I wish Rob would draw out some conclusions sometimes.
"A tragedy authored by Western foreign policy" implies that the West knew
what it was up to. If so, Rob should say so openly. But the "tragedy" bit
makes it look like some aesthetic performance, with fatalistic destiny
sweeping basically noble characters (!!!) to their undeserved doom. This
needs clarifying to say the least.
He writes:
>We might ask: what if we hadn't promoted socially destructive austerity
>programmes in post-communist-bloc Yugoslavia?
"We"???
What if imperialism hadn't behaved like imperialism always has?? What if me
auntie had balls?? She'd be me uncle...
And the comments from Beloff and the others, though useful in revealing the
deliberately destructive role of the imperialists (US, UN, Sweden, Britain,
Germany, France... you name 'em) in dividing and crippling ex-Yugoslavia,
get us absolutely nowhere because they utterly disregard the real bases of
power and conflict -- that is the democratic interests of peoples and the
class interests of workers (and rural direct producers) and their enemies
the capitalists and the landlords.
You'd think it would be possible for someone who's been flirting with
Marxism for so long to start applying a bit of the method off his own bat
and stop waiting for bourgeois (or petty-bourgeois) authority to pat him on
the head first...
The questions involved here are:
What made the Yugoslav revolution succeed?`
What made it survive as long as it did?
What led to its decay and breakdown?
What are the real interests of the various imperialists in SE Europe and
specially the Balkans?
What are the real interests of the workers and rural poor in this region?
How are the national and social issues linked here?
What programmes are being pushed by the current leaderships in the conflict?
What programme is needed to actually resolve the crisis?
If Rob can't answer these with the help of his bourgeois authorities, he'll
just have to strike out on his own, and let go of the lamppost he thinks is
holding him up. I've got news for him. He's actually holding that
particular lamppost up, but he keeps thinking it's supporting him.
Time to stand on our own two feet on the firm ground of the revolutionary
side in the class struggle!
Simple, but not easy.
Go to it!
Hugh
>______________________________________________________________
>On the role of Western-imposed economic austerity policies in gradually
>destroying Yugoslavia, post-Tito; this:
>______________________________________________________________
>
>... many of the country's citizens, particularly the younger generation,
>understood the benefits of remaining within the multinational federation
>even if those benefits were articulated through stale, communist-era
>slogans such as "brotherhood and unity" and, my personal favorite, "after
>Tito, more Tito" (posle
>Tita, Tito). The non-nationalist federalists who coalesced in the late
>1980s around Ante Markovic, Yugoslavia's last federal prime minister,
>believed that most people would place greater prosperity above all other
>concerns and that the will of ordinary citizens would determine events.
>They were overly-optimistic about the ability of the economy to power
>reforms, and grossly out of touch with the nationalist political forces
>wrenching Yugoslavia's social fabric.
>
> Despite economic and social advances, Yugoslavia's political
>capacity had been squandered in the 1970s and in the
>decade following Tito's death. Under the weight of austerity measures to
>alleviate the country's foreign debt, Yugoslavia's modest prosperity
>rapidly eroded. By the mid-1980s its substantial middle class, the key
>support base for the federalists, was under siege and increasingly
>insecure. One million people were officially unemployed, with the jobless
>rate beyond 20 percent everywhere except Slovenia and Croatia. Double-digit
>inflation would skyrocket by the decade's end, depleting the savings of
>most of the population and fueling
>widespread industrial actions.2 Most people were struggling to hold on to
>what they had, and these fears made them ripe for exploitation by the
>nationalists.
>
>________________________________________________________________
>Concerning the role of the EC in destroying constitutional federation in
>Yugoslavia; this form journalist Nora Beloff (it comes from her book *Death
>of a Nation*):
>________________________________________________________________
>
>'By 1991, the Yugoslav federal government was struggling for its existence.
>What made the struggle hopeless was the decision of the EC to prevent the
>Yugoslav federation from having recourse to its own armed forces in order
>to preserve the state of Yugoslavia. Under the contemporary belief in the
>wickedness of the use of armed force, this seemed synonymous with favouring
>peace. In reality, as this policy was applied in Yugoslavia, it turned
>out to be the reverse. Had it not been for misguided foreign intrusion,
>the Yugoslav catastrophe need never have taken place.'
>
>'In April 1992, Bosnia was recognised as an independent state against the
>wishes of most of its minority Serbs ... the West's recognition, combined
>with its failure to protect Bosnia's borders, served as the casus belli for
>Serbian and Croatian attacks on Bosnia rather than the cause of the war
>itself. '
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Concerning the UN's role in destroying the Yugoslav constitution; this:
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>Almost fifty years after Tito's map-makers had cobbled
>together the borders of Tito's "federation", Western
>governments decided to metamorphose these into
>frontiers of internationally-recognised states.
>
>On 22 May 1992 a plenary session of the UN General
>Assembly welcomed by acclaim the new states of
>Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia with Hercegovina
>within their Titoist administrative boundaries.
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Concerning the US's role in guaranteeing further strife for purposes not
>directly related to Yugoslav peace; this, on the post-Dayton scenario:
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>With the United States finally in the driver's seat, the Dayton agreement
>exploited the warring parties' exhaustion but its only immediate
>consequence was the establishment of a cease-fire and separation of forces
>by NATO troops. For most Bosnians this was a welcome development. US
>negotiators presented the accord as a
>breakthrough when it was really a clever fait accompli. Like each of the
>West's previous proposals dating back to the failed Lisbon accord of March
>1992, Dayton outlines a three-way ethnic division (with Muslim and Croatian
>entities federated), enshrines nationalist leaders and their armies (three
>armies will exist in post-Dayton Bosnia), legitimizes ethnic parastates,
>and preserves the power structures that precipitated the war. Moreover, the
>treaty's implementation is wholly dependent on the deployment of a massive
>Western occupation army.
>
>the timing of the US initiative was odd, coming after the strategic balance
>had shifted and Bosnian Serb forces were facing a rout by Bosnian and
>Croatian armies. With Belgrade unlikely to intervene, Bosnian government
>troops might have recaptured much of the republic had they not been ordered
>by the United States to halt offensive operations. This suggests the United
>States intervened to preserve the existing power structures in order to use
>them as proxies at the negotiating table.
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>and on EC/UN/US legitimation of ethnic cleansing; this on the Dayton
>Agreement:
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>If the ostensible reason for this segregation is to amelio- rate ethnic
>friction, then we must assume that "ethnic cleansing" is a strategy that
>now has the imprimatur of the western negotiators . Moreover, a forcible
>separation will, in the eyes of each ethnic group, again represent another
>"historical wrong" against one's own people which would then have to be
>eradicated in some future ethnic cleansing.
>
>
>
>
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