WeeklyWorker

03.06.1999

Anti-war movement

Internationalist committee

As the war in the Balkans rolls on, the internationalist left in Britain continues to struggle for a principled stance in the face of Nato’s imperialist onslaught and in staunch opposition to the Serbian Socialist Party’s pogrom against Kosovar Albanians. With the majority of the ‘official’ anti-war movement leadership either social-pacifist (à la Socialist Workers Party and the Committee for Peace in the Balkans) or ‘red-brown’ chauvinist Yugoslav defencists (SLP and CPB), it is imperative that organisations supporting the slogans ‘Nato out of the Balkans’, ‘Independence for Kosova’ and ‘Open the borders to the refugees’ galvanise their efforts.

Moves to this end took another small step forward on Tuesday June 1 as the internationalist coordinating committee against the war met to further develop united work around these three slogans. The committee consists of the CPGB, Socialist Outlook, Workers Power, Workers International Press, Socialist Democracy, Workers Action and Workers Fight.

While much of Tuesday’s meeting was of a technical nature, differences on approach were also discussed. For instance, the text of the joint leaflet for this Saturday’s demonstration in London was criticised by the CPGB for its liberalism and pacifistic hysteria. For this reason, the CPGB withheld its name from this particular joint statement.

Speaking on the issue of political differences at Tuesday’s meeting, Alan Thornett of Socialist Outlook said that there was a need for the organisations involved to engage in deeper discussion than is possible at committee meetings, but warned against such debate turning into a “dogfight”. The public meeting held on May 4, while criticised by all organisations, was a tentative step forward in airing differences.

Stan Kelsey of the CPGB spoke of the need for engaging all sections of the anti-war movement in discussion. This approach can allow revolutionaries with a principled position to organise in and around the ‘official’ anti-war movement without liquidating into it. While we should not be surprised that the Committee for Peace in the Balkans has ignored all our correspondence, this should not prevent us organising in the main movement, particularly at the local level.

Joint activity around the war provides the revolutionary left an opportunity to work through programmatic and methodological differences, not least on the vital issue of the rights of nations to self-determination. While the objective situation makes unity an imperative, years of mistrust, sectarian isolation and auto-Labourism continue to hamper full united action. Organisations must make a concerted effort to honestly and openly discuss differences while fighting for the highest degree of unity possible.

A case in point of what not to do has been the ‘us against the world’ approach of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. Edging dangerously close to a ‘first camp’ position, the AWL - while supporting all three slogans - continues to stay away from the joint committee because it believes criticism of Nato is not the main issue; Kosovar self-determination is. This position is merely a mirror image of the SWP and the Committee for Peace in the Balkans.

Most organisations in the internationalist committee maintain that the main enemy is at home - unlike the SWP which believes that the only enemy is at home. The AWL seems to think the main enemy is in Belgrade.

In terms of practical work, the meeting decided that the organisations will form a joint contingent on the June 5 demonstration. Security was discussed. Comrade Kelsey indicated that the CPGB will distribute European Union election flyers for the ‘Weekly Worker’ lists in London and North West England.

Stan Kelsey moved that the committee support the ‘Weekly Worker’ on June 10 on the basis that this is the only list supporting the demands of the campaign in the European elections. Comrade Alan Thornett argued that the elections had “nothing to do with this committee” and successfully moved a procedural motion to end discussion. It was carried by six to three with only the CPGB and Workers International Press supporting further discussion. It is an irony that many organisations marching on a principled position on June 5 still seem intent to vote for bomber Blair and the war on June 10.

Towards the end of business a model resolution for trade unions - drafted by Workers Fight - was proposed. After one amendment, it was passed unanimously. It reads: “This branch condemns Nato’s bombardment of Serbia and Serbia’s war of ethnic cleansing against the Kosovar Albanians. It calls for:

“This branch will support any demonstrations called to promote these policies. We call on our NEC to donate £ ....... to aid the Kosovar refugees, to send a rank and file delegation to deliver the supplies and make direct links with the Kosovar organisations in the camps and to coordinate this solidarity work with sister organisations in the European labour movement.”

In the second bullet point, the words “and the right to fight for it” were added by a successful amendment moved by comrade Kelsey (CPGB). Comrade Kelsey again asked why “arm the KLA” was not included. Simon Deville of Socialist Outlook said this slogan had been rejected at the start of the bloc as not being a unifying position. A Workers Action comrade opposed adoption of “arm the KLA” as it might exclude some people, particularly SPEW. Alan Thornett (Socialist Outlook) thought it would “narrow us down”. However, a step forward was made with the insertion of “and the right to fight for it” to the slogan on independence. Only the comrade from Socialist Democracy voted against the amendment.

Marcus Larsen and Stan Kelsey