29.04.1999
Strange bedfellows
SWP pacifists and CPB defencists
The Committee for Peace in the Balkans public rally at Friends Meeting House on April 19 was, in some ways, a very strange affair. To see an audience of SWP and CPB members together supporting a similar stance on ex-Yugoslavia does seem strange, given their political antecedents. But here they were - the SWP with its social pacifism, the CPB with its pro-Serb nationalism - applauding at the oft repeated claim from the platform that the war crimes of Milosevic are exaggerated and the fight for Kosovar self-determination is, in the words of Mark Steele, a “dangerous diversion” from the class struggle.
Tony Benn led a list of 10 speakers with a damning criticism of the Blairite press for failing to report the anti-war movement. Quite right. Unfortunately he then went on to claim that the Morning Star is the only daily paper to tell the truth about the war. While it is correct that the media parade their support for the Kosovar refugees in order to win brownie points from Blair, who can deny - except the Morning Star of course - that Milosevic is driving hundreds of thousands from their homes and murdering those who cannot escape fast enough?
But it seems like Tony Benn believes far too much of what he reads in the pro-Milosevic Star. He assured the audience that the “so-called ethnic cleansing” was greatly exaggerated. A substantial proportion of the refugees were simply displaced by war. And then there are all those Kosovars who are running away from the KLA!
Although Benn has taken an important stand against Blair and US imperialism, his illusions in the United Nations are leading him in a very chauvinist direction. To deny as he does that this is in “no way a war about democracy” is to deny the legitimate right of the Kosovar people to determine their own future. It is true, as he argues, that a new world order is being created by the US within which a gung-ho Nato is ignoring the UN (formal) commitment to non-interference in sovereign states. But Benn’s defence of sovereignty leads him to give Milosevic carte blanche to do as he pleases within Serbian state boundaries. His ‘hands off’ approach allows for no support to the Kosovars and no answers for the anti-war movement.
He was followed on the speakers’ list by Tam Dalyell, who had just arrived, with Alice Mahon, from a debate on the war in the House of Commons. Dalyell dwelt at length on the danger and stupidity of the war. He said it had become simply a question of “not losing face” for Blair and Clinton. He called for an end to bombing and a start to negotiations.
Alice Mahon spoke of her experiences when she visited Serbia some days before. Of the determination of the Serbs to fight despite their desperate conditions. She was angry at what she called the “ultimatum” given by Nato. She also pointed to the hypocrisy of the US when it came to the years of “Israeli suppression of the Palestinian people within that particular state boundary”. Clearly the US and Britain have selective taste when it comes to “protecting rights”. However, despite her obvious good intentions, she too tried to brush ethnic cleansing under the carpet. While she was “sorry for the people being expelled”, she was “just as sorry for the Serbs”.
Yes, it is true in one sense they are all victims. But to simply say, ‘all war is bad’ is to duck the issue of the democratic rights of the Kosovars. A call for Nato out of the Balkans does not have to lead to an agnostic view on the struggle in Serbia-Kosova. Making it seem like one horrible mess is a cop-out. The Kosovars are fighting a just war for democratic rights. This should be supported.
Leftwing journalist and comedian Jeremy Hardy was by far the most radical speaker of the night. His remarks were funny and provocative. He argued that those on the Labour front benches have always been warmongers. That the British state and its army which is supposedly fighting a “good war” in the Balkans is the same one which has been an occupying force in Northern Ireland for the last 30 years. Not an army he’ll support. The comparison between a British state supposedly supporting self-determination for the Kosovars while sending its troops in to put down the Irish struggle drew some applause from the audience ... but a few pained expressions from other speakers.
Tariq Ali warned of the dangers if “Russia’s patience finally snaps should ground troops be sent in”. He suggested that this is a war of liberal imperialism based around a creed of “human rights fundamentalism”. Again he too hated to see the “Kosovars herded out just as the Serbs had been in Krajina” and “was against all ethnic cleansing”. But the problem lay with the break-up of Yugoslavia in the first place. If Germany had not been so keen to recognise Croatia, if Bosnia had not been made independent, then these problems would never have occurred. Another man with a sentimental attachment to Tito’s Yugoslavia.
Matthew Felling of CND was on hand with some pacifism. He spoke of the “higher human ambition that is destroyed through war”. That “we as human beings can do far better than kill each other”. He read from the UN charter for human rights and said that we need to call on our leaders to fulfil their promise of no more wars after World War II. Felling has obviously forgotten the UN-led war against Korea in the 50s and against Iraq just a few years ago. How the UN can possibly be seen as a proponent of peace is beyond belief - except for a pacifist with a short memory. It is a den of imperialist butchers, capitalist thieves, bureaucratic dictators and third world aidocracies.
The great unanswered question throughout the evening was what to do about the Kosovars. While many simply avoided the question and put their main stress on helping the refugees, Mark Steel had the answer - or so he thought. The Kosovars should “give up the fight for independence” and “reject nationalism”. Not to do so is “to play into the hands of their rulers”. Instead they should be “helping the Serb dissidents ... the factory worker ... the rebel radio station”. As usual the SWP want everybody to get back to good old (British) trade unionist normality and forget about all those divisive democratic questions. However, this time round their economism is serving the cause of Serb chauvinism.
Unsurprisingly there were no Kosovar speakers. The Campaign for Peace in the Balkans does not recognise their democratic rights. It would rather support Milosevic as the ‘lesser evil’ against Nato than take a principled stand. Those in the anti-war movement with progressive politics must fight to create a democratic platform. We need to make sure that our politics are heard and that the anti-war movement takes a revolutionary defeatist line.
Anne Murphy