26 March 1999
Back in the days of the Cold War the sabre rattling, moves, countermoves and manipulations of the two superpowers - one private capitalist the other state capitalist - threatened the world with the possibility of nuclear holocaust. Each competed for shares of the globe.State capitalism in the guise of the Soviet Union disintegrated, outspent by its U.S. and western allied rivals. During those years, political leaders of in the west spoke of building a "new world order". Communism (as if it ever existed) had fallen! Free enterprise capitalism would open the Soviet influenced satellites through good old traditional commerce bringing peace and freedom to all.
What a sham. Capitalism has never brought peace.
As I write this, bombs rain down for the third day on Yugoslavia. In the very first day of the attack 100 Cruise missiles were launched, US B2 Stealth bombers and Canadian fighter bombers were used with what military experts called "precision bombing" meant to "neutralize" the Serbian military. The doublespeak of the politicians and military did not speak to the many civilians killed.
This was an action initiated by U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton to "punish" Serbian forces and supposedly force Serb president Slobodan Milosevic to disengage from attacking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Others claim that the bombings will force Serbs to magically get rid of their president.
The action was taken with the approving nod and active support of NATO forces, especially England's smiling Tony Blair and Canada's Jean Chretien (backed up by the opposition parties much to their eternal shame). These apologists for the bombings say there was "no alternative".
If this "no alternative" policy has any effect then it will be to push the already cowed, apathetic and passive mass of Serbians suffering from the ravages of economic depression into the waiting arms of Milosevic. The elements of democratic opposition to him will be narrowed and nullified.
Poor Yugoslavia - poor Yugoslavs.
The history of the Balkans weighs upon the consciousness of that people (Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Montenegrans, Macedonians, Slovenians, Albanians) like a dead corpse. There you will find the phantasms of ethnic hatred, religiosity, and the reactionary barbarism of nationalism that has completely disempowered the mass of people. All of this politically directed and manipulated through a slew of imbecilic monarchs, and emperors, petty dictators, would-be Hitlers and pint-sized Stalinists. These are a people historically shat upon by every side, used as pawns in former imperial and now modern superpower gameplaying.
It is no different today than in the past.
The former Yugoslavia under the command of President Tito presented a political thorn in the side of the West - mixed state capitalist, unaligned to the west yet still marginally independent of the former USSR On Yugolsavia's border lay Albania, ruled by the pale grey bureaucrats of iron-willed Enver Hoxha's henchmen (darlings of the Leninists).
The dissolution and fracturing of the former Yugoslav federation into separate states was part of the crumbling of "communist" (state capitalist) economies.
As soon as Russian could no longer present itself as a direct economic, political and military force within the area, England, France, Germany and the United States moved in like vultures over the decomposing corpse of state capitalism. To ensure it would never rise again they played off one elite interest against the other. All this for geo-political control to fit in with national demands for new markets, capital accumulation, political oneupsmanship.
Once the Yugoslav federation was dissolved and Albania crumbled, the supreme laissez-faireist mentality helped fuel past animosities. Mixed with the general economic collapse of the empire, the internal wars with subsequent massacres, atrocities and ethnic cleansing was allowed full reign. Workers again have been divided against workers.
So much for the promises of capitalism's new world order.
Is there an answer to the ethnic hatred, the "cleansing" ravaging former Yugoslavia?
Bombs over Yugoslavia will not bring peace. Capitalism will not bring
freedom. That can only be achieved by workers there (as well as here)
unburdening themselves of the phantasms of history, the scourge of
nationalism and making the conscious act of abolishing capitalism and
together building a world fit for humans to live in.