ALLIANCE 33: June 1999
DEMARCATION LINE:
THE KOSOVA CRISIS

TABLE CONTENTS ALLIANCE 33

Introduction:

http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/Albania/All33-intro.htm

Part One: Is the principle of "Rights to self-determination redundant?" Or "anti-socialist"?

http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/Albania/All33-part1.htm

Part Two:

http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/Albania/All33-pt2.htm

PART 3:

http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/Albania/All33-pt3.htm

PART 4:

http://www.allianceML.com/Albania/All33-pt4.htm

PART 5:

http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/Albania/All33-pt5.htm

PART 6:

Introduction

Sections Of Marxist-Leninist Left Take Only A Partial View

Claims of the Imperialists -"Humanitarian" Intervention In The Balkans

The Overall Strategy Of The War

Setting The War Stage: Ensuring A "Failed Negotiation" - Casus Belli

(1) THE FIRST REAL REASON FOR THE WAR:

INTER-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE FOR MASTERY OF THE WORLD – "GLOBALISATION" AND POWER BLOCKS

The USA's Need to "Degrade" and render the United Nations Irrelevant

A Desire to Open Serbia’s Monopoly, and to enforce a "free market"

The Inter-imperialist Struggle Between NAFTA and EEC Imperialism – The Hijack of the EEC

The Oskar Affair

The European Commission And Exposure Of Its "Corruption".

The Euro’s Poor Performance In International Trading

The Anglo-German Accord

The Nature of The "Temporary Truce" - the EEC And Its' Army Debate

(2) THE SECOND UNDERLYING REAL REASON FOR WAR:OIL IN THE NEAR EAST

(3) THE THIRD UNDERLYING REAL REASON FOR WAR: THE REFINEMENT AND TESTING OF WAR TACTICS

Launching The War

http://www.allianceML.com/Albania/All33-pt6.htm

PART 7:

Introduction

The End of the War

Disarmament Or Demilitarization?

Ensuring A Partition

The Remaining Factions Of The KLA And Their Agendas

The Position of the Albanian Government

CONCLUSIONS TO ALLIANCE 33

http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/Albania/All33-pt7.htm

APPENDIX:

http://www.allianceML.com/Albania/All33appone.htm

Recently a tremendous sorting out has taken place, between those who simply call themselves Marxist-Leninist and those who are Marxist-Leninists. This concerns the stands taken by a number of organizations upon the imperialist machinations in the Balkans currently.
The position of Alliance Marxist Leninist, on the break up of the revisionist state of Yugoslavia has been made totally clear.

In brief: We condemn NATO bombing and war moves; AND:

We condemn Milosovic fascism and Serb national oppression of the Kosovar Albanians.

These positions are to be found on the web page for Alliance, and are incorporated in a statement issued by many organisations of the "International Struggle Marxist-Leninist" grouping. See: http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/ISML/ISMLOnNATO99.htm

PREVIOUS ARTICLES UPON KOSOVA AND THE PRE-HISTORY TO THE CRISIS

1) These positions, are consistent with the positions of Stalin on the National Question, and with Stalin and Hoxha on the application to Kosova. We show this in an article, that also deals with the Yugoslavian distortion of the National Question and this impact on the Bosnia crisis in recent years. See:

http://www.allianceML.com/AllianceIssues/ALLIANCE18-BOSNIA95.html

2) Alliance has also explored the views of the Communist Party Albania, and in separate article the nature of the Kosovan crisis separately. See: "Upon the Situation in Kosova; And A Note From The Communist Party Albania. Dated 1998";

http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/AllianceIssues/ALLIANCE29-KOSOVA-MILLOSHI.html

3) Before the current war, we dealt with the distortions on the matter of the Kosovan national question by revisionists such as "Editions Democrite" (France). To this polemical debate with "Editions Democrite", the latter refused to reply as Alliance’s reply was "Too long". We print with this "non-debate", an article from CEMOPI on Great Serb Chauvinism as the undying theme of Milosovic, and an article by Communist League detailing the Kosovan crisis – See:

http://www.allianceML.com/AllianceIssues/ALL32-KOSOVAANTI-ED.html

4) Finally of some relevance to the strategic aims of the USA led imperialist in the Balkans is an article upon "The Albanian crisis precipitated by the fraudulent Pyramid scheme". See:

http://www.allianceML.com/Albania/ALLIANCE26_albanianpyramids.html

    These articles – in toto and often by themselves – show that the Kosovan peoples were suppressed under Tito and were even further suppressed under Milosovic; and that a war of national liberation was not only inevitable – but that it should be supported by Marxist-Leninist.
    Many histories of the Kosova crisis-situation are available, that clearly delineates a long pre-history. Even though many sources who claim either to be Marxist-Leninist; or who pose as Liberal deny the existence of this pre-history – it certainly exists.
    THIS PRE-HISTORY BOILS DOWN TO CERTAIN KEY FACTS:

1) The partition of Albania by the imperialist Great Powers and the ceding of part of Albania – the Kosova section to the Serbians – at the Treaty of London in 1913;

2) The guarantee given by the revisionist Tito, to both the Albanian Marxist-Leninist

Enver Hoxha

and the people of Kosova, that following the war the people of Kosova could by free vote decide whether to secede into Albania or remain part of the Yugoslav Federation that Tito envisaged would be set up. Tito reneged on that promise.

3) However Tito ensured some degree of autonomy within a Federation status for the region of Kosova. Tito and his successors treated it as a poor colony however, and all statistics show that consistent with the abuse of the National Question in former Yugoslavia, the Kosovans were an oppressed minority.

4) Nonetheless the Kosovar Albanians formed a majority within the state of Kosova, numbered at greater than the Serbs of Kosova.

5) When Milosovic came to power, he did so by deliberately inflaming the racial tensions within the Kosova region, and by racist and chauvinist means – set Kosovar Serbs against Kosovar Albanians. Even at this time many that call themselves "Marxist-Leninist" did not come out against Serb chauvinism.

6) To further weld his own power base, Milosovic continued to push the racist buttons, and now ascended into an open genocidal attack upon Bosnia Moslems. Again the same tactic he had already used in Kosova was pursued. That is to say, ethnic Serbs living cheek-to-jowl by other ethnic peoples were inflamed into a misguided hatred. This by degree escalated into chilling scenes of genocide by Serbia military against Bosnia Muslims. The tactic of so-called "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans, was blatant. Yet, it was denied as "lies; as fabrications of the Western press; and even by staged fakes" – not only by the Serb leaders such as Milosovic, but also by pro-Serb chauvinists outside former Yugoslavia; and regrettably many who pose as "Marxist-Leninists".

7) The Bosnian war resulted in the further penetration of imperialism into the Yugoslav arena, where they had until recently been over-shadowed by the social-imperialist (Post-death of Stalin) USSR.

8) The battle between EEC and USA imperialists over the corpse of the formerly revisionist state of Yugoslavia – resulted in the deliberate partitioning of Bosnia. Marxist-Leninists know that the ulterior motives behind "partitioning" of a state are to "Divide and rule"; to create an on-going tension based often on racism – to enable the imperialist to play their continued dominating rule.

9) Meanwhile the racist policies and the naked self-aggrandizement of Milosovic were beginning to weaken his popularity. In the meantime, sanctions against Milosovic were beginning to some extent take effect. These coupled with an emerging coalition aimed to unseat Milosovic, propelled Milosovic back to the same seat where he had previously exercised so much success. Back to Kosova.

10) As Serbian brutality rose in Kosova, the previous representatives of the Kosovar national bourgeoisie –

IBRAHIM

RUGOVA

– lost their previous popularity. It is true that they had swept to victory in a referendum, that called for restoration of their autonomy status as first step towards national independence. But Milosovic simply ignored this democratically expressed wish of the Kosovars and clamped down in a brutal fascist step. This left the Kosovar peoples clear that if they were to fight for their national rights – it was not only to be a fight at the ballot stations but also in the streets and village.

11) Consequently the Kosovan Liberation Army grew. As it grew, the primitively organized and poorly equipped army – mainly at the beginning staffed by émigrés who returned to take up arms – gained military expertise. Finally it was able to challenge the Serbian army and police forces.

THE PRE-HISTORY HAS BEEN EXTENSIVELY DETAILED ELSEWHERE IN ALLIANCE (Home page at web site of Alliance).

WHY DOES MORE NEEDED TO BE WRITTEN UPON THIS MATTER?

    Since these above articles were written, a major war has taken place. This war has made the situation for the Kosovars even worse than it was. "The Economist"; ran an editorial titled "Making the best of a bungled war": "So far, the West's war against Serbia has been a shambles. The humanitarian catastrophe it was designed to avert has merely been intensified. Nearly a million people, over half of Kosovo's population, have been driven from their homes; thousands are missing, perhaps dead, Serbia's military machine looks defiantly intact; barely a score of its 1,300-odd tanks have been destroyed. Dazzled by technology and obsessed with avoiding casualties, the allies seem to be unable to hurt, let alone destroy, Serbia's army."
May 8^th; 1999; London.     What was the war about? There is a general and widespread confusion around this war. In all the rhetoric, many Marxist-Leninists have often simply provided cover for the Milosovic led Serbian fascists. In the process they objectively assisted the world imperialist powers in achieving their ends in the Balkans. Of course many people have been confused, as imperialism even when displaying naked aggression as in the Balkans, uses many camouflages hiding its real intent.
    Thus the dilemma of the world’s bourgeois liberals lies in weighing the appalling records and actions of Milosovic against the patently disgusting NATO bombing. This divides them into pro and anti NATO camps. But, Marxist-Leninists do not expect that liberals could see that the Milosovic regime has been itself an instrument of the war games of the USA. Such an example is provided by the "Democratic Socialists of America" (DSA); whose Steering Committee call issued on the April 21 1999, simply notes that: "There can be little doubt that Serbian nationalism and a series of orchestrated "crises" by the Milosevic government are primarily responsible for the present tragedy."
    But the DSA can only call for:
"The withdrawal of all Serbian military and paramilitary forces from Kosovo and the subsequent disarmament of the KLA." And "The introduction of an international force including significant non-NATO elements in Kosovo to protect all residents of Kosovo and ensure the autonomy of a democratically elected provincial government;" and "The return of all refugees to Kosovo."; and the DSA sees that: "The situation in Kosovo demonstrates the need for a truly international peacekeeping force, under United Nations auspices". http://www.dsausa.org/news/kosovo.html     The dilemma of the various Trotskyite groupings is very similar. Reflecting their Troskyite viewpoint of "Socialism Now!" – most of the world’s Trotskyites do not support the KLA. The most active including the SWP and the Workers World have actively condemned the Kosovars. There are some exceptions, such as the "Green-Left" section in Australia. Consistent with their tentative breaking away from main stream Trotskyism – they endorse the validity of the KLA liberation struggle. Their move away from Trotskyism should be supported by non-sectarian Marxist-Leninists. The Green Left section in Brisbane (glbrisbane@peg.apc.org) issued this call on 27 April :

"STOP US/NATO WAR ON SERBIA! SELF-DETERMINATION FOR KOSOVA! We oppose both the US-led NATO war against Serbia/Yugoslavia and the Serbian authorities' genocidal campaign of terror against the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosova (the region termed "Kosovo" by the Serbian regime). We support the right of the Kosovar people to self-determination, which includes their right to independence from Serbia. The NATO powers' war against Serbia/Yugoslavia has nothing to do with defending the Kosovar people against Serbian persecution, which began a decade ago and which these powers did nothing against. " Full Statement At: http://www.peg.apc.org/~greenleft/

Finally there are those that call themselves Marxist-Leninist. Marxist-Leninists claim to be scientific Marxists, whose actions are based on concrete analysis of events. We charge that many calling themselves "Marxist-Leninist" have failed to fulfill this claim. Most self-labeled Marxist-Leninist groupings that we are aware of have indeed called for the immediate cessation of bombing of both Serbia and Kosova. But most refuse to support the KLA – and condemn actively those who do. This article aims to examine the reasons offered by which they justify NOT extending support to the Kosova Liberation Army.
We will here argue that the current Kosova crisis and war – is yet another manifestation of the USA imperialist maneuvers in the Balkans. Further that this crisis is an extension of the Dayton strategy of imperialism. Finally that NOT supporting the KLA is anti-Marxist-Leninist, and in the long run pointless. Just as the war has perplexed and divided the liberals, the Trotskyites – it has also not led to clear "fault-lines" in the Marxist-Leninist left. Thus although the main pro-Maoist groupings such as the Brussels formation of the PTB do not even mention the Kosovar nation let alone support it – not all Maoists have fallen into this line. Thus the Workers Party New Zealand offer a very principled line, to be found at <http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/wpnz/kosovo%20serbia%20nato.htm>.

The USA NATO-led bombing is a logical extension of the imperialist aims at the Dayton Agreement, which is aimed at a division of the Balkans allowing the USA a permanent foot-hold on the ground of the Balkans. It is for that reason that the war was fostered and deliberately provoked by the USA imperialists. It is for that reason that the KLA was never clearly armed and supported by USA imperialism. It is for that reason that the KLA must clearly distinguish its own goals – national liberation for Kosova and the rights of self-determination.

THIS ISSUE OF ALLIANCE WILL:

Present some of the main arguments that have been offered by the Marxist-Leninist movement, to justify NOT supporting the KLA. This means examining several questions outlined in the Table of Contents.