BOSNIA
Solidarity success
The Workers Aid to Bosnia convoy, initiated by an alliance of British socialist groups in which the Fourth International's British supporters play a leading role, has scored a major success. The fourteen trucks on the convoy, including ten from Britian, and two each from Sweden and Italy have arrived in Jesenica, Slovenia, and have already begun distributing aid to Bosnian refugees in Croatia. They have won the support of
International Viewpoint #249 October 1993
Bosnian Muslims, Islamicised Slavs, only had Bosnia-Herzegovina for a State. Many among them, in the cities, were members of small non-nationalist parties in whose ranks could be found Serbs and Croats who considered themselves "Bosnian".
But the weakness of and divisions inside these parties have been dramatic,
Slovenian trade unions.
reflecting the generalised decomposition Sixty people are now with the convoy, including supporters of the Fourth International from Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Italy. of socialist initiatives of solidarity across ex-Yugoslavia and internationally. In res- The Workers' Aid for Bosnia campaign defends the right of multi-ethnic Bosnia to exist ponse to the war, they have selected to and brings a message of solidarity to the people of Bosnia. The convoy has had an give critical support Izetbegovic and join important impact both in Britian and the rest of Europe. It set off for France after its suchis government. cessful tour through Britain culminating in a visit to the Trades Union Congress on 9
This means that there was no indepen- September. The convoy split into two in order to visit more countries but even so it has dent "Bosnian" force to publicly express not been able to respond to the flood of requests coming in from all over Europe. an alternative orientation based on the The organisers even considered not visiting some of the towns on route as the lorries mobilisation of the effected populations. are full and the pressure of the schedule is tight. But this option was avoided as the The Bosnian government was fully orient- response on the ground has been so tremendous. In Brescia, Italy, the whole of the left ed towards the hope that foreign interven- nas united around the campaign, including the Party of the Democratic Left PDS -tion would save a Bosnia-Herzegovina one part of the former Communist party). Fifty trade unions are giving support, having recognised by the UN. organised their own lorries to join the convoy.
The destructive logic of building Morale was high and as the convoy travelled through Europe the teams became better States on an exclusive ethnic basis will organised and more cohesive. So far the convoy has collected over £70 thousand in continue to unfurl. The nature of the Mus- cash and tens of thousands of punds worth of material aid. The convoy has agreed to lim rump State remains ambiguous, but take in two-thousand tons of goods collected by British Muslim Aid following agreemany Sarajevo residents say they are ment that it would distributed to all the people in Tuzla - Muslim, Serb and Croat. happy to be under the protection of the UN In Paris, the Communist party (PCF) gave the campaign a free stall at its annual - including as protection against the gro- Humanité fete and 25 thousand leaflets were distributed. The General Confederation wing dangers of fundamentalist outbursts. of Workers (CGT) allowed the campaign to collect at their conference, something These dangers can only increase given which is unprecedented. The Mayor of Montreull (on the southem edge of Paris) has new dramatic developments in the misal- donated a permanent warehouse to store aid. liance with the Croats.
Negotiations and plans are currently being made to set-up a similar warehouse in Ber-
Raids by Croatian police on refugee lin. Members of Workers' Aid have also established a permanent office, warehouse camps in the middle of the night have created a collective psychosis. Muslims' identification papers are torn up and then Two juggernauts from Scandinavia joined the convoy in Berlin on 15 September. they are driven out for being "without These two vehicles toured Denmark and Sweden collecting E18 thousand in addition papers".
In Serbia, the hundreds of thousands In Courtrai, Belgium the northern leg of the convoy held a very successful press confeof Serbian refugees are used as a pressure rence and appeared on national television. In Hungary, the National Miners Union and base for the carrying out of an apartheid the Socialist party have agreed to support the convoy and a series of events have policy of "Serbification" of Kosovo, been organised. The convoy route currently covers the following cities: Lille, Liege, where Serbs are offered the jobs of laid off Courtrai, Antwerp, Oberhausen, Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, Vienna, Graz, Paris, CharAlbanians along with many other material leroi, Nancy, Strasbourg, Basel, Geneva, and Brescia. privileges. The same thing is happening in At the same time Irish Solidarity with Bosnia is organising support for the convoy. Irish Vojvodina, where Seselj's militia are postal workers have managed to get information distributed by the Post Office and being supported against the Hungarians members of the National Union of Journalists have persuaded RTE (Ireland's radio and Croats. and televison station) to stop describing Bosnia as a "Muslim" state but to refer to it as
These measures have to be resisted in all the republics of ex-Yugoslavia and Politically the campaign has huge significance. The co-operation of the French Comacross Europe. They are making refugees munist party, support from the Hungarian Socialist party and from the Italian PDS in of new immigrants facing racist exclusion Brescia for a convoy which not only brings material aid but carries a political message fed by omnipresent unemployment. The of support for the "multi-ethnic state of Bosnia" and solidarity with its people, is a remarfight for asylum rights must also be part of kable breakthrough for a campaign launched by small organisations in Britain. the campaign against the failure of the so-
The significance of the convoy lies in its conscious attempt to rebuild workers' internacalled "international community" and tionalism. Discusions are under way about the possibility of making Workers' Aid a per"European community" in ex-Yugoslavia.
manent framework for international solidarity. A major conference of Workers' Aid will Defiance of all these governments should take place in Manchester on 30/31 October — the second day being devoted to an strengthen the prospects of a long-term intemational meeting of supporters. The convoy project will continue so long as the war European solidarity campaign oriented towards the unions, and community, women and youth organisations.
The first "Workers' Aid" convoy — symbolically targeting the workers of and bank account in Jesenica, Slovenia to filling the lorries with essential goods.
"multi-ethnic Bosnia".
in ex-Yugoslavia does. - Helen Shaw* Tuzla, where the Bosnian multi-ethnic resistance was strongest — has not yet reached its destination. But it has reached its goal: that of finally beginning to break the passivity and paralysis of the working class movement. *
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