Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 22:58:36 EDT
From: klasber@...
Who is Vojislav Kostunica?
Kostunica is a political personality who not until the presidential
election campaign was introduced by the Western media and who, according to
the reports, previously had played only a subordinate
role in Serbia and Yugoslavia. He is the chairman of a "Democratic Party of
Serbia". For a short time now he has been the presidential candidate of the
"Democratic Opposition of Serbia", a coalition of
several parties in which apparently Zoran Djindic calls the shots, acting
as Kostunicas campaign manager.This union actually already tells essentials
about Kostunica, because among the "opposition" politicians who since long
have been built up by the West, Djindic is the one who during the NATO
terror bombings went so far as to demand to give up the independence of the
country and to have it formally incorporated into the realm dominated by
the aggressors. Since then, of course, he cannot dare any longer to run for
a public office in Serbia, and it seems reasonable to suspect that
Kostunica is serving as a fig leaf for Djindic's direction, for enabling it
to anyway take part in the election campaign and for pushing the West's
objectives nearer to their fulfillment in spite of all of this.
In fact all the signs are that Kostunica is acting as the still relatively
guiltless and unsuspected one who helps Djindic come to power - a Trojan
horse of the US- and NATO-dependent opposition.
Kostunica appears as someone who objects NATO, who condemns the aggression
against his country and the separation of Kosovo, and who also drops
critical remarks about the US' interference into Yugoslavia's domestic
affairs.
It is worthwhile, however, to have a closer look at Kostunica's statements
What, for example, should one think about the following explanations in a
speech by Kostunica of April 14, 2000:
(http://www.bbnet.org.yu/bdnet/elections/eng/0414kostunica.htm)
1. "There is one more thing Serbia desperately needs today -
national reconciliation. First of all, the living Serbs are to
bury the hatchet and allow the dead to make up and bring about
that historic reconciliation. The first step to reconciliation
is to abolish the existing division into patriots and traitors.
After all, the present-day rulers of Serbia, who decreed
themselves patriots, have demonstrated their patriotism to all
but the Serbs. They have built other people� s countries and
demolished their own. They did many a good turn, but caused
their own people to grieve. Slobodan Milosevic has committed a
mortal sin against his own people and his own state.
Accordingly, he has to leave."
Here Kostunica accuses Milosevic who so far has been trying, within the
bounds of his possibilities, to defend Serbia's and Yugoslavia's
independence, of being a non-patriot, whereas he wants figures like Djindic
who definitely represent nothing but serfdom towards the West, to be freed
of the treason accusation.
In the same speech Kostunica continues:
2. "It is my duty to say one more thing. There is another sort
of violence that befell our misfortunate people - external
violence spearheaded by power-wielders in Washington and
Brussels. The forms of the external violence are the long-
standing sanctions, last year� s bombs and support to Albanian
terrorists in Kosovo. Whatever the source, violence is always
violence, despite occasional attempts at presenting it as
humane. It is hard to believe that people are killed, exhausted
and starved by sanctions, and that their environment poisoned
for their own benefit. First and foremost, we have to trample
the domestic violence underfoot. In order to survive as a
people, we have to normalise our relations with the world, but
we must neither disregard nor forget the foreign violence
conceived by the United States and NATO. More importantly, we
must never elevate it in our esteem or present it as anything
else but violence. Otherwise we will forget who and what we
are."
These sentences deserve a more detailed commentary.
Here "the external violence" is criticized, and a critical attitude is at
first taken towards NATO, towards the US and the EU. If however this is at
the same time subordinated to a maxim like "whatever the source - violence
is always violence", this criticism immediately evaporates into cheap talk.
For it is by no means unimportant from which sources violence originates
and which objectives it serves. Violence motivated by neocolonialism, as
exerted by NATO's latest war, by the economic sanctions and the
starvation strategy against the Serbian people, has to be objected and
fought against exactly because of its political goals, whereas military
violence for repelling this aggression is necessary and
must be supported. More generally, the resistance against these objectives
of the West cannot be denied the right to apply force if necessary.
Even more clearly Kostunica speaks in the following when he goes so far as
to declare the "domestic violence" to be the main enemy. This means in
other words: we regret to be the victims of violent
acts by the NATO countries, but it is not our main task to do away with
that but instead with the domestic violence. Having the situation in mind
one has to understand by this "domestic violence"
repressive acts by the Milosevic government, and in the first place such
against the so-called opposition of the Djindic and Draskovic type.
Kostunica here apparently chooses expressions by which the most miserable
forces can be vindicated. He avoids the concrete articulation of just
demands from the people against the bureaucratic apparatus, although he
likes to allude vaguely to the struggle against corruption, but on the
other hand he puts possible justified measures by the government against
treason, or corresponding acts by the people, on the same level as the
suppression of democracy.
Here Kostunica's adaptation to the West's strategy becomes already very clear.
Now a passage from an interview with the magazine
Vreme:(www.freespeech.org/ex-yupress/vreme/vreme79.html)
3."I also believed that we have to distance ourselves from
declarative, conterproductive support coming from the present,
departing, American administration which has proved to be
absolutely useless for the opposition and democratic forces in
Serbia. And that support can cause a lot of harm in the
election campaign. It is common knowledge how they can help the
population in Serbia. It seems that some European states are
far more aware of that, and they have over some small but
important projects, such as energy for democracy, established
some cooperation and assistance and led to a quiet and gradual
abolishment of sanctions."
To publicly play the distance from the US is absolutely necessary for
somebody who wants to act as an opponent of the Milosevic government - this
Kostunica is admitting here. If the connection with the US is all too
clear, if somebody like Djindic appears in Ms. Albright's office for
receiving her orders, if the US from their part are too openly sponsoring,
financing and media-supporting this "opposition", this cannot be but
"counterproductive", therefore its image has to be changed. The substance
of NATO's policy however is what this Kostunica identifies himself with.
The program "energy for democracy" is
nothing but a part, an element of the war and its continuation by different
means. After the bombs had destroyed power plants, refineries and transport
routes and an import blockade had been erected, NATO offered delivery of
oil and food to those regional rulers in Yugoslavia who would associate
themselves with NATO against Milosevic It is a prime example of the
"democracy" of Western capitalism which even after decades will be able to
claim a prominent place in the list of its self-exposures: 'you dance to
our tune and acknowledge the government we selected for you, or
else we look after your dying a wretched death.'
One more clear example for Kostunica's bootlicking of this kind of
"democracy" (from the same interview):
4. "VREME: In first news about your presidential campaign,
foreign news agencies mostly described you as a 'moderate
nationalist, inclined to democratic changes', and 'a fierce
critic of the American administration'.
Would you add anything to or take away from this news agency
portrait of Vojislav Kostunica?
KOSTUNICA: I would add a few things. Above all, there is a
radical dedication to the struggle against corruption,
regardless of its source. That has characterized my political
struggle so far. As far as the fierce criticism of the current
American administration is concerned, it does not at all imply
an anti-western attitude. On the contrary. That criticism is in
a way balanced with a different attitude with respect to
Europe. That criticism is pro-western rather than anti-western.
In as much as it advocates the return of the West to its
original democratic and liberal values."
The European governments which represent this dog's muck of an "energy and
food for democracy" program, are for Kostunica relatively close to the
"original democratic and liberal values" of the West. Enjoy your meal!
Apart from the toadying, Kostunica's analysis completely misses the heart
of the matter. In fact, the EU countries made war against Yugoslavia
shoulder to shoulder with the US, and exactly they in fact are the ones
which continue to exert massive pressure against Serbia and Yugoslavia by
their extortionist policy. Basically they are only subordinates of the US.
Concerning this one more statement by Kostunica. In a "Statement by
Democratic Oppostion of Serbia (DOS) Presidential Candidate
Vojislav Kostunica 18.9.2000" he says:
5. "In what they called a message to the Serbian people, EU
foreign ministers unequivocally pledged to lift the sanctions
against Yugoslavia if the September 24 election results led to
a democratic change, thus furnishing compelling evidence that
Europe� s policy towards Yugoslavia has changed for the better.
Of course, it would have been much more useful for Serbia� s
democracy hadn� t the ministers made the lifting of
international sanctions conditional, but this gesture of
goodwill will no doubt mean a lot to the Serbs, particularly
given the fact that we have already fulfilled their sole
condition - readiness for democracy. This is also yet another
opportunity to pay full respect to France� s diplomacy and
Hubert Vedrine, a man at its helm."
The shameless extortion from the part of the EU which ties the abolition of
the embargo to the installation of a government according to the wishes of
the US and the EU, for him really is "a
change for the better", "a gesture of goodwill".
We don't to withhold from the Serbian people what a special sort of friend
Mr. Kostunica chose for it in the person of Hubert Vedrine, the French
foreign minister. In an interview with the US paper "International Herald
Tribune" of April 20, 1999, Vedrine came to the fore:
(Q.) "The air strikes seem to put the Serbian population
strongly in tune with their leader, Slobodan Milosevic. Is a
harsher Western military blow needed to bring home to people
the consequences of what they've done, perhaps shock them to
their senses after living in denial about the outside world
for several years?
(Answer Vedrine:)
"For 10 years, in fact, ever since Mr. Milosevic seized on the
Kosovo issue to propagate the backward-looking nationalistic
delusions that have done so much harm to the country he runs.
Someday the people of Serbia will have a place in Europe, but
right now they have developed a mood of paranoia - which
existed before the air strikes but has worsened.
After a decade in which Serbian leaders have misled their
people so badly, Western governments can't operate in terms of
collective guilt, we can't make war on a people. We did not
intervene to change the regime in Serbia; we intervened
because the Kosovo situation was intolerable. Now we have to
work for solutions, not think about punishment. It's going to
take the Serbs a long time to recover and we're somehow going
to have to manage for them - until they are again ready to
take responsibility for themselves."
* * *
wg / Editorial staff of Neue Einheit Oct.2, 2000
E-mail: verlag@...
Internet: http://www.neue-einheit.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
neue einheit
Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
-------------------------------------------------------------
copyright 2000, Verlag NEUE EINHEIT (Inh. H.Dicke)
Mallinckrodtstr 177, D-44147 Dortmund Germany
and D-10973 Berlin, Postfach 360 309
Phone: +49-231-838932 resp. +49-30-6937470
*******************************************************
Message: 16
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 22:58:45 EDT
From: klasber@...
THE YUGOSLAVIAN ELECTIONS AND THE WEST
The 1999 war against Yugoslavia, if you look at how the West behaved, how
self-righteously an aggression and a terror bombing against a country were
justified, and afterwards the making up the minds for somebody else and the
threatening were sold as "democratic policy", is truly singular in history.
Such a bold and unconcealed posture was second not even to the most
arrogant gestures of a Hitler. The late Breshnew's theories about limited
sovereignty are just peanuts as compared with how the West of today treats
the whole world and presumes to determine election outcomes in several
countries in advance. It has already become a standard formula if Ms.
Albright, US secretary of state, declares towards the leader of a country
that there "will be trouble" if the election doesn't produce the result
that suits the US. Interference like that would have lead to outcries in
the past; every other country would have been utterly condemned.
All of that is being outdone by what is presently done with Yugoslavia
The present government has without doubt its weaknesses and provides
targets. But indubitably it has kept up the banner of Serbian independence
since 1995 and attempts to assert itself also against the great powers. In
a time when almost all statesmen, especially in Europe, excel by incredible
toadyism and bootlicking in front of US imperialism, this must be regarded
as something exceptional and valuable.
Already before the elections there were warnings that all results which
would not lead to Kostunica's absolute majority would be regarded as
falsifications. And when the counting still was on, the Western media and
statesmen for their part without further ado declared Kostunica the winner,
although besides their own projections no figures were available yet, and
even Kostunica's followers had not yet given figures. There are no
considerable figures yet but Gerhard Schroeder already announces that an
election victory by the so-called opposition is crystallizing itself
clearer and clearer. Where does the chancellor Schroeder know this from?
Still some weeks ago even the men behind this so-called opposition in the
Foreign Office in Washington or in Josef Fischer's office or elsewhere were
very sceptical about the fragmented movement and doubted if it really would
be able to gain ground in the elections.
Several times already there were attempts from the West to build an
opposition in Serbia, in 1997 and later on again, and always this was a
failure. During the war in 1999 probably 95% of the Serbian people backed
the government and condemned NATO's terror attacks.
The main figures of this so-called opposition like Zoran Djinjic are
infamous and discredited in Serbia. Because of their despicable behavior
and their direct partisanship for those who threw bombs on Yugoslavia they
had lost almost any credibility. The discreditation is also valid for the
highly dubious figure of Vuk Draskovic who on the one hand makes deals with
the West, too, and on the other represents an extreme Serbian chauvinism,
in particular also during the time when the Serbian name by the acts of
Serbian chauvinists in Bosnia but also in some other areas of conflict was
deeply connected to wrongdoing - what is to be the pretext in 1999 and 2000.
It is very significant in this context that one of the figures who bear a
good deal of responsibility for certain Serbian forces' latest inglorious
tradition, Seselj - a radical rightist and in the war until 1995
intermediary of the Bosnian Serbs - stabs Milosevic into the back in the
present situation and is working into the hands of the so-called
opposition. And this is actually cherished by the West. Also the infamous
butcher Arkan who not long ago lost his life by an attack, had connections
into the US. And didn't their and German government's most compliant tool
in Serbia, their "model democrat" Djinjic,
demonstratively travel to Pale still in 1995, when the official Serbia
already had more and more distanced herself from Karadzic, and showed
solidarity with Karadzic who is known to bear the responsibility for
innumerable war crimes from the part of certain Bosnian Serbs? Which
standards are employed here? And the same people claim the moral right for
themselves to pass judgement over Serbia, to cover her with terror
bombings, and in face of the present elections they even pretend to
represent the interests of the Serbian people!
Kostunicas nomination as presidential candidate is the attempt to seemingly
show a way out for Serbia with a new figure, in order to actually open the
portal for those who want to get Serbia completely in their clutches; it is
a trick in order to complete the dictate over Serbia by these forces from
the US in coalition with other capitalists in Europe.
Who is that Vojislav Kostunica who bestowed to this so-called opposition at
least a relative success in the elections?
>From all what has become known Kostunica is a relatively unknown quantity,
having so far kept himself more in the background. He is not stigmatized by
open partisanship with NATO as it is the case with Djinjic. He appears as a
patriot, recognizes Kosovo as part of Serbia and has condemned the bombings
by the US and the NATO. There are however several recent interviews in
which he unmasks himself as a fundamental admirer of the US and the EU,
criticizing the US only because of his all too open support for the
so-called opposition which would discredit it completely in front of the
Serbian people. He even goes so far to support the EU 's extortionist
policy to lift the embargo only for
cities which are run by the so-called opposition, and to supply oil and
food to them. [See also "Who is Vojislav Kostunica" at
<http://www.neue-einheit.com/is/is2000-23e.htm> ]
It cannot be called just interference what the West is doing regarding the
elections in Yugoslavia. This would be a gross understatement. From the
outset it is dominated by extortion. Already in July 1999, after the war
was in the main over, Clinton declared that there would be economic aid for
the country destroyed by NATO bombs only if Milosevic would disappear. (See
note) It is impossible to conceive of a more direct interference. And the
same people who talk like this are now posturing
and declare their resolve to look after correctness in the elections.
If the elections were rigged we cannot decide from here. If the
administration or parts of it should have committed something like this it
certainly must be investigated in detail, evaluated and lead to the
corresponding consequences. But also this has to be regarded in relationto
the general situation. One thing however is for certain: to flatten the
economic fundaments of life with bombs, openly declaring that this is for
creating need and hunger, in order to force the people to accept the
government chosen by the West so that they can get oil and food, is the
harshest variant of vote rigging which can be imagined.
Whatever the present government may be reproached of in detail: there is no
right whatsoever for the West, for these terror bombers, these rogue
politicians to raise such moral accusations. Their whole cause is extortion
and interference from the beginning to the end. Serbia would even have the
right to put every politician who sides with the West, and this is also in
fact the case with Kostunica, on the ground of illegality in Serbia,
because a country has the right to act against traitors.
Those who bombed and extorted Serbia now put forward the kind of logic that
Belgrade has to acknowledge "the Serbian people's will" - and they have the
nerve to define that will - in order to prevent "an escalation of violence".
We hope that the Serbian people will prick up their ears here, and that as
much of this extortion as possible is also publicly clarified and denounced.
But even if now those should come to power who make deals with these
criminals and blackmailers and are in cahoots with them, there will be no
democracy at all in Serbia, notwithstanding the election mechanisms which
might be installed. Then the unconcealed and brutal dictatorship of
international capitalism in Yugoslavia will be the consequence, so that any
movement of national independence and autonomy - and this is the
precondition for democracy in Serbia and Yugoslavia - will be impossible
from the start.
We still want to say some words about the hopes which, as it seems from
here, are stirred by the so-called opposition's propaganda. The Yugoslavian
people are promised opening and modernizing of the society, participation
in the international progressive developments, probably also better and
more interesting job opportunities etc. We see such wishes justified,
actually much new has to happen in this respect, not only in Serbia and
Yugoslavia. But to tie such hopes to a change of government towards the
opposition built up by the West must be questioned. Russia also was
promised the opening by the West, what became reality under the government
of the forces supported and
controlled by the West is such a disaster that many millions of Russians,
up to 40 or 50 millions, have left the country.
In particular the integration into the EU as promised by people like
Kostunica will be translated into reality only under the condition that
Serbia makes the total inner kowtow in front of the Western political order
of today, going as far as to self-denial. The European countries' inner
development not only shows positive signals. A doubtful extinction of great
parts of the production basis, the discarding of parts of the own
population, and the extinction of own identity are leading to considerable
social problems which already begin to show and which will show with all of
their consequences in the future.
As a negative example you can take Germany with a development of the own
nation's population towards self-eradication, with its destruction of the
will for independence and for future going to a dangerous limit, a
development which took place in particular during the last 25 years. A lot
is being just a fa�ade here and actually the EU itself is in a deep state
of crisis.
Because of all of these points named here we are not at all able to
sympathize with the so-called opposition which actually is easily
boughtfrom top to bottom, or even hedge the slightest wish that it be
victorious. Very certainly there are social conflicts and problems in
Serbia which must be solved. These however the Serbian and Yugoslavian
people have to settle within their own framework, without any foreign
interference. Here, though, forces are active who work for the complete
occupation of
Serbia by the NATO, the US, France, Great Britain and the Federal Republic
of Germany, and who in order to divert from this fact chose somebody who
speaks of nation, of national independence etc. but who shall only serve
for bringing these forces, with Zoran Djinjic in the first place, to power.
We can afford a prognosis: even if these forces should be successful - the
US and the other NATO countries do not have a solution. How do they intend
to solve the Kosovo question according to their wishes if their allies of
yesterday, the Albanians, urge the total separation? The new government
will have to save face. For that, civil war-like occurrences might be the
consequence in Kosovo. The contradictions which today exist in Serbia won't
be solved by the West by means of this kind of lackeys. Many of their
promises will vanish into thin air. Capitalism does not make such attempts
to corrupt without reason.
If the forces who stand for Serbia's national independence really want to
grasp a chance yet, then they will have to attack the miserable essence of
this so-called opposition to the full extent, and in the future they
certainly will have to fight decidedly against privileges, mismanagement,
corruption and other things within the bureaucratic state apparatus. This
will be a precondition. A renewal of the state is needed but how and under
which preconditions it will take place, this will be the decisive factor.
We want to express the hope that the Serbian people will resist the
infiltrative methods as it resisted the war and the military threatening.
The whole of Europa is required to lift the sanctions against Yugoslavia
immediately!
--------
Note:
In this year's June, concrete sums for the "post-Milosevic Serbia" were
named by the US and the EU to the participating members of the so-
called opposition, at a meeting of the so-called "Balkans stability pact":
$ 4 billions.
===============================================
Editorial staff of Neue Einheit
4.10.2000
E-mail: verlag@...
Internet: http://www.neue-einheit.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
neue einheit
Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
-------------------------------------------------------------
copyright 2000, Verlag NEUE EINHEIT (Inh. H.Dicke)
Mallinckrodtstr 177, D-44147 Dortmund Germany
and D-10973 Berlin, Postfach 360 309
Phone: +49-231-838932 resp. +49-30-6937470
---
----- Original Message -----
From: Warren Smith
To: marxist-leninist-list@...
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 8:37 AM
Subject: [MLL]Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding
Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding
While the western mass media is whipping up a tremendous campaign
against Yugoslavia's President Milosevic, the same media has absolutely
nothing to say about the election results for the upper and lower houses of
Yugoslavia's parliament. Yugoslavia has a parliamentary system with two
national leaders. First there is a ceremonial President with no real power.
Second there is a Prime Minister chosen by Parliament.
The real question in the Yugoslav election was always whether the
opposition could muster the votes to gain a parliamentary majority.
As a result of last week's election there is no chance that they can
govern, not even as part of a coalition.
For the first time, Milosevic's Socialist Party and its allies have won an
absolute majority of seats in both the upper and lower houses of
Parliament.
The results of the Presidential vote are being subjected to much (ill-
informed) debate. But nobody contests the parliamentary results.
In Yugoslavia, prior to this latest election, the Government had only 64
seats out of 138 in the lower house. Now they have added eight in the Lower
House to gain a three-vote majority: 72 out of 138 seats.
Up until now the Government had to forge a coalition with one of the minor
parties if it wanted to pass a law. With its new majority in the Lower
House, the Government no longer has to rely on a shaky coalition to pass
much-needed legislation.
The Government scored a bigger victory in the Yugoslav Senate race, the
upper house. They won seven out of 20 senate seats in Serbia and 19 of 20
senate seats in Montenegro. The Opposition won just 10 of 40 senate seats.
The Government is just short of a 2/3 majority.
Milosevic's governing party won a tremendous victory by gaining a majority
in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament.
It is this result that the western powers are out to undo at any cost, even
to the point of attempting to spark a civil war or by cooking up a
provocation to justify an invasion of Yugoslavia.
They are creating an extremely dangerous situation. But first of all, the
West must hoodwink the people into believing that Milosevic lost the
election and has fraudulently rigged the results.
The parliamentary election results explain why the opposition forces are
desperately against any run-off for the Presidency and why the West is
attempting to railroad their chosen representative into the President's
shoes.
* * *
Acknowledgement to Max Sinclair writing for Emperor's Clothes
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/sinclair/governin.htm
for some of the material in this article.
---
Subject:
We do not celebrate
Date:
Sat, 7 Oct 2000 18:20:57 +0200
From:
"ILC" <ilc@...>
To:
<ilc@...>
Clinton and his European satraps are celebrating because they think that
with Milosevic leaving the scene they have taken Belgrade and thus paved the
way for their rule over the Balkans.
They are wrong! It is not enough to oust Milosevic in order to take
Belgrade. Therefore the surrender of the Serb people, the destruction of the
federal army, the smashing of the state apparatus as well as their
substitution with servants of Western interests would be necessary.
Therefore that what happened is definitely not enough. It necessitates that
Nato finds a kind of KLA in Yugoslavia, a people that is ready to be
enslaved.
The latest events only close a phase of the Balkanic turbulences. But they
do not bring the turbulences as such to an end. Those are defined by the
imperialist politics that by trying to destroy all obstacles for its
supremacy are doomed to create new and ever more destructive crisis.
The analysis must be carried out from two different points of view, the
geopolitical and the class viewpoint. Even if they are interlinked it is
useful to regard them separately.
Geopolitically speaking we doubt that Yugoslavia under Serb hegemony could
ever become a protectorate of Nato as the other �republics� of the Balkans.
History teaches that this is highly unlikely. Even Kostunica had to
demarcate himself from the tutelage offered to him by Nato in order to win
the consensus of the masses.
The regime of Milosevic refused the capitulation of Yugoslavia to Nato.
Therefore, and only therefore, the serious anti-imperialist and
revolutionary forces throughout the world did support him. Actually they
never endorsed his domestic politics that � although never becoming
neo-liberal � did neither follow socialist principles nor strived for the
active defence of the interests of the working class and the poorest strata
of the population.
This is the reason for the collapse of the regime facing the waves of the
mass movement led by Kostunica. If the regime is not able to defend the
parliament and the TV station being set on fire by the revolt that means
nothing else than that it has lost the social consensus it used to have.
Already since a certain time this rule has rested on sand and was secured
mainly by the monopoly of force.
The conception that the attack of imperialism, the starvation caused by it,
the sanctions and the embargo could by put down solely by resorting to
nationalist and anti-Western sentiments has been proved to be a catastrophic
illusion.
In order to destroy the magic it was enough that Kostunica by his turn
raised the patriotic banner. Nationalism is an important factor, but not the
decisive one. Such as all feelings it vanishes facing the daily struggle for
bread. In order to secure the social consensus resolute politics for social
justice and intransigent defence of the interests and rights of the workers
and peasants would have been indispensable. Contrary to that Milosevic had
been accepting privatisations and had been demanding unprecedented
sacrifices from the workers, while at the same time he let the mafia
bourgeoisie enrich itself at the black market. While the people had been
starving and had to send its sons to Kosovo to defend the country, the
nomenclature increased corruption and hold its protecting hands over its
sons in order to save them from serving in arms.
>From this point of view we warn the youth that seems to have delivered the
final blow to the SPS JUL regime that the Serb people could fall out of the
frying-pan into the fire. Even if we would assume that Kostunica is the
brave and proper man as which he likes it to present himself we will not be
able to block the bourgeois forces that rally behind him in order to inflict
savage neo-liberal capitalism on the people. They hope for lucrative
business with the reconstruction and thirst for the money being promised by
the West with nice words. If the workers and the Serb people is not vigilant
the �Red mafia� will be substituted by a even more unscrupulous �democratic
Camorra�.
We therefore refuse to participate at the hypocritical chorus of those who
celebrate an alleged �democratic revolution�. There never have been
communists who celebrate political events together with their worst enemies.
We still remember certain �anti-capitalists� who welcomed the collapse of
the USSR between 1989 and 1991 whose result was the creation of several
statelets that serve the Western interests. They claimed that we were facing
revolutions because some movements rallied masses behind them. But the
decisive criteria to evaluate events is not mainly that the masses get into
movement, but in what direction they move. The direction is determined by
the international relationship of forces as well as by the political groups
that take the leadership.
Finally we want to re-iterate that our tenacious support for the resistance
of the Yugoslav people and the Yugoslav army against the Nato aggression was
not erroneous. Certain seeds only carry fruits after a long period. The
current flood, the �democratic� drunkenness will neither eradicate the deep
socialist tradition among the Serb people nor the traces of the tremendous
anti-imperialist solidarity delivered to it mainly in the last year.
The Serb proletarians and among them the genuine communists will need our
help and fraternity.
Executive Committee of the ILC
5th October, 2000
***************************************
International Leninist Current (ILC)
Corriente Leninista Internacional (CLI)
PF 23, A-1040 Wien, Austria
Tel & Fax +43 1 504 00 10
ilc@...
www.comports.com/ilc
www.antiimperialista.com
===
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma vengono
fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al solo scopo di
segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Per contributi e segnalazioni: jugocoord@...
*** QUESTO SERVIZIO E' ANCORA IN FASE SPERIMENTALE ***
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Una newsletter personale,
un forum web personale,
una mailing list personale, ...?
Gratis sotto
http://www.ecircle.de/ad173636/www.ecircle.it
From: klasber@...
Who is Vojislav Kostunica?
Kostunica is a political personality who not until the presidential
election campaign was introduced by the Western media and who, according to
the reports, previously had played only a subordinate
role in Serbia and Yugoslavia. He is the chairman of a "Democratic Party of
Serbia". For a short time now he has been the presidential candidate of the
"Democratic Opposition of Serbia", a coalition of
several parties in which apparently Zoran Djindic calls the shots, acting
as Kostunicas campaign manager.This union actually already tells essentials
about Kostunica, because among the "opposition" politicians who since long
have been built up by the West, Djindic is the one who during the NATO
terror bombings went so far as to demand to give up the independence of the
country and to have it formally incorporated into the realm dominated by
the aggressors. Since then, of course, he cannot dare any longer to run for
a public office in Serbia, and it seems reasonable to suspect that
Kostunica is serving as a fig leaf for Djindic's direction, for enabling it
to anyway take part in the election campaign and for pushing the West's
objectives nearer to their fulfillment in spite of all of this.
In fact all the signs are that Kostunica is acting as the still relatively
guiltless and unsuspected one who helps Djindic come to power - a Trojan
horse of the US- and NATO-dependent opposition.
Kostunica appears as someone who objects NATO, who condemns the aggression
against his country and the separation of Kosovo, and who also drops
critical remarks about the US' interference into Yugoslavia's domestic
affairs.
It is worthwhile, however, to have a closer look at Kostunica's statements
What, for example, should one think about the following explanations in a
speech by Kostunica of April 14, 2000:
(http://www.bbnet.org.yu/bdnet/elections/eng/0414kostunica.htm)
1. "There is one more thing Serbia desperately needs today -
national reconciliation. First of all, the living Serbs are to
bury the hatchet and allow the dead to make up and bring about
that historic reconciliation. The first step to reconciliation
is to abolish the existing division into patriots and traitors.
After all, the present-day rulers of Serbia, who decreed
themselves patriots, have demonstrated their patriotism to all
but the Serbs. They have built other people� s countries and
demolished their own. They did many a good turn, but caused
their own people to grieve. Slobodan Milosevic has committed a
mortal sin against his own people and his own state.
Accordingly, he has to leave."
Here Kostunica accuses Milosevic who so far has been trying, within the
bounds of his possibilities, to defend Serbia's and Yugoslavia's
independence, of being a non-patriot, whereas he wants figures like Djindic
who definitely represent nothing but serfdom towards the West, to be freed
of the treason accusation.
In the same speech Kostunica continues:
2. "It is my duty to say one more thing. There is another sort
of violence that befell our misfortunate people - external
violence spearheaded by power-wielders in Washington and
Brussels. The forms of the external violence are the long-
standing sanctions, last year� s bombs and support to Albanian
terrorists in Kosovo. Whatever the source, violence is always
violence, despite occasional attempts at presenting it as
humane. It is hard to believe that people are killed, exhausted
and starved by sanctions, and that their environment poisoned
for their own benefit. First and foremost, we have to trample
the domestic violence underfoot. In order to survive as a
people, we have to normalise our relations with the world, but
we must neither disregard nor forget the foreign violence
conceived by the United States and NATO. More importantly, we
must never elevate it in our esteem or present it as anything
else but violence. Otherwise we will forget who and what we
are."
These sentences deserve a more detailed commentary.
Here "the external violence" is criticized, and a critical attitude is at
first taken towards NATO, towards the US and the EU. If however this is at
the same time subordinated to a maxim like "whatever the source - violence
is always violence", this criticism immediately evaporates into cheap talk.
For it is by no means unimportant from which sources violence originates
and which objectives it serves. Violence motivated by neocolonialism, as
exerted by NATO's latest war, by the economic sanctions and the
starvation strategy against the Serbian people, has to be objected and
fought against exactly because of its political goals, whereas military
violence for repelling this aggression is necessary and
must be supported. More generally, the resistance against these objectives
of the West cannot be denied the right to apply force if necessary.
Even more clearly Kostunica speaks in the following when he goes so far as
to declare the "domestic violence" to be the main enemy. This means in
other words: we regret to be the victims of violent
acts by the NATO countries, but it is not our main task to do away with
that but instead with the domestic violence. Having the situation in mind
one has to understand by this "domestic violence"
repressive acts by the Milosevic government, and in the first place such
against the so-called opposition of the Djindic and Draskovic type.
Kostunica here apparently chooses expressions by which the most miserable
forces can be vindicated. He avoids the concrete articulation of just
demands from the people against the bureaucratic apparatus, although he
likes to allude vaguely to the struggle against corruption, but on the
other hand he puts possible justified measures by the government against
treason, or corresponding acts by the people, on the same level as the
suppression of democracy.
Here Kostunica's adaptation to the West's strategy becomes already very clear.
Now a passage from an interview with the magazine
Vreme:(www.freespeech.org/ex-yupress/vreme/vreme79.html)
3."I also believed that we have to distance ourselves from
declarative, conterproductive support coming from the present,
departing, American administration which has proved to be
absolutely useless for the opposition and democratic forces in
Serbia. And that support can cause a lot of harm in the
election campaign. It is common knowledge how they can help the
population in Serbia. It seems that some European states are
far more aware of that, and they have over some small but
important projects, such as energy for democracy, established
some cooperation and assistance and led to a quiet and gradual
abolishment of sanctions."
To publicly play the distance from the US is absolutely necessary for
somebody who wants to act as an opponent of the Milosevic government - this
Kostunica is admitting here. If the connection with the US is all too
clear, if somebody like Djindic appears in Ms. Albright's office for
receiving her orders, if the US from their part are too openly sponsoring,
financing and media-supporting this "opposition", this cannot be but
"counterproductive", therefore its image has to be changed. The substance
of NATO's policy however is what this Kostunica identifies himself with.
The program "energy for democracy" is
nothing but a part, an element of the war and its continuation by different
means. After the bombs had destroyed power plants, refineries and transport
routes and an import blockade had been erected, NATO offered delivery of
oil and food to those regional rulers in Yugoslavia who would associate
themselves with NATO against Milosevic It is a prime example of the
"democracy" of Western capitalism which even after decades will be able to
claim a prominent place in the list of its self-exposures: 'you dance to
our tune and acknowledge the government we selected for you, or
else we look after your dying a wretched death.'
One more clear example for Kostunica's bootlicking of this kind of
"democracy" (from the same interview):
4. "VREME: In first news about your presidential campaign,
foreign news agencies mostly described you as a 'moderate
nationalist, inclined to democratic changes', and 'a fierce
critic of the American administration'.
Would you add anything to or take away from this news agency
portrait of Vojislav Kostunica?
KOSTUNICA: I would add a few things. Above all, there is a
radical dedication to the struggle against corruption,
regardless of its source. That has characterized my political
struggle so far. As far as the fierce criticism of the current
American administration is concerned, it does not at all imply
an anti-western attitude. On the contrary. That criticism is in
a way balanced with a different attitude with respect to
Europe. That criticism is pro-western rather than anti-western.
In as much as it advocates the return of the West to its
original democratic and liberal values."
The European governments which represent this dog's muck of an "energy and
food for democracy" program, are for Kostunica relatively close to the
"original democratic and liberal values" of the West. Enjoy your meal!
Apart from the toadying, Kostunica's analysis completely misses the heart
of the matter. In fact, the EU countries made war against Yugoslavia
shoulder to shoulder with the US, and exactly they in fact are the ones
which continue to exert massive pressure against Serbia and Yugoslavia by
their extortionist policy. Basically they are only subordinates of the US.
Concerning this one more statement by Kostunica. In a "Statement by
Democratic Oppostion of Serbia (DOS) Presidential Candidate
Vojislav Kostunica 18.9.2000" he says:
5. "In what they called a message to the Serbian people, EU
foreign ministers unequivocally pledged to lift the sanctions
against Yugoslavia if the September 24 election results led to
a democratic change, thus furnishing compelling evidence that
Europe� s policy towards Yugoslavia has changed for the better.
Of course, it would have been much more useful for Serbia� s
democracy hadn� t the ministers made the lifting of
international sanctions conditional, but this gesture of
goodwill will no doubt mean a lot to the Serbs, particularly
given the fact that we have already fulfilled their sole
condition - readiness for democracy. This is also yet another
opportunity to pay full respect to France� s diplomacy and
Hubert Vedrine, a man at its helm."
The shameless extortion from the part of the EU which ties the abolition of
the embargo to the installation of a government according to the wishes of
the US and the EU, for him really is "a
change for the better", "a gesture of goodwill".
We don't to withhold from the Serbian people what a special sort of friend
Mr. Kostunica chose for it in the person of Hubert Vedrine, the French
foreign minister. In an interview with the US paper "International Herald
Tribune" of April 20, 1999, Vedrine came to the fore:
(Q.) "The air strikes seem to put the Serbian population
strongly in tune with their leader, Slobodan Milosevic. Is a
harsher Western military blow needed to bring home to people
the consequences of what they've done, perhaps shock them to
their senses after living in denial about the outside world
for several years?
(Answer Vedrine:)
"For 10 years, in fact, ever since Mr. Milosevic seized on the
Kosovo issue to propagate the backward-looking nationalistic
delusions that have done so much harm to the country he runs.
Someday the people of Serbia will have a place in Europe, but
right now they have developed a mood of paranoia - which
existed before the air strikes but has worsened.
After a decade in which Serbian leaders have misled their
people so badly, Western governments can't operate in terms of
collective guilt, we can't make war on a people. We did not
intervene to change the regime in Serbia; we intervened
because the Kosovo situation was intolerable. Now we have to
work for solutions, not think about punishment. It's going to
take the Serbs a long time to recover and we're somehow going
to have to manage for them - until they are again ready to
take responsibility for themselves."
* * *
wg / Editorial staff of Neue Einheit Oct.2, 2000
E-mail: verlag@...
Internet: http://www.neue-einheit.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
neue einheit
Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
-------------------------------------------------------------
copyright 2000, Verlag NEUE EINHEIT (Inh. H.Dicke)
Mallinckrodtstr 177, D-44147 Dortmund Germany
and D-10973 Berlin, Postfach 360 309
Phone: +49-231-838932 resp. +49-30-6937470
*******************************************************
Message: 16
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 22:58:45 EDT
From: klasber@...
THE YUGOSLAVIAN ELECTIONS AND THE WEST
The 1999 war against Yugoslavia, if you look at how the West behaved, how
self-righteously an aggression and a terror bombing against a country were
justified, and afterwards the making up the minds for somebody else and the
threatening were sold as "democratic policy", is truly singular in history.
Such a bold and unconcealed posture was second not even to the most
arrogant gestures of a Hitler. The late Breshnew's theories about limited
sovereignty are just peanuts as compared with how the West of today treats
the whole world and presumes to determine election outcomes in several
countries in advance. It has already become a standard formula if Ms.
Albright, US secretary of state, declares towards the leader of a country
that there "will be trouble" if the election doesn't produce the result
that suits the US. Interference like that would have lead to outcries in
the past; every other country would have been utterly condemned.
All of that is being outdone by what is presently done with Yugoslavia
The present government has without doubt its weaknesses and provides
targets. But indubitably it has kept up the banner of Serbian independence
since 1995 and attempts to assert itself also against the great powers. In
a time when almost all statesmen, especially in Europe, excel by incredible
toadyism and bootlicking in front of US imperialism, this must be regarded
as something exceptional and valuable.
Already before the elections there were warnings that all results which
would not lead to Kostunica's absolute majority would be regarded as
falsifications. And when the counting still was on, the Western media and
statesmen for their part without further ado declared Kostunica the winner,
although besides their own projections no figures were available yet, and
even Kostunica's followers had not yet given figures. There are no
considerable figures yet but Gerhard Schroeder already announces that an
election victory by the so-called opposition is crystallizing itself
clearer and clearer. Where does the chancellor Schroeder know this from?
Still some weeks ago even the men behind this so-called opposition in the
Foreign Office in Washington or in Josef Fischer's office or elsewhere were
very sceptical about the fragmented movement and doubted if it really would
be able to gain ground in the elections.
Several times already there were attempts from the West to build an
opposition in Serbia, in 1997 and later on again, and always this was a
failure. During the war in 1999 probably 95% of the Serbian people backed
the government and condemned NATO's terror attacks.
The main figures of this so-called opposition like Zoran Djinjic are
infamous and discredited in Serbia. Because of their despicable behavior
and their direct partisanship for those who threw bombs on Yugoslavia they
had lost almost any credibility. The discreditation is also valid for the
highly dubious figure of Vuk Draskovic who on the one hand makes deals with
the West, too, and on the other represents an extreme Serbian chauvinism,
in particular also during the time when the Serbian name by the acts of
Serbian chauvinists in Bosnia but also in some other areas of conflict was
deeply connected to wrongdoing - what is to be the pretext in 1999 and 2000.
It is very significant in this context that one of the figures who bear a
good deal of responsibility for certain Serbian forces' latest inglorious
tradition, Seselj - a radical rightist and in the war until 1995
intermediary of the Bosnian Serbs - stabs Milosevic into the back in the
present situation and is working into the hands of the so-called
opposition. And this is actually cherished by the West. Also the infamous
butcher Arkan who not long ago lost his life by an attack, had connections
into the US. And didn't their and German government's most compliant tool
in Serbia, their "model democrat" Djinjic,
demonstratively travel to Pale still in 1995, when the official Serbia
already had more and more distanced herself from Karadzic, and showed
solidarity with Karadzic who is known to bear the responsibility for
innumerable war crimes from the part of certain Bosnian Serbs? Which
standards are employed here? And the same people claim the moral right for
themselves to pass judgement over Serbia, to cover her with terror
bombings, and in face of the present elections they even pretend to
represent the interests of the Serbian people!
Kostunicas nomination as presidential candidate is the attempt to seemingly
show a way out for Serbia with a new figure, in order to actually open the
portal for those who want to get Serbia completely in their clutches; it is
a trick in order to complete the dictate over Serbia by these forces from
the US in coalition with other capitalists in Europe.
Who is that Vojislav Kostunica who bestowed to this so-called opposition at
least a relative success in the elections?
>From all what has become known Kostunica is a relatively unknown quantity,
having so far kept himself more in the background. He is not stigmatized by
open partisanship with NATO as it is the case with Djinjic. He appears as a
patriot, recognizes Kosovo as part of Serbia and has condemned the bombings
by the US and the NATO. There are however several recent interviews in
which he unmasks himself as a fundamental admirer of the US and the EU,
criticizing the US only because of his all too open support for the
so-called opposition which would discredit it completely in front of the
Serbian people. He even goes so far to support the EU 's extortionist
policy to lift the embargo only for
cities which are run by the so-called opposition, and to supply oil and
food to them. [See also "Who is Vojislav Kostunica" at
<http://www.neue-einheit.com/is/is2000-23e.htm> ]
It cannot be called just interference what the West is doing regarding the
elections in Yugoslavia. This would be a gross understatement. From the
outset it is dominated by extortion. Already in July 1999, after the war
was in the main over, Clinton declared that there would be economic aid for
the country destroyed by NATO bombs only if Milosevic would disappear. (See
note) It is impossible to conceive of a more direct interference. And the
same people who talk like this are now posturing
and declare their resolve to look after correctness in the elections.
If the elections were rigged we cannot decide from here. If the
administration or parts of it should have committed something like this it
certainly must be investigated in detail, evaluated and lead to the
corresponding consequences. But also this has to be regarded in relationto
the general situation. One thing however is for certain: to flatten the
economic fundaments of life with bombs, openly declaring that this is for
creating need and hunger, in order to force the people to accept the
government chosen by the West so that they can get oil and food, is the
harshest variant of vote rigging which can be imagined.
Whatever the present government may be reproached of in detail: there is no
right whatsoever for the West, for these terror bombers, these rogue
politicians to raise such moral accusations. Their whole cause is extortion
and interference from the beginning to the end. Serbia would even have the
right to put every politician who sides with the West, and this is also in
fact the case with Kostunica, on the ground of illegality in Serbia,
because a country has the right to act against traitors.
Those who bombed and extorted Serbia now put forward the kind of logic that
Belgrade has to acknowledge "the Serbian people's will" - and they have the
nerve to define that will - in order to prevent "an escalation of violence".
We hope that the Serbian people will prick up their ears here, and that as
much of this extortion as possible is also publicly clarified and denounced.
But even if now those should come to power who make deals with these
criminals and blackmailers and are in cahoots with them, there will be no
democracy at all in Serbia, notwithstanding the election mechanisms which
might be installed. Then the unconcealed and brutal dictatorship of
international capitalism in Yugoslavia will be the consequence, so that any
movement of national independence and autonomy - and this is the
precondition for democracy in Serbia and Yugoslavia - will be impossible
from the start.
We still want to say some words about the hopes which, as it seems from
here, are stirred by the so-called opposition's propaganda. The Yugoslavian
people are promised opening and modernizing of the society, participation
in the international progressive developments, probably also better and
more interesting job opportunities etc. We see such wishes justified,
actually much new has to happen in this respect, not only in Serbia and
Yugoslavia. But to tie such hopes to a change of government towards the
opposition built up by the West must be questioned. Russia also was
promised the opening by the West, what became reality under the government
of the forces supported and
controlled by the West is such a disaster that many millions of Russians,
up to 40 or 50 millions, have left the country.
In particular the integration into the EU as promised by people like
Kostunica will be translated into reality only under the condition that
Serbia makes the total inner kowtow in front of the Western political order
of today, going as far as to self-denial. The European countries' inner
development not only shows positive signals. A doubtful extinction of great
parts of the production basis, the discarding of parts of the own
population, and the extinction of own identity are leading to considerable
social problems which already begin to show and which will show with all of
their consequences in the future.
As a negative example you can take Germany with a development of the own
nation's population towards self-eradication, with its destruction of the
will for independence and for future going to a dangerous limit, a
development which took place in particular during the last 25 years. A lot
is being just a fa�ade here and actually the EU itself is in a deep state
of crisis.
Because of all of these points named here we are not at all able to
sympathize with the so-called opposition which actually is easily
boughtfrom top to bottom, or even hedge the slightest wish that it be
victorious. Very certainly there are social conflicts and problems in
Serbia which must be solved. These however the Serbian and Yugoslavian
people have to settle within their own framework, without any foreign
interference. Here, though, forces are active who work for the complete
occupation of
Serbia by the NATO, the US, France, Great Britain and the Federal Republic
of Germany, and who in order to divert from this fact chose somebody who
speaks of nation, of national independence etc. but who shall only serve
for bringing these forces, with Zoran Djinjic in the first place, to power.
We can afford a prognosis: even if these forces should be successful - the
US and the other NATO countries do not have a solution. How do they intend
to solve the Kosovo question according to their wishes if their allies of
yesterday, the Albanians, urge the total separation? The new government
will have to save face. For that, civil war-like occurrences might be the
consequence in Kosovo. The contradictions which today exist in Serbia won't
be solved by the West by means of this kind of lackeys. Many of their
promises will vanish into thin air. Capitalism does not make such attempts
to corrupt without reason.
If the forces who stand for Serbia's national independence really want to
grasp a chance yet, then they will have to attack the miserable essence of
this so-called opposition to the full extent, and in the future they
certainly will have to fight decidedly against privileges, mismanagement,
corruption and other things within the bureaucratic state apparatus. This
will be a precondition. A renewal of the state is needed but how and under
which preconditions it will take place, this will be the decisive factor.
We want to express the hope that the Serbian people will resist the
infiltrative methods as it resisted the war and the military threatening.
The whole of Europa is required to lift the sanctions against Yugoslavia
immediately!
--------
Note:
In this year's June, concrete sums for the "post-Milosevic Serbia" were
named by the US and the EU to the participating members of the so-
called opposition, at a meeting of the so-called "Balkans stability pact":
$ 4 billions.
===============================================
Editorial staff of Neue Einheit
4.10.2000
E-mail: verlag@...
Internet: http://www.neue-einheit.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
neue einheit
Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
-------------------------------------------------------------
copyright 2000, Verlag NEUE EINHEIT (Inh. H.Dicke)
Mallinckrodtstr 177, D-44147 Dortmund Germany
and D-10973 Berlin, Postfach 360 309
Phone: +49-231-838932 resp. +49-30-6937470
---
----- Original Message -----
From: Warren Smith
To: marxist-leninist-list@...
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 8:37 AM
Subject: [MLL]Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding
Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding
While the western mass media is whipping up a tremendous campaign
against Yugoslavia's President Milosevic, the same media has absolutely
nothing to say about the election results for the upper and lower houses of
Yugoslavia's parliament. Yugoslavia has a parliamentary system with two
national leaders. First there is a ceremonial President with no real power.
Second there is a Prime Minister chosen by Parliament.
The real question in the Yugoslav election was always whether the
opposition could muster the votes to gain a parliamentary majority.
As a result of last week's election there is no chance that they can
govern, not even as part of a coalition.
For the first time, Milosevic's Socialist Party and its allies have won an
absolute majority of seats in both the upper and lower houses of
Parliament.
The results of the Presidential vote are being subjected to much (ill-
informed) debate. But nobody contests the parliamentary results.
In Yugoslavia, prior to this latest election, the Government had only 64
seats out of 138 in the lower house. Now they have added eight in the Lower
House to gain a three-vote majority: 72 out of 138 seats.
Up until now the Government had to forge a coalition with one of the minor
parties if it wanted to pass a law. With its new majority in the Lower
House, the Government no longer has to rely on a shaky coalition to pass
much-needed legislation.
The Government scored a bigger victory in the Yugoslav Senate race, the
upper house. They won seven out of 20 senate seats in Serbia and 19 of 20
senate seats in Montenegro. The Opposition won just 10 of 40 senate seats.
The Government is just short of a 2/3 majority.
Milosevic's governing party won a tremendous victory by gaining a majority
in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament.
It is this result that the western powers are out to undo at any cost, even
to the point of attempting to spark a civil war or by cooking up a
provocation to justify an invasion of Yugoslavia.
They are creating an extremely dangerous situation. But first of all, the
West must hoodwink the people into believing that Milosevic lost the
election and has fraudulently rigged the results.
The parliamentary election results explain why the opposition forces are
desperately against any run-off for the Presidency and why the West is
attempting to railroad their chosen representative into the President's
shoes.
* * *
Acknowledgement to Max Sinclair writing for Emperor's Clothes
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/sinclair/governin.htm
for some of the material in this article.
---
Subject:
We do not celebrate
Date:
Sat, 7 Oct 2000 18:20:57 +0200
From:
"ILC" <ilc@...>
To:
<ilc@...>
Clinton and his European satraps are celebrating because they think that
with Milosevic leaving the scene they have taken Belgrade and thus paved the
way for their rule over the Balkans.
They are wrong! It is not enough to oust Milosevic in order to take
Belgrade. Therefore the surrender of the Serb people, the destruction of the
federal army, the smashing of the state apparatus as well as their
substitution with servants of Western interests would be necessary.
Therefore that what happened is definitely not enough. It necessitates that
Nato finds a kind of KLA in Yugoslavia, a people that is ready to be
enslaved.
The latest events only close a phase of the Balkanic turbulences. But they
do not bring the turbulences as such to an end. Those are defined by the
imperialist politics that by trying to destroy all obstacles for its
supremacy are doomed to create new and ever more destructive crisis.
The analysis must be carried out from two different points of view, the
geopolitical and the class viewpoint. Even if they are interlinked it is
useful to regard them separately.
Geopolitically speaking we doubt that Yugoslavia under Serb hegemony could
ever become a protectorate of Nato as the other �republics� of the Balkans.
History teaches that this is highly unlikely. Even Kostunica had to
demarcate himself from the tutelage offered to him by Nato in order to win
the consensus of the masses.
The regime of Milosevic refused the capitulation of Yugoslavia to Nato.
Therefore, and only therefore, the serious anti-imperialist and
revolutionary forces throughout the world did support him. Actually they
never endorsed his domestic politics that � although never becoming
neo-liberal � did neither follow socialist principles nor strived for the
active defence of the interests of the working class and the poorest strata
of the population.
This is the reason for the collapse of the regime facing the waves of the
mass movement led by Kostunica. If the regime is not able to defend the
parliament and the TV station being set on fire by the revolt that means
nothing else than that it has lost the social consensus it used to have.
Already since a certain time this rule has rested on sand and was secured
mainly by the monopoly of force.
The conception that the attack of imperialism, the starvation caused by it,
the sanctions and the embargo could by put down solely by resorting to
nationalist and anti-Western sentiments has been proved to be a catastrophic
illusion.
In order to destroy the magic it was enough that Kostunica by his turn
raised the patriotic banner. Nationalism is an important factor, but not the
decisive one. Such as all feelings it vanishes facing the daily struggle for
bread. In order to secure the social consensus resolute politics for social
justice and intransigent defence of the interests and rights of the workers
and peasants would have been indispensable. Contrary to that Milosevic had
been accepting privatisations and had been demanding unprecedented
sacrifices from the workers, while at the same time he let the mafia
bourgeoisie enrich itself at the black market. While the people had been
starving and had to send its sons to Kosovo to defend the country, the
nomenclature increased corruption and hold its protecting hands over its
sons in order to save them from serving in arms.
>From this point of view we warn the youth that seems to have delivered the
final blow to the SPS JUL regime that the Serb people could fall out of the
frying-pan into the fire. Even if we would assume that Kostunica is the
brave and proper man as which he likes it to present himself we will not be
able to block the bourgeois forces that rally behind him in order to inflict
savage neo-liberal capitalism on the people. They hope for lucrative
business with the reconstruction and thirst for the money being promised by
the West with nice words. If the workers and the Serb people is not vigilant
the �Red mafia� will be substituted by a even more unscrupulous �democratic
Camorra�.
We therefore refuse to participate at the hypocritical chorus of those who
celebrate an alleged �democratic revolution�. There never have been
communists who celebrate political events together with their worst enemies.
We still remember certain �anti-capitalists� who welcomed the collapse of
the USSR between 1989 and 1991 whose result was the creation of several
statelets that serve the Western interests. They claimed that we were facing
revolutions because some movements rallied masses behind them. But the
decisive criteria to evaluate events is not mainly that the masses get into
movement, but in what direction they move. The direction is determined by
the international relationship of forces as well as by the political groups
that take the leadership.
Finally we want to re-iterate that our tenacious support for the resistance
of the Yugoslav people and the Yugoslav army against the Nato aggression was
not erroneous. Certain seeds only carry fruits after a long period. The
current flood, the �democratic� drunkenness will neither eradicate the deep
socialist tradition among the Serb people nor the traces of the tremendous
anti-imperialist solidarity delivered to it mainly in the last year.
The Serb proletarians and among them the genuine communists will need our
help and fraternity.
Executive Committee of the ILC
5th October, 2000
***************************************
International Leninist Current (ILC)
Corriente Leninista Internacional (CLI)
PF 23, A-1040 Wien, Austria
Tel & Fax +43 1 504 00 10
ilc@...
www.comports.com/ilc
www.antiimperialista.com
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