[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . .The Guardian The weekly newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia >From July 25/01 issue: Imperialism in the Balkans Georgi Dimitrov, who wrote this article in July 1929, was an outstanding Communist leader of Bulgaria and of the international communist movement. He became the Secretary of the Communist International in 1935 following the collapse of the attempt by the Nazis to frame him on a charge of having burned down the Berlin Reichstag building. His article, "Imperialism in the Balkans" could easily have been written about the present situation. The only major difference is the greater role being played in the Balkans by the United States. His call for a federation of the peoples of the Balkans against colonial domination remains true today. The following is Dimitrov's article slightly abridged for length. Owing to their geographical, military, strategic and economic situation, the Balkans are an extremely important objective for international imperialism. For Great Britain, France and Italy in the first place, the Balkans are a necessary base for the preservation and consolidation of their positions in the Mediterranean basin, and for mastery of the routes which link Europe with Asia, Africa and India through the Balkans and the Mediterranean Sea. At the same time, the Balkans, owing to their economic backwardness and population of 42 million, is an important market for selling the industrial products of the highly developed capitalist powers. As a primarily agricultural region the Balkan Peninsula is also a valuable source of raw materials for the industry of these powers. Finally, the importance of the Balkans is inherent in their quality as a military-strategic base, and as the supplier of millions of primitive soldier masses for imperialist war in the Mediterranean basin and the coastal areas of Asia and Africa. The Balkans would inevitably be drawn into such wars, particularly with the present world situation of threatened war against the great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in view. All this explains the fact that the entire new political history of the Balkans today, is determined by the advance and penetration of imperialism in the Balkans and its persistent endeavour to turn them into colonies. The imperialist war and the Russian October Revolution caused a number of changes in the balance of power in the Balkans, particularly the fall of the former imperialism of the Russian Tsars and the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The place of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy has been largely taken by fascist Italy, while the fall of the former Russian imperialism has opened the road to a more active capture of the Balkans by British and French imperialism, which are acting here as an Anglo-French bloc. It is known that the interests and immediate aims of the imperialist powers in the Balkans do not fully coincide. They contain contradictions and contrasts. The contradictions between France and Italy are particularly strong and serious. The mutual relations among the Balkan states themselves reflect this and are expressed in frequent conflicts. While Yugoslavia has given herself up to the influence of French imperialism, and Albania to that of Italian imperialism, Greece and Rumania are swimming in the waters of the Anglo-French bloc. It would, however, be erroneous to overestimate the importance of these "domestic" contradictions in the imperialist camp. They are still further complicated by their running up against certain special endeavours and plans of American and revived German imperialism. It would be a dangerous mistake if we fail to correctly estimate the general line of international imperialism in the Balkans [despite] the contradictions. This general line consists in the subjection of the Balkans to the greater interests of imperialism, which are to hamper the independent economic and political development of the Balkan countries and hinder the union of the Balkan nations in an economic and political community. The semi-colonial or colonial status of the Balkans is being preserved by means of military and financial control, by enthralling loans and concessions and by taking key economic and strategic centres in the Balkans into their hands. Acting in complete understanding on principle, the imperialist powers maintain the present unnatural and intolerable territorial division of the Balkans. They firmly oppose the national liberation of the oppressed Balkan peoples. They are deadly enemies of the union of the Balkan nations in a Balkan federation. They are well aware that in the present international and Balkan set-up, this federation is possible only as an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-monarchist federation of the masses in the Balkans. Great Britain and France are working to iron out the contradictions among the Balkan states, to facilitate the creation of an anti-Soviet bloc for the preparation of war against the Soviet Union and as a means of better utilising the Balkans in this war as a springboard and for their military strength. That is precisely why international imperialism wholeheartedly supports fascism and the regime of violence in the Balkans. They are an implacable enemy of the general revolutionary movement of the Balkan workers and peasants, particularly the national revolutionary liberation movements of the Macedonians, the Croatians, the Albanians, the Montenegrins, the Dobroudjans, the Bessarabians, the Thracians and so on. The full subjugation of the Balkans to the interests and aims of international imperialism, harnessing the Balkan nations to imperialism's war chariot against the Soviet Union is impossible without the preliminary crushing of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat, of the peasants, and the nationally oppressed masses in the Balkans. However, international imperialism would be unable to achieve its military plans and bandit aims without the active help of the Balkan bourgeoisie, without so-called Balkan imperialism. The latter is playing the part of a tool of international imperialism. For the Balkan peoples there is a double bondage -- enslavement by the bourgeoisie of the Balkan countries and by international imperialism. It is at the same time, economic, social and national bondage. Finally, it implies the growing danger of the Balkan peoples being thrust into a new war and first of all, in the war now being feverishly prepared against the Soviet Union. The struggle against their "own" and international imperialism in the Balkans is a question of life and death for the masses in the Balkans. The active forces of this revolutionary struggle are: a) the proletariat; b) the toiling peasantry; c) the urban petty bourgeoisie (craftsmen, tradesmen and so on) and d) the nationally oppressed masses of people. In this struggle the capitalist bourgeoisie in general stands on the other side of the barricade. Only certain groups of the so-called middle classes of the nationally oppressed people can be drawn into this struggle, while other groups might be neutralised. The struggle of the proletariat against the campaign of capital and capitalist rationalisation, the struggle of the toiling peasantry for land and against being despoiled by bank and usurers' capital, the struggle of the enslaved nationalities against national oppression, against denationalisation and colonisation, their common struggle against fascism and the danger of imperialist war -- all these struggles are in close organic relation to the struggle against imperialism, to the struggle for social and national liberation, to the struggle for a Balkan federation of the worker and peasant republics. The endeavours of the proletariat for a proletarian revolution, of the toiling peasants for an agrarian revolution and of the oppressed nationalities for a national revolution must be united under a slogan of struggle against imperialism, capitalist exploitation and fascist dictatorship. This struggle is inseparably linked with the daily struggle for bread, land and freedom. It must lead to the fall of the domination of imperialism and of the Balkan bourgeoisie, to the downfall of the artificially built walls and frontiers between the Balkan peoples, and to their revolutionary union in a Balkan federation. The International Anti-imperialist League, which at this moment is holding its second Congress, was created as an organisation for the struggle against imperialism chiefly in the big colonies and semi-colonies. The participation of the national-revolutionary organisations in the Balkans and of the Balkan Communist Federation at the Congress of the Anti-imperialist League will give a new impetus to the struggle of the Balkan peoples against imperialism. It will extend the common front from the Balkan Peninsula to China and India, Latin America, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Afghanistan and Iran in a world anti-imperialist front. Georgi Dimitrov, "Selected Works", Vol 1 p 308 Published by the Sofia Press. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
