Hi comrades,

I think that Marc's analysis on Yugoslavian war and its three main
participants, KLA, Serbia, and NATO, contains some serious mistakes.
Of course, 'solidarity and support towards a repressed national minority
attempting to assert their right to self-determination' is a matter of
principle. In several issues we can even walk with KLA, despite the fact
that it is a nationalist organisation and no principled cooperation is
possible. Let me recall for example that in the march in London marking
the end of the dispute of Liverpool dockers, KLA supporters formed the
largest contingent. But I think that after NATO started war against
Yugoslavia, Kosova became a relatively minor issue, at least from a
political (NOT humanitarian) point of view. NATO is not the referee
between Serbs and Kosovans, biased or unbiased, selfish or unselfish,
welcome or unwelcome, it is the aggressor in its war against Yugoslavia.
If we the socialists fight against capitalism and if NATO is the strong
arm of the most advanced capitalist states, imposing their rule on every
corner of the Earth, what else could be an over-riding countervailing
imperative? Are we going to make NATO the central issue of our analysis
(what is it for, how we can fight against it) in another occasion?
I also think that Marc fails to see this war in a historic perspective.
We can't treat this war as the first and the last war ever happened, in
other words to see it out of History. That is what the capitalist states
would like. Remember that they declared the first and then the second
world war as the Last War, and generally they like to see every war as
an historic accident caused by a mad dictator. NATO has a STRATEGY which
if the social process allow it could even end up in an Orwellian
totalitarianism with us the people reduced to slaves. To judge them on a
case by case basis as Marc suggests in one of his previous e-mails is
not a wise advise. On the contrary, we should remember that this is not
the first or the last time NATO strikes, all the more so, this is not
the first or the last capitalist war.

Ioannis Ivrissimtzis

marc mulholland wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> The crisis in Yougoslavia is not an internal matter for
> that state. The Kosovan Albanians are a repressed national
> minority attempting to assert their right to
> self-determination. For the sake of peace one might support
> a transitional settlement (the fredom to achive freedom as
> Michael Collins put it). But the argument that it is an
> internal question for the Milosivic regime, appealing to
> China and Russia no doubt, is the worst form of legalistic
> pedantry and collusion with reaction.
>
> In days of yore socialists, while having no truck with
> nationalist illusions, supported the right of democratic
> national self-determination. As internationalists we should
> support anything that furthers such democratic rights as
> long as there are no over-riding countervailing imperatives
> (for example, opposing Hitlerite expansionism clearly took
> precedence over the national aspirations of Sudeten
> Germans).
>
> While NATO has its own selfish motivations (of course)
> these do not strike me as over-riding to the extent that we
> should oppose NATO military action at the price of leaving
> the Kosovars to their fate. This is what NATO abstention
> would mean.
>
> There is also a danger of moral relativism here. The
> milosovic regime is carrying out ethnic cleansing. The
> moral responsibility for this cannot be shifted onto NATO.
> One may as well blame the KLA for provoking repression. One
> should not confuse the violence of the oppressor for the
> violence of those who resist.
>
> I hope everyone is well.
>
> Fraternally,
>
> Marc.
>
> On Fri, 23 Apr 1999 17:05:07 +0100 J D Charlton
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> ----------------------
> marc mulholland
> [log in to unmask]



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