SSP's Murray Smith on the national Question in Western Europe (was Re: [Marxism] Re: National questions and 'national questions')

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.redflag.org.uk/frontline/eleven/11nq.html

Richard Fidler wrote:
> I share much of Philip Ferguson's skepticism about the justification for and 
> progressive
> potential of Scottish nationalism, as I have indicated in previous posts to 
> this list. On
> the other hand, it is heartening to see the progress of the SSP, which I think 
> is only
> partly explained by its support of an independent Scotland. The case for 
> Scottish
> oppression by England is not persuasive, and in fact few Scottish nationalists 
> (and no one
> in the SSP to my knowledge) even attempt to make it. Scottish disaffection with 
> the
> English union is a product of regional alienation, as Philip explains, and not 
> national
> oppression, although the putative existence of a Scottish nation gives it a 
> national
> expression.
>
> Phil is also correct, in my view, to note the role of Croatia and Slovenia, the 
> relatively
> developed parts of Yugoslavia, in fostering Kosova nationalist resentment by 
> refusing to
> contribute to the development of the relatively underdeveloped regions of the 
> country.
> This has been documented by many authors, ranging from the liberal Susan 
> Woodward (Balkan
> Tragedy) to the Marxist Catherine Samary (Yugoslavia Dismembered). Essentially, 
> what this
> reflected was the evolution of a Stalinist bureaucratic ruling caste into an 
> increasingly
> self-conscious class of would-be capitalists eager to strike deals with European
> imperialist powers in the wake of the collapse of Titoism and subsequently of 
> the Soviet
> Union.
>
> But none of this negates my point, which I make in opposition to Louis Proyect's
> trivialization of the Kosova national question, that it was precisely this 
> failure to
> address the actually existing national question in Kosova that gave imperialism 
> the
> pretext and the means to foster and exploit secessionist tendencies and the 
> KLA. It is not
> a question of "making a fetish of self-determination" but rather an object 
> lesson in the
> dangers of ignoring the need for strenuous measures to overcome national 
> inequality,
> however it is expressed and whatever the forms taken by the struggle against it.
>
> This, of course, is not intended as an argument in favour of anti-Serb 
> nationalism, still
> less of the imperialist intervention in Yugoslavia.
>
> Richard Fidler
>
>
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