Re: new Yugo war?

[Owen Jones <owen_jones@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Hiya Yoshie!

> The ruling class is apparently trying to prepare the public opinion
> for _some_ kind of war on Yugoslavia (what kind of war it may be is
> hard to know -- even the ruling class themselves can't predict & plan
> for all contingencies).

 Well, this article you posted is nothing new, it's the same hyperbole and
cliché we've been spoon fed for the past decade, hardly something new to get
our teeth in to.

> I suppose you don't agree with Jared's &
> Greg's interpretations of the Yugo affairs, but you have to overcome
> differences & build the united front if we are to present an
> effective opposition to NATO.

 You are right that I do not agree with Jared's interpretation of the
Yugoslav question. And really neither should you even if you find some of
his claims useful, although I myself rank rants about Fascist Greater
Albanian Conspiracies along with UFOs and the supernatural; something that
could only find any sort of base in some of the more rural areas of Arkansas
perhaps. Jared has made it very clear that he is not a Marxist or even a
leftist as such, although I should point out that this is not what I have
against him. Thereby if you endorse his analyses then you abandon a Marxist
analysis of the Yugoslav question. What you think he reveals you may
yourself find useful as part of building your own Marxist analysis, such as
I just attempted. But Jared has no Marxist analysis and thereby if he comes
to any conclusions you agree with it was by the wrong route.

 And sorry, but I refuse to form a "united front" with him simply because I
believe Milosevic's adorers compromise the anti-war movement and make us
look like a bunch of wacky apologists whom no-one will take seriously. And
what is more, Jared Israel already seems to have built his own "anti-war
united front" with Buchananites, and I myself would renounce any activism at
all and drink cold vinegar for the rest of my life rather than work with
that scum. Thereby I think we need to ask ourselves what we mean by a united
front - that excludes the far-Right who opposed the war not for any
progressive reason but rather for their own murky sinister purposes?

 There is already a large antiwar movement here in Britain, by the way - the
Committee for Peace in the Balkans, which apparently attracted 500 people to
a national conference even after a year since the war ended. To my knowledge
it has not gained a real base by singing Milosevic's praises by blaming
anybody who happens to be Muslim.

 Cheers

       Owen