MIM Notes 189 July 1 1999

ANTI-WAR RALLY DRAWS THOUSANDS, FROM PEACENIKS TO NATIONALISTS

by a comrade

Washington, D.C., June 5 -- Thousands of demonstrators marched 
from the Vietnam War Memorial to the Pentagon today, protesting 
the U.$./NATO war against Yugoslavia even as the Yugoslav 
government surrendered in the face of more than 70 days of 
bombing. Speakers and participants at the march and rally ranged 
from peaceniks and libertarians, to anarchists, Trotskyists, and 
Serb nationalists. A contingent from the Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League (RAIL), which is led by MIM, also attended.

The rally was an opportunity for some progressive protest against 
the war, but it was marred by revisionist leadership and 
reactionary invited speakers. The march was organized by the 
International Action Center, which is affiliated with the 
revisionist Workers World party.

Pacifists included a speaker from Boston Veterans for Peace, who 
said, "War is always the problem and never the solution," and 
criticized Amerika's economic dependence on militarization. But 
even straightforward pacifism was confused by the mistake of 
believing Amerika's stated aims for the war, as when a 
representative of the Fellowship of Reconciliation called the war 
"illegal, immoral, and downright impractical," adding that "you 
can't fight war crimes with war crimes" -- as if it was the 
intention of the criminal imperialist military to stop war crimes.

Some speakers were reactionary Yugoslavian or Serbian 
nationalists, such as one speaker who called for an "alliance of 
left and right" to oppose NATO. He said that if NATO is successful 
there will be no more distinct nations or religions in the world, 
and declared the need for nationalists of all kinds to unite 
against internationalism. His example was Pat Buchanan and Ralph 
Nader standing up against NAFTA. There is an international-
oriented imperialist contingent and a nationalist one, but it is 
the nationalist one that often leads the trend toward fascism, and 
stokes up the privileged labor aristocracy against the interests 
of the truly oppressed international proletariat. Another speaker 
opposed the war because he was afraid it would lead to Amerikan 
soldiers getting killed, because Clinton was a draft-dodger and 
wouldn't run the war right. Still another speaker accused the 
Kosovo Liberation Army of perpetrating genocide against the U.$. 
by exporting marijuana here.

Some speakers opposed both the war and the government of 
Yugoslavia. These included Gordon Clark, who said he was 
"adamantly pro-Serbian and anti-Milosovic, and adamantly pro-
Albanian Kosovars and adamantly anti-KLA." There were many people 
holding Yugoslavian and Serbian flags, including many immigrants 
and Yugoslav-descended people, but not many at the march seemed to 
support Milosovic. The crowd cheered statements that were pro-
Serbia -- including speakers who erroneously claimed that Serbia 
had not been committing atrocities against the Kosovar Albanians -
- but they also did not boo or protest statements against 
Milosovic.

MIM does not support Milosovic, but it is our primary duty to 
oppose Amerika's military intervention wherever it occurs, because 
it is always done in the interests of imperialism and against the 
interests of the oppressed.

Several speakers said the violent example set by U.$. leaders in 
this and other wars was responsible for the high school massacre 
in Colorado this spring. And they mocked Clinton, who said after 
the shooting that "We must do more ... to help our young people 
express their anger and alienation with words, not weapons.." MIM 
agrees it is hard to blame video games for white youth's violent 
outbursts when the media celebrates Amerikan war on TV every day.

Others correctly pointed out that the U.$. was founded on ethnic 
cleansing, and survives on its principles today. Former Attorney 
General Ramsey Clark correctly said that the U.$. was the largest 
purveyor of violence in the world.

Workers World, along with other revisionist groups claiming 
Marxism, continues to uphold the state-capitalism of the former 
Yugoslavia as partly or mostly socialist, as they do with Russia 
up until Yeltsin took power or even today. Workers World Party 
leader Monica Moorehead said Yugoslavia was forced to surrender by 
"Russian capitulation." She said NATO bombed the Yugo factory to 
put a GM factory in its place, and called Yugoslavia "the last 
independent country" in Central and Eastern Europe. She said the 
Yugoslavian people were heroic in their resistance, but added that 
they need a worldwide anti-imperialist movement, which she said 
would be led by people in the United States.

One clear indication of attempted corruption of the international 
communist movement by such leaders is their insistence that 
imperialist-country "oppressed" people are the natural leaders of 
the world revolution, when in fact history tells us that the 
opposite is the truth. It is Trotskyism to claim that First World 
workers are the most exploited because the goods they supposedly 
produce (but actually only finish) are the most valuable, and they 
are therefore the most suited to lead revolution. Every successful 
socialist revolution in history has been led by the oppressed in a 
country outside the imperialist center. See MIM Theory 10 ($5 from 
MIM) for a more thorough critique of Workers World.

On a final note, MIM reminds readers that rallies such as this 
underscore the need for independent media. We guessed there were 
5,000 people there, although the Associated Press estimated 3,000. 
In any event, thousands rallied in Washington, and marched to the 
Pentagon, and the major newspapers and TV in the country covered 
it up. The Washington Post and New York Times did not mention the 
rally the next day (although C-SPAN carried the speeches live on 
cable TV). The Post did carry a story on page one the next day 
about a Michigan law that makes it illegal to curse in public, but 
no mention of the largest anti-war rally of the year right in 
Washington, despite many stories on the Yugoslav situation.