the workers of the Zastava factory (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 00:12:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Steve Martinot <marto@ocf.berkeley.edu>
To: jmusselm_rpa@indiana.edu
Subject: the workers of the Zastava factory

** Written 7:54 AM Apr 13, 1999 by socappeal@easynet.co.uk in cdp:labr.global **
 Collateral damage and the workers of the Zastava factory

As the failure of NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia becomes
increasingly clear, the number of civilian casualties of this so-called
"precision bombing" increase. Yesterday, (Monday April 12) at least ten
people were killed and 16 injured after a Nato missile hit a passenger
train as it crossed a bridge in south-east Serbia. According to a Press
Association wire "reporters taken to the scene by Yugoslav authorities
described scattered human limbs, smashed rail carriages and the stench
of burning flesh." Western military officials said that the target was
a rail bridge above a river that the train "happened to be on at the
time" (!!).

This is just another example of the cynicism of NATO generals who have
set out to flatten out Yugoslavia without caring about civilian
casualties or as they are called in military speak "collateral damage".
It seems that the train just "happened to be" on the bridge at the
time. So much for the "extraordinary measures to avoid collateral
casualties" which NATO claims to have taken.

Last week NATO tried to blame the Serb forces for the destruction in
Pristina. In a bitterly outrageous twist, NATO's slimy "spin doctors"
suggested that "Serb forces themselves blew up the town." (CNN
99/04/09). Later on Air Commodore, David Wilby, Nato's military
spokesman, was forced to change his version and described the bomb
which hit a residential area in Pristina as having appeared 'to be
seduced off the target' (!!). We could even accept that one of these
"smart bombs" failed to hit its target, but "seduced off the target"!?

There are many examples of NATO's bombs hitting hospitals, residential
areas, people's backyards, etc. This is also a reflection of the
frustration of Western generals about the failure of their campaign.

Last Saturday (April 10) more than 120 workers from the Zastava car and
small arms factory in Kragujevac were wounded by one of NATO's
missiles. Was that another "mistake"? Did they "seduce" the missile to
the factory? Far from that. The workers at the Zastava factory had
publicly announced in a communiqu that they would be occupying the
site:

"At the shift end, even at the alarm sound, the ZASTAVA workers did not
leave their workshops, but remained to protect with their bodies what
provides for their and their families' living, that in which they have
built in years-long honest work in order to provide for their better
future."

They published that statement on March 27 almost two full weeks before
NATO's attack. To avoid any confusion they even made known their exact
location: "Herewith we advise you that also henceforth, as long as the
war operations go on, we shall remain within the factory area of 305
hectares, at 44 N and 20 E." That was therefore not a mistake, an
unfortunate error, but a deliberate act of aggression which could have
caused the death of many of the 35,000 workers who usually work at
Zastava.

But the bombing of this factory, the biggest in Kragujevac, is even
more significant because of the militant traditions of its workers who
two and a half years ago were involved in a bitter strike to save their
jobs during which they raised the idea of self-management of the
factory. This is what we said then:

The discontent of the working class was revealed by the strikes which
have occurred on and off for the last twelve months, including health
workers, tractor workers and even the employees of the law courts. The
most important strike was that of the big Zastava car and small arms
factory in Kragujevac last September. The workers' slogan at the
beginning was "We want jobs and bread," but later became "Serbia, raise
your head!" This reflects a growing understanding that the workers'
problems can only be solved by a fundamental change in Serbian society.
But this does not signify a counter-revolutionary trend, but quite the
opposite direction, as reflected in the article "Strike at Kragujevac:
the Price of Hesitation" which appeared in Economska Politika on 23rd
of September 1996:

There is a danger, and it must be said, that this worker rebellion will
be described as a 'movement in the opposite direction.' Slogans like
'We are Zastava,' 'The factory is ours' and the like evoke the
deep-seated view of the self-management platform. The return of the
economy to self-management and Kardeljism could, if taken
superficially, get the workers' demands dismissed. The fiercest slogan
of self-management socialism, 'Factories to the workers!' -- while it
may be the highest reach of a utopia -- remained with the 'energy
potential which changes the world.' The destruction of socialism
throughout the Eastern bloc with all its consequences was impressive
enough to remove any illusion about the possibility of turning back the
clock. However, the sinking to these slogans on the part of the workers
in Kragujevac reveals something else: It is actually an attempt to
disqualify the environment constituting the economic system and those
who have declared themselves to be its custodians, in order to get on a
road which leads to a definitive surmounting of the crisis. (Economska
Politika September 23rd, 1996)

"These words are significant. The author is clearly a pro-capitalist
economist, who is hostile to the workers' class slogans, which he
regards as retrograde ("a movement in the opposite direction").The
workers are indeed seeking a way out of the crisis, but they approach
it from the class point of view of the proletariat. Behind the demand
for workers' self-management ("The factory is ours") is the correct
idea that the only way out of the economic chaos is by the workers
taking the running of industry and society into their own hands. " (
Serbia: Democracy or Counter-revolution Alan Woods, London 9/1/97,
http://www.marxist.com/Europe/Serbia.html)

These are the workers now being bombed by NATO. Are these targets also
approved by Tony Blair and George Robertson who recently said they gave
the green light to all targets of the bombing campaign ? That would not
surprise us at all. The last thing these "humanitarian" gentlemen want
is a working class opposition to Milosevic. At the time of the mass
demonstrations against Milosevic two years ago the Marxists already
warned that there was nothing progressive about the leaders of that
movement. We insisted that the removal of Milosevic's pro-capitalist
regime was the task of the Yugoslav workers themselves. Two years after
the leaders of the then "democratic" (read pro-capitalist) opposition
are in Milosevic's government (including Vuk Draskovic) and NATO is
bombing the Zastava workers who fought under the slogan "The factory is
ours". Hardly surprising.

In the meantime Tony Blair insisted: We will carry on, we will carry on
pounding day after day until our objectives are secured .

London April 13, 1999
Read the other material about the crisis in the former Yugoslavia at:

Crisis in the Balkans - A Socialist Analysis
http://www.marxist.com/balkans.html

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