Date: Sun, 6 Apr 1997 21:32:28 GMT
From: Chris Burford <cburford-AT-gn.apc.org>
Subject: M-I: Bravo at Brindisi!


The BBC World Programme this afternoon reported that what 
was scheduled as an anti-racist demonstration in Brindisi
today turned out to be a demonstration against sending Italian
troops to Albania, just across the Adriatic Sea.
The main parties involved were reported
to be the Greens and the Refounded Italian Communist Party
plus a number of "hard core" youth (whatever that means -
presumably wearing body jewelry). The report suggested
that because the present Italian government depends on the 
votes of both these parties this puts pressure on the Italian
expedition. 

There is a lot we do not know but this sounds to me in 
the best traditions of internationalism, and all the braver
because of the Italian suspicion of Albanian refugees 
invading the country.

Nor is this IMO just an abstract moral gesture. With the 
collapsing western interest in an intervention force, it means
that any western intervention will have to be by negotiation with
power structures that have sprung up in the country. It is 
a blow against neo-liberal colonisation. It will force at least
some concessions to what local communities consider to be in 
their social interests. 

It could still have wider significance for eastern Europe as 
whole.


Bravo!

Chris Burford




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