Bosnian General Alagic now de ined to break the seige of Sarajevo AT THE RECENT meeting of the Committee for Peace in The willingness of the Bosnian army to fight - with some apparent success - to break the siege of Sarajevo has not gone unnoticed by the left in Britain. Unfortunately, the conclusions drawn by most of the British left are fundamentally wrong. Here and on the facing page, GEOFF RYAN looks at the newly-formed 'Committee for Peace in the Balkans' and the deepening errors of the SWP.
Anti-German: Tony Benn
duced by Benn to 'Foot/Thatcher axis' - an amalgam of which Stalin himself would be proud. It is somewhat rich of Benn to attack Michael Foot (whose views are by no means identical to Thatcher's) in such a manner when he is himself in a formal alliance with Alfred LOSATU MASS RALLY 1988 for Kwazulu-Natal, adding to the regime's difficulties. The Springbok victory will do nothing to resolve these problems. The people are now demanding the implementation of the Freedom Charter. The only solution is the active intervention of the working class, and implementation of the programme of the Workers Charter as demanded in the resolution at the COSATU congress in July 1989. Sherman. [See box opposite].
This analysis was vociferously challenged from the floor by supporters of the Alliance to Defend Bosnia-Hercegovina, Socialist Outlook, Workers Press and the many Bosnians and Croats present - all of whom were in favour of withdrawing U.N. troops and letting the Bosnians defend themselves.
No civil war It was pointed out that the war in Bosnia was not a civil war but a war of aggression by Serbia (and at times Croatia) against an independent state. Radovan Karadzic does not speak for all Bosnian Serbs, that is a distortion by the western media. In the cities in particular Serbs, Croats, Bosniacs and other nationalities continue to fight side by side against Karadzic's attempt to carve up Bosnia.
The war in Bosnia is between those committed to a multi-national, multi-ethnic Bosnia and those in favour of ethnically pure states. It is a war between those opposed to racism and those in favour of racially pure states. Socialists have to take sides.
Opposition views were, to say the least, unwelcome. Alice Mahon, chair of the meeting, indignantly protested at the claim that "all those who aid the aggressor are guilty for every dead civilian in Bosnia and Hercegovina" - ignoring the fact that this was the view of the trade unions of Tuzla, made in a statement by them to the meeting.
Graveyard
The only 'Peace' on offer from the Committee for Peace in the Balkans is the peace of the grave.
Indeed, a more appropriate name, as Francis Wheen suggested in the Guardian recently, would be the Committee to Hand Bosnia the Over to Belgrade.
Socialists have to challenge the fundamentally reactionary views of this committee wherever it tries to raise its head, and particularly in the labour movement.