US/NATO HANDS OFF YUGOSLAVIA!
The main enemy is at home!
Self-determination for
Kosova!
For a Socialist Federation of
the Balkans!
By Matt Siegfried
The war against
Yugoslavia by the United States and its NATO allies is a war waged by
imperialist powers whose interests are both political and economic. The sermons about “human rights” as a cover
for the imperialist intervention can only be heard with contempt. It is necessary to point out but a few
examples of the imperialists concern for “human rights” to expose their
hypocrisy. The rights of the
Vietnamese, Timorese, Kurds, Palestinians, Irish, black and Native Americans,
Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Iraqis, Rawandans, South Africans and many more were
clearly not on the minds of the imperialists when they, or at their behest,
turned whole nations into refugees, bombed their cities, tortured and starved
their people. The imperialists, who have
twice this century turned the whole of the world into a gigantic killing field,
can only preach about “human rights” from the pulpit of duplicity.
The imperialist
attack on Yugoslavia must be put in the context of collapse of the Soviet
Union. US imperialism has emerged from the Cold War as the hegemonic world
power. The equilibrium that existed
between the United States in its struggle with the Soviet Union has broken
down. By and large, the rivalries
between and among the other major imperialist countries (France, Britain,
Germany, Japan and Italy) were checked and abated by their combined hostility
to the Soviet Union. With the Soviet
Union out of the picture and large areas of previously unobtainable resources
and markets now opening the different agendas of the imperialist powers will
begin to take shape. A new equilibrium
is necessary and the United States wishes to insure that this equilibrium is
based on it’s unchallenged dominance.
The fact that it is a NATO operation that has attacked Yugoslavia and
not a strictly American one does not alter this new reality, rather it
reinforces it. The United States wishes
to make clear that nothing is
possible without it’s participation and leadership. The European nations involved in the attack on Yugoslavia clearly
have interests apart from each other and the United States in the region. France and Germany have very different
spheres of influence with France having a closer relationship with Serbia and
the southern Balkans while Germany helped instigate the succession and
subsequent wars in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. Italy has a longstanding imperial relationship with Albania and
Britain once again acts as hyena to the American lion. These differing interests reflected in
relationship to the Balkans are echoed elsewhere in the world. While their economies are relatively good
and they have class peace at home these contradictory aspirations have been
blunted. A future economic downturn, a
wider war in the Balkans or elsewhere will exacerbate these tensions. In the mean time it is essential that they
be a part, in their own terms, of this American led attack on Yugoslavia. Their divergent interests converge on the
need for an imposed stability in the region and the United States wishes to
drive home to them it’s role as the indispensable power.
Every bomb dropped
on Yugoslavia is a, not too thinly veiled, message to Russia that its days as a
player on the world stage are over.
That NATO would absorb three former Warsaw Pact countries (Poland, Czech
Republic and Hungary) and then, within days, attack one of Russia’s closest
allies is a provocation unimaginable ten or even five years ago. While many verbose statements about not
“standing idly by” and the possibility of world war have emanated from Moscow
it is in no position to challenge NATO militarily. Currently Russia is more
interested in negotiating the IMF take over of its ruined economy than a
confrontation with imperialism. While
this bluster is mainly geared for internal consumption, the relationship
between the US and Russia is unmistakably strained. It is not at all clear who will fill the vacuum of leadership
that will follow Yeltsin’s death. The
bombing of Yugoslavia is a message to whoever my fill it to know their
place. This could back fire with
nationalist and fascistic elements gaining ground in Russia who would map out a
more independent and confrontational policy in relationship to the United
States. The rules of conduct in the
post-Soviet world are new and largely unwritten. The United States is attempting to write those rules with the
blood of Yugoslavia.
The capitalist counter-offensive against the workers
and oppressed begun in the late 1970’s continues today as neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism is the attempt by the
capitalist class to break down trade restrictions, deregulate industries,
privatize previously state owned companies, drive down wages and benefits, etc… Capitalism has a perceived need to
constantly expand its economy.
Neo-liberalism is the attempt to expand beyond the limitations imposed
on it by the movements of the working class and oppressed of the late 60’s to
the mid 70’s. Neo-liberalism is a
policy of capitalism and cannot be separated from the imperialist world economy
as a whole. While the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been integrated into
the world capitalist economy longer than the other workers states, opening its
markets in the early 60’s to foreign investment, it has retained a greater degree
of state control over it’s economy than most of the former workers states
today. The embargoes imposed on it by
the UN are partly responsible for Yugoslavia’s continued state control of many
industries. But the Milosevic regime
rests on this ownership ideologically as well.
While too much could be said of the economic reasons for the attack on
Yugoslavia it is no accident that NATO had made a concerted effort to destroy
the native industries of Yugoslavia, including its extremely important ability
to produce many of its own vehicles.
The motivations
for the capitalist class in weakening unions, prying open new markets and
deregulation of industries is an attempt to solve the contradictions and
limitations of it’s own economy. To
control that which was previously out of their control and to reshape the world
with interests of the tiny ruling elite firmly in place both in formal law and
informal relationships. It stands no
resistance and no independence. The
whole neo-liberal project hinges on the acceptance of no other alternative to
the capitalist system. The collapse of
the Soviet Union and the subsequent discrediting of ‘socialism’ to large
sections of the working class and oppressed has allowed the imperialists an
immense ideological victory. The
disorientation of the vanguard and leadership layers of the working class and
oppressed as the result of this ideological victory has allowed for the
continued success of the neo-liberal project.
Yugoslavia’s or Iraq’s or any other countries defiance cannot be
countenanced if the project is to succeed.
There is a relationship between the bombing of Yugoslavia and the
international trade agreements and other deals reached over the last decade in
that they are an attempt to overcome much of the legacy of the post-war
colonial rebellion and Soviet expansion.
In a sense the bombing of Yugoslavia is the ultimate in union busting,
its aim is to break the will and ability to resist the dictates of the
capitalist class. To consistently
oppose both neo-liberalism and the dominance of imperialism is to oppose this
war and to call for the defeat of NATO and US imperialism.
A defeat for NATO
and the US would be a profound setback for all of the policies of the
imperialists since the collapse of the Soviet Union. A defeat for NATO would give an impetus to all those around the
world resisting the onslaughts of capitalist barbarity. Every struggle from the landless peasant
movement in Brazil to the fight against sanctions on Cuba would gain. The long series of defeats suffered by the
oppressed and the working class for the last two decades would begin to come to
an end. It would severely limit the
ability of the imperialists to wage this sort of intervention in the next
period and put the writing on the wall for NATO as an organization. After the defeat of US imperialism in
Vietnam it was a decade and a half before the US was politically able to
directly attack another country. While
the interests of the working class and oppressed clearly side with an
imperialist defeat in the Balkans a straightforward military victory of
Yugoslavia is difficult to envision.
NATO has the combined resources of the world’s most powerful
countries. Today’s Yugoslavia is not the
same Yugoslavia that defeated thirty German divisions and indigenous fascists
in World War II. The leadership and
goals of the struggle against the Nazis which gave it the tenacity and immense
moral strength needed to win have long since been burned away by the
nationalist inferno of today’s Yugoslavia.
We defend Yugoslavia militarily against NATO and the US without
political conditions as a basic duty in the struggle against imperialism. This
defense is without any political support to the reactionary nationalist regime
of Milosevic, which is an obstacle in
the fight for a real defense of the Yugoslav working class. If NATO had the political will it could
destroy Yugoslavia utterly and impose it’s will on the whole area. This seems unlikely too, given the
reluctance to commit ground troops to combat.
Only by making the political price for engaging in this war more than
the imperialists are willing to pay can NATO be defeated.
The task of exacting a price
too high to pay by the imperialists lies chiefly in the imperialist countries
themselves. The movement to end the war
must be extended into all arenas of struggle.
Revolutionaries must explain that the struggle against this war is
connected to all the struggles of the working class and the oppressed by a
common enemy- the imperialist ruling class.
No movement is more important to activate against the war than the trade
union movement as the organized working class.
While the working class accepts this war, quietly or openly, the
imperialists will have the room to maneuver needed to win. While NATO and US casualties are low and if
the war is over quickly it is difficult to imagine the working class rising in
opposition. While that is the case in
many of the imperialist countries it is not the case in all of them. We must
generalize the experiences of the more politically advanced workers to the
broader layers of the class internationally.
Trade union motions, demonstrations, strikes and hot cargoing will be
the weapons most effective in the struggle against the imperialist war. In the mean time all that which raises the
consciousness and sets limits on the imperialists ability to wage war is
supportable. The conclusions and
experiences reached by the working class and oppressed as well as of the
revolutionaries in the battle against imperialist war will give drive and
clarity to the struggle against capitalism itself.
The defeat of imperialism in
the Balkans would motivate the struggles for national liberation that have
sought to come to terms with the new post-Soviet imperialist order. These movements would have new reason to
believe that it possible to fight and to win, that there is an alternative to
the acceptance of imperialist dominance.
Not unimportantly a defeat for NATO would also aid the Albanians of
Kosova in their legitimate claims to national self-determination.
“Socialist parties which did
not show by all their activity, that they would liberate the enslaved nations,
and build up relations with them on the basis of a free union- and free union
is a false phrase without the right to secede- these parties would be betraying
socialism.” Lenin, The Socialist
Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-determination
The right of national
self-determination has long been a canon in the lexicon of democracy. Rarely has it been afforded in reality to
those outside the imperialist world.
Marxists recognize this right not just in terms of it’s democratic
pretences but as an essential requisite to the eventual unity of all the people
and nations of this world. Only by
guaranteeing the right to self-determination, up to and including separation,
will prove in action the value of unity.
It is not that communists are ‘more consistent’ democrats than the
ruling class, rather that the socialist project requires the active
participation of millions whose trust and confidence in each other must be
based on living realities not phrases and motions in parliament. The democracy of the ruling class is a
democracy based on their dictatorship
and all that comes into conflict with that dictatorship, including national
liberation, is a threat to be met with force.
The Albanians of Kosova are
an oppressed nation deprived of their rights as a people and suffering at the
hands of the Serb majority of Yugoslavia.
Serb chauvinism is poison not only to the Albanians but to the Serbian
working class. The struggle for the
‘Serb nation’ obscures the class conflict in Serbia and ties the working class
and oppressed to the reactionary policies of the Milosevic regime. The fact
that Serbia is temporarily engaged in a war with the imperialists and the
imperialists have intervened on the ‘side’ of the Albanians of Kosova does not
alter this fact. The imperialists can
not be allowed to set the agenda of working class internationalism. The imperialists have long utilized the
desire of small nations to be free in their struggle for control. While standing unequivocally in support of
the rights of the Kosovars to self-determination we recognize that as long as
imperialism is there our position will be largely propagandistic, that is we
stand by the right in theory but facts on the ground make it impossible at the
present time.
Any “self-determination” at
the present time would be as a fortress of imperialism. NATO and US don’t want a truly independent
Kosova any more than the Serb nationalists.
True self-determination would undoubtedly involve the Albanians of
Macedonia and Albania itself. The
reason for there being NATO troops in Albania and Macedonia is to prevent this
from happening. An Albania that
encompassed the majority of the Albanian population in the area would be a
radically destabilizing force, setting in motion the possibility of a much
wider Balkan war, a war that could potentially involve NATO members Greece and
Turkey against each other. The aim of
imperialism is the imposition of stability based on its dominance, not the
liberation of subjugated people. In the
pursuit of national liberation we recognize that the Kosovar Albanians have the
right to resist Yugoslav misrule by force if necessary. However the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) is
acting as a proxy for imperialism in the current conflict with Serbia. It is tied to the most right-wing forces in
Albania, acts as spotters for NATO bombs on Serb positions, and incorporates
its strategy with that of imperialism.
It deserves neither the support nor the confidence of the Albanian
population. A real movement for
self-determination must be based on a firm rejection of imperialism if it is to
achieve it most basic demands. The KLA
offers the Albanian population as pawns in imperialism’s war against Serbia and
struggle for control in the region.
Even without the direct
military interference of the US and the other imperialist countries the
movement for self-determination has been one that wishes to place itself well
within the framework of the imperialist world order. A different perspective is needed to truly achieve the aspirations
of the Albanian people as well as all of the other nationalities of the Balkans
to freedom and a dignified life. That
perspective would include as its cornerstone the building of a Socialist
Federation of the Balkans.
The Yugoslavia of Tito’s partisans went as far as the limits of its
economy and bureaucracy could allow in developing an equitable solution to the
long-standing national rivalries in the Balkans. The large-scale respect for national rights of its component
republics was near unique in the world. But it’s ‘national rights’ were in
themselves a distorted expression of a bureaucratic balancing act. It’s ‘socialism’ was based on the needs of
the bureaucracy not of the working class and oppressed. It was as necessary in the time of Tito as
it is now to pose an alternative to the Stalinism of the leadership of
Yugoslavia as well as the myth of capitalist democracy and ‘free markets’. Genuine working class internationalism is
defined by the willingness to put the interests of the international class
struggle as a whole above the immediate interests of your own national or
regional situation. The Yugoslav
Stalinist leadership never adhered this to.
To do so would have meant a threat to its leadership and in the end to
its existence. It’s ‘independent’ path
from the Soviet Union brought it into the sphere of imperialist control. It’s ‘workers self management’ was a fraud
that gave nothing in the way of direct control over the economy to the working class. It professed itself classless yet huge
inequalities survived and flourished.
All this has led to a deep suspicion of a genuinely socialist
alternative.
Clearly, with the last decade as an example, capitalism has destroyed
not only the gains of the Yugoslav revolution but the lives of thousands of
it’s people. Capitalism offers nothing
but deeper misery to the people of the Balkans as well as all of the people of
the East. Imperialism’s solution to the
national question is it’s control not the realization of national
self-determination. To begin to rebuild
from the ashes of the last decade we must start with the defense of all the was
progressive in the Yugoslav revolution, not the least of which was it’s
professed internationalism. We should
not romanticize the past, rather build from it’s lessons. A non-capitalist approach succeeded better
than any other in securing the national rights of the Balkan people. We must build on that lesson.
A genuine Socialist Federation of the Balkans would
incorporate freely all the nations of the Balkans, for the working class of
different countries have far more in common with each other than
differences. A common struggle against
all of the nationalist bureaucracies and fascistic marauders, against the restoration
of capitalism, the oppression of women, lesbians and gay men, against
imperialist military and ‘diplomatic’ intervention. For the return of refugees,
and the rights of religious, national and ethnic minorities. For independent working class action
politically and when necessary, militarily.
The building of a Socialist Federation is impossible
without a multinational collective leadership with the ability to absorb and
generalize the experiences of the working class as a whole. This leadership must organize itself into a
party. A revolutionary party whose aim
is the socialist transformation of society.
A party incorporating the best traditions of the heroic Yugoslav
revolution as well as a party of critical and dedicated activists willing to place
their struggle at the demand of international socialism. The struggle for international socialism
being best achieved through a rebuilt Fourth International- that is, the World
Party of Socialist Revolution. In this
way all of our experiences, both positive and negative, could be put into the
shared purpose of socialist revolution.
The mistakes of yesterday, if learned, will pave the way for the correct
approach tomorrow. In that way the dead
of the Balkans will not have died in vain, but at the service of a new and
infinitely more harmonious world.
April 15, 1999