Socialist Action /April 1999
War in Yugoslavia and the Global Crisis
By NAT WEINSTEIN
The American-led imperialist attack on Yugoslavia is only the latest
symptom of global capitalism's gradual descent into what is rapidly becoming
a social, economic, political, and military quagmire.
American capitalism, now serving as world imperialism's chief cop, has
two minimum goals in Yugoslavia: To let President Slobodan Milosevic know
who is boss; and to send another message to the rest of the world that defying
an order from world imperialism's commander-in-chief will bring destruction
raining down on their heads.
Clinton, who never misses a chance to lecture the world on "morality"
and the "rule of law," has repeatedly carried out immoral and
unlawful violations of the sovereignty of nations.
The U.S. bipartisan capitalist government seeks the sanction of the United
Nations only when it knows it has the unanimous support of the imperialist-dominated
Security Council. (It takes just one major power on this body to block it
with a veto.)
Lately the U.S. ruling class has bypassed seeking the "lawful"
sanction of the UN. Instead, it has either acted unilaterally, as in the
latest bombings of Iraq, or under the "legal" cover of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization-U.S. and European imperialism's collective
military arm-as in the current assault on Yugoslavia.
Law of the capitalist jungle
The unfolding crisis of overproduction is rapidly slipping out of the
control of the IMF and other international financial institutions assigned
to maintain the equilibrium of the global economy.
As unsold goods pile up, world markets become saturated, and in accord
with the law of supply and demand, prices fall, the competition between
capitalists in each country and among countries intensifies. The law of
the capitalist jungle takes over and the weaker capitalists are ultimately
devoured by the stronger.
At the same time, world imperialism and its dependent countries, driven
by the pressure of unbridled competition, seek to save themselves at the
expense of their workers and other victims.
"Austerity!"-but only for its exploited and superexploited
masses-is the battle cry of the world's capitalists in their ruthless, albeit
hopeless, struggle to keep the rate of profit from crashing through the
floor.
Whoever else may be contributing to the disintegration of capitalist
"civilization," imperialism-with U.S. imperialists leading the
pack-is its source. President Clinton is now crying crocodile tears over
the suffering Albanian majority in Kosovo.
However, world imperialism created the objective conditions that led
to the current crisis and contributed to the conquest of power by the reactionary
President Slobodan Milosevic.
History of Yugoslav federation
The current war waged by the imperialists against Yugoslavia is better
understood in the context of that country's history. Modern Yugoslavia was
born in a united struggle by its constituent nations against German imperialism's
military occupation of the entire region during World War II.
After their military victory over the Nazi army, the Communists, at the
head of the armed resistance, took power and established the new federation
of nation states-Yugoslavia.
The multinational Yugoslav Communist Party established the federation
in 1945 as a union of states, with each nation guaranteed the right to self-determination-including
the right to separate.
Moreover, soon after the Yugoslav federation was set up, the new government-based
on the working class of the federated national republics-carried through
a social revolution.
Yugoslavia's revolution expropriated the nation's capitalists and established
a planned, nationalized economy, which opened the door to relatively rapid
economic development. The resulting increase in the country's wealth-together
with a constitution granting the Yugoslav federation's national republics
the right to self-determination-made it possible to avoid the internal conflict
that can come when there is extreme hardship and the rights of minorities
are not protected.
Thus, the juridical equality of the federated nations, the formal right
to separate, together with rising living standards, effectively served as
the glue that held this multinational workers' state together for several
decades.
Paradoxically, the road to proletarian solidarity was made possible when
Stalin tried to block the Communist Parties in the region from establishing
a workers' government and overthrowing capitalism. The Communists, led by
Marshal Tito (Josip Broz), however, defied Stalin and mobilized Yugoslavia's
workers for the socialist revolution.
But while they broke with Stalin, they failed to make a clean ideological
break with Stalinism. When Stalin expelled the Yugoslav CP from the world
Stalinist movement, and the latter were left to fend for themselves without
any help from the Soviet Union, they nonetheless followed the Soviet Stalinist
strategy of survival in a hostile imperialist world.
They followed a policy of seeking a strategic accommodation with imperialism-which
can only be on imperialism's terms. And the price that imperialism
demanded for "peaceful coexistence" was for Yugoslavia to grant
implicit or explicit political support to imperialist policy.
Consequently, the degeneration of the Yugoslav economy was inevitable.
Once such dependency is consolidated, imperialism is able to extract ever
more favorable trade relations for itself.
The effect is what we see happening in the former Soviet bloc countries,
and to a lesser degree in China-workers' states degenerating into semi-colonial
nations in transition toward third-world capitalist states.
The resulting economic decline gradually eroded the glue holding the
country together, as each nation's bureaucracy sought to save itself at
the expense of the others. However, the dominant Serbian bureaucracy bears
major responsibility for the collapse of the Yugoslav federation's solidarity.
Serbian nationalism
In 1989, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, adapting to the most rabid
Serbian nationalists, stripped Kosovo of its constitutional right to autonomy.
By this act, Milosevic gave an impulse to the most reactionary chauvinist
elements in the Yugoslav federation.
Propelled by the wave of Serbian nationalism he had triggered, Milosevic
elbowed aside his superiors in the Communist Party bureaucracy and launched
himself into power as the president of Yugoslavia.
The country disintegrated, with Slovenia and Croatia exercising their
right to separation in 1991. Milosevic attempted military repression but
failed there and later in Bosnia.
Imperialism intervened in the name of "peace," but it was a
peace in which their interests would best be served. Now, Milosevic, along
with his opponents in the former Yugoslavia, is following the deadly logic
of the nationalism of the oppressor.
The glue of proletarian internationalism that post-World War II Yugoslavia
was founded on has virtually dissolved, with each nation's ethnic majority
oppressing its ethnic minority and with imperialism oppressing all and using
one against the other. The entire region now descends into chaos.
The nationalism of the oppressed is understandable and is justified when
there is no alternative. But it is no solution, especially in a world dominated
by imperialism. The problem of oppressed nationalities, and all of the nations
in the former Yugoslavia oppressed by imperialism, in the long run can only
be solved in the context of a world socialist society.
And the only road to world socialism is international working class solidarity.
This must be based on the struggle in every land for the liberation of humanity
from a global capitalism rapidly degenerating into a variety of self-destructive
barbarism-which will destroy every social, economic, scientific, and technological
conquest gained by the human race in over 5000 years of civilization.
Socialist Action /April 1999 |