Eye on the left

Socialist Worker (2 October 99): "Russia using NATO war logic: Russia is taking a leaf out of NATO's book..."

Socialist Worker (6 November 99): "Russia follows in NATO's footsteps: Like NATO Russia has bombed bridges, roads, oil refineries..."

The British SWP's cartoonist hasn't got it wrong - the SWP really do believe that there is an exact parallel between the war in the Balkans and the current fighting in the Caucasus - and one in which Russia is the equivalent of NATO and Chechnya equals Kosovo (they use Milosevic's preferred spelling of Kosova).

The cartoon makes a sort of superficial sense if the reader merely objects to bombs being dropped - and refuses to be interested in who is dropping bombs or for what purpose.

However a minimally observant reader of average IQ would have the following questions: where has Serbia gone? didn't NATO bomb Serbia too? Why has the Serb ethnic cleansing of the ethnic Albanians of Kosova not been pictured?

Perhaps the SWP's artist ignored Serbia's existence for "artistic" reasons - to make the parallel neater. World politics are so complex! What is for certain is that the SWP have no interest in remembering the brutal anti-Albanian ethnic violence, which their paper so startlingly ignored during the Balkans war when they turned their paper into a pro-Milosevic rag with their one demand: 'Stop NATO's bombing.'

And perhaps most shocking of all - for anyone at all concerned with logic, rationality etc - is the fact that NATO wasn't fighting Kosova at all - the West and the Kosovars were on the same side, fighting against the Serb state!

The only way to make the cartoon make sense is to replace "NATO" with "Serbia". Then there is a real parallel: Russia is currently fighting a colonial war to impose its rule over the Chechens and the Chechens are fighting for their liberation and freedom; Serbia was fighting a colonial war to impose its rule over the Kosovars and the Kosovars were fighting for their right to self-determination. NATO intervened in the Balkans for its own long-term reasons, helping the Kosovars to some degree. The difference between the two wars is that the Western powers have not directly intervened in Chechnya.

So there is a parallel between the two wars - just not the one the SWP suggests!

Even more baffling: the SWP supports the right of the Chechens to self-determination but opposed the rights of the Kosovars to that very same demand. The SWP denounced the KLA - and yet they do not denounce the Chechen leadership (who are, politically, much worse than the KLA). It is difficult to know what the average SWP member makes of such a stupid mess - which seems to have been constructed with one eye on the past as the SWP attempt to use the clear-cut issues in the current war to justify their pro-Serb stand in 1999. But, no matter what the SWP rank and file think, it's irrelevant. They have no power, no say and no control over their organisation's direction.