File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/97-02-20.225, message 43


From: dr.bedggood-AT-auckland.ac.nz
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 22:05:17 +0000
Subject: Re: M-G: The WRP and Workers Aid for Bosnia


>
> 
> Hugh wrote:
> 
> PS The Bosnian vs Serbian issue has split a number of parties in the
> Trotskyist movement. The question of whether the Serbs represent a
> degenerated workers' state that should be defended and the question of the
> validity for revolutionary Marxists of the Bosnian claim to national
> independence are not simple questions and deserve serious discussion. The
> kind of letter whistle-blower treated us to is not the kind of discussion
> we need on these issues. I think Dave B's tendency has strong views on this
> question -- perhaps he'd like to kick off on the relationship between the
> civil wars in Yugoslavia, the national question and internationalism.
> 
OK I'll kick off with our view.
Bosnia is an important test case for the left because it can only be 
understood by applying the dialectical method. Bosnia is a part of 
the totality of world capitalism in crisis in the 1990's. That crisis 
is a crisis of falling profits and overproduction of capital. 
Capitalism can only solve its crisis by restructuring production, 
canning the welfare state which is a drain on profits, and forcing 
the former Stalinist states to their knees.  Its success in these 
counter-reforms/revolutions  over the last 20 years puts them on top, 
but not necessarily for long, because they still have to restructure further 
to restore profits, and the WORKING CLASS  EXISTS AND IS FAR FROM 
DEFEATED. 

Bosnia is the fallout of the collapsing Yugoslavia. All the component 
parts of Yugoslavia under their stalinist bureaucrats abandoned the 
remnants of the planned economy and opted for capitalist restoration. 
All of them fought to expand their territory at the expense of the 
others to form capitalist mini-states and offered themselves to the 
imperialist powers as client states. Germany and the US in particular 
intervened to arm and train the armies of Croatia and the Muslim 
state in Bosnia. This was part of the rival imperialisms plans to 
re-partition the Balkans within the wider re-partioning of Eastern 
Europe and the former SU, and so recover their profits.

In that complex case,  while all states have the right to self-determination, 
none could be supported because they all oppressed one another 
directly and in varying extents as proxies of imperialist powers. 
 It was therefore correct for revolutionaries to call for revolutionary 
defeat all round. That is, workers in all states should turn their guns on 
their new bourgeoisies and join forces to re-unite the former Yugoslavia as a 
Federation of socialist republics. 
The support for the multi-ethnic workers militia in Bosnia was 
correct  in the defence of Bosnia from partition by each of the 
three expansionary states, Croatia, Serbia and the Muslim state 
under Izetbegovich.  By supporting the multi-ethnic militias against 
ethnic cleansing on all sides, revolutionaries could appeal to 
workers in the warring states to turn their guns on their bourgeois 
military bosses.
Only in the event of a clear or  direct intervention of imperialism would it be 
correct to defend the right of any of the expansionary states to 
self-determination and take its side in the war. This happened towards 
the end of the war when the US started to directly intervene in 
arming Croatia and the Muslim state, and NATO started to bomb the 
Bosnian Serbs, at which point it was necessary to defend Serbia from 
imperialism. 
Most of the left got hopelessly confused about Bosnia,  forgot whatever 
marxism they knew and followed the bourgeois democrats defending 
little democracies against nasty Serbian genociders, and getting 
sucked into the media crap about who was cleansing whom, as if this 
was not a reactionary war all round  until imperialism showed its hand. 

Balls in your half.

Dave.



     --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005