Dear C&Cers,

Last Friday, April 23rd, we held a very successful teach-in on Kosovo 
- see the report below from one of my fellow-organizers.  Tariq Ali 
was especially impressive in making the case against NATO bombing, 
but the really important thing was that, since all points of view 
were represented, the meeting attracted people also with all points 
of view (including Serbian, Kosovar Albanian and Kurdish students).  
As a result, Tariq Ali and the other opponents of the war were able, 
I think, to win round a number of people - especially since both 
McShane (a Foreign Office PPS) and Ralph (a lecturer in international 
studies who advocated a ground invasion) both made pretty feeble 
speeches.

Anyhow, my message is:  organise one, two, many teach-ins.  There is 
real concern out there among supposedly apathetic students and the 
general public and we should be talking to them, not just each other.

Hugo Radice

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Reply-to:      <[log in to unmask]>
From:          "Malcolm Povey" <[log in to unmask]>
To:            "Vanessa Bridge (E-mail)" <[log in to unmask]>
Cc:            "Hugo K. Radice (E-mail)" <[log in to unmask]>,
               "Tess Hornsby Smith (E-mail)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:       Report on the Teach in on the Balkan War, Leeds University, April 23rd
Date:          Mon, 26 Apr 1999 14:01:52 +0100
Importance:    Normal

Over 350 students and staff attended a Teach in on the Balkans War, held
in Leeds University Union by LUCRECES (Leeds University Centre for
Russian, Eurasian and Central European Studies.) Denis McShane MP
(Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign Office) mocked those
such as Francis Fukiyama who had claimed that the end of the cold war
marked the end of history. He agreed with Alex Callinicos that
comparisons between Hitler and Milosevic were inappropriate but that
nevertheless, something had to be done to stop the ethnic cleansing and
rape being organised in Kosovo. Callinicos (Socialist Workers Party and
Professor of Politics, York University) likened bombing Serbia to the
use of a 'flame thrower to stop a fire in an ammunition store'. Phil
Taylor (Professor of Communication Studies, Leeds) showed harrowing
video footage transmitted by Serbian TV, including the last minute
before the TV station was blown up. He pointed out that students at
Leeds had as good an opportunity as anyone to get a balanced picture
through access to email, the internet and sattelite TV. John Allcock
(Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bradford) deplored the
presentation of the conflict as simply one of Serb versus Albanian. He
asked whether the bombing was likely to enhance or retard the process of
democratisation in the Balkans. Sarah Perrigo (Peace Studies, Bradford)
was critical of the NATO allies for failing to support Yugoslavia during
the economic crisis which began with the IMF restructuring of 1988 and
their failure to attack Milosevic's use of ethnicity in his pursuit of
political power. She said that the bombings had destabilised Montenegro
and Macedonia. Jason Ralph (SIDES, Leeds) felt that the bombing had been
unsuccessful and that a ground operation was needed to stop the
atrocities in Kosovo. Tariq Ali (New Left Review) thought the NATO
allies had a lot of responsibility for the crisis in the first place,
through Germany's recognition of Croatia and the subsequent recognition
of Bosnia - Hercegovina by the US - 'defining new states on the basis of
ethnicity is incredibly dangerous.' He felt that NATO had set an
incredibly retrogressive example for states wishing to act outside
international law and quoted the example of China and Taiwan.

Most people stayed at the debate throughout the afternoon, for nearly
four hours. LUCRECES will be organising a series of teach-ins, whilst
the war continues.

(final note from Hugo:  LUCRECES is a small interdisciplinary 
research centre here at Leeds, of which I am at present Director.  
We will in due course be posting material from the teach-in on our 
web pages at:

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lucreces/
Hugo Radice
Division of Industrial and Labour Studies,
Leeds University Business School,
University of Leeds,
Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
tel: 44-113-233-4507; fax 44-113-233-2640
email: [log in to unmask]


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