Right on about the rest of the left.  It's familiar Viet Nam syndrome--
Support the empire;  there remain Cold War Liberals, and of course
Socialist bashers--the Left in US is heavily infiltrated by these.
wcm
>
> I'm posting this, because the two Left forces that have done more to
> oppose US interventionism in The Balkans, Emperors Clothes and the
> Workers World Party, deserve to have their voices heard.     One
> senses a certain overriding guilty shame, in the silence of the rest of
> the Left.
>
> Tony Abdo
> ______________________________
> U.S./NATO STEAL YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS
> Soft Money and hard threats
> By Sara Flounders
>
> On Sept. 26 the State Election Commission in Yugoslavia announced the
> results of the Sept. 24 elections. The candidate backed by the U.S.
> government and the European Union, Vojislav Kostunica, received 48
> percent of the vote to President Slobodan Milosevic's 40 percent.
>
> Since neither candidate received more than 50 percent, a run- off
> election has been set for Oct. 8.
>
> Kostunica's immediate reaction was to reject participation in a run-off
> election and demand that Milosevic concede defeat. Bill Clinton,
> Britain's Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and other NATO leaders who bombed
> Yugoslavia in 1999 also demanded Milosevic concede.
>
> The first point for the whole international movement that opposed NATO's
> war against Yugoslavia to keep in mind is that the Yugoslav elections
> were not "free and fair." Imperialism stole the election through its
> blatant pressure, bribery and interference.
>
> The elections raise a vital question. Will Yugoslavia be turned over to
> the Western banks and corporations? Will the assets of industrial
> enterprises be broken up and sold off, as they have been in every other
> country in Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Republics? Will
> the majority of the population be relegated to living below the poverty
> line?
>
> The Sept. 24 elections involved three layers of voting. Besides the
> presidential vote, there were also municipal elections, in which the
> U.S.-backed opposition won many cities and towns.
>
> There was also an election for the Yugoslav Federal Parliament. The
> coalition of the United Left, the Socialist Party and the SP's sister
> party in Montenegro won a strong majority of both houses. In Montenegro
> it was unopposed, as the pro-Western government abstained from the
> election. Under Yugoslav law, Parliament has more rights than the
> president and directs the government, electing the prime minister.
>
> But a setback for Milosevic in the presidential election puts more at
> risk than the future of one individual. He was the main target of the
> war carried out by U.S. and NATO--the imperialist world powers--and
> because of that he has come to symbolize Yugoslav resistance. In
> addition, he was at the center of the coalition of forces that led
> Yugoslavia during the 78 days of bombing.
>
> All the social gains of an independent country that had broken free of
> imperialist enslavement and held out during years of encirclement and
> war are now endangered.
>
> WESTERN INTERFERENCE DISTORTED ELECTIONS In this election the U.S. and
> European Union governments used every possible dirty trick, corrupt
> practice and payoff, and then bragged about them. Threats of bombing,
> promises to end nine years of sanctions, intimidation and military
> maneuvers heightened the tension.
>
> On election day the Pentagon and Croatia held their largest joint
> military exercises ever--a joint landing on an island in the Adriatic
> near Montenegro, part of Yugoslavia, to simulate an invasion. Fifteen
> British war ships have now moved into the Mediterranean. A U.S. aircraft
> carrier in the Adriatic Sea has moved closer to Montenegro.
>
> The major media here--the New York Times on Sept. 20 and the Washington
> Post on Sept. 19--have described in detail the exact amounts funneled
> into the opposition parties, radio and TV stations and newspapers. The
> U.S. Congress publicly voted on $77 million in open interference. Then
> on Sept. 25, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to send
> another $105 million to aid anti-Milosevic forces in Serbia and
> Montenegro.
>
> These articles describe suitcases of cash handed over at the border,
> endless supplies of computers, fax machines, cell phones and the
> trainers to use them. These goods have been passed to the opposition
> through front organizations, NGOs and media outlets.
>
> Weeks before the election, Western-funded polling organizations
> announced that Kostunica would win a sweeping victory. For the West's
> media monopoly beaming into Yugoslavia, there were only two options.
> Either Milosevic would lose or there would be massive fraud.
>
> The U.S. State Department announced that even if Milosevic won by
> overwhelming odds, Washington would refuse to accept the results.
>
> HOW SOULD MOVEMENT EVALUATE THESE EVENTS? Those who opposed NATO bombing
> in 1999 and all the militant activists who have taken on the
> International Monetary Fund, World Bank, globalization and sweatshops
> have a stake in what happens next in Yugoslavia.
> Are they ready to stand in solidarity with whatever steps are necessary
> to keep another country from being forced under the boot of the IMF and
> World Bank?
> Washington, London, Paris and Berlin have openly intervened and bragged
> of it.
> In the face of these admissions, those in office in Yugoslavia have
> every right to void the elections and disqualify the opposition.
>
> In the United States, France, Britain or Germany, would such an election
> have been allowed to continue? In the United States no political
> organization is permitted to accept funds from another government for
> political purposes unless it publicly registers as an agent of a foreign
> power. The U.S. ruling class is determined that only it should control
> the electoral process.
>
> Any U.S. politician found accepting contributions, bribes or payments of
> any kind from a foreign government is disgraced, attacked and could face
> criminal indictment.
>
> Just the allegation that the Clinton administration accepted a
> contribution from an ethnically Chinese businessperson who might have
> had contact with China sent every politician running for cover.
>
> CORRUPTION AND TREASON
> It is important to recognize that the Yugoslav government has the moral
> right to nullify this election on the basis of outrageous outside
> interference. It has every right to refuse to proceed with further
> elections under conditions of war, sanctions and occupation.
>
> The Parliament has every right to establish a criminal inquiry into the
> funding sources of the opposition. Government prosecutors have every
> right to indict and jail the politicians and publications that have
> corrupted the election process.
>
> The masses have every right to go into the streets and denounce the
> opposition parties and publications as agents of a foreign power.
>
> Kostunica, until now a minor politician considered a Serb nationalist
> with a long history of anti-Communism, consistently maintains that he
> has not accepted any money from the West. He has even criticized the
> NATO bombing and sanctions. No Yugoslav politician could win significant
> votes if seen as a NATO stooge.
>
> It may be true that he personally has not pocketed any money. But
> Kostunica has surrounded himself with political parties and
> organizations that are toadies to the NATO countries. His whole campaign
> has been publicized by radio and television stations and newspapers
> wholly and openly financed by grants from Washington and Berlin.
>
> He is supported by the U.S. and European imperialist powers because his
> political program, even if it criticizes NATO, embraces the very
> policies that NATO is demanding. He is the easiest of the politicians to
> make into a pawn because he has no personal base. He is the candidate of
> a bloc of 18 small feuding political parties that have no common
> interests or ideology. They are united only by opposition to the
> government and their willingness to accept foreign funds.
>
> U.S. ENGINEERED COUPS AND COUNTERREVOLUTIONS The big U.S. monopolies and
> banks and Washington itself have never accepted an election as "free and
> fair" if it put their class interests in danger or brought the masses
> onto the scene. Since the end of World War II the U.S. has organized the
> overthrow of more than 50 governments. In Chile in 1973 the CIA
> organized a military coup to drown the progressive legally elected
> government in blood. It did the same in Iran in 1953 and in Guatemala in
> 1954.
>
> In 1990 the U.S. orchestrated the overthrow of the Sandinistas in
> Nicaragua. Washington had cobbled together a 20-party coalition whose
> only aim was to overthrow the government and restore the old propertied
> class. It promised to end the "Contra" war and sanctions and provide
> massive aid if the popular Sandinistas were defeated.
>
> In this situation, much like the one today in Yugoslavia, Washington
> succeeded in manipulating the election to drive out the Sandinistas. But
> the U.S. never came through with the aid, and now some of the
> lowest-paid sweatshops in the world operate in the Trade Zones" of
> Nicaragua.
> 'FREE ELECTIONS' IN A COUNTRY UNDER SIEGE? Yugoslavia, like Nicaragua,
> illustrates the dangers of holding an election in the midst of an
> unrelenting war, sanctions and occupation of part of the country by
> foreign armies.
> With their dominance of the world media, the lure of material goods, the
> bribes and the threat of further punishment, these powers were able to
> reach right into the
> country.
>
> President Milosevic was trying to get a mandate by calling a vote when
> the opposition seemed divided, weak, discredited. But the imperialists
> quickly strengthened them using tactics refined over decades of
> interventions.
>
> Yugoslavia, a small, beleaguered country maneuvering to survive, has
> allowed dozens of openly pro-imperialist parties to maintain offices,
> staff, publish newspapers, organize and to participate in elections.
> These concessions have only further emboldened the enemies of the
> Yugoslav workers.
>
> Even though the imperialists complained that they were not allowed to
> monitor the elections, hundreds of foreigners did come in as election
> observers and certified that they were "free and fair"--that the
> government honestly and legally abided by all election procedures. But
> this shifted attention from the actual fraud taking place: the massive
> intervention and intimidation by imperialism.
>
> The political opposition was allowed to engage in practically
> unrestrained acceptance of foreign assistance, advice and media hype.
> The whole process was corrupted by an army of Western advisers and
> pollsters.
>
> WILL U.S./NATO FORCES SUCCEED?
> Reports from election observers and even the big-business media show
> there is a hard core of working-class support for Milosevic from those
> who see him as a defender of the country against NATO. Even among those
> who naively voted for Kostunica out of anger against Milosevic, there
> are many who want to resist Western imperialism.
>
> The question facing the Yugoslav masses now is will the Western
> multinationals, on the basis of this election distorted by intervention,
> be able to capture the state apparatus and open the door to
> super-exploitation?
>
> Will the enemy that failed to break Yugoslavia's resistance with 78 days
> of bombing be able to take over by manipulation of an election--or will
> the government be able to resist?
> If the left organizations and patriotic parties in Yugoslavia resist,
> will the progressive and working-class and anti-war movements in the
> West defend them against an inevitable propaganda blitz from the West
> and a possible new
> military campaign?
>
> WHAT CAN BE DONE?
> One contribution to this effort could be a Commission of Inquiry to
> examine the corrupting role that the U.S. government, the European
> Union, their NATO military arm and their international financial
> organizations played in the Yugoslav election.
>
> This Inquiry could gather and publicize information on these
> institutions' efforts to subvert and overthrow the Yugoslav government.
> It could also gather information on the open and secret funding of
> political parties, organizations and publications by U.S. government
> agencies.
>
> The Inquiry could deepen international understanding of Yugoslavia's
> problem by incorporating testimony and reports on U.S. intervention in
> the internal affairs of other governments. This would include the
> overthrow of other popular governments in Guatemala, Panama, Chile, Iran
> and Indonesia and also intervention in elections in Italy, Haiti,
> Nicaragua, Guyana and others.
>
> Activists in other NATO countries could organize their own Commissions
> of Inquiry and public hearings to examine how this latest intervention
> violated their laws. Similar information came to light earlier when
> hearings and tribunals in many countries put U.S. and NATO leaders on
> trial for war crimes against Yugoslavia.
>
> The importance of international solidarity should never be
> underestimated. Yugoslavia must not stand alone.
>