The Truth about Yugoslavia: Why Working People Should Oppose Intervention

by George Fyson, Jonathan Silberman, Argiris Malapanis

Examines the roots of the carnage in Yugoslavia during the 1990s, where Washington and its imperialist rivals in Europe are competing with each other for influence as they intervene militarily in an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873487761
• ISBN13: 9780873487764
• Release Date: June 1993
• Publisher: Pathfinder
• Length: 94 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.2" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent critique of NATO destructiveness

The authors argue passionately against NATO's military intervention in the former Yugoslavia. They show convincingly that intervention is just a cover for the selfish interests of the NATO powers, and that it will delay, not promote, a durable peace. They also oppose what they rightly call the inhuman economic sanctions that the UN imposed on the people of Serbia and Montenegro. Now 60,000 NATO troops, including 15,000 British, are going in, supposedly to enforce a cease & #64979;fire in Bosnia. The authors demolish the arguments of those who call on outside powers to intervene for humanitarian or other reasons. We should recall that the 1918-1922 war of intervention against the Soviet Union started 'to police the armistice'. A Labour Government sent troops into northern Ireland in 1969 on a humanitarian pretext. Now we are at last seeing peace again there, ending that unjust interference and occupation, and we do not want another long-term foreign aggression to start.The authors judge that "While publicly claiming humanitarian concern, each of the imperialist powers is in reality seeking to advance its own economic, political, and strategic military interests, which conflict in an increasingly sharp way during a period of world capitalist depression." (p. 11) The Western capitalist powers aim to reduce Eastern Europe's countries again to semi-colonies. The US Government wants "to block its imperialist rivals in Europe from getting a firmer economic foothold in the former Yugoslavia." (p. 62) The member states of the European Union, while pretending to have a common policy, pursue their own interests, in Yugoslavia as elsewhere. The NATO forces will not be holding the ring but rigging the fight. Everyone knows that the USA armed and trained the Croat and Bosnian Muslim armed forces. Remember that the USA, while supposedly bringing democracy to Haiti, was funding death squads that killed hundreds of supporters of the elected government (Guardian, 4 December 1995). If the USA wants peace in Bosnia, why lift the arms ban? As the authors sum up, intervention will probably bring "more deaths, destruction, denial of national sovereignty, and brutal economic exploitation." (p. 18). It also risks spreading the war to other countries in Eastern Europe.The war in Yugoslavia arose originally from conditions of worsening capitalist decline. The government there cut back on planned cooperation and relied increasingly on market forces. These created competition between regions and enterprises, and deepened regional inequalities, increasing pressures towards devolution and breakup. The government imported goods that Yugoslavs could have produced themselves, running up huge debts and increasing unemployment. Outside forces seized on these internal failings.The people of Yugoslavia can solve their own problems, by taking the responsibility for rebuilding their country. As an independent socialist country, Yugoslavia enabled its people to live together. They must

A NECESSARY BOOK FOR UNDERSTANING U.S. & NATO INTERVENTION

"What are the roots of the carnage and the developing European war in wake of the collapse of Yugoslavia?"The answer is not 'age-old ethnic and religious conflicts,' as the daily papers and TV newscasts say. What's happening in Yugoslavia is a product of the crisis and intensifying conflicts of the depression-ridden world capitalist system."Rival gangs of would-be capitalists--fragments of the former Yugoslav Stalinist regime--drape themselves in nationalist colors in a war for territory and resources that is against the interests of all working people in Yugoslavia. Washington and its competitors in Europe are intervening militarily to protect and advance their respective interests."The articles collected in this book tell the truth about Yugoslavia and why working people the world over should oppose military intervention" (from the back cover).