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Fatherland or Mother Earth?
Workers of the World Need Solidarity, Not War

This is a special double issue covering May-June and July-August.

It particularly addresses a significant new shift in world politics. The U.S./NATO bombing of Serbia, Kosovo, etc., and the resulting U.S./NATO/UN protectorate in Kosovo, highlight the ominous fact that today, to quote a New York Times editorial, “most air defenses can be defeated by American weapons systems.”

The super-rich who run the U.S. government feel they are invincible. They can now have things their way, they think, by using their all-powerful “weapons systems.” And it is going to their head.

This issue of Labor Standard tries to look at and assess the many complex issues involved in the 79-day bombing campaign — especially its significance for the labor movement in this country and around the world.

Aside from our own analytical articles — including a thought-provoking essay by Joe Auciello on the book Fatherland or Mother Earth? on “the problem of nationalities” — this issue reprints views and documents from a number of different sources, giving background information and interpretations relating to the Balkan situation that you won’t easily find elsewhere.

Particularly vital are the discussions within organized labor over the U.S./NATO war, statements by the San Francisco Central Labor Council, the Canadian Auto Workers, the Canadian Labour Congress, and the United Electrical Workers, which we reprint or quote from extensively in articles by union members and labor activists — such as Elaine Bernard, Ralph Schoenman, and Jon Flanders — assessing the positions of the AFL-CIO and others.

Also in this issue, Tom Barrett looks at the dark underside of the “prosperity” which the globalized market economy and military-driven capitalist growth have brought this country, as echoed in the violence of America’s public schools — a problem not limited to Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado.

Two significant contributions to understanding the history and present condition of the labor and radical movements in the United States in the 20th century are found in this issue. We urge readers to turn to the article by Paul Le Blanc and Michael Smith on the life of Morris Lewit (a longtime supporter of this magazine) — as well as to Paul Le Blanc’s essay-review on “Why Unions Matter” — to add to their knowledge of key historical questions and the present situation in the labor movement.

Reports on current developments in organized labor are also found in top-quality articles by Charles Walker and Andy Pollack — taking up developments in the Teamsters, the New York labor movement, the fight for union democracy in the Carpenters union, and so on. Issues pertaining to the Labor Party and its current campaigns, especially for Just Health Care, are dealt with in articles by Joe Auciello and Chris Driscoll.

Adding to the richness of historical discussion in this issue are the article by W.T. Whitney, Jr., on the origins and history of May Day, the international workers holiday; and comments by Michael Livingston and David Jones on the myth of the “spat-upon veteran” — one aspect of the legacy of the Vietnam war.

Regular readers will be glad to see the usual columns, “Reading from Left to Right” by Joe Auciello, “Talking Union” by Andy Pollack, and “Basics of Socialism” by Paul Le Blanc.

In place of the usual “Working Class Internationalism” column in this issue we carry two features — an article from China touching on the mass protests against the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in relation to the tenth anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmin Square (June 3–4, 1989); and a group of five articles about the Workers Party in Brazil, which since November of last year has been heading a “radical left” government in the southernmost state of Brazil, in Rio Grande do Sul.