[Note: The following letter was sent by a Serbian trade
unionist to the May 4, 1999, Antiwar Forum held at the
Mutualité Hall in Paris (France) at the initiative of the French
Workers Party. The forum, which drew thousands of antiwar
activists, was the fourth action called in the past two months by
the Workers Party to build opposition to the U.S./NATO
bombing of ex-Yugoslavia. During the first and third weeks of
April, the Workers Party organized broadly based mass
demonstrations in the streets of France¹s major cities to demand
a halt to the bombing and the respect for the right to self-
determination of the peoples in the region.]
I would like to salute all the participants at tonight¹s meeting,
as well as all those who have participated in the demonstrations
on every continent against the NATO war.
NATO bombs have been hurled down not only in the path of
the hundreds of thousands of Kosovar Albanians and tens of
thousands of Kosovo Serbs, but have systematically destroyed
the factories, bridges, power plants, roads, railroads, with their
procession of massacres and victims: women, children, men,
old men, crushed under the deluge of iron and fire of NATO
planes. As a result, another 500,000 are jobless because of the
destruction.
The Serbian people are outraged by the continuous bombings
and bloodshed. But contrary to what you¹ve been told in the
West, the Serbian people are not supporting Milosevic.
Milosevic¹s party, of course, is seeking to channel the
mobilizations against the war. Envoys from the regime come to
all the rallies brandishing portraits of Milosevic. But what
Western journalists don¹t report is that they are loudly jeered.
At
the last Rock Concert Against NATO, for example, the
musicians echoed the sentiments of the entire population when
they urged from the stage that Milosevic¹s portraits be taken
down and put away. The same thing happens everywhere. (*)
The people are demonstrating against NATO, not in support of
Milosevic. And the workers have been in the front ranks.
To NATO, we counter with the alliance of the peoples of the
Balkans and of the Danube, and of all Europe.
In the town of Cacak, which has been heavily bombed and
where the Sloboda factory has been destroyed, we have twice
held a Yugoslav national conference for peace and workers¹
unity, with the participation of trade unionists and worker
militants from towns all over Yugoslavia.
At the November 1998 conference, we had warned that, after
Bosnia, war threatened all of Yugoslavia. We denounced the
Serbian government¹s policies of repression in Kosovo. We
denounced the IMF and the World Bank, which, through their
austerity plans, are destroying our country.
In Cacak, against management wishes, the workers of the
Sloboda factory have taken the machines out of the plant and out
of harm¹s way. The trade-union leader at the plant declared: "We
have just saved 1,500 to 2,000 jobs." They found a new,
sheltered worksite and are at this moment retooling the factory to
restart production. The workers do not accept the liquidation of
our country¹s industrial base.
It must be made clear: NATO planes implement the IMF¹s
dictates. A "humanitarian" catastrophe is at hand: the liquidation
of a country, which sees its entire infrastructure destroyed and
all its people subjected to the bombings. The Kosovar
Albanians, the Serbs, and all the national minorities that live in
Yugoslavia can survive only through their work. They cannot
accept the destruction of their factories, whether by privatization-
liquidations or through bombings.
It is not true, as the great powers say today, that there is no
other way out except through the bombings. Yes, there is a way
out. It rests on the demand of the workers and the militants who
said: stop the plans of privatization-liquidation, stop the
Structural Adjustment Plans, stop the intervention of the great
powers in the region. We are the ones who suffer: Kosovar
Albanians, all the Serbs of Yugoslavia, all the national
minorities. Those who pose as "humanitarian" firefighters are in
fact pyromaniac firefighters. They have started the fire and,
today, are extending it throughout the Balkans and tomorrow
through all of Europe.
Dear comrades, although not physically present at your
meeting, I address myself to you to say that the international
unity of the workers is at the center of resolving all the national
questions, all the questions facing the peoples. I would like to
end with this line from the great French socialist Jean Jaurès:
"Capitalism carries war as its own storm cloud." Let us stop the
war! Let us put an end to capitalism!
An immediate halt to the NATO bombings is necessary for the
survival of all humanity.
----
(*) Note: The S.F. Chronicle, on May 18, reported a
"rash of protests in Serbian towns to block the deployment of
local troops in war-torn Kosovo. ... [T]he worst violence
erupted in the town of Aleksandrovac, southern Serbia, where a
Serbian government official was said to have been lynched by a
mob." The Western media reported the following day that a
massive antiwar demonstration was held in the city of Cacak.
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