John Lacny wrote:>
> On Sat, 20 Feb 1999, Joseph Green wrote:
>
> > All outside powers have to be condemned, and our orientation has to be
> > to the working masses of the region. The Serbian occupation is an
> > outside force just as much as the big powers are, and the conflict of
> > the Serbian government with the big powers is not an anti-imperialist
> > struggle.
>
> Sure Joseph. OK. No problem. So the Serbian government isn't
> anti-imperialist. You'll note that I've never said it was. The problem--
> and it's a problem to which you have not been able to give me an answer--
> is that a lot of people in Serbia are going to die under the combined
> force of sanctions and bombing if NATO goes ahead with military action.
> That's a fact, whether the Serbian government is "anti-imperialist" or
> not.
The point you gloss over is that war is already going on,
and people are already dying, and misery and devastation is already
widespread. Both Albanians and Serbians are dying. Even now, as we
exchange thse remarks with each other, the attacks on Albanian
villages continue. Are we to forget them simply because they have
become so common, or because the villages being hit with shells are
not in Inner Serbia? Meanwhile, no matter what slogans we give here
in the U.S., it is not possible to isolate Serbia from the general
conflagration going on. So long as the Milosevic government continues
to wage war on Kosovo, it is impossible to have peace in Serbia while
devastation continues in Kosovo. Even if the big powers gave a free
hand to the Serbian government to do what it likes, the result would
not be the end of suffering and war. We can and should denounce the
policies of the big powers, but we shouldn't agitate in a way that
obscures what is going on in Kosovo. The denial of the right to
self-determination (by Serbia and the big powers too) is still the
center to this. So long as this denial continues, then, one way or
another, the situation is going to worsen and many more people are
going to die.
> Unless you can really come up with some kind of different
> proposal, and a concrete one, really quick.
It is painful to watch the tragedy of the peoples of that
region. I can understand that emotion. I feel that way about
what's going on in many other parts of the world as well. But if it
were possible to stop the pain of the peoples of the former
Yugoslavia by simply making one or other aspect the priority number
one (while the main problems go unsolved), then why have people
waited so many years before doing this? I think our priority number
one has to be to look the truth in the face, no matter how painful
this may be for us.
It is not "hot air and empty rhetorical bullshit" to do what
is necessary to encourage the development of proletarian movements.
It is the only realistic and revolutionary thing to do. We cannot
make a revolution at any time that we wish to do so. We cannot
even create an upsurge out of thin air. We can only work
perseveringly and patiently to lay the basis for the reorganization
of the proletarian movements which, themselves, will be the ones to
carry out the great events of the future.
It's true that I don't guarantee fast results. But then
again, the policy you advocate won't achieve such results either.
--Joseph Green
