon Boris
Berezovsky said, "I nearly fainted when I heard a couple of years ago
that
George Soros was a CIA agent." 21 Berezovsky's opinion was that Soros,
and
the West, were "afraid of Russian capital becoming strong."
If the economic and political establishment in the United States fear an
economic rivalry from Russia, what better way to control it than to
dominate
Russian media, education, research centers and science? After spending
$250
million for the "transformation of education of humanities and
economics at
the high school and university levels," Soros created the International
Science Foundation for another $100 million. 22 The Russian Federal
Counterintelligence Service (FSK) accused Soros foundations in Russia of
"espionage." They noted that Soros was not operating alone; he was part
of a
full court press that included financing from the Ford and Heritage
Foundations; Harvard, Duke, and Columbia universities, and assistance
from
the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence services. 23 The FSK criticized
Soros'
payouts to 50,000 Russian scientists, saying that Soros advanced his own
interests by gaining control of thousands of Russian scientific
discoveries
and new technologies to collect state and commercial secrets. 24
In 1995, Russians were infuriated by the insinuation of State Department
operative Fred Cuny into the conflict in Chechnya. Cuny's cover was
disaster
relief, but his history of involvement in international conflict zones
of
interest to the U.S., plus FBI and CIA search parties, made clear his
government connections. At the time of his disappearance, Cuny was
working
under contract to a Soros foundation. 25 It is not widely known in the
U.S.
that the violence in Chechnya, a province in the heart of Russia, is
generally perceived as the result of a political destabilization
campaign on
which Washington looks favorably, and may actually be directing. This
assessment of the situation is clear enough to writer Tom Clancy that he
felt free to include it as an assertion of fact in his best-seller, The
Sum
of All Fears. The Russians accused Cuny of being a CIA operative, and
part
of an intelligence operation to support the Chechen uprising. 26 Soros'
Open
Society Institute is still active in Chechnya, as are other
Soros-sponsored
organizations.
Russia was the site of at least one joint endeavor to enhance Soros'
balance
sheet, arranged with diplomatic assistance from the Clinton
administration.
In 1999, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright blocked a $500 million
loan
guarantee by the U.S. Export-Import Bank to the Russian company, Tyumen
Oil,
on the grounds that it was contrary to U.S. national interests. Tyumen
wanted to buy American-made oil equipment and services from Dick
Cheney's
Halliburton Company and ABB Lummus Global of Bloomfield, New Jersey. 27
George Soros was an investor in a company that Tyumen had been trying to
acquire. Both Soros and BP Amoco lobbied to prevent this transaction,
and
Albright obliged. 28
NURTURING LEFT ANTI-SOCIALISM
Soros' Open Society Institute has a finger in every pot. Its board of
directors reads like a "Who's Who" of Cold War and New World Order
pundits.
Paul Goble is Communications Director; 'he was the major political
commentator at Radio Free Europe. Herbert Okun served in the Nixon State
Department as an intelligence adviser to Henry Kissinger. Kati Marton
is the
wife of former Clinton administration UN ambassador and envoy to
Yugoslavia,
Richard Holbrooke. Marton lobbied for the Soros-funded radio station
B-92,
also a project of' the National Endowment for Democracy (another overt
arm
of the CIA), which was instrumental in bringing down the Yugoslav
government.
When Soros founded the Open Society Fund he picked liberal pundit Aryeh
Neier to lead it. Neier was the head of Helsinki Watch, a putative human
rights organization with an anticommunist bent. In 1993, the Open
Society
Fund became the Open Society Institute.
Helsinki Watch became Human Rights Watch in 1975. Soros is currently on
its
Advisory Board, both for the Americas and the Eastern Europe-Central
Asia
Committees, and his Open Society Fund/Soros/OSI is listed as a funder.
29
Soros is intimately connected to HRW, and Neier wrote columns for The
Nation
magazine without mentioning that he was on Soros' payroll. 30
Soros is intimately involved in HRW, although he does his best to hide
it.
31 He says he just funds and sets up these programs and lets them run.
But
they do not stray from the philosophy of the funder. HRW and OSI are
close.
Their views do not diverge. Of course, other foundations fund these
institutions as well, but Soros' influence dominates their ideology.
George Soros' activities fall into the construct developed in 1983 and
enunciated by Allen Weinstein, founder of the National Endowment for
Democracy. Weinstein said, "A lot of what we do today was done covertly
25
years ago by the CIA."32 Soros is operating exactly within the confines
of
the intelligence complex. He is little different from CIA drug runners
in
Laos in the 1960s, or the mujahedin who profited from the opium trade
while
carrying out CIA operations against socialist Afghanistan in the 1980s.
He
simply funnels (and takes home) a whole lot more money than those
pawns, and
he does much of his business in the light of day. His candor insofar as
he
expresses it is a sort of spook damage control that serves to
legitimize the
strategies of U.S. foreign policy.
The majority of people in the U.S. today who consider themselves
politically
left-of-center are undoubtedly pessimistic about the chances for a
socialist
transformation of society. Thus the Soros 'Decentralization" model, or
the
"piecemeal" approach to "negative utilitarianism, the attempt to
minimize
the amount of misery," which was Popper's philosophy, appeals to them.
33
Soros funded an HRW study that was used to back California and Arizona
legislation relaxing drug laws. 34 Soros favors the legalization of
drugs -
one way of temporarily reducing awareness of one's misery. Soros is an
equal-opportunity bribester. At a loftier rung of the socioeconomic
ladder,
one finds Social Democrats who accept Soros funding and believe in civil
liberties within the context of capitalism. 35 For these folks, the evil
consequences of Soros' business activities (impoverishing people all
over
the world) are mitigated by his philanthropic activities. Similarly,
liberal/left intellectuals, both in the U.S. and abroad, have been
drawn in
by the "Open Society" philosophy, not to mention the occasional funding
plum.
The New Left in the United States was a social democratic movement. It
was
resolutely anti-Soviet, and when Eastern Europe and the USSR fell, few
in
the New Left opposed the destruction of the socialist systems. The New
Left
did not mourn or protest when the hundreds of millions in Eastern
Europe and
Central Asia lost their right to jobs, housing at reasonable and legally
protected rents, free education through graduate school, health care and
cultural enhancement. Most belittled any suggestion that the CIA and
certain
NGOs such as the National Endowment for Democracy or the Open Society
Fund
had actively participated in the annihilation of socialism. These people
felt that the Western determination to destroy the USSR since 1917 was
barely connected to the fall of the USSR. For them, socialism failed of
its
own accord, because it was flawed.
As revolutions, such as the ones in Mozambique, Angola, Nicaragua or El
Salvador were destroyed by proxy forces or were stalled by demonstration
"elections," New Left pragmatists shrugged their shoulders and turned
away.
The New Left sometimes seemed to deliberately ignore the post-Soviet
machinations of U.S. foreign policy.
Bogdan Denitch, who had political aspirations in Croatia, was active
within
the Open Society Institute, and received OSI funding. 36 Denitch
favored the
ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Croatia, NATO bombing of Bosnia and then
Yugoslavia, and even a ground invasion of Yugoslavia. 37 Denitch was a
founder and chair for many years of the Democratic Socialists of
America, a
leading liberal-left group in the U.S. He has also long chaired the
prestigious Socialist Scholars Conference, through which he was key to
manipulating the sympathies of many toward support for NATO expansion.
38
Other Soros targets for support include Refuse and Resist the ACLU, and
a
host of other liberal causes. 39 Soros added another unlikely trophy
when he
became involved in the New School for Social Research in New York, long
an
academy of choice for left intellectuals. He now funds the East and
Central
Europe Program there. 40
Many leftists who were inspired by the revolution in Nicaragua sadly
accepted the election of Violetta Chamorro and the defeat of the
Sandinistas
in 1990. Most of the Nicaragua support network faded thereafter.
Perhaps the
New Left could have learned from the rising star of Michael Kozak. He
was a
veteran of Washington's campaigns to install sympathetic leaders in
Nicaragua, Panama and Haiti, and to undermine Cuba - he headed the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana.
After organizing the Chamorro victory in Nicaragua, Kozak moved on to
become
U.S. Ambassador to Belarus. Kozak worked with the Soros-sponsored
"Internet
Access and Training Program" (IATP), which was busy "creating future
leaders" in Belarus. 41 This program was simultaneously imposed upon
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan. IATP operates openly with the support of the U.S.
Department of
State. To its credit, Belarus expelled Kozak and the Soros-Open
Society/U.S.
State Department crowd. The government of Aleksandr Lukashenko found
that
for four years before moving to Minsk, Kozak was instrumental in
engineering
the flow of tens of millions of dollars to the Belarus opposition.
Kozak was
creating a united opposition coalition, funding web-sites, newspapers
and
opinion polls, and tutoring a student resistance movement similar to
Yugoslavia's Otpor. Kozak brought in Otpor leaders to instruct
dissidents in
Belarus. 42 Just before September 11, 2001, the U.S. was revving up a
demonization campaign against President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Demonizing
Lukashenko has temporarily taken a back burner to the "war on
terrorism."
Through OSI and HRW, Soros was a major supporter of the B-92 radio
station
in Belgrade. Soros funded Otpor, the organization that received those
"suitcases of money" in support of the October 5, 2000 coup that
toppled the
Yugoslav government. 43 Human Rights Watch helped legitimize the
subsequent
kidnapping and show trial of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague by saying
nothing about his rights." 44 Louise Arbour, who served as judge at that
illegal tribunal, is presently on the Board of Soros' International
Crisis
Group. 45 The Open Society/Human Rights Watch gang has been working on
Macedonia, calling it part of their "civilizing mission." 46 Expect that
republic to be "saved" to finish the total disintegration of the former
Yugoslavia.
DEPUTIES OF POWER
Soros has actually stated that he considers his philanthropy moral and
his
money management business amoral. 47 Yet those in charge of Soros-funded
NGOs have a clear and consistent agenda. One of Soros' most influential
institutions is the International Crisis Group, founded in 1986. ICG is
headed by individuals from the very center of political and corporate
power.
Its board includes Zbigniew Brzezinski, Morton Abramowitz, former U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State; Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied
Commander for Europe; and Richard Allen, former U.S. National Security
Adviser, Allen is noteworthy for quitting Nixon's National Security
Council
out of disgust with the liberal tendencies of Henry Kissinger;
recruiting
Oliver North to Reagan's National Security Council, and negotiating
missiles
for hostages in the Iran-Contra scandal. For these individuals,
"containing
conflict" boils down to U.S. control over the people and resources of
the
world.
In the 1980s and 1990s, under the aegis of the Reagan Doctrine, U.S.
covert
and overt operations in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia
were
in the works. Soros was openly active in most of these places, working
to
buy off would-be revolutionaries, or subsidize politicians,
intellectuals
and anyone else who might come to power when the revolutionary moment
had
passed. According to James Petras:
"By the early 1980s the more perceptive sectors of the neoliberal ruling
classes realized that their policies were polarizing the society and
provoking large-scale social discontent. Neoliberal politicians began to
finance and promote a parallel strategy 'from below,' the promotion of
'grassroots' organizations with an 'anti-statist' ideology to intervene
among potentially conflictory classes, to create a "social cushion."
These
organizations were financially dependent on neoliberal sources and were
directly involved in competing with sociopolitical movements for the
allegiance of local leaders and activist communities. By the 1 990s
these
organizations, described as "nongovernmental," numbered in the
thousands and
were receiving close to four billion dollars world-wide." 48
In Underwriting Democracy, Soros boasts about the "Americanization of
Eastern Europe." According to his account, through his education
programs he
began to establish a young cadre of Sorosian leaders. These Soros
Foundation-educated young men and women are prepared to fulfill the
functions of so-called "influence agents." Thanks to their fluent
knowledge
of languages and their insertion into the emerging bureaucracies in
target
countries, these recruits would philosophically smooth the inroads for
Western multinational corporations.
Career diplomat Herbert Okun, on the Europe Committee of Human Rights
Watch,
along with George Soros, is connected to a host of State
Department-linked
institutions, from USAID to the Rockefeller-funded Trilateral
Commission.
>From 1990 to 1997, Okun was executive director of something called the
Financial Services Volunteer Corps, part of USAID, "to help establish
free
market financial systems in former communist countries." 49 George
Soros is
in complete accord with the capitalists who are in the process of taking
control of the global economy.
NON-PROFIT PROFITEERING
Soros claims not to do philanthropy in the countries in which he is
involved
as a currency trader. 50 But Soros has often taken advantage of his
connections to make key investments. Armed with a study by ICC, and
with the
support of Bernard Kouchner, chief of the UN Interim Administration in
Kosovo (UNMIK), Soros attempted to acquire the most profitable mining
complex in the Balkans.
In September 2000, in a hurry to take the Trepca mines before the
Yugoslavian election, Kouchner stated that pollution from the mining
complex
was raising lead levels in the environment. 51 This is incredible
considering that he cheered when the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
rained
depleted uranium on the country and released more than 100,000 tons of
carcinogens into the air, water and soil. 52 But Kouchner had his way,
and
the mines were closed for "health reasons." Soros invested $150 million
in
an effort to gain control of Trepca's gold, silver, lead, zinc and
cadmium,
which make the property worth $5 billion. 53
As Bulgaria was imploding into "free-market" chaos, Soros was busy
scavenging through the wreckage, as Reuters reported in early 2001:
"The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested
$3.0
million in [Bulgarian high-tech company] Rila, the first firm to benefit
from a new $30 million facility set up by the EBRD to support IT firms
in
central and eastern Europe.... Another $3. 0 million came from U.S
private
investment fund Argus Capital Partners, sponsored by Prudential
Insurance
Company of America and opera ting in central and eastern Europe...
Soros,
who had invested around $3.0 million in Rila and in 2001 invested
another
$1.0 million...remained its majority owner. " 54
FRAMING THE ISSUES
His pose as a philanthropist gives Soros the power to shape
international
public opinion when social conflict raises the question of who are the
victims and who are the malefactors. Like other NGOs, Human Rights
Watch,
Soros' mouthpiece on human rights, avoids or ignores most organized and
independent working class struggles.
In Colombia, labor leaders are routinely killed by paramilitaries
working in
concert with the U.S.-sponsored government. Because those unions oppose
neoliberal economics, HRW is relatively silent. In April of this year,
HRW's
Jose Vivanco testified before the U.S. Senate in favor of Plan
Colombia: 55
"Colombians remain committed to human rights and democracy They need
help.
Human Rights Watch has no fundamental problem with the United States
providing that help." 56
HRW equates the actions of the Colombian guerrilla fighters struggling
to
free themselves from the oppression of state terror, poverty and
exploitation with the repression of the U.S-sponsored armed forces and
paramilitary death squads, the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia).
HRW validated the Pastrana government and its military, whose role was
to
protect property rights and maintain the economic and political status
quo.
According to HRW, 50% of civilian deaths are the work of the
government-tolerated death squads. 57 The correct number is 80%. 58
HRW essentially certified the election and ascendancy of the Uribe
government in 2002 as well. Uribe is a throwback to the Latin American
dictators the U.S. supported in the past, although he was "elected."
HRW had
no comment about the fact that the majority boycotted the election. 59
In the Caribbean Basin, Cuba is another opponent of neoliberalism that
has
been demonized by Human Rights Watch. In nearby Haiti, Soros-funded
activities have worked to defeat popular aspirations following the end
of
the Duvalier dictatorship by undermining Haiti's first democratically
elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. HRW's Ken Roth helpfully chimed
in
with U.S. denunciations of Aristide as "undemocratic." To demonstrate
his
idea of "democracy," Soros foundations were commencing operations in
Haiti
complimentary to such unseemly U.S. activities as USAID's promotion of
persons associated with FRAPH, the notorious CIA-sponsored death squads
which have terrorized the country since the fall of 'Baby Doc'
Duvalier. 60
On HRW's web site, Director Roth criticized the U.S. for not opposing
China
more vigorously. Roth's activities include the creation of the Tibetan
Freedom Concert, a traveling propaganda project that toured the U.S.
with
major rock musicians, urging young people to support Tibet against
China. 61
Tibet has been a pet project of the CIA for many years. 62
Roth has recently pressed for opposition to Chinese control over its
oil-rich western province of Xinjiang. With the colonialist "divide and
conquer" approach, Roth has tried to convince some of the Uighur
religious
minority in Xinjiang that the U.S/NATO intervention in Kosovo holds
promise
as a model for them. As late as August 2002, the U.S. government has
given
some support in this endeavor as well.
U.S. designs on this region were signaled clearly when a New York Times
article on Xinjiang Province in western China described the Uighurs as a
"Muslim majority, [which] lives restively under Chinese rule." They "are
well versed in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia last year which some
celebrate
for liberating the Muslims in Kosovo; they fantasize about a similar
rescue'
here." 63 The New York Times Magazine noted "Recent discoveries of oil
have
made Xinjiang extremely attractive to international trade," while
comparing
the conditions for its indigenous population to those in Tibet. 64
INNUMERACY
When Sorosian organizations count, they seem to lose track of the truth.
Human Rights Watch asserted that 500 people, not over 2,000, were
killed by
NATO bombers in the 1999 war in Yugoslavia. 65 They said only 350, not
over
4,000, died as a result of U.S. attacks on Afghanistan. 66 When the U.S.
bombed Panama in 1989, HRW prefaced its report by saying that the
"ouster of
Manuel Noriega.. and installation of the democratically-elected
government
of President Guillermo Endara brought high hopes in Panama..." The
report
neglected to mention the number of casualties.
Human Rights Watch prepared the groundwork for the NATO attack on
Bosnia in
1993 by the false rape-of-thousands and "genocide" stories. 67 This
tactic
of creating political hysteria was necessary for the United States to
carry
out its Balkan policy. It was repeated in 1999 when HRW functioned as
the
shock troops of indoctrination for the NATO attack on Yugoslavia. All of
Soros' blather about the rule of law was forgotten. The U.S. and NATO
made
their own law, and the institutions of George Soros stood behind it.
Massaging of numbers to provoke a response was a major part of a
Council on
Foreign Relations campaign after September 11,2001. This time it was the
2,801 killed in the World Trade Center. The CFR met on November 6,
2001, to
plan a "major public diplomacy campaign." CFR created an "Independent
Task
Force on America's Response to Terrorism." Soros joined Richard C.
Holbrooke, Newton L. Gingrich, John M. Shalikashvili (former Chairman
of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff), and other powerful individuals on a campaign to
make
the Trade Center dead into tools for U.S. foreign policy. The CFR
report set
out to make the case for a war on terrorism. George Soros' fingerprints
were
all over the campaign:
"Have senior-level U.S. officials press friendly Arab and other Muslim
governments not only to publicly condemn the 9/11 attacks, but also to
back
the rationale and goals of the U.S. anti-terror campaign. We are never
going
to convince the publics in the Middle East and South Asia of the
nghteousness of our cause if their governments remain silent. We need to
help them to deflect any blow-hack from such statements, but we must
have
them vocally on board.... Encourage Bosnian, Albanian, and Turkish
Muslims
to educate foreign audiences regarding the U.S. role in saving the
Muslims
of Bosnia and Kosovo in 1995-99, and our long-standing, close ties to
Muslims around the world. Engage regional intellectuals and journalists
across the board, regardless of their views. Routinely monitor the
regional
press in real time to enable prompt responses... Stress references to
the
victims (and ideally named victims to personalize them) whenever we
discuss
our cause and goals." 68
Sorosian innumeracy: counting to bolster and defend U.S. foreign policy.
Soros is very worried about the decline in the world capitalist system
and
he wants to do something about it, now. He recently said: "I can already
discern the makings of the final crisis.... Indigenous political
movements
are likely to arise that will seek to expropriate the multinational
corporations and recapture the 'national' wealth." 69
Soros is seriously suggesting a plan to circumvent the United Nations.
He
proposes that the "democracies of the world ought to take the lead and
forge
a global network of alliances that could work with or without the United
Nations." If he were psychotic, one might think he was having an
episode.
But the fact is, Soros' assertion that "The United Nations is
constitutionally incapable of fulfilling the promises contained in the
preamble of its charter," reflects the thinking of such reactionary
institutions as the American Enterprise Institute. 70 Though many
conservatives refer to the Soros network as left-wing, on the question
of
U.S. affiliation with the United Nations Soros is on the same page as
the
likes of John R. Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security Affairs, who, with "[M]any Republicans in
Congress-believe that nothing more should be paid to the UN system." 71
There has been a decades-long rightwing campaign against the UN. Now
Soros
is leading it. On various Soros web sites one may read criticism of the
United Nations as too rich, unwilling to share information, or flawed in
ways that make it unfit for the way the world should run according to
George
Soros.
Even writers at The Nation, writers who clearly ought to know better,
have
been influenced by Soros' ideas. William Greider, for instance, recently
found some validity in Soros' criticism that the United Nations should
not
be a venue for "tin-pot dictators and totalitarians. . treated as equal
partners." 72 This kind of Eurocentric racism is at the heart of Soros'
hubris. His assumption that the United States can and should run the
world
is a prescription for fascism on a global scale. For much too long,
Western
"progressives" have been giving Soros a pass. Probably Greider and
others
will find the reference to fascism excessive, unjustified, even
outrageous.
But just listen closely to what Soros himself has to say: "In old Rome,
the
Romans only voted. In the modern global capitalism, the Americans only
vote.
The Brazilians do not vote." 73
NOTES
1. Dan Seligman, "Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire,"
commentary,
April 2002. 2. "Sir Karl Popper in Prague, Summary of Relevant Facts
Without
Comment," http://www.lf3.cuni.cz/aff/p1_e.html. 3. Radio Free
Europe/Radio
Liberty, Transcaucasia/Central Asia, http://www.rferl.org 4. Seligman.
5.
Lee Penn, "1999, A Year of Growth for the United Religions Initiative."
http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N1684.TMP3/
B103O723.3;sz=720x300;ord=6249?. 6.
George Soros, Soros on Soros, Staying Ahead of the Curve (New York: John
Wiley, 1995), p. 26. 7. "Hedge Funds Get Trimmed," Wall Street Journal,
May
1, 2000. 8. Theodore Spencer, "Investors of the Century," Fortune,
December
1999. 9. Jim Freer, "Most International Trader George Soros," Latin
Tradecom, October 1998,
http://www.latintrade.com/newsite/content/archives.cfm?StoryID=473. 10.
Busaba Sivasomboon, "Soros Speech in Thailand Canceled," AP wire,
January
28, 2001. 11. Sivasomboon. 12. George Soros, The Asia Society Hong Kong
Center Speech, http://www.asiasociety.org/speeches/soros. 13. Soros on
Soros, pill. 14. George Soros, Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism
(New York: Public Affairs, 2000). 15. David Corn, "Bush and the
Billionaire,
How Insider Capitalism Benefited W," The Nation, July 17, 2002. 16.
Soros on
Soros, pp. 122-25. 17. Agence France-Presse, October 8, 1993. 18.
Marianne
Yen, "Fund's Representatives Arrested in China," Washington Post,
August 8,
1989, p. A4. 19. Los Angeles Times, November 24, 1994, p. ASS. 20.
Chrystia
Freeland, "Moscow Suspicion Grows: Kremlin Factions Are at Odds Over
Policy," Financial Times (London), January 19, 1995. 21. Interfax
Russian
News, November 6, 1999. 22. Irma Dezhina, "U.S. Non-profit Foundations
in
Russia, Impact on Research and Education"
http://www.jhu.edu/~istr/conferences/dublin/workingpapers/dezhina.pdf.
23.
"FSK Suspects Financing of Espionage on Russia's Territory," AP wire,
January 18, 1995. 24. David Hoffman, "Proliferation of Parties Gives
Russia
a Fractured Democratic System," Washington Post, October 1, 1995, p.
A27;
Margaret Shapiro, "Russian Agency Said to Accuse Americans of Spying,"
Washington Post, January 14, 1995, p. A17. 25. Allan Turner, "Looking
For
Trouble," Houston chronicle, May 28, 1995, p. E1; Kim Masters, "Where Is
Fred Cuny," Washington Post, June 19, 1995, p. D1; Patrick Anderson,
"The
Disaster Expert Who Met His Match," Washington Post, September 6, 1999,
p.
C9; Scott Anderson, "What Happened to Fred Cuny?" New York Times
Magazine,
February 25, 1996, p. 44. 26. Scott Anderson, "The Man Who Tried to
Save the
World: the Dangerous Life and Disappearance of Fred Cuny," Philanthropy
Roundtable, March/April 2002,
http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazines/2000-01/hedges. 27.
"U.S.
Blocks $500M Aid Deal for Russians" Wall Street Journal, December 22,
1999.
28. Bob Djurdjevic, "Letters to the Editor," Wall Street Journal,
December
22, 1999. 29. "Open Society Institute,"
http://www.soros.org/osi/newyork.
30. Connie Bruck, "The World According to Soros," New Yorker, January
23,
1995. 31. Olga M. Lazin, "The Rise of the U.S. Decentralized Model for
Philanthropy, George Soros' Open Society and National Foundations in
Europe,"
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/profmex/volume6/1winter01/01lazin1.htm.
32. David Ignatius, "Innocence Abroad: The New World of Spyless Coups,"
Washington Post, September 22, 1991, p. C1. 33. Patrick McCartney,
"Study
Suggests Drug Laws Resemble Notorious Passbook Laws,"
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n861/a06. 34. McCartney. 35. See Sean
Gervasi, "Western Intervention in the USSR," CovertAction Information
Bulletin, no. 39, Winter 1991-92. 36. "The Cenasia Discussion List,"
http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/cenasia/hypermail/200102/0052.html.
37.
Bogdan Denitch, "The Case Against Inaction," The Nation, April 26,
1999. 38.
"Biographies, 2002 Socialist Scholars Conference,"
http://www.socialistscholar.org/biographies. 39. "Grants,"
http://www.soros.org/repro/grants. 40. "East and Central Europe
Program,"
http://www.newschool.edu/centers/ecep. 41. Oxana Popovitch, "IREX
Belarus
Opens a New IATP Site in Molodechno."
http://www.iatp.net/archive/belarus.
42. lan Traynor, "Belarussian Foils Dictator-buster...For Now,"
Guardian,
September 14, 2001,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,551533,00.html 43.
Steven Erlanger, "Kostunica Says Some Backers 'Unconsciously Work for
American Imperial Goals,"' New York Times, September 20, 2000; and
"Bringing
Down a Dictator, Serbia Calling." PBS,
http://www.pbs.org/weta/dictator/rock/serbiacalling.html 44. Milosevic
in
the Hague, Focus on Human Rights, "In-Depth Report Documents Milosevic
Crimes," April 2001,
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/10/milocroat1029.htm. 45.
"About ICG," May 2002,
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/annual/2002/ICG2002.pdf. 46. Macedonia
Crimes Against Civilians: Abuses by Macedonian Forces in Lluboten,
August
10-12, 2001 47. Andrew Leonard. "The Man Who Bought the World,"
February 28,
2002, Salon.com. http://archive.salon.com/tech/books/2002/02/28/soros/
48.
James Petras, "Imperialism and NGOs in Latin America," Monthly Review,
vol.
49, no. 7, December 1997. 49. International Security Studies, "Herbert
Okun," http://www.yale.edu/iss/peopleadvisoryboard1. 50. Leonard. 51.
Edward
W. Miller, "Brigandage," Coastal Post Monthly, Mann County, CA,
September
2000. 52. Mirjan Nadrljanski, "Eco-Disaster in Pancevo: Consequences on
the
Health of the Population," July 19, 1999,
http://www.gci.ch/GreenCrossPrograms/legacy/yugoslavia/Nadrljanski.html
53.
"Soros Fund Launches $150 MIn U.S.Backed Balkans Investment," Bloomberg
Business News, July 26, 2000; Chris Hedges, "Below It All in Kosovo,"
New
York limes, July 8,1998, p. A4. 54. Galina Sabeva, "Soros' Sofia IT Firm
Gets $9 Million Equity Investment," Reuters, January 23, 2001. 55. On
Plan
Colombia see: Manuel Salgado Tamayo, "The Geostrategy of Plan Colombia
CovertAction Quarterly no. 71, Winter 2001. 56. "Colombia: Human Rights
Watch Testifies Before the Senate," Human Rights Watch Backgrounder,
April
24, 2002,
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/americas/colombia-testimony0424.htm. 57.
"Colombia: Bush/Pastrana Meeting, HRW World Report 2001, Human Rights
News"
(New York, November 6, 2001). 58. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting,
Action
Alert," New York limes Covering for Colombian Death Squads," February 9,
2001. 59. Doug Stokes "Colombia Primer Q&A on the Conflict and U.S.
Role,"
April 16, 2002. Znet,
http://www.zmag.org/content/Colombia/stokes_col-primer.cfm. 60.
Interpress
Service, January 18, 1995. For additional background see Jane Regan,
"AIDing
U.S. Interests In Haiti," CovertAction Quarterly no. 51, Winter
1994-95; and
Noam Chomsky, "Haiti, The Uncivil Society," CovertAction Quarterly no.
57,
Summer 1996. 61. Sam Tucker, Human Rights Watch,
http://www.webactive.com/webactive/sotw/hrw. 62. John Kenneth Knaus,
Orphans
of the Cold War (New York, BBS Public Affairs 1999), p. 236. 63.
Elisabeth
Rosenthal, "Defiant Chinese Muslims Keep Their Own Time," New York
limes,
November 19, 2000, p. 3. 64. Jonathan Reynolds (pseudonym), "The
Clandestine
Chef," New York Times Magazine, December 3, 2000. 65. "Lessons of War,"
Le
Monde Diplomatique, March 2000; Peter Phillips, "Untold Stories of
U.S./NATO's War and Media Complacency,"
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/suntold.htm 66. Marc W. Herold, "A
Dossier on
Civilian Victims of United States' Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A
Comprehensive Accounting,"
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/civiDeaths.html 67. "Rape as a crime
against humanity," http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/rape.html 68.
"Improving the Public Diplomacy Campaign in the War Against Terrorism,"
Independent Task Force on America's Response to Terrorism, Council on
Foreign Relations, November 6, 2001. 69. William Greider, "Curious
George
Talks the Market, The Nation, February 15, 1999. 70. "Oppose John
Bolton's
Nomination as State Department's Arms Control Leader," Council for a
Livable
World , April 11, 2001, http://www.clw.org/bush/opposebolton.html 71.
Ibid.
72. Greider. 73. "The Dictatorship of Financial Capital," Federation of
Social and Educational Assistance (FASE), Brazil, 2002,
http://www.fase.org.br
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heather Cottin is a writer, lifelong political activist, and recently
retired high school history teacher
She lives in Freeport, NY and was for many years married to the late
scholar
and activist Sean Gervasi.
---
Covert Action Quarterly, Fall 2002(copyrighted)
1500 Mass. ave, NW, Washington, DC 20005.
Tel: 202 331 9763 E-mail : info@...
George Soros : Magicien impérial et agent double
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/3021%5d
http://www.left.ru/inter/2003/december/soros.html
George Soros: Imperial Wizard/Double Agent
Covert Action Quarterly
e-mail: info@...
by Heather Cottin
December 9, 2003
This is not a case of narcissistic personality disorder; this is how
George
Soros exercises the authority of United States hegemony in the world
today.
Soros foundations and financial machinations are partly responsible for
the
destruction of socialism in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. He has
set
his sights on China. He was part of the full court press that dismantled
Yugoslavia. Calling himself a philanthropist, billionaire George Soros'
role
is to tighten the ideological stranglehold of globalization and the New
World Order while promoting his own financial gain. Soros' commercial
and
"philanthropic" operations are clandestine, contradictory and coactive.
And
as far as his economic activities are concerned, by his own admission,
he is
without conscience; a capitalist who functions with absolute amorality.
Master-builder of the new bribe sector systematically bilking the world
He
thrusts himself upon world statesmen and they respond. He has been
close to
Henry Kissinger, Vaclav Havel and Poland's General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
He
supports the Dalai Lama, whose institute is housed in the Presidio in
San
Francisco, also home to the foundation run by Soros' friend, former
Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Soros is a leading figure on the Council of
Foreign Relations, the World Economic Forum, and Human Rights Watch
(HRW).
In 1994, after a meeting with his philosophical guru, Sir Karl Popper,
Soros
ordered his companies to start investing in Central and Eastern European
communications.
The Federal Radio Television Administration of the Czech Republic
accepted
his offer to take over and fund the archives of Radio Free Europe. Soros
moved the archives to Prague and spent over $15 million on their
maintenance. A Soros foundation now runs CIA-created Radio Free
Europe/Radio
Liberty jointly with the U.S. and RFE/RL, which has expanded into the
Caucasus and Asia. Soros is the founder and funder of the Open Society
Insti
tute. He created and maintains the International Crisis Group (ICG)
which,
among other things, has been active in the Balkans since the
destruction of
Yugoslavia. Soros works openly with the United States Institute of
Peace -
an overt arm of the CIA...
When anti-globalization forces were freezing in the streets outside New
York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in February 2002, George Soros was inside
addressing the World Economic Forum. As the police forced protesters
into
metal cages on Park Avenue, Soros was extolling the virtues of the "Open
Society" and joined Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samuel Huntington, Francis
Fukuyama
and others.
WHO IS THIS GUY?
George Soros was born in Hungary in 1930 to Jewish parents so removed
from
their roots that they once vacationed in Nazi Germany. Soros lived
under the
Nazis, but with the triumph of the Communists moved to England in 1947.
There, Soros came under the sway of the philosopher Karl Popper, at the
London School of Economics. Popper was a lionized anti-communist
ideologue
and his teachings formed the basis for Soros' political tendencies.
There is
hardly a speech, book or article that Soros writes that does not pay
obeisance to Popper's influence.
Knighted in 1965, Popper coined the slogan "Open Society," which
eventually
manifested in Soros' Open Society Fund and Institute. Followers of
Popper
repeat his words like true believers. Popperian philosophy epitomizes
Western individualism. Soros left England in 1956, and found work on
Wall
Street where, in the 1960s, he invented the "hedge fund."
"...hedge funds catered to very wealthy individuals... The largely
secretive
funds, usually trading in offshore locations. . produced astronomically
superior results. The size of the "bets" often became self fulfilling
prophecies: 'rumors of a position taken by the big hedge funds prompted
other investors to follow suit,' which would in turn force up the price
the
hedgers were betting on to begin with."
Soros organized the Quantum Fund in 1969 and began to dabble in currency
manipulation. In the 1970s, his financial activities turned to:
"Alternating long and short positions... Soros won big both on the rise
of
real estate investment trusts and on their subsequent collapse. Under
his
20-year stewardship, Quantum returned an amazing 34.5% a year. Soros is
best
known (and feared) for currency speculation.. . In 1997 he earned the
rare
distinction of being singled out as a villain by a head of state,
Malaysia's
Mahathir Mohamad, for taking part in a highly profitable attack on that
nation's currency."
Through such clandestine financial scheming, Soros became a
multibillionaire. His companies control real estate in Argentina,
Brazil,
and Mexico; banking in Venezuela; and are some of the most profitable
currency traders in the world, giving rise to the general belief that
his
highly placed friends assisted him in his financial endeavors, for
political
as well as financial gain.
George Soros has been blamed for the destruction of the Thai economy in
1997. One Thai activist said, "We regard George Soros as a kind of
Dracula.
He sucks the blood from the people." The Chinese call him "the
crocodile,"
because his economic and ideological efforts in China were so
insatiate, and
because his financial speculation created millions of dollars in
profits as
it ravished the Thai and Malaysian economies.
Soros once made a billion dollars in one day by speculating (a word he
abhors) on the British pound. Accused of taking "money from every
British
taxpayer when he speculated against sterling," he said, "When you
speculate
in the financial markets you are free of most of the moral concerns that
confront an ordinary businessman.. .I did not have to concern myself
with
moral issues in the financial markets."
Soros has a schizophrenic craving for unlimited personal wealth and a
desire
to be thought well of by others:
"Currency traders sitting at their desks buy and sell currencies of
Third
World countries in large quantities. The effect of the currency
fluctuations
on the people who live in those countries is a matter that does not
enter
their minds. Nor should it; they have a job to do. Yet if we pause to
think,
we must ask ourselves whether currency traders.. .should regulate the
lives
of millions."
It was Soros who saved George W. Bush's bacon when his management of an
oil
exploration company was ending in failure. Soros was the owner of Harken
Energy Corporation, and it was he who bought the rapidly depreciating
stocks
just prior to the company's collapse. The future president cashed out at
almost one million dollars. Soros said he did it to buy "political
influence." Soros is also a partner in the infamous Carlyle Group.
Organized
in 1987, "the world's largest private equity firm" with over twelve
billion
dollars under management, is run by "a veritable who's who of former
Republican leaders," from CIA man Frank Carlucci to CIA head George
Bush,
Sr. The Carlyle Group makes most of its money from weapons expenditures.
THE PHILANTHROPIST SPOOK
In 1980, Soros began to use his millions to attack socialism in Eastern
Europe. He financed individuals who would cooperate with him. His first
success was in Hungary. He took over the Hungarian educational and
cultural
establishment, incapacitating socialist institutions throughout the
country.
He made his way right inside the Hungarian government. Soros next moved
on
to Poland, aiding the CIA-funded Solidarity operation and in that same
year,
he became active in China. The USSR came next.
It is not coincidental that the Central Intelligence Agency had
operations
in all of those countries. The goal of the Agency was exactly the same
as
that of the Open Society Fund: to dismantle socialism. In South Africa,
the
CIA sought out dissidents who were anticommunist. In Hungary, Poland
and the
USSR, the CIA, with overt intervention from the National Endowment for
Democracy, the AFL-CIO, USAID and other institutions, supported and
organized anticommunists, the very type of individuals recruited by
Soros'
Open Society Fund. The CIA would have called them "assets." As Soros
said,
"In each country I identified a group of people - some leading
personalities, others less well known - who share my belief..."
Soros' Open Society organized conferences with anticommunist Czechs,
Serbs,
Romanians, Hungarians, Croatians, Bosnians, Kosovars. 17 His
ever-expanding
influence gave rise to suspicions that he was operating as part of the
U.S.
intelligence complex. In 1989, the Washington Post reported charges
first
made in 1987 by the Chinese government officials that Soros' Fund for
the
Reform and Opening of China had CIA connections. 18
TAKING ON MOSCOW
After 1990, Soros funds targeted the Russian educational system,
providing
the entire nation with textbooks. 19 In effect, Soros ensured the
indoctrination of an entire generation of Russian youth with OSI
propaganda.
Soros foundations were accused of engineering a strategy to take
control of
the Russian financial system, privatization schemes, and the process of
foreign investment in that country. Russians reacted angrily to Soros'
legislative meddlings. Critics of Soros and other U.S. foundations said
the
goal of these maneuvers was to "thwart Russia as a state, which has the
potential to compete with the world's only superpower." 20 Russians
began to
suspect Soros and the CIA were interconnected. Business tycoon Boris
Berezovsky said, "I nearly fainted when I heard a couple of years ago
that
George Soros was a CIA agent." 21 Berezovsky's opinion was that Soros,
and
the West, were "afraid of Russian capital becoming strong."
If the economic and political establishment in the United States fear an
economic rivalry from Russia, what better way to control it than to
dominate
Russian media, education, research centers and science? After spending
$250
million for the "transformation of education of humanities and
economics at
the high school and university levels," Soros created the International
Science Foundation for another $100 million. 22 The Russian Federal
Counterintelligence Service (FSK) accused Soros foundations in Russia of
"espionage." They noted that Soros was not operating alone; he was part
of a
full court press that included financing from the Ford and Heritage
Foundations; Harvard, Duke, and Columbia universities, and assistance
from
the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence services. 23 The FSK criticized
Soros'
payouts to 50,000 Russian scientists, saying that Soros advanced his own
interests by gaining control of thousands of Russian scientific
discoveries
and new technologies to collect state and commercial secrets. 24
In 1995, Russians were infuriated by the insinuation of State Department
operative Fred Cuny into the conflict in Chechnya. Cuny's cover was
disaster
relief, but his history of involvement in international conflict zones
of
interest to the U.S., plus FBI and CIA search parties, made clear his
government connections. At the time of his disappearance, Cuny was
working
under contract to a Soros foundation. 25 It is not widely known in the
U.S.
that the violence in Chechnya, a province in the heart of Russia, is
generally perceived as the result of a political destabilization
campaign on
which Washington looks favorably, and may actually be directing. This
assessment of the situation is clear enough to writer Tom Clancy that he
felt free to include it as an assertion of fact in his best-seller, The
Sum
of All Fears. The Russians accused Cuny of being a CIA operative, and
part
of an intelligence operation to support the Chechen uprising. 26 Soros'
Open
Society Institute is still active in Chechnya, as are other
Soros-sponsored
organizations.
Russia was the site of at least one joint endeavor to enhance Soros'
balance
sheet, arranged with diplomatic assistance from the Clinton
administration.
In 1999, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright blocked a $500 million
loan
guarantee by the U.S. Export-Import Bank to the Russian company, Tyumen
Oil,
on the grounds that it was contrary to U.S. national interests. Tyumen
wanted to buy American-made oil equipment and services from Dick
Cheney's
Halliburton Company and ABB Lummus Global of Bloomfield, New Jersey. 27
George Soros was an investor in a company that Tyumen had been trying to
acquire. Both Soros and BP Amoco lobbied to prevent this transaction,
and
Albright obliged. 28
NURTURING LEFT ANTI-SOCIALISM
Soros' Open Society Institute has a finger in every pot. Its board of
directors reads like a "Who's Who" of Cold War and New World Order
pundits.
Paul Goble is Communications Director; 'he was the major political
commentator at Radio Free Europe. Herbert Okun served in the Nixon State
Department as an intelligence adviser to Henry Kissinger. Kati Marton
is the
wife of former Clinton administration UN ambassador and envoy to
Yugoslavia,
Richard Holbrooke. Marton lobbied for the Soros-funded radio station
B-92,
also a project of' the National Endowment for Democracy (another overt
arm
of the CIA), which was instrumental in bringing down the Yugoslav
government.
When Soros founded the Open Society Fund he picked liberal pundit Aryeh
Neier to lead it. Neier was the head of Helsinki Watch, a putative human
rights organization with an anticommunist bent. In 1993, the Open
Society
Fund became the Open Society Institute.
Helsinki Watch became Human Rights Watch in 1975. Soros is currently on
its
Advisory Board, both for the Americas and the Eastern Europe-Central
Asia
Committees, and his Open Society Fund/Soros/OSI is listed as a funder.
29
Soros is intimately connected to HRW, and Neier wrote columns for The
Nation
magazine without mentioning that he was on Soros' payroll. 30
Soros is intimately involved in HRW, although he does his best to hide
it.
31 He says he just funds and sets up these programs and lets them run.
But
they do not stray from the philosophy of the funder. HRW and OSI are
close.
Their views do not diverge. Of course, other foundations fund these
institutions as well, but Soros' influence dominates their ideology.
George Soros' activities fall into the construct developed in 1983 and
enunciated by Allen Weinstein, founder of the National Endowment for
Democracy. Weinstein said, "A lot of what we do today was done covertly
25
years ago by the CIA."32 Soros is operating exactly within the confines
of
the intelligence complex. He is little different from CIA drug runners
in
Laos in the 1960s, or the mujahedin who profited from the opium trade
while
carrying out CIA operations against socialist Afghanistan in the 1980s.
He
simply funnels (and takes home) a whole lot more money than those
pawns, and
he does much of his business in the light of day. His candor insofar as
he
expresses it is a sort of spook damage control that serves to
legitimize the
strategies of U.S. foreign policy.
The majority of people in the U.S. today who consider themselves
politically
left-of-center are undoubtedly pessimistic about the chances for a
socialist
transformation of society. Thus the Soros 'Decentralization" model, or
the
"piecemeal" approach to "negative utilitarianism, the attempt to
minimize
the amount of misery," which was Popper's philosophy, appeals to them.
33
Soros funded an HRW study that was used to back California and Arizona
legislation relaxing drug laws. 34 Soros favors the legalization of
drugs -
one way of temporarily reducing awareness of one's misery. Soros is an
equal-opportunity bribester. At a loftier rung of the socioeconomic
ladder,
one finds Social Democrats who accept Soros funding and believe in civil
liberties within the context of capitalism. 35 For these folks, the evil
consequences of Soros' business activities (impoverishing people all
over
the world) are mitigated by his philanthropic activities. Similarly,
liberal/left intellectuals, both in the U.S. and abroad, have been
drawn in
by the "Open Society" philosophy, not to mention the occasional funding
plum.
The New Left in the United States was a social democratic movement. It
was
resolutely anti-Soviet, and when Eastern Europe and the USSR fell, few
in
the New Left opposed the destruction of the socialist systems. The New
Left
did not mourn or protest when the hundreds of millions in Eastern
Europe and
Central Asia lost their right to jobs, housing at reasonable and legally
protected rents, free education through graduate school, health care and
cultural enhancement. Most belittled any suggestion that the CIA and
certain
NGOs such as the National Endowment for Democracy or the Open Society
Fund
had actively participated in the annihilation of socialism. These people
felt that the Western determination to destroy the USSR since 1917 was
barely connected to the fall of the USSR. For them, socialism failed of
its
own accord, because it was flawed.
As revolutions, such as the ones in Mozambique, Angola, Nicaragua or El
Salvador were destroyed by proxy forces or were stalled by demonstration
"elections," New Left pragmatists shrugged their shoulders and turned
away.
The New Left sometimes seemed to deliberately ignore the post-Soviet
machinations of U.S. foreign policy.
Bogdan Denitch, who had political aspirations in Croatia, was active
within
the Open Society Institute, and received OSI funding. 36 Denitch
favored the
ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Croatia, NATO bombing of Bosnia and then
Yugoslavia, and even a ground invasion of Yugoslavia. 37 Denitch was a
founder and chair for many years of the Democratic Socialists of
America, a
leading liberal-left group in the U.S. He has also long chaired the
prestigious Socialist Scholars Conference, through which he was key to
manipulating the sympathies of many toward support for NATO expansion.
38
Other Soros targets for support include Refuse and Resist the ACLU, and
a
host of other liberal causes. 39 Soros added another unlikely trophy
when he
became involved in the New School for Social Research in New York, long
an
academy of choice for left intellectuals. He now funds the East and
Central
Europe Program there. 40
Many leftists who were inspired by the revolution in Nicaragua sadly
accepted the election of Violetta Chamorro and the defeat of the
Sandinistas
in 1990. Most of the Nicaragua support network faded thereafter.
Perhaps the
New Left could have learned from the rising star of Michael Kozak. He
was a
veteran of Washington's campaigns to install sympathetic leaders in
Nicaragua, Panama and Haiti, and to undermine Cuba - he headed the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana.
After organizing the Chamorro victory in Nicaragua, Kozak moved on to
become
U.S. Ambassador to Belarus. Kozak worked with the Soros-sponsored
"Internet
Access and Training Program" (IATP), which was busy "creating future
leaders" in Belarus. 41 This program was simultaneously imposed upon
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan. IATP operates openly with the support of the U.S.
Department of
State. To its credit, Belarus expelled Kozak and the Soros-Open
Society/U.S.
State Department crowd. The government of Aleksandr Lukashenko found
that
for four years before moving to Minsk, Kozak was instrumental in
engineering
the flow of tens of millions of dollars to the Belarus opposition.
Kozak was
creating a united opposition coalition, funding web-sites, newspapers
and
opinion polls, and tutoring a student resistance movement similar to
Yugoslavia's Otpor. Kozak brought in Otpor leaders to instruct
dissidents in
Belarus. 42 Just before September 11, 2001, the U.S. was revving up a
demonization campaign against President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Demonizing
Lukashenko has temporarily taken a back burner to the "war on
terrorism."
Through OSI and HRW, Soros was a major supporter of the B-92 radio
station
in Belgrade. Soros funded Otpor, the organization that received those
"suitcases of money" in support of the October 5, 2000 coup that
toppled the
Yugoslav government. 43 Human Rights Watch helped legitimize the
subsequent
kidnapping and show trial of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague by saying
nothing about his rights." 44 Louise Arbour, who served as judge at that
illegal tribunal, is presently on the Board of Soros' International
Crisis
Group. 45 The Open Society/Human Rights Watch gang has been working on
Macedonia, calling it part of their "civilizing mission." 46 Expect that
republic to be "saved" to finish the total disintegration of the former
Yugoslavia.
DEPUTIES OF POWER
Soros has actually stated that he considers his philanthropy moral and
his
money management business amoral. 47 Yet those in charge of Soros-funded
NGOs have a clear and consistent agenda. One of Soros' most influential
institutions is the International Crisis Group, founded in 1986. ICG is
headed by individuals from the very center of political and corporate
power.
Its board includes Zbigniew Brzezinski, Morton Abramowitz, former U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State; Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied
Commander for Europe; and Richard Allen, former U.S. National Security
Adviser, Allen is noteworthy for quitting Nixon's National Security
Council
out of disgust with the liberal tendencies of Henry Kissinger;
recruiting
Oliver North to Reagan's National Security Council, and negotiating
missiles
for hostages in the Iran-Contra scandal. For these individuals,
"containing
conflict" boils down to U.S. control over the people and resources of
the
world.
In the 1980s and 1990s, under the aegis of the Reagan Doctrine, U.S.
covert
and overt operations in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia
were
in the works. Soros was openly active in most of these places, working
to
buy off would-be revolutionaries, or subsidize politicians,
intellectuals
and anyone else who might come to power when the revolutionary moment
had
passed. According to James Petras:
"By the early 1980s the more perceptive sectors of the neoliberal ruling
classes realized that their policies were polarizing the society and
provoking large-scale social discontent. Neoliberal politicians began to
finance and promote a parallel strategy 'from below,' the promotion of
'grassroots' organizations with an 'anti-statist' ideology to intervene
among potentially conflictory classes, to create a "social cushion."
These
organizations were financially dependent on neoliberal sources and were
directly involved in competing with sociopolitical movements for the
allegiance of local leaders and activist communities. By the 1 990s
these
organizations, described as "nongovernmental," numbered in the
thousands and
were receiving close to four billion dollars world-wide." 48
In Underwriting Democracy, Soros boasts about the "Americanization of
Eastern Europe." According to his account, through his education
programs he
began to establish a young cadre of Sorosian leaders. These Soros
Foundation-educated young men and women are prepared to fulfill the
functions of so-called "influence agents." Thanks to their fluent
knowledge
of languages and their insertion into the emerging bureaucracies in
target
countries, these recruits would philosophically smooth the inroads for
Western multinational corporations.
Career diplomat Herbert Okun, on the Europe Committee of Human Rights
Watch,
along with George Soros, is connected to a host of State
Department-linked
institutions, from USAID to the Rockefeller-funded Trilateral
Commission.
>From 1990 to 1997, Okun was executive director of something called the
Financial Services Volunteer Corps, part of USAID, "to help establish
free
market financial systems in former communist countries." 49 George
Soros is
in complete accord with the capitalists who are in the process of taking
control of the global economy.
NON-PROFIT PROFITEERING
Soros claims not to do philanthropy in the countries in which he is
involved
as a currency trader. 50 But Soros has often taken advantage of his
connections to make key investments. Armed with a study by ICC, and
with the
support of Bernard Kouchner, chief of the UN Interim Administration in
Kosovo (UNMIK), Soros attempted to acquire the most profitable mining
complex in the Balkans.
In September 2000, in a hurry to take the Trepca mines before the
Yugoslavian election, Kouchner stated that pollution from the mining
complex
was raising lead levels in the environment. 51 This is incredible
considering that he cheered when the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
rained
depleted uranium on the country and released more than 100,000 tons of
carcinogens into the air, water and soil. 52 But Kouchner had his way,
and
the mines were closed for "health reasons." Soros invested $150 million
in
an effort to gain control of Trepca's gold, silver, lead, zinc and
cadmium,
which make the property worth $5 billion. 53
As Bulgaria was imploding into "free-market" chaos, Soros was busy
scavenging through the wreckage, as Reuters reported in early 2001:
"The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested
$3.0
million in [Bulgarian high-tech company] Rila, the first firm to benefit
from a new $30 million facility set up by the EBRD to support IT firms
in
central and eastern Europe.... Another $3. 0 million came from U.S
private
investment fund Argus Capital Partners, sponsored by Prudential
Insurance
Company of America and opera ting in central and eastern Europe...
Soros,
who had invested around $3.0 million in Rila and in 2001 invested
another
$1.0 million...remained its majority owner. " 54
FRAMING THE ISSUES
His pose as a philanthropist gives Soros the power to shape
international
public opinion when social conflict raises the question of who are the
victims and who are the malefactors. Like other NGOs, Human Rights
Watch,
Soros' mouthpiece on human rights, avoids or ignores most organized and
independent working class struggles.
In Colombia, labor leaders are routinely killed by paramilitaries
working in
concert with the U.S.-sponsored government. Because those unions oppose
neoliberal economics, HRW is relatively silent. In April of this year,
HRW's
Jose Vivanco testified before the U.S. Senate in favor of Plan
Colombia: 55
"Colombians remain committed to human rights and democracy They need
help.
Human Rights Watch has no fundamental problem with the United States
providing that help." 56
HRW equates the actions of the Colombian guerrilla fighters struggling
to
free themselves from the oppression of state terror, poverty and
exploitation with the repression of the U.S-sponsored armed forces and
paramilitary death squads, the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia).
HRW validated the Pastrana government and its military, whose role was
to
protect property rights and maintain the economic and political status
quo.
According to HRW, 50% of civilian deaths are the work of the
government-tolerated death squads. 57 The correct number is 80%. 58
HRW essentially certified the election and ascendancy of the Uribe
government in 2002 as well. Uribe is a throwback to the Latin American
dictators the U.S. supported in the past, although he was "elected."
HRW had
no comment about the fact that the majority boycotted the election. 59
In the Caribbean Basin, Cuba is another opponent of neoliberalism that
has
been demonized by Human Rights Watch. In nearby Haiti, Soros-funded
activities have worked to defeat popular aspirations following the end
of
the Duvalier dictatorship by undermining Haiti's first democratically
elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. HRW's Ken Roth helpfully chimed
in
with U.S. denunciations of Aristide as "undemocratic." To demonstrate
his
idea of "democracy," Soros foundations were commencing operations in
Haiti
complimentary to such unseemly U.S. activities as USAID's promotion of
persons associated with FRAPH, the notorious CIA-sponsored death squads
which have terrorized the country since the fall of 'Baby Doc'
Duvalier. 60
On HRW's web site, Director Roth criticized the U.S. for not opposing
China
more vigorously. Roth's activities include the creation of the Tibetan
Freedom Concert, a traveling propaganda project that toured the U.S.
with
major rock musicians, urging young people to support Tibet against
China. 61
Tibet has been a pet project of the CIA for many years. 62
Roth has recently pressed for opposition to Chinese control over its
oil-rich western province of Xinjiang. With the colonialist "divide and
conquer" approach, Roth has tried to convince some of the Uighur
religious
minority in Xinjiang that the U.S/NATO intervention in Kosovo holds
promise
as a model for them. As late as August 2002, the U.S. government has
given
some support in this endeavor as well.
U.S. designs on this region were signaled clearly when a New York Times
article on Xinjiang Province in western China described the Uighurs as a
"Muslim majority, [which] lives restively under Chinese rule." They "are
well versed in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia last year which some
celebrate
for liberating the Muslims in Kosovo; they fantasize about a similar
rescue'
here." 63 The New York Times Magazine noted "Recent discoveries of oil
have
made Xinjiang extremely attractive to international trade," while
comparing
the conditions for its indigenous population to those in Tibet. 64
INNUMERACY
When Sorosian organizations count, they seem to lose track of the truth.
Human Rights Watch asserted that 500 people, not over 2,000, were
killed by
NATO bombers in the 1999 war in Yugoslavia. 65 They said only 350, not
over
4,000, died as a result of U.S. attacks on Afghanistan. 66 When the U.S.
bombed Panama in 1989, HRW prefaced its report by saying that the
"ouster of
Manuel Noriega.. and installation of the democratically-elected
government
of President Guillermo Endara brought high hopes in Panama..." The
report
neglected to mention the number of casualties.
Human Rights Watch prepared the groundwork for the NATO attack on
Bosnia in
1993 by the false rape-of-thousands and "genocide" stories. 67 This
tactic
of creating political hysteria was necessary for the United States to
carry
out its Balkan policy. It was repeated in 1999 when HRW functioned as
the
shock troops of indoctrination for the NATO attack on Yugoslavia. All of
Soros' blather about the rule of law was forgotten. The U.S. and NATO
made
their own law, and the institutions of George Soros stood behind it.
Massaging of numbers to provoke a response was a major part of a
Council on
Foreign Relations campaign after September 11,2001. This time it was the
2,801 killed in the World Trade Center. The CFR met on November 6,
2001, to
plan a "major public diplomacy campaign." CFR created an "Independent
Task
Force on America's Response to Terrorism." Soros joined Richard C.
Holbrooke, Newton L. Gingrich, John M. Shalikashvili (former Chairman
of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff), and other powerful individuals on a campaign to
make
the Trade Center dead into tools for U.S. foreign policy. The CFR
report set
out to make the case for a war on terrorism. George Soros' fingerprints
were
all over the campaign:
"Have senior-level U.S. officials press friendly Arab and other Muslim
governments not only to publicly condemn the 9/11 attacks, but also to
back
the rationale and goals of the U.S. anti-terror campaign. We are never
going
to convince the publics in the Middle East and South Asia of the
nghteousness of our cause if their governments remain silent. We need to
help them to deflect any blow-hack from such statements, but we must
have
them vocally on board.... Encourage Bosnian, Albanian, and Turkish
Muslims
to educate foreign audiences regarding the U.S. role in saving the
Muslims
of Bosnia and Kosovo in 1995-99, and our long-standing, close ties to
Muslims around the world. Engage regional intellectuals and journalists
across the board, regardless of their views. Routinely monitor the
regional
press in real time to enable prompt responses... Stress references to
the
victims (and ideally named victims to personalize them) whenever we
discuss
our cause and goals." 68
Sorosian innumeracy: counting to bolster and defend U.S. foreign policy.
Soros is very worried about the decline in the world capitalist system
and
he wants to do something about it, now. He recently said: "I can already
discern the makings of the final crisis.... Indigenous political
movements
are likely to arise that will seek to expropriate the multinational
corporations and recapture the 'national' wealth." 69
Soros is seriously suggesting a plan to circumvent the United Nations.
He
proposes that the "democracies of the world ought to take the lead and
forge
a global network of alliances that could work with or without the United
Nations." If he were psychotic, one might think he was having an
episode.
But the fact is, Soros' assertion that "The United Nations is
constitutionally incapable of fulfilling the promises contained in the
preamble of its charter," reflects the thinking of such reactionary
institutions as the American Enterprise Institute. 70 Though many
conservatives refer to the Soros network as left-wing, on the question
of
U.S. affiliation with the United Nations Soros is on the same page as
the
likes of John R. Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security Affairs, who, with "[M]any Republicans in
Congress-believe that nothing more should be paid to the UN system." 71
There has been a decades-long rightwing campaign against the UN. Now
Soros
is leading it. On various Soros web sites one may read criticism of the
United Nations as too rich, unwilling to share information, or flawed in
ways that make it unfit for the way the world should run according to
George
Soros.
Even writers at The Nation, writers who clearly ought to know better,
have
been influenced by Soros' ideas. William Greider, for instance, recently
found some validity in Soros' criticism that the United Nations should
not
be a venue for "tin-pot dictators and totalitarians. . treated as equal
partners." 72 This kind of Eurocentric racism is at the heart of Soros'
hubris. His assumption that the United States can and should run the
world
is a prescription for fascism on a global scale. For much too long,
Western
"progressives" have been giving Soros a pass. Probably Greider and
others
will find the reference to fascism excessive, unjustified, even
outrageous.
But just listen closely to what Soros himself has to say: "In old Rome,
the
Romans only voted. In the modern global capitalism, the Americans only
vote.
The Brazilians do not vote." 73
NOTES
1. Dan Seligman, "Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire,"
commentary,
April 2002. 2. "Sir Karl Popper in Prague, Summary of Relevant Facts
Without
Comment," http://www.lf3.cuni.cz/aff/p1_e.html. 3. Radio Free
Europe/Radio
Liberty, Transcaucasia/Central Asia, http://www.rferl.org 4. Seligman.
5.
Lee Penn, "1999, A Year of Growth for the United Religions Initiative."
http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N1684.TMP3/
B103O723.3;sz=720x300;ord=6249?. 6.
George Soros, Soros on Soros, Staying Ahead of the Curve (New York: John
Wiley, 1995), p. 26. 7. "Hedge Funds Get Trimmed," Wall Street Journal,
May
1, 2000. 8. Theodore Spencer, "Investors of the Century," Fortune,
December
1999. 9. Jim Freer, "Most International Trader George Soros," Latin
Tradecom, October 1998,
http://www.latintrade.com/newsite/content/archives.cfm?StoryID=473. 10.
Busaba Sivasomboon, "Soros Speech in Thailand Canceled," AP wire,
January
28, 2001. 11. Sivasomboon. 12. George Soros, The Asia Society Hong Kong
Center Speech, http://www.asiasociety.org/speeches/soros. 13. Soros on
Soros, pill. 14. George Soros, Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism
(New York: Public Affairs, 2000). 15. David Corn, "Bush and the
Billionaire,
How Insider Capitalism Benefited W," The Nation, July 17, 2002. 16.
Soros on
Soros, pp. 122-25. 17. Agence France-Presse, October 8, 1993. 18.
Marianne
Yen, "Fund's Representatives Arrested in China," Washington Post,
August 8,
1989, p. A4. 19. Los Angeles Times, November 24, 1994, p. ASS. 20.
Chrystia
Freeland, "Moscow Suspicion Grows: Kremlin Factions Are at Odds Over
Policy," Financial Times (London), January 19, 1995. 21. Interfax
Russian
News, November 6, 1999. 22. Irma Dezhina, "U.S. Non-profit Foundations
in
Russia, Impact on Research and Education"
http://www.jhu.edu/~istr/conferences/dublin/workingpapers/dezhina.pdf.
23.
"FSK Suspects Financing of Espionage on Russia's Territory," AP wire,
January 18, 1995. 24. David Hoffman, "Proliferation of Parties Gives
Russia
a Fractured Democratic System," Washington Post, October 1, 1995, p.
A27;
Margaret Shapiro, "Russian Agency Said to Accuse Americans of Spying,"
Washington Post, January 14, 1995, p. A17. 25. Allan Turner, "Looking
For
Trouble," Houston chronicle, May 28, 1995, p. E1; Kim Masters, "Where Is
Fred Cuny," Washington Post, June 19, 1995, p. D1; Patrick Anderson,
"The
Disaster Expert Who Met His Match," Washington Post, September 6, 1999,
p.
C9; Scott Anderson, "What Happened to Fred Cuny?" New York Times
Magazine,
February 25, 1996, p. 44. 26. Scott Anderson, "The Man Who Tried to
Save the
World: the Dangerous Life and Disappearance of Fred Cuny," Philanthropy
Roundtable, March/April 2002,
http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazines/2000-01/hedges. 27.
"U.S.
Blocks $500M Aid Deal for Russians" Wall Street Journal, December 22,
1999.
28. Bob Djurdjevic, "Letters to the Editor," Wall Street Journal,
December
22, 1999. 29. "Open Society Institute,"
http://www.soros.org/osi/newyork.
30. Connie Bruck, "The World According to Soros," New Yorker, January
23,
1995. 31. Olga M. Lazin, "The Rise of the U.S. Decentralized Model for
Philanthropy, George Soros' Open Society and National Foundations in
Europe,"
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/profmex/volume6/1winter01/01lazin1.htm.
32. David Ignatius, "Innocence Abroad: The New World of Spyless Coups,"
Washington Post, September 22, 1991, p. C1. 33. Patrick McCartney,
"Study
Suggests Drug Laws Resemble Notorious Passbook Laws,"
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n861/a06. 34. McCartney. 35. See Sean
Gervasi, "Western Intervention in the USSR," CovertAction Information
Bulletin, no. 39, Winter 1991-92. 36. "The Cenasia Discussion List,"
http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/cenasia/hypermail/200102/0052.html.
37.
Bogdan Denitch, "The Case Against Inaction," The Nation, April 26,
1999. 38.
"Biographies, 2002 Socialist Scholars Conference,"
http://www.socialistscholar.org/biographies. 39. "Grants,"
http://www.soros.org/repro/grants. 40. "East and Central Europe
Program,"
http://www.newschool.edu/centers/ecep. 41. Oxana Popovitch, "IREX
Belarus
Opens a New IATP Site in Molodechno."
http://www.iatp.net/archive/belarus.
42. lan Traynor, "Belarussian Foils Dictator-buster...For Now,"
Guardian,
September 14, 2001,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,551533,00.html 43.
Steven Erlanger, "Kostunica Says Some Backers 'Unconsciously Work for
American Imperial Goals,"' New York Times, September 20, 2000; and
"Bringing
Down a Dictator, Serbia Calling." PBS,
http://www.pbs.org/weta/dictator/rock/serbiacalling.html 44. Milosevic
in
the Hague, Focus on Human Rights, "In-Depth Report Documents Milosevic
Crimes," April 2001,
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/10/milocroat1029.htm. 45.
"About ICG," May 2002,
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/annual/2002/ICG2002.pdf. 46. Macedonia
Crimes Against Civilians: Abuses by Macedonian Forces in Lluboten,
August
10-12, 2001 47. Andrew Leonard. "The Man Who Bought the World,"
February 28,
2002, Salon.com. http://archive.salon.com/tech/books/2002/02/28/soros/
48.
James Petras, "Imperialism and NGOs in Latin America," Monthly Review,
vol.
49, no. 7, December 1997. 49. International Security Studies, "Herbert
Okun," http://www.yale.edu/iss/peopleadvisoryboard1. 50. Leonard. 51.
Edward
W. Miller, "Brigandage," Coastal Post Monthly, Mann County, CA,
September
2000. 52. Mirjan Nadrljanski, "Eco-Disaster in Pancevo: Consequences on
the
Health of the Population," July 19, 1999,
http://www.gci.ch/GreenCrossPrograms/legacy/yugoslavia/Nadrljanski.html
53.
"Soros Fund Launches $150 MIn U.S.Backed Balkans Investment," Bloomberg
Business News, July 26, 2000; Chris Hedges, "Below It All in Kosovo,"
New
York limes, July 8,1998, p. A4. 54. Galina Sabeva, "Soros' Sofia IT Firm
Gets $9 Million Equity Investment," Reuters, January 23, 2001. 55. On
Plan
Colombia see: Manuel Salgado Tamayo, "The Geostrategy of Plan Colombia
CovertAction Quarterly no. 71, Winter 2001. 56. "Colombia: Human Rights
Watch Testifies Before the Senate," Human Rights Watch Backgrounder,
April
24, 2002,
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/americas/colombia-testimony0424.htm. 57.
"Colombia: Bush/Pastrana Meeting, HRW World Report 2001, Human Rights
News"
(New York, November 6, 2001). 58. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting,
Action
Alert," New York limes Covering for Colombian Death Squads," February 9,
2001. 59. Doug Stokes "Colombia Primer Q&A on the Conflict and U.S.
Role,"
April 16, 2002. Znet,
http://www.zmag.org/content/Colombia/stokes_col-primer.cfm. 60.
Interpress
Service, January 18, 1995. For additional background see Jane Regan,
"AIDing
U.S. Interests In Haiti," CovertAction Quarterly no. 51, Winter
1994-95; and
Noam Chomsky, "Haiti, The Uncivil Society," CovertAction Quarterly no.
57,
Summer 1996. 61. Sam Tucker, Human Rights Watch,
http://www.webactive.com/webactive/sotw/hrw. 62. John Kenneth Knaus,
Orphans
of the Cold War (New York, BBS Public Affairs 1999), p. 236. 63.
Elisabeth
Rosenthal, "Defiant Chinese Muslims Keep Their Own Time," New York
limes,
November 19, 2000, p. 3. 64. Jonathan Reynolds (pseudonym), "The
Clandestine
Chef," New York Times Magazine, December 3, 2000. 65. "Lessons of War,"
Le
Monde Diplomatique, March 2000; Peter Phillips, "Untold Stories of
U.S./NATO's War and Media Complacency,"
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/suntold.htm 66. Marc W. Herold, "A
Dossier on
Civilian Victims of United States' Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A
Comprehensive Accounting,"
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/civiDeaths.html 67. "Rape as a crime
against humanity," http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/rape.html 68.
"Improving the Public Diplomacy Campaign in the War Against Terrorism,"
Independent Task Force on America's Response to Terrorism, Council on
Foreign Relations, November 6, 2001. 69. William Greider, "Curious
George
Talks the Market, The Nation, February 15, 1999. 70. "Oppose John
Bolton's
Nomination as State Department's Arms Control Leader," Council for a
Livable
World , April 11, 2001, http://www.clw.org/bush/opposebolton.html 71.
Ibid.
72. Greider. 73. "The Dictatorship of Financial Capital," Federation of
Social and Educational Assistance (FASE), Brazil, 2002,
http://www.fase.org.br
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heather Cottin is a writer, lifelong political activist, and recently
retired high school history teacher
She lives in Freeport, NY and was for many years married to the late
scholar
and activist Sean Gervasi.
---
Covert Action Quarterly, Fall 2002(copyrighted)
1500 Mass. ave, NW, Washington, DC 20005.
Tel: 202 331 9763 E-mail : info@...
RITORNO DALLA ZASTAVA DI KRAGUJEVAC
Viaggio del 19-22 dicembre 2003
(resoconto di viaggio a cura Gilberto Vlaic del gruppo ZASTAVA Trieste)
Questa relazione e’ suddivisa in cinque parti:
1) Introduzione
2) Materiale trasportato, cronaca del viaggio, assemblea con i
lavoratori
3) Il microprogetto artigianato
4) Stato attuale della Zastava
5) Informazioni generali e conclusioni
Introduzione
Vi inviamo un resoconto del viaggio appena concluso alla Zastava di
Kragujevac per consegnare le adozioni a distanza, fatto dal
Coordinamento Nazionale RSU, dal Gruppo Zastava di Trieste e dalla
Associazione SOS Jugoslavia di Torino..
Questo resoconto si lega alle altre relazioni scritte con cadenza
praticamente trimestrale.
Sono tutte reperibili su diversi siti, tra i quali
- il sito del coordinamento RSU, all’indirizzo:
http://www.ecn.org/coord.rsu/
seguendo il link: Solidarietà con i lavoratori della Jugoslavia:
http://www.ecn.org/coord.rsu/guerra.htm
dove sono anche descritte in dettaglio tutte le iniziative in corso, e
riportati i resoconti anche di altre associazioni; tra queste segnalo
come molto interessanti quelle di maggio 2003 a cura di ABC - Pace e
Solidarieta' di Roma, di luglio 2003 di ALJ Bologna, di ottobre 2003
di SOS Jugoslavia di Torino.
Questi resoconti sono presenti anche sul sito del Coordinamento
Nazionale per la Jugoslavia, all'indirizzo:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
che contiene inoltre centinaia di articoli sulla situazione nei Balcani
difficilmente reperibili sulla stampa nazionale.
Materiale trasportato e cronaca del viaggio
Siamo partiti da Trieste venerdi’ 19 dicembre 2003 maggio alle 9 di
mattina, con un comodissimo pulmino a 9 posti mesoci a disposizione
gratuitamente dal Comune di Caneva (Pordenone).
La delegazione era formata da 7 persone: Enzo da Padova, Alessandro da
Fiumicello, Gabriella e Gilberto da Trieste, Enrico da Torino, Giorgio
da Sacile e Riccardo da San Vito al Tagliamento.
Avevamo complessivamente una ventina di valigie e scatole di vestiario
usato ed alcuni pacchi di regali alle famiglie jugoslave da parte delle
famiglie adottanti italiane. A completare il carico una ventina di
palloni e due sacche di cioccolatini, dono di una ragazza di Treviso,
distribuiti a piene mani durante le assemblee con i bambini
Inoltre portavamo come di consueto alcuni medicinali urgenti,
provenienti da un donatore privato, per il reparto sterile
dell'Ospedale pediatrico di Belgrado.
Le adozioni da distribuire erano 90, di cui ben 16 nuove, per un valore
complessivo di circa 14.000 euro, comprensivi di alcune centinaia di
euro come regali a singoli bambini. Le 16 adozioni nuove hanno queste
provenienze: 6 da Padova, 2 dal Coordinamento RSU, 2 da Trieste e 4 da
Torino.
L'associazione Most Za Beograd di Bari ci aveva chiesto inoltre di
distribuire per loro conto 157 adozioni per un totale di 15.900 euro.
Infine avevamo 264 euro frutto della vendita dei prodotti di uncinetto
di sei operaie licenziate e una delle ragazze adottate, che ci avevano
affidato i loro lavori in conto vendita a settembre scorso scorso,
all’interno del microprogetto artigianato.
Ricordiamo che le spese di viaggio sono state direttamente sostenute
dai partecipanti, senza alcuno storno dai fondi ricevuti per le quote
di adozione a distanza da distribuire in questa occasione (come del
resto in tutti i precedenti viaggi effettuati).
Siamo arrivati a Kragujevac alle 8 di sera, senza alcun problema
durante il viaggio e con passaggi rapidissimi alle frontiere da
attraversare.
Dopo lo scarico del furgone, cena con Rajka, dell'ufficio adozioni del
Sindacato Samostanli.
Il mattino del sabato abbiamo verificato le liste delle adozioni e
preparato le buste con il denaro.
Alla 11 di sabato assemblea con le famiglie dei bambini adottati da
Bari e distribuzione delle loro quote.
Pranzo a base di specialita' serbe con Rajka e Milja dell'ufficio
adozioni, Delko presidente del Samostanli ed un delegato della Zastava
camion.
Subito dopo pranzo abbiamo visitato il bellisssimo Parco della
Rimembranza di Kragujevac, dove il 21 ottobre 1941 furono sterminate
per rappresaglia dai nazisti 7300 persone, tra le quali 2500 operai
della Zastava e gli studenti del locale liceo, insieme ai loro
professori. Molti monumenti costruiti con pietre provenienti dalle
varie Repubbliche che costituivano la Repubblica Federativa Socialista
di Jugoslavia ricordano quell'eccidio. E' un luogo di straordinaria
intensita'.
Nel pomeriggio visita ad alcune famiglie e poi all'ospedale di
Kragujevac, dove ormai da due mesi e' ricoverata la bambina adottata da
Enzo.
Ci ha ricevuto una gentilissima dottoressa, che ci ha spiegato come il
suo reparto di pediatria, cosi' come del resto tutto l'ospedale, sia
privo di mezzi per carenza di strutture sanitarie, strumentazione e
medicinali. L'ospedale, molto pulito e complessivamente decoroso,
mostra i segni di una evidente poverta': infissi cadenti, mura
scrostate, illuminazione debolissima, bagni in condizioni di
manutenzione precaria.
Alla bambina adottata da Enzo e' stato diagnosticata una infezione da
stafilococco dopo piu' di un mese dal ricovero, per difficolta' nel
fare le analisi. Ha una forte carenza di ferro e di piastrine. Enzo
aveva portato con se' vitamine ed integratori, di cui l'ospedale e'
sprovvisto.
La madre, ex-collaudatrice della Zastava attualmente in cassa
integrazione, vende pesce fritto per un salario di 50 euro al mese in
un chiosco in un mercatino situato proprio all'ingresso della Zastava
camion e deve da sola provvedere a un altro figlio, essendo sparito il
padre.
La dottoressa ci ha spiegato che questa bambina dovrebbe, per poter
guarire, vivere in ambienti sani, senza umidita', arieggiati e
luminosi; inoltre deve passare un periodo in montagna e uno al mare.
Probabilmente riusciremo a garantire a questa bambina le cure che gli
sono necessarie, ma quante altre centinaia di bambini di Kragujevac
soffrono delle stesse patologie, o peggiori, e sono invisibili al resto
del mondo, senza aiuti ed abbandonati a se stessi?
Il mattino di domenica abbiamo distribuito le quote delle adozioni
delle nostre associazioni, in una atmosfera piu' festosa del solito per
la presenza di un piccolo pacchetto di biscotti e cioccolata per ogni
bambino.
La spesa per l'acquisto di questo piccolo regalo (320 euro) e' stata
per la maggior parte coperta dalla COOP di San Vito al Taglaimento.
Durante l’assemblea e a cui hanno partecipato alcune centinaia di
persone c’e’ stato il solito scambio di regali tra famiglie italiane e
jugoslave e viceversa.
Alla fine dell’assemblea abbiamo consegnato il ricavato della vendita
dei prodotti di artigianato nel periodo settembre-dicembre e prelevato
altro materiale in conto vendita.
Ottimo pranzo a casa di Tania e Rajko, vice-presidente Samostanli; qui
abbiamo raccolto i dati aggiornati sulla fabbrica e alcune informazioni
generali della situazione economica e sociale complessiva del Paese;
sono riportate di seguito.
Nel pomeriggio abbiamo visitato altre tre famiglie; infine abbiamo
sautato i nostri amici con la promessa di rivederci al prossimo viaggio
che si svolgera' durante un fine settimana di marzo.
Il mattino dopo a Belgrado abbiamo consegnato i farmaci all'ospedale
pediatrico di Belgrado; l’incontro con la dottoressa che dirige questo
reparto e’ stato come al solito estremamente toccante.
Abbiamo poi attraversato il viale delle ambasciate, che ospita tutta
una serie di ministeri completamente distrutti dai bombardamenti del
1999, e quindi siamo ripartiti per Trieste, dove siamo arrivati verso
le 8 di sera di lunedi' 22 dicembre.
Il microprogetto artigianato
Avevamo preso durante il viaggio di maggio scorso, su prezzi decisi
dalle donne di Kragujevac, una valigia intera di prodotti di
artigianato tessile, prodotti a uncinetto o ricamo da un gruppo di sei
operaie licenziate.
Durante le sagre e le feste estive a cui partecipiamo eravamo riusciti
a vendere tutto il materiale ricevuto, grazie soprattutto alla
caparbieta’ di Marvida del gruppo Zastava Trieste.
A settembre quindi si era deciso di continuare l'esperienza ed avevamo
riportato in Italia una ulteriore valigia di prodotti, che sono stati
solo parzialmente venduti.
In questo viaggio abbiamo prelevato quindi solo pochi pezzi.
In totale fino ad ora abbiamo consegnato alle donne 859 euro.
Si tratta di un salto di qualita' all'interno della campagna di
solidarieta'. Nel campo delle adozioni infatti c'e' inevitabilmente la
differenza tra chi da' e chi riceve; qui invece c'e' un rapporto
assolutamente paritario tra chi produce una merce e chi la compra. Puo'
essere l'inizio di una cooperativa femminile di lavoro artigiano.
Purtroppo la vendita di questi prodotti avviene nelle forme a noi
consuete, attraverso rapporti personali con gli acquirenti e quindi le
possibilita' sono scarse. Stiamo ancora verificando se e’ possibile
mettere in diretto contatto questo gruppo di donne con la rete dei
negozi del commercio equo e solidale, in modo da allargare le
possibilita’ di vendita.
Vi terremo informati dell’evoluzione del progetto.
Stato attuale della Zastava
Nelle relazioni dei nostri viaggi precedenti, a partire da ottobre
2002, sono state fornite ampie e dettagliate informazioni sulla
situazione occupazionale, salariale e sindacale dei lavoratori.
Gli indirizzi a cui ritrovare queste relazioni sono riportati
nell’introduzione di questo documento.
I dati non presenti nelle relazioni precedenti sono riportati di
seguito. Si tratta in pratica dei consuntivi per l'anno 2003.
Il salario medio dei 17.000 lavoratori occupati e' attualmente di
11.400 dinari; con il cambio attuale euro/dinaro salito a 67.5
significa 169 euro mensili.
L'ndennita' degli attuali 6680 operai in cassa integrazione e' rimasta
la stessa, pari al 45% del salario che percepirebbero se impegnati al
lavoro.
Per quanto riguarda Zastava automobili (4340 lavoratori impegnati) la
produzione prevista per il 2003 era inizialmente di 30.000 vetture; il
preventivo era stato abbassato a 20.000 auto in estate; il consuntivo
e' di 13.500 auto prodotte. Precedentemente ai bombardamenti la
produzione era di 220.000 vetture/anno.
Circa 5.000 auto sono bloccate nei piazzali della fabbrica per mancanza
di pezzi che ne permettano la totale finitura, soprattutto pompe olio e
benzina e arredi interni.
In Serbia vi sono circa 100 imprese legate alla Zastava, situate in 56
differenti citta', ma senza una reale integrazione produttiva. Inoltre
gli scarsi investimenti sono utilizzati per pagare stipendi pregressi.
L'ipotesi di importare motori Peugeot e' definitivamente tramontata,
cosi' come si e' definitivamente rivelata un bluff l'ipotesi del
faccendiere americano Briklin di comperare l'intera fabbirca.
Da notare che la FIAT, partner della Zastava sia nella profuzione di
auto che di camion, mantiene attivi i suoi crediti in modo da
scoraggiare qualunque eventuale acquirente.
La legge che ha liberalizzato l'importazione di auto usate ha permesso
in due anni e mezzo l'importazione di circa 200.000 pezzi. I prezzi
medi sono dell'ordine dei 5.500 euro (per esempio una Brava del 99 con
80.000 Km.) a fronte di un prezzo non inferiore ai 6.000 euro per il
modello piu' tipico della Zastava, la Florida.
Zastava camion (1560 operai) aveva una produzione programmata di 70
camion al mese, a consuntivo ne sono stati prodotti 40 al mese
La fabbrica restera' ferma ora er due mesi per mancanza di
riscaldamento.
Alcune curiosita'.
Ricordiamo che dopo il 5 ottobre 2000 (elezioni che portarono al
governo la DOS e Kustuniza alla presidenza della Repubblica), vi fu
tutto un fiorire di piccoli sindacati, emanazioni delle varie anime
della DOS, tra i quali il più attivo è l’ASNS Nevavisni (Associazione
dei sindacati Indipendenti) di chiara ispirazione filogovernativa; il
segretario generale e’ l’attuale ministro del lavoro. Attualmente ASNS
si e' trasformato in partito politico con il nome di Partito Laburista
e sara' presente come tale alle elezioni politiche di domenica prossima
28 dicembre 2003.
L'altro piccolo sindacato presente in Zastava, il Nesavisnost
(Indipendenza) ha firmato un accordo elettorale con l'ex movimento
studentesco OTPOR, che si e' trasformato in partito e non ha mai negato
i propri legami con la CIA e con George Soros.
A Kragujevac citta' sono state al momento privatizzate 4 imprese per
complessivi 500 lavoratori; in tutti e quattro i casi siono state
acquistate dagli ex-direttori.
Informazioni generali e conclusioni
Come conclusione di questo resoconto riporto la
Intevista a Rusica Milosavljevic
ex Segretaria Sindacato Samostalni Zastava Kragujevac
rilasciata a Enrico della Associazione SOS Jugoslavia di Torino nel
novembre scorso.
Serbia: non si intravede la fine della crisi
Per molti rappresenta probabilmente una sorpresa il fatto che la nostra
economia continua a trovarsi in uno stato di profonda recessione, le
cui conseguenze sopportiamo con sempre maggiore difficoltà, sia perché
la crisi dura da molto tempo, sia perché di essa non si intravede la
fine.
E’ stato un approccio evidentemente sbagliato pensare che la
stabilizzazione e la liberalizzazione a livello macroeconomico, così
come un veloce processo di privatizzazione, avrebbero risolto tutti i
problemi. Purtroppo gli euforici annunci di riforme, così come le
grandi promesse di un miglioramento del livello di vita, non si sono
realizzati.
Nemmeno nel terzo anno [dal colpo di Stato del 5 ottobre 2000] delle
annunciate riforme l’economia si è messa in moto. I risultati economici
sono decisamente negativi e né i cittadini né gli operatori economici
possono più sostenere la terapia – shock neoliberale. La produzione
industriale per i primi sette mesi ha avuto un crollo del 3,5%, quella
agricola una recessione del 10%, il deficit del commercio estero per
gli scorsi 30 mesi ha raggiunto i 9,215 miliardi di dollari, il nostro
debito pubblico alla fine di agosto ha toccato i 13,5 miliardi di
dollari, siamo caduti in uno stato di schiavitù da indebitamento e
l’economia stagnante non sarà in grado di far fronte a impegni che
hanno superato la somma della produzione nazionale lorda.
Su una popolazione totale di 10.5 milioniSono disoccupate 968.250
persone, 1.282.049 sono occupate e lavorano in media 3,5 ore, e 194.779
lavoratori lo scorso mese [ottobre 2003] non hanno ricevuto lo
stipendio.
Lo sfruttamento dele capacita' produttive
Lo sfruttamento delle capacità produttive è inferiore al 40 per cento,
e l’80 per cento delle attrezzature è antiquato. Il tasso di crescita
economica anche quest’anno difficilmente supererà l’uno per cento, e
secondo il calcolo degli esperti ci saranno necessari 30 anni per
raggiungere il livello del 1989. In particolare 34.208 imprese devono
cadere in fallimento, ed altri 468.000 lavoratori rimanere senza
impiego. Secondo le ricerche degli esperti, il 74 per cento dei
cittadini vive con una quota compresa tra l’uno e i due dollari al
giorno, e di essi il 32% si trova in uno stato di povertà grave. Sulla
Serbia incombe un’esplosione sociale simile a quella avvenuta in
Argentina, lodata dai burocrati internazionali per dieci anni, finché
non è avvenuto il tracollo economico. Al posto di uno sviluppo
economico abbiamo ottenuto una recessione da transizione, una drastica
caduta degli standard di vita, la crescita dei debiti e del deficit ed
un’economia non liquida.
Lo stato dell’economia è drammatico. Le ricerche mostrano che solo il
17,7 per cento dei giovani vuole rimanere in patria, gli altri vogliono
andarsene. Gli esperti continuano ad avvertire che è l’ultimo periodo
utile per poter compiere qualcosa di più serio nel cambiamento di
questo stato. Detto in gergo sportivo, quando i risultati non arrivano
bisogna cambiare la squadra e il gioco; significa che bisogna portare a
termine due elementi chiave, cioè cambiare il concetto di riforma e
cambiare le persone.
Purtroppo in questo momento non c’è né la possibilità né la voglia di
muoversi in questo senso, o perlomeno di raggiungere un consenso
nazionale su una propria strada alle riforme, che costruirebbero un
sistema economico volto ad uno sviluppo in cui con la privatizzazione
si arriverebbe ad una liquidazione delle sostanze. La scena politica
cupa e molto instabile è quotidianamente aggravata da controversie tra
i partiti, da un lavoro esacerbato del parlamento, da scandali
ministeriali, da frequenti scioperi dei lavoratori a causa
dell’illegale attuazione della privatizzazione; è un ambiente che non
permette alla forze politiche progressiste di preparare una svolta più
radicale nella qualità delle riforme e dello sviluppo economico.
E mentre le parti politiche e i sindacati patteggiano reciprocamente il
profitto della propria esistenza, continua lo sfacelo economico, e di
questa crisi non si vede la fine.
Kragujevac, novembre 2003
Trad. a cura di Elisa Marengo
La Classe lavoratrice jugoslava è oggi in condizioni di oggettiva
debolezza e deve fare i conti con la necessità di una ricostruzione
post-bombardamenti che ha ormai da due anni assunto una chiara
direttrice iper-liberista.
Lo Stato, governato da una coalizione di centro destra e fortemente
allettato e subordinato alle promesse di aiuto occidentali, ha lasciato
al libero mercato ogni decisione. Così i prezzi aumentano, le scuole e
la sanità diventano prestazioni disponibili solo per i più ricchi, le
fabbriche, le zone industriali sono all’asta di profittatori
occidentali che comprano tutto a prezzi bassi e ponendo condizioni di
lavoro inaccettabili.
Le famiglie che aiutiamo materialmente esprimono la loro gratitudine
per questi aiuti che sono indispensabili, ma altra loro preoccupazione
e’ di non rimanere soli, abbandonati ed invisibili al resto del mondo.
Dobbiamo intensificare i nostri sforzi affinche’ giunga a loro la
nostra solidarieta’ e fratellanza materiale e politica.
Viaggio del 19-22 dicembre 2003
(resoconto di viaggio a cura Gilberto Vlaic del gruppo ZASTAVA Trieste)
Questa relazione e’ suddivisa in cinque parti:
1) Introduzione
2) Materiale trasportato, cronaca del viaggio, assemblea con i
lavoratori
3) Il microprogetto artigianato
4) Stato attuale della Zastava
5) Informazioni generali e conclusioni
Introduzione
Vi inviamo un resoconto del viaggio appena concluso alla Zastava di
Kragujevac per consegnare le adozioni a distanza, fatto dal
Coordinamento Nazionale RSU, dal Gruppo Zastava di Trieste e dalla
Associazione SOS Jugoslavia di Torino..
Questo resoconto si lega alle altre relazioni scritte con cadenza
praticamente trimestrale.
Sono tutte reperibili su diversi siti, tra i quali
- il sito del coordinamento RSU, all’indirizzo:
http://www.ecn.org/coord.rsu/
seguendo il link: Solidarietà con i lavoratori della Jugoslavia:
http://www.ecn.org/coord.rsu/guerra.htm
dove sono anche descritte in dettaglio tutte le iniziative in corso, e
riportati i resoconti anche di altre associazioni; tra queste segnalo
come molto interessanti quelle di maggio 2003 a cura di ABC - Pace e
Solidarieta' di Roma, di luglio 2003 di ALJ Bologna, di ottobre 2003
di SOS Jugoslavia di Torino.
Questi resoconti sono presenti anche sul sito del Coordinamento
Nazionale per la Jugoslavia, all'indirizzo:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
che contiene inoltre centinaia di articoli sulla situazione nei Balcani
difficilmente reperibili sulla stampa nazionale.
Materiale trasportato e cronaca del viaggio
Siamo partiti da Trieste venerdi’ 19 dicembre 2003 maggio alle 9 di
mattina, con un comodissimo pulmino a 9 posti mesoci a disposizione
gratuitamente dal Comune di Caneva (Pordenone).
La delegazione era formata da 7 persone: Enzo da Padova, Alessandro da
Fiumicello, Gabriella e Gilberto da Trieste, Enrico da Torino, Giorgio
da Sacile e Riccardo da San Vito al Tagliamento.
Avevamo complessivamente una ventina di valigie e scatole di vestiario
usato ed alcuni pacchi di regali alle famiglie jugoslave da parte delle
famiglie adottanti italiane. A completare il carico una ventina di
palloni e due sacche di cioccolatini, dono di una ragazza di Treviso,
distribuiti a piene mani durante le assemblee con i bambini
Inoltre portavamo come di consueto alcuni medicinali urgenti,
provenienti da un donatore privato, per il reparto sterile
dell'Ospedale pediatrico di Belgrado.
Le adozioni da distribuire erano 90, di cui ben 16 nuove, per un valore
complessivo di circa 14.000 euro, comprensivi di alcune centinaia di
euro come regali a singoli bambini. Le 16 adozioni nuove hanno queste
provenienze: 6 da Padova, 2 dal Coordinamento RSU, 2 da Trieste e 4 da
Torino.
L'associazione Most Za Beograd di Bari ci aveva chiesto inoltre di
distribuire per loro conto 157 adozioni per un totale di 15.900 euro.
Infine avevamo 264 euro frutto della vendita dei prodotti di uncinetto
di sei operaie licenziate e una delle ragazze adottate, che ci avevano
affidato i loro lavori in conto vendita a settembre scorso scorso,
all’interno del microprogetto artigianato.
Ricordiamo che le spese di viaggio sono state direttamente sostenute
dai partecipanti, senza alcuno storno dai fondi ricevuti per le quote
di adozione a distanza da distribuire in questa occasione (come del
resto in tutti i precedenti viaggi effettuati).
Siamo arrivati a Kragujevac alle 8 di sera, senza alcun problema
durante il viaggio e con passaggi rapidissimi alle frontiere da
attraversare.
Dopo lo scarico del furgone, cena con Rajka, dell'ufficio adozioni del
Sindacato Samostanli.
Il mattino del sabato abbiamo verificato le liste delle adozioni e
preparato le buste con il denaro.
Alla 11 di sabato assemblea con le famiglie dei bambini adottati da
Bari e distribuzione delle loro quote.
Pranzo a base di specialita' serbe con Rajka e Milja dell'ufficio
adozioni, Delko presidente del Samostanli ed un delegato della Zastava
camion.
Subito dopo pranzo abbiamo visitato il bellisssimo Parco della
Rimembranza di Kragujevac, dove il 21 ottobre 1941 furono sterminate
per rappresaglia dai nazisti 7300 persone, tra le quali 2500 operai
della Zastava e gli studenti del locale liceo, insieme ai loro
professori. Molti monumenti costruiti con pietre provenienti dalle
varie Repubbliche che costituivano la Repubblica Federativa Socialista
di Jugoslavia ricordano quell'eccidio. E' un luogo di straordinaria
intensita'.
Nel pomeriggio visita ad alcune famiglie e poi all'ospedale di
Kragujevac, dove ormai da due mesi e' ricoverata la bambina adottata da
Enzo.
Ci ha ricevuto una gentilissima dottoressa, che ci ha spiegato come il
suo reparto di pediatria, cosi' come del resto tutto l'ospedale, sia
privo di mezzi per carenza di strutture sanitarie, strumentazione e
medicinali. L'ospedale, molto pulito e complessivamente decoroso,
mostra i segni di una evidente poverta': infissi cadenti, mura
scrostate, illuminazione debolissima, bagni in condizioni di
manutenzione precaria.
Alla bambina adottata da Enzo e' stato diagnosticata una infezione da
stafilococco dopo piu' di un mese dal ricovero, per difficolta' nel
fare le analisi. Ha una forte carenza di ferro e di piastrine. Enzo
aveva portato con se' vitamine ed integratori, di cui l'ospedale e'
sprovvisto.
La madre, ex-collaudatrice della Zastava attualmente in cassa
integrazione, vende pesce fritto per un salario di 50 euro al mese in
un chiosco in un mercatino situato proprio all'ingresso della Zastava
camion e deve da sola provvedere a un altro figlio, essendo sparito il
padre.
La dottoressa ci ha spiegato che questa bambina dovrebbe, per poter
guarire, vivere in ambienti sani, senza umidita', arieggiati e
luminosi; inoltre deve passare un periodo in montagna e uno al mare.
Probabilmente riusciremo a garantire a questa bambina le cure che gli
sono necessarie, ma quante altre centinaia di bambini di Kragujevac
soffrono delle stesse patologie, o peggiori, e sono invisibili al resto
del mondo, senza aiuti ed abbandonati a se stessi?
Il mattino di domenica abbiamo distribuito le quote delle adozioni
delle nostre associazioni, in una atmosfera piu' festosa del solito per
la presenza di un piccolo pacchetto di biscotti e cioccolata per ogni
bambino.
La spesa per l'acquisto di questo piccolo regalo (320 euro) e' stata
per la maggior parte coperta dalla COOP di San Vito al Taglaimento.
Durante l’assemblea e a cui hanno partecipato alcune centinaia di
persone c’e’ stato il solito scambio di regali tra famiglie italiane e
jugoslave e viceversa.
Alla fine dell’assemblea abbiamo consegnato il ricavato della vendita
dei prodotti di artigianato nel periodo settembre-dicembre e prelevato
altro materiale in conto vendita.
Ottimo pranzo a casa di Tania e Rajko, vice-presidente Samostanli; qui
abbiamo raccolto i dati aggiornati sulla fabbrica e alcune informazioni
generali della situazione economica e sociale complessiva del Paese;
sono riportate di seguito.
Nel pomeriggio abbiamo visitato altre tre famiglie; infine abbiamo
sautato i nostri amici con la promessa di rivederci al prossimo viaggio
che si svolgera' durante un fine settimana di marzo.
Il mattino dopo a Belgrado abbiamo consegnato i farmaci all'ospedale
pediatrico di Belgrado; l’incontro con la dottoressa che dirige questo
reparto e’ stato come al solito estremamente toccante.
Abbiamo poi attraversato il viale delle ambasciate, che ospita tutta
una serie di ministeri completamente distrutti dai bombardamenti del
1999, e quindi siamo ripartiti per Trieste, dove siamo arrivati verso
le 8 di sera di lunedi' 22 dicembre.
Il microprogetto artigianato
Avevamo preso durante il viaggio di maggio scorso, su prezzi decisi
dalle donne di Kragujevac, una valigia intera di prodotti di
artigianato tessile, prodotti a uncinetto o ricamo da un gruppo di sei
operaie licenziate.
Durante le sagre e le feste estive a cui partecipiamo eravamo riusciti
a vendere tutto il materiale ricevuto, grazie soprattutto alla
caparbieta’ di Marvida del gruppo Zastava Trieste.
A settembre quindi si era deciso di continuare l'esperienza ed avevamo
riportato in Italia una ulteriore valigia di prodotti, che sono stati
solo parzialmente venduti.
In questo viaggio abbiamo prelevato quindi solo pochi pezzi.
In totale fino ad ora abbiamo consegnato alle donne 859 euro.
Si tratta di un salto di qualita' all'interno della campagna di
solidarieta'. Nel campo delle adozioni infatti c'e' inevitabilmente la
differenza tra chi da' e chi riceve; qui invece c'e' un rapporto
assolutamente paritario tra chi produce una merce e chi la compra. Puo'
essere l'inizio di una cooperativa femminile di lavoro artigiano.
Purtroppo la vendita di questi prodotti avviene nelle forme a noi
consuete, attraverso rapporti personali con gli acquirenti e quindi le
possibilita' sono scarse. Stiamo ancora verificando se e’ possibile
mettere in diretto contatto questo gruppo di donne con la rete dei
negozi del commercio equo e solidale, in modo da allargare le
possibilita’ di vendita.
Vi terremo informati dell’evoluzione del progetto.
Stato attuale della Zastava
Nelle relazioni dei nostri viaggi precedenti, a partire da ottobre
2002, sono state fornite ampie e dettagliate informazioni sulla
situazione occupazionale, salariale e sindacale dei lavoratori.
Gli indirizzi a cui ritrovare queste relazioni sono riportati
nell’introduzione di questo documento.
I dati non presenti nelle relazioni precedenti sono riportati di
seguito. Si tratta in pratica dei consuntivi per l'anno 2003.
Il salario medio dei 17.000 lavoratori occupati e' attualmente di
11.400 dinari; con il cambio attuale euro/dinaro salito a 67.5
significa 169 euro mensili.
L'ndennita' degli attuali 6680 operai in cassa integrazione e' rimasta
la stessa, pari al 45% del salario che percepirebbero se impegnati al
lavoro.
Per quanto riguarda Zastava automobili (4340 lavoratori impegnati) la
produzione prevista per il 2003 era inizialmente di 30.000 vetture; il
preventivo era stato abbassato a 20.000 auto in estate; il consuntivo
e' di 13.500 auto prodotte. Precedentemente ai bombardamenti la
produzione era di 220.000 vetture/anno.
Circa 5.000 auto sono bloccate nei piazzali della fabbrica per mancanza
di pezzi che ne permettano la totale finitura, soprattutto pompe olio e
benzina e arredi interni.
In Serbia vi sono circa 100 imprese legate alla Zastava, situate in 56
differenti citta', ma senza una reale integrazione produttiva. Inoltre
gli scarsi investimenti sono utilizzati per pagare stipendi pregressi.
L'ipotesi di importare motori Peugeot e' definitivamente tramontata,
cosi' come si e' definitivamente rivelata un bluff l'ipotesi del
faccendiere americano Briklin di comperare l'intera fabbirca.
Da notare che la FIAT, partner della Zastava sia nella profuzione di
auto che di camion, mantiene attivi i suoi crediti in modo da
scoraggiare qualunque eventuale acquirente.
La legge che ha liberalizzato l'importazione di auto usate ha permesso
in due anni e mezzo l'importazione di circa 200.000 pezzi. I prezzi
medi sono dell'ordine dei 5.500 euro (per esempio una Brava del 99 con
80.000 Km.) a fronte di un prezzo non inferiore ai 6.000 euro per il
modello piu' tipico della Zastava, la Florida.
Zastava camion (1560 operai) aveva una produzione programmata di 70
camion al mese, a consuntivo ne sono stati prodotti 40 al mese
La fabbrica restera' ferma ora er due mesi per mancanza di
riscaldamento.
Alcune curiosita'.
Ricordiamo che dopo il 5 ottobre 2000 (elezioni che portarono al
governo la DOS e Kustuniza alla presidenza della Repubblica), vi fu
tutto un fiorire di piccoli sindacati, emanazioni delle varie anime
della DOS, tra i quali il più attivo è l’ASNS Nevavisni (Associazione
dei sindacati Indipendenti) di chiara ispirazione filogovernativa; il
segretario generale e’ l’attuale ministro del lavoro. Attualmente ASNS
si e' trasformato in partito politico con il nome di Partito Laburista
e sara' presente come tale alle elezioni politiche di domenica prossima
28 dicembre 2003.
L'altro piccolo sindacato presente in Zastava, il Nesavisnost
(Indipendenza) ha firmato un accordo elettorale con l'ex movimento
studentesco OTPOR, che si e' trasformato in partito e non ha mai negato
i propri legami con la CIA e con George Soros.
A Kragujevac citta' sono state al momento privatizzate 4 imprese per
complessivi 500 lavoratori; in tutti e quattro i casi siono state
acquistate dagli ex-direttori.
Informazioni generali e conclusioni
Come conclusione di questo resoconto riporto la
Intevista a Rusica Milosavljevic
ex Segretaria Sindacato Samostalni Zastava Kragujevac
rilasciata a Enrico della Associazione SOS Jugoslavia di Torino nel
novembre scorso.
Serbia: non si intravede la fine della crisi
Per molti rappresenta probabilmente una sorpresa il fatto che la nostra
economia continua a trovarsi in uno stato di profonda recessione, le
cui conseguenze sopportiamo con sempre maggiore difficoltà, sia perché
la crisi dura da molto tempo, sia perché di essa non si intravede la
fine.
E’ stato un approccio evidentemente sbagliato pensare che la
stabilizzazione e la liberalizzazione a livello macroeconomico, così
come un veloce processo di privatizzazione, avrebbero risolto tutti i
problemi. Purtroppo gli euforici annunci di riforme, così come le
grandi promesse di un miglioramento del livello di vita, non si sono
realizzati.
Nemmeno nel terzo anno [dal colpo di Stato del 5 ottobre 2000] delle
annunciate riforme l’economia si è messa in moto. I risultati economici
sono decisamente negativi e né i cittadini né gli operatori economici
possono più sostenere la terapia – shock neoliberale. La produzione
industriale per i primi sette mesi ha avuto un crollo del 3,5%, quella
agricola una recessione del 10%, il deficit del commercio estero per
gli scorsi 30 mesi ha raggiunto i 9,215 miliardi di dollari, il nostro
debito pubblico alla fine di agosto ha toccato i 13,5 miliardi di
dollari, siamo caduti in uno stato di schiavitù da indebitamento e
l’economia stagnante non sarà in grado di far fronte a impegni che
hanno superato la somma della produzione nazionale lorda.
Su una popolazione totale di 10.5 milioniSono disoccupate 968.250
persone, 1.282.049 sono occupate e lavorano in media 3,5 ore, e 194.779
lavoratori lo scorso mese [ottobre 2003] non hanno ricevuto lo
stipendio.
Lo sfruttamento dele capacita' produttive
Lo sfruttamento delle capacità produttive è inferiore al 40 per cento,
e l’80 per cento delle attrezzature è antiquato. Il tasso di crescita
economica anche quest’anno difficilmente supererà l’uno per cento, e
secondo il calcolo degli esperti ci saranno necessari 30 anni per
raggiungere il livello del 1989. In particolare 34.208 imprese devono
cadere in fallimento, ed altri 468.000 lavoratori rimanere senza
impiego. Secondo le ricerche degli esperti, il 74 per cento dei
cittadini vive con una quota compresa tra l’uno e i due dollari al
giorno, e di essi il 32% si trova in uno stato di povertà grave. Sulla
Serbia incombe un’esplosione sociale simile a quella avvenuta in
Argentina, lodata dai burocrati internazionali per dieci anni, finché
non è avvenuto il tracollo economico. Al posto di uno sviluppo
economico abbiamo ottenuto una recessione da transizione, una drastica
caduta degli standard di vita, la crescita dei debiti e del deficit ed
un’economia non liquida.
Lo stato dell’economia è drammatico. Le ricerche mostrano che solo il
17,7 per cento dei giovani vuole rimanere in patria, gli altri vogliono
andarsene. Gli esperti continuano ad avvertire che è l’ultimo periodo
utile per poter compiere qualcosa di più serio nel cambiamento di
questo stato. Detto in gergo sportivo, quando i risultati non arrivano
bisogna cambiare la squadra e il gioco; significa che bisogna portare a
termine due elementi chiave, cioè cambiare il concetto di riforma e
cambiare le persone.
Purtroppo in questo momento non c’è né la possibilità né la voglia di
muoversi in questo senso, o perlomeno di raggiungere un consenso
nazionale su una propria strada alle riforme, che costruirebbero un
sistema economico volto ad uno sviluppo in cui con la privatizzazione
si arriverebbe ad una liquidazione delle sostanze. La scena politica
cupa e molto instabile è quotidianamente aggravata da controversie tra
i partiti, da un lavoro esacerbato del parlamento, da scandali
ministeriali, da frequenti scioperi dei lavoratori a causa
dell’illegale attuazione della privatizzazione; è un ambiente che non
permette alla forze politiche progressiste di preparare una svolta più
radicale nella qualità delle riforme e dello sviluppo economico.
E mentre le parti politiche e i sindacati patteggiano reciprocamente il
profitto della propria esistenza, continua lo sfacelo economico, e di
questa crisi non si vede la fine.
Kragujevac, novembre 2003
Trad. a cura di Elisa Marengo
La Classe lavoratrice jugoslava è oggi in condizioni di oggettiva
debolezza e deve fare i conti con la necessità di una ricostruzione
post-bombardamenti che ha ormai da due anni assunto una chiara
direttrice iper-liberista.
Lo Stato, governato da una coalizione di centro destra e fortemente
allettato e subordinato alle promesse di aiuto occidentali, ha lasciato
al libero mercato ogni decisione. Così i prezzi aumentano, le scuole e
la sanità diventano prestazioni disponibili solo per i più ricchi, le
fabbriche, le zone industriali sono all’asta di profittatori
occidentali che comprano tutto a prezzi bassi e ponendo condizioni di
lavoro inaccettabili.
Le famiglie che aiutiamo materialmente esprimono la loro gratitudine
per questi aiuti che sono indispensabili, ma altra loro preoccupazione
e’ di non rimanere soli, abbandonati ed invisibili al resto del mondo.
Dobbiamo intensificare i nostri sforzi affinche’ giunga a loro la
nostra solidarieta’ e fratellanza materiale e politica.
LE ELEZIONI IN SERBIA:
vincono i radicali di seselj, milosevic rientra in parlamento,
draskovic è l'ago della bilancia. le prime proiezioni danno l'immagine
di una serbia molto poco 'occidentalista'. tutti i dati, le agenzie e
gli aggiornamenti stampa (in continua evoluzione):
http://www.exju.org/comments/595_0_1_0_C/
vincono i radicali di seselj, milosevic rientra in parlamento,
draskovic è l'ago della bilancia. le prime proiezioni danno l'immagine
di una serbia molto poco 'occidentalista'. tutti i dati, le agenzie e
gli aggiornamenti stampa (in continua evoluzione):
http://www.exju.org/comments/595_0_1_0_C/
