Multiple workers states?
Could the Militant clarify its attitude toward self-
determination for Bosnia? Your editorial calls for a
campaign opposing the imperialist war drive against
Yugoslavia and refers several times to Bosnia as a
Yugoslav republic. You state that the underlying goal of
the intervention is the overthrow of the Yugoslav workers
state. Bosnia, however, has declared its independence from
the Yugoslav federation, which was the proximate cause of
the war.
Aren't there now multiple workers states existing in the former territory of Yugoslavia, just as there are now two states from the former Czechoslovakia and 15 from the former Soviet Union?
It seems important to me to be clear on this as the Belgrade regime demagogically advanced Serbian nationalist goals, often behind the cloak of being the defender of "Yugoslavia." Today it keeps a rump Yugoslavia in federation with Montenegro. It should also be noted Athens's campaign against Macedonia forced it to accept the name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" for membership in the United Nations.
The Militant should differentiate itself from those giving cover to Belgrade by claiming the breakup of Yugoslavia was engineered by resurgent Germany pushing for Croatian independence. The Stalinist bloody counterrevolution against the Bolshevik program on national self-determination set the framework for the return of Yugoslavia to a prisonhouse of nations in the years after the 1945 revolution and then its brutal dismemberment. The imperialist intervention seeks to take advantage of this by dictating the character of any Bosnian state and leaving open a partitioning of it between Serbia and Croatia. They hope through this method to gain the leverage to go on and overturn the forms of property relations in all the former Yugoslav republics.
Jeff Jones
Minneapolis, Minn.
Irish freedom
As the euphoria surrounding President Clinton's visit to
Ireland ends, we ought to consider a few truths about the
so-called peace process in British-occupied Ireland.
First of all it is a mistake to view both parties in the conflict as having claims that are equally valid and morally just. The so-called majority in the north was an artificially created majority made at the point of a British bayonet. That majority lorded it over the Catholic minority in the same manner as Southern whites used to lord it over Blacks when Jim Crow ruled the old Confederacy.
Were Blacks expected to negotiate with the white political establishment in order to have their human rights respected? The answer, of course, is no. Therefore, how can the Catholic minority be expected to view their oppressors as equal moral partners during the present cease-fire?
The result of the negotiations between the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Republic of Ireland, and Britain must end with the announcement of a timetable for the transfer of sovereignty of what is now called Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland, whose constitution grants liberty of religious conscience to all. It must be emphasized that the Catholics in British-occupied Ireland, although allowed to be Catholic, were penalized in employment, voting, and housing for exercising their religious conscience. The continued existence of Northern Ireland as a part of Britain will simply mean that the British version of Jim Crow will continue in that land. Have the Ian Paisleys and the Orange lodges renounced Protestant supremacy? Of course they haven't. When Ireland is re-united within the framework of an appropriate timetable then and only then will peace come to Ireland. For that will be a peace with justice.
William Gartland
Rio, Wisconsin
Federal workers protest
Federal workers have begun to fight back against the
government shutdown. On January 3, federal workers who are
members of the AFGE [American Federation of Government
Employees] staged informational pickets and protests. One
hundred fifty workers took part in a protest at the San
Francisco Federal building, 75-100 protested at the
Richmond Social Security office, and 75-100, including
this writer, protested outside the Menlo Park Veterans
Hospital. The slogans of the pickets included "Furlough
Congress, not Federal Workers," "Don't Pay Congress," and
"Nuke Newt." The majority of pickets at the Menlo Park
facility had never participated in a picket line. The
picket line gave workers the opportunity to voice their
anger at the government shutdown. Workers I spoke to said
they would be willing to picket again.
Furloughed workers received checks for only half a pay period. [They] are not eligible for unemployment because they are technically not unemployed. Workers who are working don't know whether they will receive their next checks or not.
In the next two weeks money runs out for many federal programs, including federal unemployment insurance, Meals on Wheels which provides meals for shut-ins, school lunch programs, food stamps, and Social Security. In the meantime, members of Congress and the President are being paid.
Supporters of the Militant should contact AFGE locals in their areas and take part in protests. The Militant carries news that federal workers can learn from, like the example of the French workers of how to conduct a successful fightback campaign.
Lenore Sheridan
San Jose, California
Caterpillar strikers
I received holiday greetings from two activists in the
United Auto Workers 17-month strike against Caterpillar.
They said Cat is refusing to recall 61 members of UAW
Local 974 who were terminated during the strike. The
company is bringing back four or five strikers at a time
in each department, so they are outnumbered by scabs. Five
strikers were fired the week of December 16, two for
wearing union T-shirts and three for "poor work effort."
The scabs play a big role in deciding the quality of work
performed by returning strikers.
Salm Kolis
Atlanta, Georgia
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