Yugoslavia: The Bombing of Serbia

and the Crisis in Kosovo.

Chris E

27 April 1999

Historical framework

The present crisis in Kosovo must be seen in historical perspective if it is to be fully comprehended. The crises in the Balkans have been closely related to the question of German imperialist power over the past century. The rise and fall of German power in Europe has impacted on events in the Balkan region and Eastern Europe in general. Eastern Europe has always been the backyard of German imperialism. German imperialism was squeezed out of the colonial scramble in other parts of the world by the other major Western imperialist power, Britain and France taking the lion's share of the colonial territories in the 19th century. Eastern Europe became the arena for German capital exports and semi-colonial domination in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Before the First World War, Germany exploited and dominated a patchwork of small Eastern European nations. These small, balkanised nations were not economically viable enough to be independent of German imperialism. They were backward economically and served German industry by supplying raw materials and acted as a market for German industrial products and finance capital.

After the First World War, when German power was temporarily crushed by the Allied victory, the Allies reconstructed Eastern Europe in their own interests by creating larger, more economically viable, multinational nation states. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were established by the allies so that they would be independent of German imperialism, with a large enough economy and internal market to stand on their own two feet. The object of the exercise was to limit German influence in Eastern Europe. At the same time the Soviet Union was established and successfully defended against reaction partly because of the collapse of German power in the region. The establishment of the Soviet Union was thus an example of the general trend established after the First World War in this region: a large, multinational, economically independent state, in this case a workers' state.

In the 1930s, German power revived and during the Second World War it established its domination over a large part of the European Continent. If we look at what happened to the Eastern European nations in this period, we see that once again the region was reorganised into smaller nations which could only survive as dependents of German imperialism. The Yugoslav state was broken up as fascist Croatia was given its "independence" by the Germans. Czechoslovakia was also dismembered as the Sudetenland was incorporated into Germany. The Soviet Union was attacked by Germany and the states on the Western periphery of Russia, the Ukraine, the Baltic states, were given their own independence as fascist client regimes of German imperialism. German foreign policy has always attempted to divide its rivals by sponsoring internal nationalist movements. In France before and during the Second World War Breton nationalism was sponsored by Germany. Germany's policy off sponsoring Irish nationalism was a way of gaining influence in a sensitive geographical location for British imperialism. Again, when Germany was crushed by the Allies after the Second World War, we see the re-establishment of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia only this time under Stalinist regimes. The Soviet Union was re-established reincorporating the peripheral nations "liberated" by the Nazis.

Today once again we see the balkanisation of Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the reunification of Germany in the early 1990s. The reunification of Germany has greatly augmented the power and influence of German imperialism in Eastern Europe. It is no accident, therefore, that Czechoslovakia was dismembered shortly after the collapse of the Berlin wall, that Yugoslavia was dismembered and that the Soviet Union has once again lost its western and southern periphery, as the Baltic States, the Ukraine and other countries in the Caucuses and Central Asia gained their "independence". These small, and balkanised nations are economically dependent on German imperialism to a greater or lesser degree. They are becoming once again semi-colonies of Germany.

Kosovo Albanians are Oppressed by Serbia

This is the historical framework in which we must review the present crisis in Kosovo. It can be seen from the above that balkanisation is not in the interests of the countries of Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Socialists should actually be in favour of the reverse process to balkanisation, the federalisation of small states as part of the process of abolishing borders. Applying this criterion to the present crisis in Yugoslavia it is clear that socialists should not generally advocate that small nations secede from larger, multinational nations states. Socialists should argue against narrow, nationalist particularism. However, it is clear that where there are oppressed nations within larger multinational states, it is the duty of all Leninists to defend their right to secede, even though we do not encourage it for its own sake. Where there is vicious repression of oppressed groupings, the right to secede, the right to preserve life and liberty, is something which all socialists must recognise.

In the case of Kosovo the present repression of the Albanian speaking population has made it impossible to sustain even an autonomous Kosovo within the new Yugoslav federation. While it would have been correct to argue against secession in the past, in the interests of economic viability and socialist solidarity, it is clearly completely unrealistic to imagine that Kosovo could remain in the Federation, even as an autonomous province within the Yugoslav federation. Self-determination and independence is now, unfortunately, the only slogan which is appropriate.

Of course socialists are in favour of a Socialist Federation of the Balkans. But this slogan at the present time is only a propaganda slogan. It is hardly agitational in the present circumstances where the whole population has been systematically pushed out of its territory by a Serbian army, whose actions resemble, in many ways, those of the Nazi army in the Second World War period. The lowering of class consciousness, evident on all sides in the present conflict, is a result of the increased poverty in Yugoslavia brought about by the IMF policies, which exacerbated communal tensions and promoted secessionist tendencies. The balkanisation policy of Western powers was then facilitated by the clumsy bureaucratic and repressive reaction of the Stalinists to the increased communal tensions. They reacted by trampling under foot the basic national rights of the Albanian population of Kosovo, a policy which further compounded communal aggravation and centrifugal tendencies caused by the IMF imposed impoverishment.

There are two dangers in the present conflict. One is to close one's eyes in relation to the Serbian repression of the Albanian speaking population in the name of defending Serbia against Nato. The other is to close one's eyes to the bombing of Serbia in the name of defending the Albanian population of Kosovo against Serb repression. The duty of socialists in this conflict is to defend Serbia against Nato while defending the Albanian population of Kosovo against Serbia and repression. Both of these tasks should be given equal emphasis in our propaganda. The slogans of "self determination for Kosovo up to and including independence" and "an independent workers' Kosovo" are essential in the present war. Only by granting independence will Serbia end the fratricidal division of the Serbian and Albanian workers and facilitate a united front of Serbian and Albanian workers to drive NATO out of the Balkans.

The KLA

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has undergone an evolution in its political character over the past few years. It began life as a small Maoist organisation which struggled for the liberation of Kosovo from Serb oppression. There is no doubt that Kosovo Albanians are an oppressed national grouping within Yugoslavia. Unlike the Croatians, the Bosnian Muslims and the Slovenians, the Albanian population is ethnically different from the Slav majority population of Yugoslavia. There is a linguistic difference, an ethnic difference as well as a religious difference with the Serbian Slav, Orthodox Christian, population. In other words there is an element of real racism in the present repression of the Albanian population of Kosovo, which was not true of the previous phase of the conflict between different Slav republics.

The KLA has recently expelled its old Maoist, leadership. The new leadership is anti-Communist and calls for the Nato bombing of Serbia. The task of socialists is not to uncritically tail-end, or cheerlead, this anti-Communist leadership, but to attempt to establish an alternative, revolutionary internationalist, leadership of the liberation struggle. Part of this task is to attempt to split the KLA, winning the left wing away from the right wing anti-Communist leadership. It is clear that any oppressed population or nationalist movement is entitled to defend itself against the repression of the oppressor nation. Instead of demanding the arming of the KLA, i.e. aiding an anti-Communist leadership, a better slogan would be to propose to the Albanian workers of Kosovo that they demand the arming of the working class against NATO intervention and Serbian repression. In this way socialists can promote the defence of the Albanian population against repression and draw a political and military line within the national liberation struggle against the anti-Communist misleadership. Arming the working-class and the poor peasantry is the most democratic measure which can be taken in the present context and it would enable the workers to rid themselves of their conciliationist, anti-communist KLA leadership, which has already sold out independence at the Paris talks. There is no possibility of real independence for Kosovo while the KLA is in alliance with NATO. Kosovo will simply replace Serbian oppression with a NATO run colony like Bosnia is today.

The same proposal should be made to the Serbian working-class: the arming of the Serbian working-class against possible attack by Nato ground troops is also the best measure which can be taken to enable them to get rid of their genocidal political leadership in the shape of Milosevic. It bears repeating that only by granting independence to Kosovo can the Serbian workers end the fratricidal division of the country and establish a united front with the Kosovo Albanian population against NATO. It is the genocidal policy of Milosevic which is preventing this from happening.

It is therefore necessary to call for the arming of Serbia as a nation against Nato. It has been objected that arms for Serbia against Nato would lead to the use of these arms to repress the Albanian population of Kosovo. This is an erroneous argument. On the one hand the kind of arms which Serbia needs to defend itself against Nato attack (e.g. anti-aircraft weapons) would not lend themselves to being used to repress the Albanian population of Kosovo. On the other hand arming the Serbian working-class is the best way of promoting working class independence, undercutting the Milosevic regime and ending the policy of repression. The Serbian working-class is not homogeneously chauvinistic towards the Albanian population of Kosovo. We should not allow Western propaganda to cloud our judgment on this question. The Serbian working class has its vanguard and its backward, chauvinistic elements like any other working-class. It is true that the present bombing of Serbia has intensified chauvinistic sentiments within the Serbian working-class. This is partly also the result of the calls of the KLA for the bombing of Serbia by Nato.

In the Malvinas/Falklands war the Argentine left correctly called for the arming of the Argentine state to fight Britain even though it was governed by a vicious junta which was currently jailing the Argentine left, and even though they could not exclude the arms being used against themselves in the future.

A vicious circle of fratricidal chauvinistic hatred has developed as a result of a number of interrelated factors. It is important to establish cause and effect in this catastrophe. The IMF imposed impoverishment, and the conscious policy of balkanisation and fragmentation of Eastern Europe on the part of the Western imperialist powers, and Germany especially, are the fundamental factors causing the chauvinistic bloodbath which has developed in Yugoslavia. The heightened nationalism of the various republican leaderships, including the Serbian government, was a reaction to this imperialist intervention, which further compounded the problem.

Imperialism favours balkanisation, but it wants it to take place in a controlled, orderly fashion, not in an explosive fashion. Hence, the history of repeated cycles of political and military manoeuvres promoting fragmentation followed by the "freezing" of the situation, "peace" initiatives etc., followed by a new cycle of dismemberment. The imperialists are very conscious that this process could blow up into a full scale war in the Balkans. They are also conscious that wars very often lead to revolutions.

Imperialist Objectives in the Balkans

The imperialists do not care about the liberation of the Albanian population of Kosovo. But they know that liberal opinion can be easily manipulated if they appear to champion the cause of Kosovan Albanians. What they are doing is exploiting this antagonism within the Yugoslav federation in order to establish their own bridgehead in this strategically important geographical location. They want to consolidate capitalist restoration on their own imperialist terms. That is, they do not want a new industrially advanced capitalist economy on their doorstep competing with the Western economies; they want a dismembered, backward, dependent, capitalist semi-colony. The other south eastern European nations (Rumania, Bulgaria, Slovakia etc) have been slower to embrace capitalism than the more advanced economies in Poland, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovenia. Because they begin from an economically more backward baseline, they are conscious that they will only be integrated into the capitalist world in a dependent, semi-colonial form. They know they have no chance of becoming part of the prosperous EU like the Czech republic, Slovenia etc. That is why the Czech Republic, Slovenia etc broke away from their respective former federal countries in the first place. There are parallels here with the secessionist Northern Leagues of Italy, which also have a similar motivation. The more backward eastern European nations are destined to become more like Turkey than like Greece, Italy, Austria or Spain. Yugoslavia is the front line state for the whole of south eastern Europe. Imperialism is showing what might happen to other states in south eastern Europe, and behind them...Russia which, after the economic collapse last year, may be in danger of "regressing" back to its old centrally planned ways. The war in Yugoslavia is about intimidating, disciplining and further subjugating the recalcitrant states of south eastern Europe and the CIS.

Imperialism has always ensured that ex-colonies remain as backward economies by carving up the boundaries so that metropolises are cut off from rural hinterlands, landlocked countries are cut off from their natural seaboards and littorals. This is what is happening to Serbia today. Western Yugoslavia is mountainous and there is thus a formidable barrier between the interior of the country around Belgrade and the Adriatic coastline. The loss of Croatia, Bosnia and now Kosovo, and possibly Montenegro from the Yugoslav Federation means that all railway routes through the Western mountains to the coast, and the Adriatic ports, will be in the hands of foreign governments. The southern route through the Vardar valley leading to Salonika in Greece is also controlled now by foreign governments: Macedonia and Greece. The Drin Valley running through Kosovo and Albania, one of the very few routes through the mountains to the coast, will now also be under the control of hostile foreign governments. Serbia really is a country and an economy under siege.

Kosovo and Albania are very close to the Mediterranean, which has always been a sensitive area for British imperialism. Italy also, historically, has some very strong interests in Albania. It is geographically important to it, commanding as it does the narrow Straits of Orranto in the Adriatic, adjacent to the toe of Italy. Germany and Austria on the other hand have historically seen the northern republics of the former Yugoslav federation as their natural semi-colonial backyard. But for Britain (also the US and France) the Mediterranean is crucially important and hence it is no accident that the republics on the Adriatic, in the southern part of the Yugoslav federation, are the places where US and British imperialism has established itself. The object of these manoeuvres of US and British imperialism is not therefore to grant self-determination and independence to Kosovo or the right to form a greater Albania. It is rather to use the Albanian population as a lever to weaken and further encircle the Serbian regime and also as a means of a establishing its own military presence in this region.

An uncontrolled liberation struggle resulting in a politically independent, militarily strong Kosovo, or a Greater Albania, would not serve the interests of Western imperialism. The approach of imperialism has therefore been a cautious policy of diplomatic and military manoeuvres promoting controlled centrifugal tendencies in the Yugoslav federation. In the run up to the present crisis, imperialism has opportunistically promoted autonomy for the Albanian population of Kosovo within the Yugoslav Federation as a way of threatening to further destabilise and dismember what is left of the Yugoslav federation. However, it is clear from the Paris talks that US and British imperialism's real interest was in establishing NATO troops in Kosovo. This was the sticking point for Serbia, which was willing to restore the autonomy removed in 1989, but it would not accept NATO troops in Kosovo. The subsequent bombing and repression of the Albanian population has now given rise to a situation where only the independence of Kosovo can overcome the sharp, chauvinistic contradictions which have been generated. Until Serbia makes a move to defuse the issue of Kosovo, NATO will continue to exploit the division in the ranks of its adversaries.

· NATO out of the Balkans!

· Victory to Serbia against NATO! For the defeat of NATO!

· Arms to Serbia, including anti-aircraft weapons against NATO bombing!

· Arm the Serbian workers to resist NATO ground troops!

· Serbia must immediately grant self-determination to Kosovan Albanians!

· For an Independent Workers' Kosovo!

· Arm the Albanian workers for defence against NATO and Serbian repression!

· End the fratricidal division of Serbian and Albanian workers!

· For a united front of Serbian and Albanian workers against NATO!

· Kick out Blair and Clinton!

· Open the Borders for Balkan refugees!

· Kick out Milosevic and the KLA leadership!

· Build internationalist, Trotskyist parties in the Balkans to lead a consistent struggle against NATO and national oppression!

· For a Socialist Federation of the Balkans!