The article that Charlie sent in from the Guardian is interesting. One would think
that this would give rise to a discussion about the Social Democracy becoming
bourgeois parties instead of bourgeois workers parties..
Bob
>o
>The Guardian March 31, 1999
>
>Editorial:
>Who is for war and who is for peace?
>
>
>As more and more bombs rain down on the cities and towns of Yugoslavia,
>protests and demonstrations have erupted around the world. Most go
>unreported in the Australian media.
>
>But apart from the stories of the bombs dropping, the killings and the
>refugees inevitably caused by war, a clear political divide is to be seen.
>
>Almost without exception the conservative political parties are for war.
>They always have been. The ruling circles in the United States are today's
>warmongers and would-be masters of the world. Wherever there is conflict
>and strife the hand of the US is not far away — Korea, Vietnam, Iraq,
>Libya, Nicaragua, Bosnia, the Congo and now Yugoslavia. There is little
>difference between Clinton and Reagan in this respect.
>
>It would come as no surprise to anyone that the Howard Government and its
>"nice" Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, wasted no time in jumping on the
>bandwagon of the NATO war against Yugoslavia. Kim Beazley also wasted no
>time in saying "Me too!", thereby lining up Australia's social democrats
>with this illegal war.
>
>In Australia it was the Communist Party of Australia which was the first to
>denounce the NATO aggression even before the bombs started to drop.
>
>A similar political alignment emerges around the world.
>
>In 1995, the then NATO Secretary-General Willy Claes who called himself a
>"socialist", ordered the bombing of Serb targets in Bosnia. Today it is the
>Spanish "socialist", Solana of the Spanish Socialist Party who unleashed
>the bombing of Yugoslavia.
>
>It is the Unification Communist Party of Spain that has denounced the
>bombing.
>
>The social democratic governments of Britain (Blair), France (Jospin),
>Germany (Schroeder), Italy (D'Alema — a former "communist") and other
>"socialist" European governments are in the forefront of the NATO
>aggression.
>
>Contrasting with their betrayal of peace and principles are the
>denunciations made by communist parties around the world. In France a
>10,000-strong protest march included the French Communist Party, French
>trade unions, the peace movement, Yugoslavs from the Paris community and
>other smaller parties.
>
>In Britain, the Communist Party of Britain and the New Communist Party of
>Britain have both condemned the war.
>
>Tony Benn and four other members of the British Labour Party have tabled a
>motion in the British Parliament that "this House recognises that NATO
>military action against Yugoslavia has not been endorsed by the United
>Nations Security Council, does not have the support of the Contact Group on
>Kosovo, contravenes the sovereign status of a recognised state, is likely
>to cause further civilian casualties and could lead to an escalation of
>conflict with consequent loss of life on all sides." Their resolution
>called for a negotiated settlement "in accordance with the principles of
>the UN Charter", showing that some Labour Party members have a conscience
>and principle.
>
>The Hungarian Government led by people who, when Hungary was a socialist
>state, declared that they merely wanted to build a "better socialism" has
>since joined NATO and now supports the illegal aggression. The Hungarian
>Workers' Party in condemning the bombing declared that "NATO under the
>leadership of the imperialist circles of the US wants to liquidate
>Yugoslavia. We demand that the aggression stop immediately." A
>demonstration was held in Budapest last Saturday.
>
>Belgium is another NATO member with a "socialist" government which supports
>the aggression, but the Workers' Party of Belgium and the Anti-imperialist
>League have condemned the bombing.
>
>Their statement makes the point: "It is certainly not NATO, but the
>existence of a strong socialist bloc that guaranteed peace in Europe for so
>long. Since the restoration of capitalism in Eastern Europe, the peoples of
>these countries have been submitted to crisis, insecurity, outrageous
>nationalism and threats of war." Their statement goes on: "Social Democracy
>carries a high degree of responsibility for the war in Yugoslavia."
>
>Others to join the protests are the Women's International League for Peace
>and Freedom International Secretariat, the Green Party of Canada and the
>Communist Party of Canada, the War Resisters International (a network of
>more than 70 pacifist groups in over 30 countries), the South African
>Communist Party, the Portuguese Communist Party and many others.
>
>They are united in demanding: STOP THE BOMBING!
>
>
>
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