No War on Iraq Protest - From the Federal Building to Feinstein's Office

Yugoslavia :

Manifesto against the war!
* * *
Two years of uninterrupted massacres in Yugoslavia show us the reality of this war:
the undifferentiated killings of proletarians, as is shown for instance by the discovery of mass graves where the bodies of "Serbs", "Croats", "Bosnians"... have been buried together;
the internment of thousands of prisoners of war in numerous camps spread over the whole territory of former Yugoslavia;
the floods of refugees who try to escape the massacres by taking to the roads in the vain hope of finding a haven somewhere else;
the forcible sending of war refugees to the battle fields... even those from their "own side". Thousands of refugees in Croatia (in the camps of Karlovac and elsewhere), have been "selected" and sent back to fight on the front lines. In Belgrade as well, refugees from Croatia have been sent back to the front lines;
and the war also means shortages, rationing, inflation, impoverishment, unemployment,... All the States cleverly use the war situation so as to liquidate the less productive sectors of industry and in order to impose new sacrifices on proletarians. The war is not only on the battle fields; it is everywhere!
This is reality, this is what we submit to day after day, this is what we suffer in our flesh and blood, this is our misery!
This reality, with the cynical unfolding of bombings, massacres and persecutions shows evidently that this war is against the proletariat, against its interests and against its struggle. This war is a new episode in the already endless list of attacks by the worldwide capitalist State against the proletariat. This nth war is nothing but a genuine product of the capitalist world of exploitation.

And besides this reality which is impossible to ignore, there is also the discourse, the bullshit, the spectacle. Because each time capitalism openly shows its true nature, like today in former Yugoslavia, all the predominant myths have a single common denominator - the claim that capitalist horror is ccaused by phenomena allegedly external to the development of this society. The aim is to conceal reality, to keep the real game hidden so as to subjugate proletarians even more and to make them accept the unceasing sacrifices that this society feeds on. The aim is to hide the fact that capitalist society means nothing but war, famine and misery. This is why politicos and other journalists blame "incompetent leaders" or "dictators", "lack of development", "religious" or "ethnic" causes, "lack of democracy"... as we already said: bullshit, spectacle.

One of the real reasons for the launching of war in Yugoslavia is the need for the State to beat the proletariat, to subjugate it, to scatter it and to defeat its struggles. During the five years that preceded the outbreak of war, our class brothers and sisters in Yugoslavia, through their struggles, opposed a fierce resistance to the anti-worker measures that the State took in the face of the crisis that violently shakes capitalist society, here as everywhere else.

In the international context of crisis, the exacerbation of antagonisms between capitalist sharks becomes inevitable, and the worsening of inter-imperialist tension, the multiplication of centres of war as the "natural" ground where these antagonisms explode into the open - independently of the will of the various bourgeois factions - makes up our daily reality. War is going on here and now, and not only elsewhere or later on. Each capitalist faction permanently prepares for war, makes war. For instance by imposing social peace "at home" and by constantly introducing new attacks (redundancies, cuts in wages and benefits, speed-ups, discipline...) against our conditions of life and struggle.

This war in Yugoslavia is another step towards more generalised war through the "acceptance" (an "acceptance" that is being imposed by terror and permanent blackmail!) by all of war as the "natural" perspective for society in crisis. Here we refer to the proletarians in Europe and elsewhere who passively watch the progression of these massacres on their television screens. Since the crisis is "natural", so unemployment, misery, all kind of sacrifices also become "natural". You no longer protest, you start to accept ("things could be worse"!), you sacrifice yourself. And with this same logic, you will soon be ready to leave for the front!

This is not surprising since the majority of proletarians today, especially in Europe, remain prisoners of patriotism and other bourgeois ideological frameworks, prisoners of "pacifism", "anti-imperialism" or still "anti-fascism". This is not surprising either when we can see that the international proletariat today is not capable of affirming its revolutionary nature with its own communist project.

As long as we remain passive consumers and spectators of our own miserable lives, as long as we remain "useful idiots", everything can happen to us. We shouldn't be surprised then if tomorrow these good citizens start to kill each other for any reason you care to name! Neighbour against neighbour, workmate against workmate, proletarian against proletarian.

* * *
If we've emphasised here the tragic aspects of war in former Yugoslavia, it is not to weep over this situation, nor to try to move anybody about these sufferings or to rouse any indignation! Against humanism, against hypocritical lamentations, we want to shout that any opposition, any struggle against capitalist war can only become real on the condition of waging it here and now, starting from now, and not "later on, if..."; at the same time, it can only become real if we attack all bourgeois factions (and denounce all their ideologies!) and not such or such bourgeois politics in particular, pretending it to be worse than the others.
We are against all sides, against the Croat, Serb, Bosnian, Slovenian, Kosovar, against the "international community" (which is only another word for the gang of terrorist States that put us down and exploit us day after day!), French, American, Russian, German, Italian, British, Egyptian, Iranian,... whatever! We have no homeland! To be a patriot means to be a murderer!

And first of all we attack the bourgeois faction that directly faces us because in the struggle against "our own bourgeoisie", we practically assert our internationalism, the identity of interest and of struggle that we have in common with proletarians in Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Our internationalism does not mean "to do something for proletarians elsewhere", but it means to be part of the same struggle, to assert here as everywhere the community of interests and of struggle that we share with our class brothers and sisters everywhere. Revolutionary defeatism = to struggle for the defeat of "one's own bourgeoisie"!

The importance of this last point becomes even more clear when we notice the practical connivance (notwithstanding of course their speeches full of good intentions) between all the various factions of the worldwide capitalist State. Their various policies objectively end up in the generalised massacres of our fellow proletarians.

The role of the imperialist powers is clear, they are directly involved in the war in Yugoslavia: all bourgeois factions work perfectly together for the continuation of the massacres. Besides the role they played in the launching of the conflict by sanctioning the breaking up of Yugoslavia's national unity through their recognition of the independence of Slovenia and Croatia; besides the huge profits that they make, just like in any war, by selling arms; besides the usefulness of this war as a field for large-scale experiments: besides the hypocritical international blockade that above all cements national unity around the clique of governing bastards in Serbia itself; besides the very useful propaganda that this war allows them to make "at home", in defence of "the values of the free world", against "human madness",... we do not forget that these States also intervene directly (they massacre!), through the actions of NATO and the UN, under the hypocritical pretext of peace-keeping operations. If you want to make war, talk of peace! Like during the Gulf war!

We do not fight for "peace", we are not pacifists! Capitalist war and peace cannot be separated, and our struggle is antagonistic to both! In this anaesthetized society, the height of radicalism today is to "call for" the intervention of the UN to restore peace. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Down with the UN, down with the "angel-faced" killers! They are not neutral, they are our enemies and they deserve to be treated as such!

The humanitarian campaigns are nothing but a means of blackmail to reinforce the control over proletarians; moreover, it is in the name of peace, in the name of the peace agreements, in the name of the UN, that today proletarians in Bosnia-Hercegovina are forced to hand over their arms and to wait passively, like beasts, the hour of death when they'll be sent of to the abattoirs of the battlefields.

The peace treaties are nothing else but the sanctioning by the "international community" of what is going on on the battle fields. And what is going on, is nothing but deportations, malnutrition and famine, epidemics, systematic rapes,... in short, the eruption of State terror, and the UN is completely bound up with this, exactly as are the NGOs (as the president of Médecins Sans Frontières declared recently, when he admitted that the activities of his organisation made the campaigns of "ethnic cleansing" easier.) The NGOs are just puppets of the generals.

* * *
Communist action against capitalist war and peace !
The State represses all those who oppose sacrifices, social peace and respect for national interests... i.e. the rebels, the insubordinate and the agitators. And this is exactly what is happening, on a large scale, in former Yugoslavia, in all its ex-republics: the open and direct repression of all refractory elements. The state of war, the military polarisation of society allow for the suppression, with complete impunity, of all those who do not subscribe to patriotic and ideological values... that are being branded by both sides. Troublemakers are simply eliminated by the State.
The State always persecutes social agitators, all those who're opposed to it, to it's social peace and it's patriotic duty. It knows that it's domination of society is precarious since it bases itself essentially on the capacity to divide proletarians, to keep them locked up within bourgeois polarisations (this shows the importance of ideological mystifications), and to repress without mercy any manifestation of struggle against exploitation and against the State. Control of the State over society is not without its problems. In Belgrade for instance, in March '91, a demo organised by the "legal opposition" deviated from its initial objectives into classist clashes with the forces of order. About 100,000 proletarians, screaming "Milosevic = Saddam: send them to the desert!" headed for the city centre. A fraction of them, the most militant, attacked stores and banks, burning the "Serbian" and "Yugoslavian" national flags. The army had to intervene. It took them four days to re-establish law and order, to put down the proletarian defeatist actions.

We're not powerless: we are rich in the historical experience of our class, we reappropriate the collective memory of our struggles; this provides us with the classist framework for our own activities and saves us having to reproduce the same mistakes again and again. We also know that our struggle carries real perspectives, from life itself. Looking ahead, we want to destroy non-life, our misery, exploitation! This gives us our audacity!

Without having any illusions, given our scattered and isolated state, given the dominant atmosphere of sectarianism and suspicion towards all attempts to organise militancy and towards all attempts to bring to life a centralised direction in revolutionary activity, we can only aim at taking on the minimum level of the perspectives of struggle (denunciation of all nationalists, of the UN and all imperialist powers, circulation of information, direct support to all internationalist comrades, clarification and assumption of the aims and means of communist struggle...). We aim to achieve this in common with other comrades who act on the basis of internationalist communist activity against capitalist war and peace.

The writing and circulation, in different languages, of this manifesto allows us to centralise our activities, to get in touch with other revolutionaries, to strengthen the camp of those who defend with us the same internationalist perspectives, to express the needs of all proletarians who revolt against war and misery, and to reinforce, by the clarity of our perspectives for struggle and through our determination, the impact of our refusal.

To be a patriot is to be a murderer !
Down with all States !
For the worldwide communist revolution !
* Paris, September 1993 *

Internationalist Communist Group (ICG)

We need to focus on the problems here in the USA. A nation is only as strong as its citizens and we are dying by the day due to illness and poverty which is spreading like the plague. Here is my story and you can multiply it by millions of others who are in my shoes - and one day it could be you...

I am a 47-year-old female and for the last 30 years of my life I have contributed to the Social Security system as many millions of people do every day. Until 1996 I was perfectly healthy and never expected to have to use these funds until I was old enough to retire. Unfortunately 5 years ago I hit my head on the doorframe of my car and the result is an incredible story of medical incompetence, which resulted in major brain surgery. I did my best to function in spite of my fate but now the diseases have progressed to a point where I can no longer work and every day life causes me intense pain beyond description among other things. In December 2001 I applied for Social Security Disability, which I assumed would be there to help me in my time of need. I had heard nothing but discouraging stories from others but figured every case was different. I was sure that anyone with the laundry list of illnesses that I have, (blood clot in brain, several autoimmune disorders including Scleroderma, Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Raynaud’s, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis to name a few) all of which are incurable – and medical documentation to prove it, would surely be able to get the help I needed. I was sorely mistaken and the following is what I have discovered in the process. The Social Security Disability System process is set up to suck the life out of it’s applicants in hope that they die in the process so they don’t have to pay out benefits to them.

Keep in mind when reading this, that while this is a nationwide problem, for NY State applicants it is worse than most other states in the country. The federal offices of the Social Security Administration and the Social Security Office of Public Inquiries in MD gave me that information when I contacted them about the problem yet even they were not able to help. When I applied in December 2001, after filling out several pages of paperwork which I was told was greatly reduced from which it had originally been and submitting a huge stack of medical records supporting my claim I was told that it would take 4-6 months to go through the process. I was shocked and asked what I was supposed to live on and I was told to apply for social services (Medicaid, food stamps and cash assistance) while my claim was being reviewed. I did just that and was denied any sort of help based on the cash value of a life insurance policy that is not even enough to bury me when I die. Due to all my illnesses if I cash in that policy I will never be able to get insurance again! That process and paperwork is very difficult and humiliating and then to be denied, just added even more to my stress and misery. I have had to live off my life savings and have only a few months left before that money runs out. I was hoping beyond hope that I would get news that my claim would be processed and accepted. On 4/25/02, I got the incredible news that my claim had been denied! I found out that it seems to be common knowledge on the streets that it is standard procedure to be denied the first time as a “stalling tactic.” NOBODY gets accepted the first time they apply to discourage the applicants; even those who feel brave enough to tackle on the system. I have heard too many horror stories in doctor’s waiting rooms and other places I have been, of people who have lost everything, were in homeless shelters, totally bankrupt, no health insurance and still having to deal with the stress of all their illnesses. I cannot understand how it is possible that anyone could read about all the medical problems I have, and it is not totally transparent that I should qualify for benefits and should never have been denied in the first place! I have since filed for an appeal, have to go through an even more complicated process and I am now being told will be at least 14 months before I get my hearing if I don’t die first – where is the justice?

When I called the Office of Hearings and Appeals in Buffalo NY to check on my claim on 9/13/02, the receptionist told me, that my file was still in the un-worked status, which means that no human has even looked at the file at all since March when I originally filed my appeal. She said that nobody had been assigned to even look at the folder. I expressed my disgust that after six months in their possession that it had not even been looked at yet! I then called them again on 1/23/03 and they told me that STILL nobody had been assigned to my case and it would be a MINIMUM of four months or more since they were just starting to work on cases that were filed in November of 2001! This is outrageous when something this serious, and a matter of life and death could be handled in such a poor manner. No other company or other government organization that I know of operates with such horrible turn around times. She expressed her sympathy for my cause and literally begged me to let others know (especially the government and press) about how much of a problem they are having. I was told that there are only 50 employees handling hundreds of thousands of cases and they, along with all us claimants critically need help now!

Since my conversation with the Buffalo office I have done just that. I have contacted several national media outlets (TV, radio, print), to no avail even though this issue affects thousands of people all across the country. I have written to my congressperson Louise Slaughter, three NY state senators, the attorney general, Governor Pataki, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, all of the NY State members of the House of Representatives, Senator Tom Daschle, Senator Edward Kennedy with little or no response. Louise Slaughter and Hilary Clinton, Charles Schumer, Governor Pataki's offices were informed that unless you are homeless or facing utility shutoff that there is nothing that they will do to expedite any claim! Even though they can help fix the problem none of them has done anything to address the issue or initiate reform in this area. The Social Security Office of Inquiries and Inspector General’s office in MD told me the same thing after doing an investigation with the Buffalo office of Hearings and Appeals. I need help and I need it now! I don’t know what constitutes a dire needs case in the eyes of the Social Security System but I should think that not being able to afford health insurance, medicine and other necessities of life and wiping out all your financial resources when you have no income at all because of your inability to work is a dire need! All the diseases are getting worse by their clinical nature with each day that goes by and due to the ever increasing stressful conditions I now have to live under. The blood clot in my brain and my worsening financial situation keep me from taking medicines and seeing doctors that could help me deal with this horrible existence. Yet that is not considered a dire need? The government does not care, as they are too busy worrying about dropping bombs on Iraq while thousands of us are suffering here at home. A country is only as strong as the citizens that live there. We keep hearing about the 9/11 victims who were killed and that was a horrible thing for sure. What you are not hearing about is all the people who survived but are now disabled and facing a similar fate and nobody cares about them either. We are all being victimized all over again.

Something is extremely wrong when you have to deal with the pain and suffering physically and mentally that comes along with the illnesses you have and then have to struggle so hard get benefits that you have worked for all your life. The Social Security Disability System is also set up to line the pockets of the legal system, as you are encouraged from the minute you apply to get a lawyer. You should not have to pay a lawyer to get benefits that you have earned – why should they have to be involved at all? This is highway robbery without the ski mask and gun and this travesty needs to change immediately. Even a lawyer cannot speed up this process any more than if you file on your own. This is an important issue that needs to be addressed now, in NY State and across the country. Only our elected officials with your urging can get the funding and help needed to fix this critical problem.

I did not ask for this fate and would trade places with a healthy person in a minute. Please spread the word to everyone you can, to get this problem corrected immediately, for myself and all the thousands of others that are currently suffering this horrible fate. Nobody ever thinks it can happen to them. I am proof that it can, and remember disease and tragedy do not discriminate on the basis of age, race or sex. Anyone of you reading this could be one step away from walking in my shoes at any moment!

To learn more about the various diseases I have, you can check out the following websites:
SCLERODERMA AND CREST SYNDROME: http://www.scleroderma.org
RAYNAUD’S DISEASE: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/blood/other/raynaud.htm
FIBROMYALGIA: http://www.fibromyalgia.com
RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: http://www.arthritis.org
HASHIMOTO’S THYROIDITIS: http://www.tsh.org
AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS: http://www.aarda.org

Please join the Social Security Disability Coalition: http://groups.msn.com/SocialSecurityDisabilityCoalition

To contact all your elected officials on this important issue you can find them at:
http://www.congress.org

LJ Fullerton
ljfullerton919 [at] hotmail.com