Justin:
"Whatever was socialist in the Yugoslav economy is gone, except for some
ideological window dressing that no one even pretends to believe any more.
Moreover, the M regime that participated in the partition by force of
Yugoslavia, supported the Bosnian serbs in the Bosnian war, and engaged in
ethnic cleansing on a grand scale (though not, it now appears, systemaic
mass murder) in Kosovo, cannot be characterized as other than thuggish at
best. It's true it hasn't been as awful to the domestic opposition as it
might have been, but that is hardly a reason to support it."
LP: Actually there is more socialism in Yugoslavia today than there ever
was in Nicaragua. All the rest of what Justin writes is unfounded
assertions that are hardly worth answering. I will however remind Justin
that, according to the liberal watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Media, the
first instance of the term "ethnic cleansing" in Yugoslavia occurred
(according to a Lexis-Nexis search) was in the context of Albanians driving
Serbs out of Kosovo.
Justin:
"In slamming M, the undertaker of what some of us thought was socialism's
best hope, I do not of course support NATO or other foreign intervention in
the former Yugoslavia. M is for the Sebian and Montenegran people to deal
with."
LP: The undertaker of Yugoslav socialism is western banks and NATO. The
left liberals in the west have caved in to the ideological offensive over
the past decade, from Susan Sontag to Christopher Hitchens. One of the more
shameful episodes in the radical movement, all in all.
Louis Proyect
The Marxism mailing-list: http://www.marxmail.org
