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AFTER months of Nato's bombing raids, the infrastructure and industry of Yugoslavia has been virtually destroyed. An enormously high level of widespread unemployment has inevitably followed.
The destruction has also created a housing shortage, the dislocation of public amenities and disruption of agriculture. And people of all ethnic backgrounds continue to live with the dangerous debris of war -- the litter of Nato cluster bombs, the toxic dust from depleted uranium weapons and the bio-hazards from the bombing of oil facilities and chemical plants.
The many hardships only serve to fuel ethnic antagonisms which were largely unleashed by the break-up of Yugoslavia and intensified by the Nato bombing. Acts of violence and the fear of violence continues.
It is therefore little wonder there are now refugees and asylum seekers from Yugoslavia looking for safety and work in the countries of western Europe.
But the wealthy elites of the Nato countries, who backed the reactionary nationalists and separatists in Yugoslavia, who egged on the break up of that country and who ordered and controlled the bombing -- all for their own economic, political and strategic ends -- want to now wash their hands of the tragedy they have caused.
They are refusing to make reparations to Yugoslavia and they are burying their heads in the sand over the problems facing the refugees.
The British government has so far been content to leave local authorities at the ports of entry to cope with the influx of asylum seekers. In Dover this has put a strain on local resources and led to tension and violence in the town between residents and refugees, despite the efforts of many local trade unionists and others.
Predictably, racists and fascist elements are eager to exploit the situation. They claim to be the only people speaking up for the "British" local people. They pose as the champions of the "white" working class. In reality of course their racist politics are designed to divide and weaken the working class -- a course which can ultimately only benefit the exploiters of all workers wherever they live or wherever they were born.
The trouble did provoke some response from the govemment -- a proposal to send asylum seekers to towns in other parts of the country in order to spread the costs. But this means asylum seekers being split up and isolated from one another and it still allows the government to duck out of providing extra funds.
It should not be forgotten that it was big business interests in the Nato countries which led the drive to war against Yugoslavia Among other things, the leading capitalists of the western world were seeking new opportunities for the investment of capital.
One way of finding these opportunities is to coerce govemments all over the world to agree to wholesale privatisation programmes that will allow transnational companies to buy their way in and scoop profits out.
In the eyes of the imperialists the "real crime" of the Yugoslav government was to resist the western economic and political programme. The war was part of a longer term strategy to break Yugoslavia into small and compliant statelets -- all too weak to resist the plans of western capital and ripe for exploitation.
That's why we say the rich, who stand to gain sooner or later from their wars of aggression, should be made to pay. The Nato countries should first and foremost pay reparations to Yugoslavia to enable that country to rebuild its infrastructure and industry and to relieve the hardship of the people.
Secondly, the refugees and asylum seekers -- people whose suffering was cynically used by western war propagandists until only a few weeks ago -- should be received decently and not put at the mercy of racists and fascists. The costs should not fall on the shoulders of working people in Dover or any other local authority area but be paid for by central government.
And in turn there should be a system of progressive taxation which shifts the burden of tax away from the least well off and forces the wealthy to pay more. Such a system shouldinclude more tax levels so that tax increases do not end up forcing better-off workers to feel the pinch while multi-millionaires hardly notice the change at all.
New Communist Party of Britain Homepage http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2853
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