Re: [Marxism] Kosova and the right of nations to self-determination | Links

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:29:24 -0500 Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Jim Farmelant wrote:
> >For those people who assert the right of self-determination
> >as a fundamental principle, what do they think of
> >the right of Southern states to secede from the
> >United States back in the 1860s? If they
> >didn't have such a right, why not?
> 
> And let's not forget that the Nazis were always raising a stink 
> about 
> oppressed German minorities. Should socialists have backed the right 
> 
> of Sudetenland to be free from Czech rule?

The worst part of this, is that there was considerable
truth in Hitler's words.  Woodrow Wilson's principle
of national self-determination was especially unworkable
when applied to eastern and central Europe, where you
had peoples of varied nationalities and ethnicities,
all living together  cheek-by-jowel.  Any proposed
new states would necessarily contain national or
ethnic minorities, which in turn could claim the
right to secession on the basis of their alleged right
to national self-determination, in a never ending
process.  The creation of new states at 
Versailles was therefore necessarily done in a quite
arbritrary manner.

The Sudetenland Germans did indeed have
legitimate beefs with the the Czechoslovak
government, which were then adroitly exploited
by the Nazis.  Presumably, the proper response
by socialists would have been to urge the
Sudetenland Germans to seek the redress of
their grievences within the framework of
Czechoslovakia, rather than to seek to break up
that country.

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