------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 19, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPEAKS TO THE ANTI- GLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT: WHAT YOUR 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, Mad e leine 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. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
