Re: hurray for Slobo-Mladic-Karadzic, heroes of the working class

[David Quarter <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ quoted text clipped ]


Date sent:      Tue, 14 Oct 2003 02:54:19 -0700 (PDT)
From:           John Mellor <durrutti2003@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject:        hurray for Slobo-Mladic-Karadzic, heroes of the working class
To:             marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Send reply to:  marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


John Mellor wrote:

David Q.
> suggested that I read 'emperor's-clothes' if I wished
> to educate myself; I'd prefer to read a few dozen
> books on Yugoslavia>>>>ich I've done, and speak with
> numerous people from that country, than to read a
> website that has very strange and reactionary
> positions on a number of issues.


You write that you've read "a few dozen books on Yugoslavia", which i
would gather from your remarks you consider 'reliable', although you neither
cite the names of these books nor their authors. So I am only left guessing
as to which "reliable books" you're referring to and whether any of the these
books contains  information that may shed light on the earlier points  you
raised  on Screbrenica and concerning Milosevic's guilt yet are (seemingly)
reluctant to defend. I doubt any do, but perhaps I am mistaken. In any
case, I did take a year long college course on balkan's history, which
covered the recent balkan wars, so I suspect that I have probably come
across some, if not, most of the "few dozen books on Yugoslavia" that you
refer to or at least glimpsed over this material. I suspect that the books you
refer to  are from the recent genre of material written on the Balkans. I too
have read books from this period, including the following: "Blood and
Vegeance", Chuck Sudetic, " Kosovo: A Short History", Noel Malcom, and
"The Serbs", Tim Judah.

 I have also read or glimped over sections of books about Yugoslavia
written_ before_ Tito's death, i.e., before the west had a stake in breaking
up the republic, and some of which were written right after ww2. In the
process, I compared the evidence presented by the two sets of authors --
the ealier to the later ones.  What I found is that the later books (i.e., those
written in the last decade) generally downplay the pattern of genocide
perpetrated against the Serbs (as well as the Romas and the Jews) during
the ww2, whereas  books written before Tito's death highlight this pattern. In
fact, some of the authors of the later genre of books even argue that the
Albanians and Bosnians -- who played an active role in the fascist
movement that perpetrated the genocide -- suffered worse atrocities under
the Nazis than the Serbs (and the Romas and the Jews)! On the other
hand, when evidence is presented at all of Serbian suffering by the authors
of the later books,  it is argued that is somehow the reason behind the rise
of Serb nationalism and therefore for igniting the recent balkan wars. In
reality, the (modern) surge in Croat and muslim nationalism and fanaticism
in the balkans dates back to the 70s and 80s, i.e., during Tito's reign, and
therefore manifested itself well before the supposed nationalistic surge  in
Serbia. Moreover, many of the same individuals  responsible for
dessminating  nationalist and extremist literature at that time, most notably
Tujdman of Croatia and Aliza Izt.[spelling] of Bosnia, lead their respective
separatist movements in the 90s. This_ fact_ is well documented at the
emperors clothes and Spreska websites, who cite most of their info on
yugoslavia from western sources, which _is why_ I mentioned them in the
first place.

 Most of the books written in the last decade also argue that the Serbs
played a tiny, insignificant role in the Yugoslav anti fascist resistance
during WW2, which is patently false, or that the demographic make up of
the resistance movement was spread out evenly between the various
(ethnic) factions. This last point again contrasts sharply with information
provided on the resistance movement by the earlier authors. Finally, if there
is reason enough_ to be suspect_ of the evidence presented in the later
books, it' s that_not one of the authors_ notes the role that western
capitalism played in the break up of Yugoslavia.

 I also did a check on the sources used by authors of the later books (i.e.,
books written in the last decade by both western academics and [ more
often] western "journalists" including the books cited above), and compared
 them to the titles of the earlier books. What I found is that they were
generally the same. In other words, the earlier authors  pulled a lot of their
information from the_older material, which makes again believe that the
later writers are  perpetatrating a fraud.

DOQ





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