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Challenging the US global offensive, part 2

1st October 2004 Socialist Action 0

7. The situation in the imperialist countries

The overall orientation of the imperialist bourgeoisies has already been described above. However the capitalist class in the imperialist countries is such a small section of the population that it cannot maintain its rule without gaining support from wider layers of society. Undermining the position of the imperialist bourgeoisies therefore requires severing them from their wider layers of social support. This must be achieved in a very specific and concrete political situation.

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Une riposte à l’offensive américaine mondiale

1st October 2004 Socialist Action 0

First published: Oct 2004

Voici la traduction en français de la majeure partie de la brochure rédigée par Socialist Action en vue du Forum Social Européen qui a eu lieu à Londres en 2004. A part les parties traitant du Forum social non traduites, la brochure reste un document de référence pour analyser la situation internationale et les rapports de forces mondiaux, même s’il faudrait y intégrer les développements récents. Le lecteur trouvera bien entendu des références aux forums sociaux qu’il lui faudra re-situer dans le contexte de la brochure.

1) LA SITUATION POLITIQUE INTERNATIONALE ACTUELLE

Aujourd’hui ce qui domine l’actualité politique internationale sont les effets de la guerre en Irak, à savoir la résistance prolongée à l’occupation dans ce pays, le mouvement international contre la guerre, et l’impact de tout ceci sur de nombreux pays. Cette situation politique immédiate à la fois regroupe, et repose sur, un certain nombre de tendances politiques, sociales et économiques déjà observées sur le long terme :

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The era of permanent US aggression: Stop war in Iraq

1st February 2003 Socialist Action 0

First published: February 2003

The coming attack on Iraq is the latest in a series of wars waged by the US government – including the first Gulf War in 1991, the attack on Yugoslavia and the bombing of Afghanistan. But many more people than before have understood the real motives for the war and are therefore opposing it.

This is a vital change. Not only would an attack on Iraq kill thousands of Iraqi people but, if successful, it will be far from being the last, or even the biggest, aggressive war envisaged by the US. In his ‘axis of evil’ speech, George W. Bush has already named North Korea and Iran as potential future targets. The Pentagon ‘nuclear posture review’ document in 2002 named a hit list of countries against which Washington is prepared to use nuclear weapons, including Iran, North Korea, Libya and China. At the end of February, responding to a question from the anti-war MP Alice Mahon, Tony Blair declared that after Iraq, North Korea was next.

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International alliances against NATO

1st December 1999 Socialist Action 0

First published: December 1999

When, on 24 March 1999, NATO launched its biggest bombing campaign in Europe since the Second World War, it expected a rapid and complete victory over Yugoslavia – a state of little more than 10 million people. Instead the people of Yugoslavia held out for 11 weeks of 24-hour bombing and the majority of the world’s population opposed NATO’s aggression. As a result, the United States had to retreat from some of its original objectives and hundreds of millions of people throughout the world were alerted to the threat they face from an imperialist alliance committed to offensive military action whenever it wishes over a vast area of the globe.

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Yugoslavia – alliances to fight NATO’s new age of imperialism

1st December 1999 Socialist Action 0

First published: December 1999

For anyone who thought NATO was serious about a ‘humanitarian’ war, the facts are now clear. NATO claims to have killed 5,000 Serb troops in Kosovo. In addition more than 1,000 civilians have been massacred by NATO, and thousands of others wounded and maimed. The combined total is nearly 20 times more than the 340 deaths of which Slobodan Milosevic has been accused by the war crimes tribunal. In addition, NATO will be responsible for the thousands of other deaths of the young, the sick and the old which will result from its destruction of the civilian infrastructure of an entire country.

NATO’s plan for Kosovo is a colonial dictatorship. Its model is Bosnia, where the United States and European Union have imposed a colonial administration in which their appointed ‘High Representative’ can and does depose elected leaders at will, has his own army and where the head of the central bank is appointed by the IMF. So much for the idea that NATO bombing had anything to do with self-determination for anyone.

If the people of Yugoslavia continue to refuse to submit to Washington, NATO has already made clear that the economic blockade will continue to amid plans to further break up the country.

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NATO’s goals in Yugoslavia

1st December 1999 Socialist Action 0

First published: December 1999

NATO’s goals towards Yugoslavia are well established. Through the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, Yugoslavia had enjoyed rapid economic growth, industrialisation and relative political stability on the basis of three pillars. First, its planned economy gave it the possibility of a relatively independent path of economic development, not subordinated to more powerful outside imperialist powers. Second, its federal constitution, together with economic planning, united the great majority of its different peoples on the basis of almost unprecedented constitutional respect for the national rights and redistribution of economic resources from the richest to the poorest parts of the country. Third, its international position, as a non-capitalist state outside the Warsaw Pact at the height of the Cold War, allowed it to balance between east and west, being courted by both, and enjoying access to western financial credits.