Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 21:49:08 +0100
From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se>
Subject: Re: M-TH: I smell sulphur!! Kosova, Chile, Indonesia...


I wrote:

>>And this is pre-revolutionary stuff! No revolutionary crisis in sight, just
>>the usual world pre-revolutionary timebomb situation but with the cracks
>>opening up so we can see some of the magma boiling underneath the surface.
>>
>>We saw the biggest demos for decades in Kosova, media savvy demonstrators
>>with placards in English, a commentator on CNN (James Hooper of the Balkan
>>Institute) saying Milosevic' is gearing up for a Bosnian genocide drive and
>>ethnic cleansing of the 98% Albanian population and that he's now been
>>given a green light by the imperialists in London.
>>
>>So how about it everybody? No revolutionary mileage in the national
>>question in Kosova? No popular demands that need to be met for democratic
>>representation and national rights? No great majority of the population
>>ready to rise up and solve these questions? No scope for an application of
>>the Permanent Revolution and transitional demands explaining that only by
>>making a combined political revolution (getting rid of the Milosevic'
>>bureaucracy and instituting workers' democracy in rump Yugoslavia including
>>Kosova), international & social revolution (overthrowing the
>>restorationists in all of the republics of ex-Yugoslavia) and national
>>revolution (for the autonomy of Kosova) will it be possible to end the
>>repression and the grinding and worsening poverty?

and Yoshie asked:

>Are those Albanians with their placards in English making demands for
>workers' democracy now? (I am asking a question about their consciousness
>as revealed in *their expressed demands*, not about their objective need
>for socialism.)

No. And I didn't say they were. I explicitly referred to national rights,
ie stop the repression and exploitation of Kosova Albanians, stop the
killings, and democratic representation, meaning get rid of the puppet Serb
institutions and set up a Kosova Albanian institution to decide Kosova
Albanian matters. My point was to locate these demands, for which people
are empirically rising up and defying police brutality,  in the framework
of the Permanent Revolution and transitional demands. The people explaining
the objective needs I listed would be party comrades or sympathizers who
understand the objective needs and their relation to the subjecctively felt
needs that are fueling the mobilization. If everyone understood this from
the start there would be no need for explanation.

Marxists can never be satisfied with "expressed demands" as a final
solution of a problem if they don't get to the bottom of a situation. The
whole art of intervention in a political crisis is to move the demands
being made closer to the real solutions needed by taking part in the
struggle, being seen to help and being seen to make sense. And by providing
a clear, independent and confident presence people can relate to. As Nahuel
Moreno used to say: "Seize opportunities and build strongholds!"


>It is my understanding that "post-socialist" secessions, wars, conflicts,
>nationalisms, etc. in the Balkans have been used mainly to increase the
>American/NATO/UN military presence in the area.

Yes. But used by who? The UN is hated in Bosnia, for instance. And in
Serbia, too, for that matter. The imperialists are very interested in
establishing a permanent situation of divide and rule (classical
Balkanization!) in the Balkans. A strong, independent socialist force in
ex-Yugoslavia would be a huge threat to imperialist interests. It's so
close to volatile Albania and Romania, and Greece would probably explode,
and the Balkans and Greece are like a sword thrusting down towards the
Middle East, almost pointing straight at Israel. And that's just the
eastern effects. Other neighbours to be affected would be Hungary, Austria
and Italy. And across the Med there are the Arab nations of North Africa.
Not to mention Turkey and the Kurds.

The Balkans are a volcano. It's hard to plug a volcano. Stalin failed in
Yugoslavia. Churchill almost succeeded in Greece. But it's earthquake
country and the big shocks are still to come. So far the only positive
things to emerge from there were the Yugoslav revolution and the economic
and social reforms in the deformed workers' states after the second world
war. Otherwise we've only seen reaction and misery like the dictatorships
and reaction in Greece and Turkey (and the repression in the deformed
workers' states).

In my post I referred to the commentator saying that the "contact group"
meeting in London had given Milosevic' the green light. This will gradually
dawn on the Kosovans, as they are raped and the imperialists do nothing. At
the moment, many  of them are full of illusions about the West as some kind
of Superman who can swoop in and save them from their Serbian tormentors.
They'll learn. The sooner and more painlessly they do so, the better.

Cheers,

Hugh




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