[PEN-L:8315] Globalism's first victim

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, June 23, 1999

COMMENT p. A18  Globalism's first victim

by David Orchard

In March, the most powerful military force in history attacked tiny
Yugoslavia (one fifth the size of Saskatchewan) and after seventy-nine days
of flagrantly illegal bombing forced an occupation of Kosovo. Admitting its
intention was to break Yugoslavia's spirit, NATO targeted civilian
structures, dropping over 23,000 bombs (500 Canadian) and cruise missiles
in a campaign of terror bombing, described recently by Alexander
Solzhenitsyn as follows: "I don't see any difference in the behaviour of
NATO and of Hitler. NATO wants to erect its own order in the world and it
needs Yugoslavia simply as an example: We'll punish Yugoslavia and the
whole rest of the planet will tremble."

The idea that NATO attacked Yugoslavia to solve a humanitarian crisis is
about as credible as Germany's claim in 1939 that it was invading Poland to
prevent "Polish atrocities." The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) reported the first registered refugees out of Kosovo on March 27th
- three days after the bombing began. Civilian casualties after twenty-one
days of bombing exceeded all casualties on both sides in Kosovo in the
three months before the war.

In an all out effort to convince public opinion that Yugoslavia deserved
the onslaught, Western politicians and media are churning out endless
accusations of Serb atrocities, while the proven and infinitely greater
atrocities of NATO - launching an aggressive war, using internationally
outlawed cluster bombs and firing depleted uranium ammunition into
Yugoslavia - are buried.

Why did NATO attack Yugoslavia and why are Serbs - Canada's staunch allies
in both World Wars, with 1.5 million dead resisting Hitler's Nazis and
Italian Fascism - being demonized?

Most 19th century wars were over trade. When the U.S. invaded Canada in
1812, Andrew Jackson declared, "We are going to... vindicate our right to a
free trade, and open markets... and to carry the Republican standard to the
Heights of Abraham." In 1839, Britain demanded China accept its opium and
attacked when China said no. When Thailand refused British trading demands
in 1849, Britain "found its presumption unbounded" and decided "a better
disposed King [be] placed on the throne... and through him, we might,
beyond doubt, gain all we desire."  In 1999, NATO said it was attacking
Yugoslavia to force it to sign the Rambouillet "peace agreement" (even
though the Vienna Convention states that any treaty obtained by force or
the threat of force is void).  Significantly, Rambouillet stipulated: "The
economy of Kosovo shall function in accordance with free market principles"
and "There shall be no impediments to the free movement of persons, goods,
services and capital to and from Kosovo."

During the war, Bill Clinton elaborated: "If we're going to have a strong
economic relationship that includes our ability to sell around the world
Europe has got to be the key; that's what this Kosovo thing is all about...
It's globalism versus tribalism."

"Tribalism" was the word used by 19th century free trade liberals to
describe nationalism. And this war was all about threatening any nation
which might have ideas of independence.

Yugoslavia had a domestically controlled economy, a strong publicly owned
sector, a good (and free) health care system and its own defence industry.
It had many employee owned factories - its population was resisting
wholesale privatization. It produced its own pharmaceuticals, aircraft and
Yugo automobile. It refused to allow U.S. military bases on its soil.
According to the speaker of the Russian Duma: "Yugoslavia annoys NATO
because it conducts an independent policy, does not want to join NATO and
has an attractive geographic position."

Ottawa, cutting medicare, agricultural research, social housing and
shelters for battered women, spent tens of millions to bomb Yugoslavia and
is spending millions more occupying Kosovo, while abandoning its own
sovereignty to U.S. demands, from magazines to fish, wheat and lumber. It
is expropriating part of British Columbia for the U.S. military and
considering the U.S. dollar as North America's currency. Now, the Liberals
have thrown our reputation as a peace keeper into the trash can, along with
the rule of international law, by smashing a small country to pieces at the
behest of Washington.

In a March 28 New York Times article, Thomas Friedman wrote: "For
globalization to work, America can't be afraid to act like the almighty
superpower that it is... The hidden hand of the market will never work
without a hidden fist - McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell
Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world
safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army,
Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."

As NATO troops entered Kosovo, the same newspaper announced Kosovo's new
currency will be the U.S. dollar or German mark, currencies of the two
countries most responsible for Yugoslavia's break-up. And after months of
being told that Slobodan Milosevic was the problem, we heard Washington
Balkans expert, Daniel Serwer, explain: "It's not a single person that's at
issue, there's a regime in place in Belgrade that is incompatible with the
kind of economy that the World Bank... has to insist on..."

The Canadian government professes great interest in human rights.
Globalization undermines both democracy and national sovereignty, the only
guarantors of human rights. Unfortunately for Messrs. Clinton, Chretien et
al, that message was not lost on millions around the world watching NATO
bombs pulverize Yugoslavia.

--------------------------------

DAVID ORCHARD is the author of a newly expanded bestseller, The Fight for
Canada: Four Centuries of Resistance to American Expansionism. He farms at
Borden, Saskatchewan and was runner-up in last year's Progressive
Conservative Party leadership contest.

He is the chair of Citizens Concerned About Free Trade and convened the
Ad-Hoc Committee to Stop Canada's Participation in the War on Yugoslavia.

You can reach him by e-mail at: ccafttor@xxxxxxxxxxxx web site:
www.davidorchard.com & http://web.idirect.com/~ccaft/

or at:  Ad-Hoc Committee to Stop Canada's Participation in the War on
Yugoslavia c/o Citizens Concerned About Free Trade

National Office: Box 8052, Saskatoon, SK, S7K 4R7
Tel (306) 244-5757, fax (306) 244-3790

Toronto Office: #202 - 9 Bloor St E, Toronto, ON, M4W 1A9
Tel (416) 922-STOP, fax (416) 922-7883

Vancouver Office: 210 - 207 West Hastings St., Van., B.C., V6B 1H6
Tel (604) 683-3733, fax (604) 683-3749




Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)