Re: Reply to Wool's Celebration of Albanian Secessionism

["Owen Jones" <owen.jones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Look, I have immense respect for Jared's work. His web site has given us
several huge revelations on the Yugoslav question in particular, and helped
us understand what the imperialists were really after in their campaign
against Yugoslavia, the Fascism of the KLA (which so many on the Left so
stupidly supported, indeed still do unrepentantly, like our mates the DSP),
and what is going on in Kosovo today under NATO military dictatorship.

 But really, this is going too far. Firstly, the word 'secessionism' is one
of those rightwing words that is used to describe every liberation movement
(which I'm not saying the KLA are...) under the sun by the bourgeois states.
Do we start denouncing the PKK and the IRA as secessionists? From the
grounds that you denounce the KLA, we could very well characterise Ocalan as
a Kurdish racial chauvinistic, and anyone who gave any support to him could
be denounced as celebrating Kurdish secessionism.

 Calling the KLA "racist-secessionists"? You could say that most nationalism
is guilty of that - as some bourgeois liberals love to do.

 Secondly, his demonising of all the Kosovar people (it's verging on
labelling all Albanian people) as a bunch of neo-fascists, who have stayed
that way since the War when they all cheerfully waved swastikas. _This_ type
of racial chauvinism I had hoped to not to land in my mail box from a
Marxism list. It is the pit many on the Left fell in to - especially the
Stalinists - that their opposition to both the NATO imperialist onslaught
and the fascism of the KLA led them to supporting Milosevic and the national
oppression of the Kosovars (on the grounds they were a bunch of fascists).
Really.

 At the same time I think Bernie is wrong on several points of Kosovar
history. The Kosovar Albanian regime undertook national oppression of the
Serb minority, and in the late 80s the citizens of Yugoslavia rightly
protested against this on the streets. To simply say the Belgrade regime
withdrew autonomy for Kosovo because they were Serb chauvinists and because
they decided Albanians were some sort of inferior race for no particular
reason is rubbish. Also, another comment - the best man at my friend Maja's
wedding was a Kosovar Albanian - who fled to Slovenia because of the KLA. He
is one amongst thousands of Albanians, Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Montenegrins,
Turks, etc... who have been expelled by the KLA.

 I would also point out that, though the Serbian government has
petty-bourgeois ultra-nationalist demagogues in it (as places such as
Turkey), Serbia is a very multicultural nation, unlike somewhere like
Croatia. For instance, in Belgrade alone there are 100,000 Albanians.

 But this slander against Comrade Wool? I think Jared has passed the mark in
the way he has criticised him. I mean really, look at the subject line on
this post - is this a title we would expect from someone on the Left?

 I find it sickening that you bathe in the "glory" of having articles waved
by the Yugoslav State. Not because I think it's some kind of "Nazi
totalitarian dictatorship" or something; those lot of gangsters are just as
bad as the Yeltsinist bourgeois regime in Russia. I also find it to leftwing
Yugoslav activists struggling against both the Milosevic regime and NATO
imperialism, to have supposed Western dissidents who should be expressing
solidarity with them parading their rightwing former-puppet-of-imperialism
leader as some sort of hero.

 Louis, would you not agree that Jared's contributions are presently way
outside the boundaries of Marxism, that they are giving support to a
bourgeois state (shall I start praising Yeltsin and see how that goes
down?), and are even verging on racist comments. I know that he is a comrade
of yours, but I never thought of you as a nepotist. This really has gone too
far.

 Cheers,
 Owen