IAC speaks to the anti-globalization movement
What you should know about events in Yugoslavia
The International Action Center released the following
statement Oct. 11.
The corporate-backed politicians all agree. The torching
of Yugoslavia's parliament and the overthrow of President
Slobodan Milosevic was a "triumph for democracy." That's what
Bill Clinton says. So do George W. Bush, Dick Cheney,
Madeleine Albright, Al Gore and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at
the Pentagon. CNN, NBC, CBS and Time magazine say so too.
What's wrong with this picture?
In Seattle, Washington, Philadelphia and Los Angeles,
protesters were gassed, beaten, shot with rubber bullets and
held for days in overcrowded cells. The media called us
"rioters" and "vandals" and told us to go home and "seek
change through the ballot box." But in Yugoslavia the CIA and
State Department urged the "opposition" to boycott the second
round of elections, march in the streets and attack
government offices.
It is supposed to be a crime for any U.S. political
candidate to accept donations from abroad. But Washington
gave hundreds of millions of dollars to Vojislav Kostunica's
"Democratic Opposition of Serbia" before the Sept. 24
elections.
From bombers to 'democrats'
Last year the United States and other NATO powers rained
bombs and missiles on Yugoslavia for 78 days. They destroyed
homes, schools and hospitals. They killed and maimed
thousands, including hundreds of children. The U.S. media and
politicians justified these war crimes with a lie campaign
demonizing all Serbs. Now the politicians and generals who
ordered the bombing and the media who justified it claim to
be champions of the rights of the Serbian people.
There is no inconsistency here. All over the world
Washington's attitude is guided by concern for corporate
interests. U.S. policy toward Yugoslavia is war by other
means.
Milosevic said no to IMF
Slobodan Milosevic may not be a revolutionary in the mold
of Fidel Castro or Che Guevara. But in the eyes of Washington
he committed the same sin as the protesters in Seattle and
Prague: He said no to the New World Order and the
International Monetary Fund.
Under the leadership of his Serbian Socialist Party, the
United Left and the Montenegrin People's Socialist Party,
Yugoslavia refused to join NATO or accept IMF-dictated
"economic restructuring." It resisted privatization and the
"free flow of capital" demanded by Wall Street. For that
reason--and that alone--Yugoslavia was the target of eight
years of war and economic sanctions by the U.S. and NATO and
a nonstop campaign of lies by the biggest propaganda machine
in history--the U.S. corporate news media.
Kostunica said yes
On Sept. 27, unknown to most of their followers, leaders
of the U.S.-funded "Democratic Opposition" met with
representatives of the IMF and the World Bank in Sofia,
Bulgaria. They agreed that if they came to power they would
hike prices, privatize industry, lay off workers and
dismantle Yugoslavia's free health-care system. That's right:
Yugoslavia has free health care--and the IMF wants to destroy
it!
These are the same measures that have devastated Bulgaria,
Romania, the former Soviet republics and countries throughout
Africa, Asia and Latin America. That was the price of
Washington's support.
A classic CIA operation
Kostunica and his CIA advisers arrogantly rejected a
second round of elections. They feared that even if they
won--a big "if"--the elected Socialist parliamentary majority
would block the IMF's program. Kostunica and the CIA wanted
to take power by force in order to intimidate or disband the
parliament and crush the Serbian Socialist Party and its
allies. They wanted to send a message to anyone in East
Europe who would resist Washington and Wall Street.
In 1993 the White House encouraged Boris Yeltsin to send
tanks to shell Russia's parliament when it refused to accept
IMF "shock therapy." Hundreds were massacred. Clinton called
that a "triumph for democracy" too.
The Pentagon, State Department and CIA have decades of
experience overthrowing independent governments. They've done
it in Iran (1953), Guate mala (1954), Congo (1961), Guyana
(1962), Indonesia (1965), Ghana (1966), Chile (1973),
Argentina (1976), Romania (1989), Bulgaria (1990) and Albania
(1991).
In Indonesia a CIA-backed junta executed nearly 1 million
people in the name of "democracy." The New York Times called
that slaughter a "gleam of light in Asia."
The formula is generally the same. Cause tremendous
hardship for the people of the target country. Create a
pro-U.S. "opposition" and pump it full of dollars. Promise
that if Washington gets its way, people may again live a
"normal" life.
It's a lie! The IMF and World Bank are agencies of
destruction. They aim to destroy all avenues of economic life
that are not controlled by Wall Street. When they take over a
country life always gets worse. Workers in Bulgaria now live
on 56 cents a day.
Fight the power
The media call the coup in Yugoslavia an "endgame." But it
is unlikely that the U.S.-backed regime can implement its
program without force. The new movement against corporate
globalization must stand with all those around the world who
are fighting injustice--from Colombia to Zimbabwe to
Palestine.
That includes those in Yugoslavia and across East Europe
who are resisting the tyranny of NATO and the IMF.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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