Revolutionary Worker #1002, April 18, 1999
Why do we call them imperialists? Because they exploit and oppress people all over the world. They have developed an empire and they will do anything to try and preserve it.
It is the same people robbing and exploiting, degrading and humiliating us every day that are doing that same thing, and want to do more of it, to people around the world. That's why we call it imperialism, because that's what it is.
| Bob Avakian, Bullets |
As the U.S. and its NATO allies bomb Yugoslavia, they are bombarding people with lies about their "humanitarian mission." But let's be clear on this: The U.S./NATO operation in the Balkans is NOT about saving lives, it's NOT about promoting understanding between different peoples, it's NOT about defending the rights of the oppressed. It's about asserting big power domination--militarily, economically and geo-politically. And the masses of people are the ones that will suffer for this.
The same system that aimed 41 bullets at Amadou Diallo in New York City claims its missiles and bombs have a "humanitarian mission" in the Balkans. But it is coldly imperialist for the U.S. and its allies to impose their political and military decisions...the U.S. is cynically using sympathy for Albanian Kosovars to justify its own power moves.
| "Stop the Bombing! US/NATO Hands Off the Balkans" RW No. 1001 |
Predators are not protectors.
The U.S. war in the Balkans will not end the persecution of the Albanian Kosovars or other oppressed nationalities in the Balkans. The only way people around the world can deal with oppressive regimes like the Milosevics of this world is through the revolutionary struggle of the masses of people themselves--but this struggle must also be a struggle against imperialism. Because imperialism means the subjugation of whole peoples and people at each other's throats.
As the Information Bureau of the RIM says: "Only by vigorously opposing all forms of national oppression and assuring the right of self-determination will it be possible to unite the proletariat and peoples of Yugoslavia and all the Balkans against their real enemies of capitalism, imperialism and all reaction. To think that the world's biggest reactionaries will bring any progress or light to this corner of the world scarred by generations of imperialist rivalry is worse than an illusion."
Some people who used to be against imperialist aggression--people who opposed the Vietnam war in the 1960s--are now thinking that U.S. intervention can help people. But in Kurdistan, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Rwanda, people are learning the hard way that U.S. intervention cannot solve their problems. And a U.S./NATO victory will not bring peace and relief to the peoples of the Balkans. It will only make the U.S. more powerful and better able to exploit the people of the whole world.
The people on the bottom of U.S. society have experience with "intervention." When the enforcers come into our neighborhoods to "fight crime and gangs" what happens? They brutalize, murder, and humiliate the people; they infiltrate the neighborhood with snitches and police messing with every aspect of people's lives; they try to put down the revolutionary struggles of the masses. They strengthen the control of the system over the people. Because their enforcers exist to enforce an unjust system that puts profit and property first. That is their mission. And the only way the people can get free from poverty and despair is to build our revolutionary struggle against the system and its enforcers. No condescending imperialistic saviors and enforcers can do this for us. And when the people rise up and fight back and make the enforcers jump back--it is a victory for the people.
The U.S. imperialists have appointed themselves "cops of the world"--to invade and dictate to any country. And they have sent their soldiers to enforce this mission. Our people need to open the eyes of the troops--many of whom come from the basic people--to the reality of this mission. If they want to help the people of the world they can only do it by opposing this war.
Every defeat for the U.S. ruling class should be welcomed by the oppressed and struggling people of the world. We Maoists call this "revolutionary defeatism."
The U.S. power structure prefers to fight with overwhelming force and bombs from the air. They spread chauvinistic poison about how they do not want to lose "American lives"--as though the lives of people in the U.S. are more valuable than the lives of people around the world. But in reality they fear the "Vietnam syndrome" --where the realities of war hit home in the imperialist heartland and opened the eyes of millions of people to the unjust and brutal nature of the Vietnam war and the system itself.
Some people say that the government should pay attention to the problems of the poor people in this country. But when the U.S. government drops bombs on Yugoslavia and Iraq, they are paying attention to the poor--they are trying to defend and strengthen the very system that exploits and oppresses poor people all over the world. And they want to keep it that way.
Our people, the proletarian people, have a common cause with the proletarians and oppressed nationalities around the world. This is real and it is deep. And we stand ready to struggle and sacrifice our lives to LIBERATE the people and make REVOLUTION. That is the only kind of struggle worth fighting and dying for. And that means opposing the U.S. war on Yugoslavia with all our hearts.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
http://rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497
(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.)