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Messages from Germany on the KLA
Chris
(Edwards),
I
am glad that you've started this discussion. The Munich ITO and PDS comrades
are deeply involved in the anti-war movement. Nearly every day there are demonstrations
and actions in Munich. Some are organised by us together with other socialist
organisations, others are from Yugoslavian groups and there was also a huge
pro-NATO demonstration of Albanians. In our group, and also yesterday in the
Bavarian Communist Platform, we discussed the topic. Our comrade Max has
contacts to Albanian people and speaks the language. Many years ago he was
imprisoned for a week in Kosovo for being a supporter of a Hoxhaist Maoist
organisation. Comrade Alex is half Croat, in his family include many people
from Yugoslavia. We also get the Albanian language papers of some factions
inside the UCK (KLA). I write this to show our sources of information, because
the German press is only full of lies. Well, let me give you some theses about
Kosovo, that show our line of discussion.
1. The Albanians in Kosovo have always been an
oppressed nationality, also in Tito's Yugoslavia. However, they had more
autonomy than in the last years. In the 1980s there was a big movement in
Kosovo and also in Germany by emigrants called the Red Front. It was fighting
for an Albanian Republic of Kosovo
inside the Yugoslavian federation. The movement was inspired by Enva Hoxha's
Albania. About 80 leading members were killed in Germany in the 1980s by theYugoslavian
secret service with the help of the German secret service. This time the Kosovo
Albanians lost a lot of their left wing Maoist leaders.
2. At the beginning of the 1990s the chauvinist
Milosevic government organised a demonstration with one million Serbian
participants in Kosovo, calling the Albanians just rubbish. The Titoist
autonomy was taken away from Kosovo. In the very rich mining area of Trepca,
all Albanian workers were fired and Serbian workers do their job now. Kosovo is
a rich country because of its mines (Arch, gold, silver, coal, ...). It is
sometimes called the Kuwait of Europe. Yugoslavia took the metal from the mines
to pay its debt to the West in the 1990s. Nearly 90 to 95 percent of the
Albanian population in Kosovo is unemployed (this means that Trotskyist can't,in a schematic way,
call for mass strikes and workers councils. Maybe the KLA guerrilla is a more
adequate form of resistance).
3. The UCK (KLA) was founded in the middle of 1990s
by some Marxist-Leninist (Maoist) groups who came out of the tradition of the
Red Front of the 1980s. The most important of the UCK founding groups was the
LPK, the Kosovo Peoples Movement. They organised the money raising and worked
out the theory and strategy of the liberation struggle. However, the UCK is not
a Maoist movement. In 1997, maybe 300 members of UCK started several attacks on
Serbian Police. At the same time Rugova, the reformist "President" of
Kosovo, called the UCK a Serbian provocation. Rugova and his clan are the
biggest land owners in Kosovo and the biggest bourgeois family. The Rugova clan
tends to be a classical comprador bourgeoisie. After the massacre of the
Jashari clan, who supported the UCK, the UCK became a mass movement in spring
1998. At this time they got weapons from Albania. After the break down of the
Albanian state in 1997, a lot of weapons were on the market. It was impossible
for the LPK to control the new mass guerrilla movement of the UCK. In several
weeks an organisation of 300 grew to a movement of 30.000. Also many right wing
forces, as well as Rugova followers, joined the UCK. The left wing Hoxhaist
Kosovo opposition in the 1980 went to Western Europe. The anticommunist
emigration went to the USA. These parts of UCK supporters opened the door also
for the CIA influence. In my eyes the
development of UCK in the last weeks was similar to the Kurdish Democratic
Party in Iraq. This Kurdish Party KDP was long time a progressive national
organisation but after the fall of the USSR it turned into an openly counterrevolutionary
organisation working together with NATO. The UCK was the same, but in the new
world order it took only half a year for a progressive national liberation
movement to turn to the right. Two weeks ago the "Voice of Kosova",
paper of the LPK, had its original sub headline "long live
Marxism-Leninism". The book list of LPK was full of Enver Hoxha and Ramis
Alia. This week's LPK paper has the headline "NATO thank you", there
are no left books any more and all the names of the old editorial board are
changed (maybe even the old editors are liquidated by the UCK right wing).
4. UCK still has different currents inside it. The
"left" wing criticises the fact that NATO will not give them
independence, but also calls for the "help" of NATO. We should support the line of Adem Demaci,
the former chief of UCK who quit his job in protest at the signing of the
Rambouillet treaty. Now Demaci is in Lubiljana and UCK seeks to kill him as a
traitor because he offended the NATO attacks. Demaci wrote, that the NATO
attacks will be attacks against Serbia and the Albanians and that both people
must act against imperialism. He also calls for self-determination for Kosovo
with full rights for the Serbian minority in Kosova. But Demaci also urged the
right of self-determination of the Krajina, a part of Serbia that is occupied
by Croatia. Next to Demaci there is also another left wing Kosovo party, the
LKCK, a left wing split from the LPK. They are still Marxist-Leninist and
control some small parts of the UCK.
They also call for land reform in Kosova, and for the nationalisation of the
mines and industry, and look for the support of the Serbian workers. We hope to
get contact with them in the next weeks.
5. Because of the NATO war, the contradictions
between Serbian and Albanian people in Kosova became antagonistic. Every call
for autonomy, federation, or any other solution that allows Kosovo to be a part
of Yugoslavia, will be impossible. NATO however looks for a NATO protectorate,
similar to the protectorate in North-Iraq. They will not let Kosovo join Albania. An independent Kosovo, or a Great Albania, is not in the
interests of NATO, because NATO searches for a bridgehead insideYugoslavia
with its troops. This means there will be antagonistic contradictions between
the UCK and NATO in the future. Just now the pro-NATO feelings among the
majority of Kosovo Albanians changes under the impression that NATO can't
really help the refugees. In Germany UCK is called a "terrorist"
organisation. Police banned the fundraising of Albanian groups and siezed the
money of LPK. At the moment UCK feels
like NATO ground troops. but they don't get modern weapons from NATO, they
don't get the support that they are calling for. We must wait for the moment
when NATO openly turns against UCK and its wish for independence.
6. The most important thing for us at the moment is
to defend Serbia against NATO. We must closely work together with Serbian
forces. The problem is the dominance of right-wing, even fascist, Serbs in the
anti war movement. The NATO bombs helped Milosevic and the Chetniks to get the
absolute majority of the Serbs and even the former opposition behind them.
There was a deep economic crisis in Serbia. The oppression of Kosova and the
nationalist campaign helped Milosevic to handle the protests of the workers in
the past. Now it is even easier for him because there is no opposition at all.
The majority of the Serbian workers are nationalists now. On the demonstrations
in Germany, as in Belgrade, the main slogans are not only "NATO out",
but also "Kill all Albanians!", "Kosovo is the heart of
Serbia". Pictures of Milosevic, Karazdic, the former Serbian king
Alexander, are shown as well as the bone-head flag of the Serbian fascists. We
must join these demonstrations but with our own slogans. On these
demonstrations we must have the big slogan "Nato out of Yugoslavia",
but we must also call for self determination for Kosova. Both slogans are
important. Otherwise it will be a rotten front of communists, nationalists and
fascists.
7. There are also German fascists on the
demonstration with the slogan "Foreign troops out of Germany, German
troops out of the Balkans!" and "No German blood for foreign
interests." This is also the position of parts of the German bourgeoisie. We must oppose this German nationalist
anti-war positions. We must oppose
petit-bourgeois pacifism that in nearly every case leads to support of
imperialist wars in the name of humanity. The former pacifists are now in the
German government! We must oppose Albanian illusions in NATO and their
chauvinism (but of an oppressed nationality) against "slav barbarism"
(slogan on a Munich demonstration of the UCK). We must oppose Serbian
chauvinism, fascism. We must oppose the pro-Milosevic positions of the German Stalinists
such as DKP who call the Albanians and UCK "terrorists" (on the other
hand, most Maoists have correct positions in this war, as the Trotskyist have).
Our slogans must be: NATO out of Yugoslavia! Self determination for Kosovo!
8. In my view, this war is the last united NATO
action. The contradictions between Germany/EU and the USA grow from day to day.
There will be a German orientation towards the East, towards Russia the next
time. Last week German BASF and Russian GASPROM made the most important
corporate gas and oil treaty that exists between both countries. Official
Yugoslavian anti-NATO agitation in Belgrade, but also in Germany, is always
against the US and nearly never against Germany. Serbia hopes for a split
between Germany and US in the NATO. Even now the German press starts to report
more objectively about the NATO terror against Serbian civilians. There seems
to be a German turn away from the USA in the next period (maybe before ground
troops invade Yugoslavia). Anti-Americanism in Germany is very popular now. You
can read in the journals of the bourgeoisie, and also in papers as Der Spiegel, Focus (similar to
US magazine) about "US imperialism", "US terror" and so on.
Sometimes the German bourgeois papers look like some Maoist papers in the
1970s! Some papers now claim that the US has forced Germany into the Balkans
war. This is a lie of course, because Germany has its own interests there, but
now the German bourgeoisie feels that they have no control over the war any
more and maybe they will not get the fruits of their engagement. In my
view, the US also wanted the war now
because they needed it to weaken the EURO currency. And exactly this has
happened now. By totally destroying Serbia and Kosova, the US hope to create a
permanent wound inside Europe. The Balkans would be an open wound that divides
the united Europe in the future. Of course we as German communists also oppose
US imperialism. But we must oppose this kind of anti-Americanism that is in the
German bourgeois press and unfortunately in many left wing papers also. In Junge
Welt, the daily Marxist paper that I am a writer for, US imperialism is
said to be the most evil enemy of the world. The chief of the editorial board
told me that it is the same situation as in the 1930s and 1940s when the
anti-Hitler Alliance opposed Germany. In the same way now, he calls in this
paper for an alliance against US imperialism. Also, leading members of DKP and
PDS call for a United Europe to oppose the US. Most parts of the German left
prepare the next August 1914 now, the time when the German SPD supported the
imperialist war to defend its "Fatherland". In 1914 the German social
democrats made big demonstrations against Tsarism in Russia, but they forgot to
demonstrate against German imperialism. Of course Tsarism was a big enemy of
the Russian workers. But by only demonstrating against Russia in 1914 the SPD
prepared the workers to support Emperor
Wilhelm in attacking Russia. When we now attack US imperialism in Germany as
our main enemy, we become social-imperialists and forget everything that Lenin
and Liebknecht taught us. Maybe these
first theses give you a first impression of our discussions in Munich. I hope
to get reports from the sections in the other countries as well.
comradely,
Nick Brauns
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Postscript
Dear
Charlie (Pottins),
…Now
I want to add some points and proposals. As we found out Adem Demaci is now is
back in Pristina. A supporter of a Serbian human rights organisation said in an
interview that all members of anti-Milosevic opposition don't dare to go out of
their houses. She said there is only one exception: Adem Demaci. By the way,
some months ago Demaci was also calling for NATO help, but changed his terrible
position very soon. Now he seems to have a correct position. But we as
Trotskyists must be careful with trusting in any "big leader". This
would be the old Pabloite mistake with Tito, Mao, Castro. And maybe Demaci is
worse than these persons. I think it would be useful to talk to Demaci to see how
much we can trust him and his positions. We look forward to making contact with
the LKCK ("Peoples liberation front of Kosovo" or something like
this). They split from the LPK at the beginning of the 1990s and are consistent
Maoists and followers of Enva Hoxha. In the present war this seems the most
progressive position we can find in Kosova. The editorial board of the LKCKs
exile paper Clirimi (liberation) is near Munich. Maybe we can arrange a
meeting. I only hope that they are not so consistent Hoxhaists that they will
not talk with Trotskyists... In Clirimi the speeches of Adem Demaci are
published, even if Demaci is not a member of this organisation. In the past the
LKCK promised to work under the command of the UCK and to spent the fund
raising on UCK. Before this they looked for a united guerilla front of the
LKCK, UCK and others (similar to the guerilla front in several Latin American
countries). But now they broke from the UCK. We don't know how strong LKCK is.
In their paper they often cited several UCK commanders who seemed close to
them. But many left wing UCK members were killed in the last weeks, or
excluded. In the right wing Albanian news papers Koha Ditore one month
ago several UCK leaders wrote a letter to NATO claiming that they had
"cleaned" their guerilla units of the "last internationalist,
communist and Hoxhaist". They said "now you can give us heavy weapons
because we will work in your interests and you can trust us." But there
are still different currents inside UCK. In a German television programme, they
showed some guerilla camps of the UCK. They showed soldiers singing the fascist
anthem of the Ballist Nazis. And they showed others singing songs about Enver
Hoxha and the liberation war.
By
the way: do you remember the famous picture of Holbrooke meeting the UCK
commander last year? Holbrooke took out his shoes thinking the Albanian
guerilla was a Moslem. but the UCK leader was sitting there with his shoes.
Holbrooke asked about the picture on the wall. The UCK man told him: "This
is Enver Hoxha, our father." I had several talks with normal Albanians
from Kosova, most of them supporters of UCK. They still support NATO, but they
are all calling for heavy weapons. Till now they only have machine guns. But
NATO has learned form Afghanistan, where they gave stinger rockets to the
anti-communist fighters. Bin Laden and other terrorists now use these weapons
against the US and NATO. And NATO knows that in several months the new enemy
for them will be the UCK or at least the movement for an independent Kosova.
Yesterday on a demonstration, I debated with a young UCK supporter. I couldn't
convince him that NATO is evil. But he promised me that they will fight
everybody who is against independence. Even
NATO. Many Albanians now don't trust NATO but they think they can play
with NATO. They are the tail, but imagine themselves being the dog! They want
to be the elite-troops of NATO, but in reality they are cheap flesh and blood
for Milosevic guns. And as soon as they realise it, they will be very angry...
Do
you have contact with Workers Power? Their German comrades told me that they
have contact with a trade union in Belgrade organising Serbian and Albanian
workers and that this union supports self-determination for Kosova. but I don't
have more information about this union yet. I hope it is bigger than the
LCRI/Workers Power. The situation you described for GB is very similar to
Germany. Stalinists and so called "anti-nationalists" call us
terrorists because we support the right of self-determination for Kosovo. On a
demonstration some left wing unionists were strangled with wire by Chetniks
because they called for a free Kosova. But I have some criticisms of your
slogan "NATO and Milosevic out of Kosova. Self-determination for Kosova."
I think as Trotskyists we must
differentiate more between the criminal nationalist Milosevic and the
imperialist NATO. Milosevic is worse of course. But in global terms he is only
a small criminal while NATO is the worst evil. And we must see that our main
enemy is always at home. In my case the German and in your case the British
imperialism. The main slogan must be in imperialist countries "NATO out of
the Balkans". Than we must call for self-determination of Kosova. But it
must be the second place. Our group now
has four slogans in our paper Was Tun. The big headline is "Now to this
war." than we call for NATO out of the Balkans. Next demand is "Stop
the ethnical cleansings." This not only means an end to the Serbian
attacks against the Albanians, but is also a demand against UCK nationalism,
because forces in the UCK leadership call for only an Albanian Kosova (and 300.000 Serbs and several other
minorities as the gypsies still live there). Our next demand is "Self-determination
for Kosova." The problem with this is that many Serbs interpret it in
their own way as self-determination against NATO but inside Yugoslavia. One
important proposal for us in the imperialist countries is also "Open the
borders for all refugees from Kosova!" It is also a good demand to show
how "humanitarian" NATO is. They bomb the refugee's busses, but don't
let them into the UK, Germany and other countries…
Comradely,
Nick Brauns