Letters to MIM

Oppose U$ imperialist war against Yugoslavia

Dear MIM,  I have been able to follow Amerikkka's version of the "Crisis in 
Kosovo" and to me its a classic case of imperialism vs. fascism. So from a 
military standpoint this is a win, win situation. But politically, the 
imperialists are trying to use fascism to justify imperialist aggression and 
the fascists are trying to use anti-imperialism to gain popular support.

Any country that does not allow the free flow of foreign capitalism, Amerikkka 
is going to be hostile to. So Amerikkka sees in this crisis a change to open up 
and secure new markets while appearing not to be anti-Islamic. But if the 
Amerikkkan imperialists really cared about ethnic Albanians, then the refugees 
would be able to find them a home in Amerikkka.

Was this war a success? Well, the stock market closed at over ten thousand for 
the first time in history. But at the same time, we cannot allow fascists to be 
portrayed as champions of the people. So choosing any side in this conflict is 
a lose, lose situation.

Moja Mafundisha!

 -- an Ohio prisoner, 4 April 1999.

MIM responds: We agree with this letter writer that choosing sides in this war 
in Yugoslavia is a lose, lose situation if all we can chose from are the 
imperialist dictated sides. In fact, though, we do chose a side, we chose the 
side of the international proletariat which includes the Serbian and Albanian 
exploited workers.

Unfortunately our side is not organized in any kind of revolutionary resistance 
right now in the Balkans and so the best that we can do here in the u.s. is 
come out strong in opposition to the imperialist bombings and explain how the 
situation in Yugoslavia was created by capitalism and will not be solved by 
imperialist militarism.

We disagree though, that this is a war between fascism and imperialism. In fact 
Milosevic represents the reactionary national bourgeoisie, also called the 
comprador bourgeoisie, in Serbia. He uses rhetoric of national chauvinism to 
help gain the allegiance of the Serbian people, and he has attacked the 
Albanians in Kosovo using this rhetoric.

The current situation in Yugoslavia is not like World War II, where communists 
allied with one imperialist bloc against the other, fascist imperialist bloc. 
At that time, there was a socialist state to defend against the aggression of 
the fascists. The USSR was also strong enough to keep the u.$. imperialists' 
mitts off of much of liberated Europe after the war. Today there are no 
socialist countries in the world, and there is no independent power we know of 
in Kosovo to resist Amerikan domination should Amerika defeat Yugoslavia and 
occupy Kososvo. During WWII, the communists were correct to ally with the 
allies against the more immediate enemy, the Nazis. But this is not the same 
situation, and in this case we can not win by taking the side of one 
imperialist or imperialist puppet against another.

For more on the war against Yugoslavia and fascism by MC12 on page six.


Dear MIM,  Hello, i recently received a mailer to join RAIL. But i have a few 
questions for you. As far as i have been informed, this guy that's doing all 
that ethnic cleansing stuff seems like a Hitler reincarnate: he has lowered the 
price of gas, created jobs, and improved the economy while performing cold 
blooded murder motivated by the desire to rid "his" country of a certain ethnic 
group. Albanians are leaving by the hundreds of thousands because they have no 
means to fight back. This guy is murdering the elderly, women, children, and 
men with no remorse. He thinks that this genocide is justifiable.

I too do not believe in war and agree with the feeling that imperialism is evil 
and agree with the fact that the "u.$." has contributed to such violence in the 
past. However, as we are supposed to have learned from the past, i support nato 
intervention in finding homes for these albanian refugees and the attempt to 
stop serbian violence. Nobody yelled at the jews to take care of their own 
problems when Hitler decided he didn't like them. And the u.s. has even been 
criticized for not intervening quickly enough to end that genocide. I would 
hate to see a repeat of WWII because there was an overwhelming desire to let 
the albanians take care of "their own" problems. The question here does not 
seem to be the support of imperialist endeavors but has stretched to sustaining 
humanity. I just don't understand how you could not support that.

--a reader in the west

MIM responds: We disagree that u.$. and NATO intervention actually helps the 
Kosovar Albanians. And we do not see any evidence that u.$. has learned from 
history anything that would serve the interests of the majority of the world's 
people. Our first response to this letter and the many similar questions we 
have been asked since the bombing of Yugoslavia began is to ask a question of 
our own:  Why does the u.$. get involved here, while supporting genocidal 
regimes in Turkey and Indonesia (for starters)?

Milosevic is a chauvinist who spells bad news for oppressed and exploited 
Kosovar Albanians and Serbs. But we do not think it is "writing off" or 
dismissing the problems of the Kosovar Albanians and Serbs to say that they can 
solve these problems themselves - at the very least they'll be better able to 
do so without the u.$. and Germans meddling in their affairs and buying off one 
faction and bombing the other. The fact is that there is plenty of historical 
precedent for oppressed peoples liberating themselves without u.$. aid. The 
Yugoslavians and Albanians, for example, fought a successful guerrilla war 
against the Nazis. They kicked out the invaders themselves - they didn't need 
the Amerikan troops to do it for them.

Most of the Hitler references being tossed around by the u.$. media is jingoist 
hype. Nazi imperialism was qualitatively different than the reactionary 
nationalism of Milosevic, in that it aggressively occupied foreign territory. 
The Serbs are not imperialist, and the whole question of whether Kosovo is part 
of Yugoslavia or not is very thorny (whereas Poland and France were clearly not 
part of Germany).

The point is, there is no good reason for oppressed and exploited peoples like 
the Albanians and Serbs to be fighting each other. The fighting going on the 
former Yugoslavia is partly the fault of local reactionaries, but also in large 
part the fault of players like the u.$. and Germany, who have actively sought 
to divide the peoples of Yugoslavia and install regimes friendly to them.

The U.$. has the largest military, the worst track record as far as actually 
using their military is concerned and is the biggest arms merchants. The best 
way people living in the u.$. can help eliminate war worldwide is to oppose 
u.$. imperialism.



To our readers:

Struggle is an essential aspect to building unity behind proletarian 
internationalism. If you want to help build opposition to the U$ war against 
Yugoslavia in the context of anti-imperialism in your area, send for copies of 
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