Re: Re(2): NY TIMES SAYS KOSOOV GOT 70% OF BUDGET FROM REST OF YUGO

[Borba100@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Andother list member and I wrote:
<< Kosovo was sustained economically by the rest of
 >> Serbia and by other Yugo repuiblics; this as opposed to being a
 >"colony."
 >
 >A point made at great length in the work of the late Sean Gervasi.

 To which Jim Monogan replied: <<So what. The North of Ireland is subsidised
by the reat of the British  Empire >>

[I assume reat=rest, so "rest of the British Empire."]

Hmmm.  Well, let's flesh this out a bit.  1) Kosovo had a state dominated
economy. The whole thing operated at a giant loss and money poured in so that
everyone lived decently.  Does this also describe Northern Ireland - I'm no
expert on Ireland but that don't have the ring of truth. 2) ALL
political/economic life in Kosovo was in Albanian hands - period.  Terror was
directed at Serbs, "Gypsies", Gorani.  Do the irish Catholics control
Northern Ireland and persecute the Brits and orangemen? 3) The Albanian
language was dominant.  Street signs, most schools, mass media, hospitals -
everything in Albanian.  Serbs were persecuted for speaking their langauge./
(Now in Kosovo one speaks ANY slavic-sounding language at the risk of one's
life - this is documented.)  Unless I'm mistaken, the Brits took a dim view
of Gaelic - no? Isn't this matter of the suppression of language quite
significant when examining colonial status?

One wants to see unity of all ethnic groups.  The point that becomes clearer
is that for groups like the Irish, the Serbs, the American Indians, the
Armenians, victims of relentless racist nightmares at the hands of the
Colonial Club - for these people one cannot simply speak simply of
brotherhood.  One must have the truth come out, one must have JUSTICE.

When the Chinese revolutionaries won in '49, poor peasants had "think
bitterness" meetings where they talked about and denounced - and worse - the
local landlords.  They needed these meetings for their mental health and so
they could hold their heads up.  I would like to see the producers of racist
movies/TV paraded in their underwear with dunce hats through black
neighborhoods.

In Yugoslavia, the Serbs, basically a peasant people, were brutally
mistreated by the Ottomons, the AustroHungarians, the Naxzi's, the
Fasacist-Clerical regime in Croatia, Bosnian Islamists and fascist Albanians.
Unfortunatly the Albanian and Croatian fascists had a big base of support.
These crimes went unpunished.  There was no national exposure and mourning;.
Huge resources should have been put into de-nazification.  But Tito refused
to have this out in the open.  The most horrible symbol of his refusal was
the cementing of the mountain crevaces where the bodies of entire villages of
Serbs were hurled during the war by Croatians.  THis COVERUP had tragic
consequences. It told the fascists and their sympathizers: the anti-racists
have no teeth.  It allowed racism to be taughtthough not in the open form
that existed in WWII, at least not for a nukmber of years.

The communists said: "Let's have brotherhood and unity." Instead of saying:
"Let's tell the truth about what happened, punish the active participants,
have a massive re-education campaign to combat the teachings of (for
instance) the fascist preists who controlled education in Croatia and who
RAISED a whole generation which then - became citizens of socialist
Yugoslavia. ?!?

The Serbs bought the "let's have brotherhood" line because they wanted it
desperately. They  have paid dearly.Hopefully other movements will learn
from this: the social question cannot be solved absent justice.

Socialist often say "Only socialist revolution can solve problems like
racism."  NO NO NO.  Only a movement that sees racism as a life and death
matter can produce social change that really transforms human life.  Which is
another way of saying that the understanding of real men and women is
decisive; without changing that, whatever else happens with the forces and
relations of production, you can end up with what we now have in Kosovo,
which is fascism.

best regards,
jared Israel