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EU and Kosovo
Opposition to the war
Europe's left and green parties are divided in their response to
the Kosovo crisis.
*Francois Vercammen* reports
[This article was written on 29 April, and will be updated before
publication in International Viewpoint]
Social democrats
In September 1998 Gerhardt Schroeder promised that "German troops
would only go outside our frontiers if they have a UN mandate."
But the country's new Chancellor used the recent SPD congress to
block a left-wing motion opposing any NATO ground war in
Yugoslavia. Schroeder successfully imposed a motion approving the
bombing campaign, though without counting the votes for and
against.
In response, the left within the SPD went public with its
opposition to the war. Federations in Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein
and Munich issued proclamations, as did the "Frankfurt Circle"
(led by Detler von Larcher) and eight SPD members of parliament,
including Andrea Nahles, president of the Party's youth wing
(Yusos). Former minister Oskar Lafontaine has also condemned the
war.
In Britain, eleven Labour deputies, mostly from the leftish
"Campaign Group" voted against the government on 19 April. Most
are very anti-NATO, but say little about Milosevic's regime and
its Kosovo policy.
The other wing of the traditional socialist left, led by former
London mayor Ken Livingstone, are outspoken supporters of the
NATO bombings. Some have compared Milosevic to Hitler. (The
Independent, 21 April).
The anti-war left has won widespread support in the cultural
world. Those condemning NATO include the prestigious New Left
Review, the writer Harold Pinter, filmmaker Ken Loach, and
feminist writer Germaine Greer.
The Scottish Nationalist Party is opposed to the war.
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has had little difficulty
containing dissidents within the ruling Socialist Party. The
Socialist Left Current (Gauche socialiste) of Gerard Filoche,
Jean-Luc Melanchon and Julien Dray has spoken out against the
NATO bombing and in favour of Kosovar rights. But they focus on
their criticism on "US tutorship", rather than on France's SP-led
government. Jean-Pierre Chevenement's Citizen's Movement (MDC), a
dissident faction outside the socialist party, but strongly
represented in the government, has a much clearer anti-war
position. Though MDC leaders like Sami Nair's continue to stress
their loyalty to the Jospin government (Le Monde 23 April).
There was little initial support for the NATO intervention in
Italy, though a majority of voters seem to support NATO bombing.
The first to speak out against the bombings were the Refounded
Communists (PRC) and the Pope. Italy is a key base for the NATO
intervention, and centre-left Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema has
manoeuvred hard to maintain elite consensus and public support
for the intervention.
Italy's government is an unusually broad coalition, within which
a number of left currents have criticised D'Alema, though stop
short of anything that could bring down the government. 119 of
Italy's 630 MPs have demanded a NATO ceasefire, opposed a ground
intervention, and condemned ethnic cleansing -- though stressing
their "loyal and total support for the government." (Corriere
della Sera, 23 April). This dissident platform has been signed by
all the Green MPs, supporters of ex-PRC leader Armando Cossuta,
and dissidents within the DS and PPI.
With fanatic pro-NATO leaders like former Prime Minister Filipe
Gonzalez and current NATO president Javier Solana, Spain's social
democrats (PSOE) support the conservative government's
pro-intervention discourse. Only three PSOE MPs, from the
Socialist Left current (IS) abstained in the vote approving
Spanish participation in the NATO campaign.
Greens
The war is the first real challenge for those Greens in
government (France, Germany, Italy) and those, like the Belgian
Greens, who hope to share power soon. In the face of ethnic
cleansing which reminds many Europeans of the rise of fascism in
the 1930s, many Greens have theorised the need for a
"humanitarian war". But there is a clear distinction between
those who are just confused, and those who have consciously
decided to join the establishment, whatever the cost.
The lies, manoeuvres and treachery has been particularly painful
for Germany's Greens, with their leader Joschka Fischer at the
centre of the German imperialist government. Many members and
local leaders are leaving the party. Others openly oppose their
party's pro-war discourse. Seven Green deputies (including
Christian Stroebele and Annelie Butenbach) voted against military
intervention on 26 March. Environment Minister Gila Altman has
refused to resign after she criticised German participation in
the NATO aggression. In Tuebingen, Green leader Claudia Haydt has
resigned. Some of these anti-war Greens have since joined the
ex-Communist PDS.
Over 700 members of the Greens signed Uli Cremer's open letter
protesting the party's "Crossing of the Rubicon."
The Green's congress on 13 May will reveal just how deep the
split in the party is.
France's Greens are a solid component of Jospin's left coalition
government. Party spokesman Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Green MP Noel
Mamere are NATO's most jingoistic supporters. More than 70% of
National Committee members approved a resolution calling for the
transformation of Kosovo into a protectorate (a "humanitarian
zone"), with a police presence to separate the two sides, aid to
refugees, and a Balkan conference.
The party was totally opposed to the Gulf war, so this shift in
policy is provoking widespread unease among the members. But the
party leadership is unshaken in its loyalty to the Jospin
government.
The minority of Greens who oppose the war are led by Martine
Billard (one of the party's four spokespersons) and MP M.-H.
Aubert.
Italy's Green MPs have all signed a statement demanding a
ceasefire (see above) and threaten to walk out of the D'Alema
government -"next time".
The war comes at an inconvenient time for Belgian greens. With
regional, national and European elections in June, both the
French-speaking Ecolos and the Dutch-speaking Agalev were
preparing to enter national and regional government as junior
coalition partners. The pacifist origins of these parties in the
early 1980s make it hard for leaders to impose a more "realist"
line. Green leaders were silent in the parliamentary debate on
the war. Luckily for them, the government didn't allow a vote on
Belgian participation in the NATO campaign.
At the start of the NATO bombing, Belgian greens supported what
they called a "humanitarian intervention." But traditional
anti-war sentiments have reasserted themselves. Ecolo is now
calling for "an end to the bombing, linked to the simultaneous
withdrawal of Serbian forces and the militias of the Kosovo
Liberation Army (UCK)." Though none of the party's MPs has signed
this new statement. On 2 April, Agalev spokesman Van Dienderen
called for an unconditional halt to NATO activity. Ecolo
continued to call for a "conditional" halt.
The Communist Parties
For some of Europe's Communists, the Balkan war, and Milosevic's
regime, is the last act of the death agony of Stalinism. Italy's
former CP strongman Armando Cossuta, now a minister in the
centre-left government, made a pathetic trip to France, Berlin,
Moscow and Belgrade, in a futile attempt to unify CP leaders and
play a mediator role between Milosevic and the west.
There are remnants of "either NATO or Milosevic" cold-war
thinking in most of Europe's CPs, as well as nostalgia for
"actually existing socialism." But despite the regular contacts
between these parties, in the European parliament and in ad hoc
conferences, there seems to be little consensus or appetite for
coordinated activities. There is a broad spectrum of opinion and
engagement in the anti-war movement, with the Greek KKE the most
militant and anti-NATO, and the French Communist party the most
hesitant and inactive. Obviously, a NATO ground intervention
could stimulate many more CP members across Europe into anti-war
activity.
Greece has strong traditions of anti-British and anti-American
sentiments, which fuel anti-imperialist consciousness. So does US
support for Turkey, and Greece's cultural and economic ties with
Serbia.
The KKE has always been pro-Milosevic, even supporting the
notorious ethnic cleansers Arkan and Karadzic. But the party's
large implantation, particularly in the labour movement, has
enabled it to play a decisive role in real mass mobilisations
against the war. Soldiers and sailors have refused to be
mobilised. There have been occupations of airports, and blockades
of US ships in Greek ports.
The leadership of the French CP has tried to reassure both
anti-war militants and its partners in government. All criticism
of NATO is balanced by statements that the party is absolutely
committed to remaining in the Jospin government!
Italy's Refounded Communists have the potential to organise
massive resistance to the war. After successful political
mobilisations against the NATO bombings, with demonstrations of
40-80,000, the party is well placed to organise any future social
protests against the war. Any land intervention would stop the
trade union confederations (CGIL, CISL, UIL) from blocking the
anti-war movement with their "pro-peace" discourse which, in
reality, gives support to the D'Alema government.
The communist-inspired newspaper Il Manifesto has played a very
positive role in building the impressive Rome demonstrations.
Leading columnist Rosanna Rossanda has incited Italian soldiers
to disobey any orders to participate in a ground war (Corriere
della Sera, 23 April).
Spain's United Left (IU) has opposed the war in parliament and in
the streets. But one wing of the movement supports Milosevic,
while the other demands respect for Kosovar democratic rights.
When the conflict started, IU leader Julio Anguita took a
pro-Milosevic line. he met with the Yugoslav ambassador in the CP
offices in Madrid, and disputed media reports of "alleged"
massacres of Kosovar civilians. In one El Pais interview, Anguita
called Milosevic "a man of the left."
The practical consequence of this pro-Milosevic line was an
unsuccessful attempt to organise a separate IU (PC) anti-war
demonstration, so as to split a broader anti-bombing, pro-Kosovo
demonstration being organised for the same dates.
IU federations in Madrid, Catalonia and Valencia are among those
who make the double demand of "stop the bombing!" and
"self-determination for Kosovo!"
On 26 April, the Anguita leadership abruptly modified its
position to satisfy these growing protests. But PC leader Frutos
and other prominent CPers refused to support the new policy.
Pressure on IU is also coming from the broad left "Manifesto for
a just peace in the Balkans," which has been signed by a wide
range of intellectuals and leaders of social and political
movements, including the prominent IU philosopher Francesco
Fernandez Buey, and left trade union leader Augustine Moreno.
Germany's PDS opposes the war and NATO, criticises Milosevic's
anti-democratic regime within Serbia and in its expulsion of
Kosovo Albanians. But party leader Gregor Gysi rushed to Belgrade
for talks with Milosevic. He also visited Kosovo, but his
handshake with the Serbian leader was very badly received by the
PDS base.
The PDS has said nothing in defence of the democratic rights of
the Kosovars. At the European level, the PDS is proposing a
"peace plan," inviting left parties in both halves of Europe to
support a United Nations intervention, and a ceasefire by both
Serbian and Kosovar forces. The plan says nothing about a right
of return for those Kosovars who have been expelled from their
homes.
At the same time, the PDS is active in the anti-war movement.
Member of Parliament Winfried Wolf persuaded the party to publish
a war diary, which is now in its third edition (100,000, 300,000
and 500,000 copies.)
* Division in the right
*Britain's* conservative party is openly divided. The *Financial
Times* quoted one minister's estimate that 100 of the party's 162
Members of Parliament is opposed to the NATO intervention (15
April 1997). "Hawks" like Alan Clark and Lord Carrington (Defence
and Foreign Ministers during the Falklands war) have condemned
"Blair's bombing of a Christian people who have never harmed the
United Kingdom." Like the isolationist current in the United
States, these English nationalists will only consider war if
"national interests are challenged."
A subtle anti-americanism is also present in the declarations of
conservative French and German politicians.
Europe's populist and fascist right is often virulently opposed
to the western intervention. They criticise NATO, and US
hegemony, but have difficulty articulating more general
orientations for their nationalist followers. The Vlaams Blok in
the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium is split between a leadership
that calls for aid to the Kosovo Albanians, and municipal leaders
who are opposed. Italy's Umberto Bossi (of the separatist Lega
Norte) is opposing the NATO bombing but with a virulent
pro-Serbian discourse.
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