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Summit 2000

We are a Coalition representing the Asian Left Forum, the Black Radical Congress, and the New Raza Left. In other words, we are a coalition from oppressed communities in Los Angeles and the United States. We stand completely opposed to the terrorist policy being pursued by the United States and NATO in Yugoslavia. In the name of human rights, the U.S. has slaughtered over 1,000 innocent Serbians and Kosovars with missiles and cluster bombs. U.S. and NATO bombs have not only destroyed more than 200 hospitals, clinics, schools, and childcare centers throughout Yugoslavia, and contributed to a massive refugee crisis in the Balkan region, but also they have virtually vaporized the incipient democracy movement in Serbia.

The war in Yugoslavia has nothing to do with human rights, humanitarian relief, or Kosovar self-determination. It has everything to do with promoting the interests of the U.S. military-industrial complex by creating a rationale for an increase in U.S. military spending, and providing a live "sales demonstration" of U.S. military hardware for the new NATO members in Eastern Europe. It has everything to do with demonstrating the U.S. government’s complete disregard for international law. It has everything to do with protecting the interests of U.S. oil companies that want to control the recently discovered oil deposits in the Caspian Sea. In other words, this is a war in which our communities have absolutely no interest. The United States government has no credibility to talk about human rights or humanitarianism. It arms and supports governments, such as Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria, Guatemala, and Colombia, that have massacred hundreds of thousands of people, destroyed thousands of their villages, and created millions of refugees. The U.S. closed its eyes to the slaughter of half a million Tutsis in Rwanda. Its military troops continue to destroy the environment and commit violent acts against women in Okinawa, South Korea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Chiapas, while securing and protecting markets for U.S. corporations. This bloody record represents the real stance of our government towards human rights -- not the platitudes mouthed by the State Department and regurgitated uncritically by the mainstream media.

While the United States is "degrading" civilian assets in Yugoslavia, it is doing the same to "civilian assets" in Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, and African American communities here at home. Our communities have been systematically "degraded" by plant closings that threw thousands of us out of good paying jobs. Workers now find themselves laboring in sweatshop conditions, earning far less than minimum wage, and struggling to meet basic needs. We have suffered incredible "collateral damage" from the destruction of welfare, affirmative action, and bilingual education. While our children are crammed into overcrowded schools without even enough books to teach them, young Black, Brown and Asian Pacific Islander men and women are jammed into overcrowded prisons to be given an education in degradation and despair. The U.S. Congress allocates billions of dollars to fund the war in the Balkans at the same time as it slashes funding for public housing and health care for the elderly in our communities. These are acts of war. To paraphrase Martin Luther King: every bomb dropped in Yugoslavia, explodes in the homes of poor senior citizens of the U.S. The continued brutality and murder of Mexican immigrants by the U.S. Border Patrol is terrorism. The police lynching of Tyisha Miller in Riverside, Amadou Diallo in NY, and Ricardo Close in Los Angeles are war crimes. The denial of basic medical care to undocumented immigrants is a crime against humanity. Spending one million dollars on each Cruise Missile while hundreds of thousands of our people are homeless and hungry is a criminal act.

We have no doubt that if the U.S. decides to pursue a ground war in Yugoslavia, that African American, Asian Pacific Islander, and Latin youth will be well-represented in the infantry forces and in the casualties which will result. There may be no room for us in good jobs, the professions, or higher education, but there is always room for us as frontline troops in unjust U.S. wars.

The wars must stop! The U.S. must end its war against Serbia and against people of color here at home. We demand:

1. An immediate halt to the U.S./NATO bombing in Yugoslavia.
2. The U.S. and NATO must pursue a diplomatic, a solution that upholds Yugoslavian sovereignty while protecting the rights of the Kosovars.
3. The U.S. government must make drastic cuts in the military budget and allocate those funds to education, housing, jobs, and health care.