Today, a real just solution for Kosovo comes through the restoration
of multinational co-existence (an aspiration that unfortunately has been
lost in most part) and the full respect of the rights of all ethnic
groups and minorities, including their right to define the level of their
autonomy and self-defense.
1. “The Yugoslav crisis began in Kosovo, and it will end in Kosovo”.
This phrase that is widespread among the people of ex-Yugoslavia
indicates the significance and the tension that is encapsulated in that region.
Seventeen years after the collapse of Yugoslavia we stand before a new
episode related to Kosovo.
Unfortunately, there is no sign that a just solution can be secured in
the absence of a social dynamics that oppose nationalism and
imperialist interventions as well. The Yugoslav crisis that started in 1989 with
the violent dissolution of Kosovo autonomy is about to complete 20
years full of wars, national conflicts, rebellions but still yet many of
its pain aspects are still pending (i.e. Bosnia)
2. The imperialist forces of NATO and the European Union in 1999
launched the bombing of Serbia in the name of “human values”. This military
operation resulted in:
a. the killing of more than 2000 people in different towns of Serbia,
b. an important sector of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed,
c. there has been an increasing uprising of nationalism and Milocevic
unleashed a sweeping ethnic cleansing with the killing of thousands
Kosovars and the displacement of more than 500000 people as the
“humanitarian bombings” lasted.
Their intervention was completed with the establishment of a
protectorate whose main aim was to keep a balanced status. In the diplomatic
jargon this is called “humanitarian crisis administration”.
Kosovar people for about 10 years have survived mainly thanks to the
benevolence of the “civilized West”, who in exchange has been building
military bases in order to guarantee their interests in the whole region
of South-Eastern Europe and Middle East. Kosovo inhabitants live under
humiliating conditions and the majority of them are unemployed,
surviving thanks to the donations of their immigrant relatives.
The country is paralyzed, without basic infrastructure (e.g. continuous
distribution of electricity) and the state apparatus is totally
corrupted.
All these past years, the imperialist forces have shown no interest in
changing this situation in order to be able to steal all the productive
wealth and national resources and to implement the “reconstruction”
projects by the big multinational and Western European corporations.
3. Ten years later, US and many countries of the EU (like Germany,
France, Britain, Italy etc.) are about to complete their mission by
recognizing this fiasco-independence of Kosovo.
Actually, they create a protectorate. The “independence” of Kosovo is
fully subordinated to the plans and the pursuits of the imperialist
forces. The NATO force of about 16.000 military personnel, who have
occupied Kosovo, will remain and the EU will send EULEX that will consist of
2000 policemen, juridical and administrative staff.
The colonial-style rule of the UN will be re replaced by the
International Civilian Office; a body that will be appointed by the EU and it
will be able to exercise veto on every law that the “independent”
parliament of Kosovo will vote for.The construction of the military bases
(Bonsteel, the biggest and most luxurious base that US has ever built after
Vietnam War, and Monteith) in Kosovo does not only aim at securing the
“order” in the region but also at protecting broader interests. In
these military bases thousands of personnel can be hosted and they are not
limited only to “transitional” use.
The US shows clearly that the territory of Kosovo will be the fortress
for future interventions mainly for guaranteeing alternative oil routes
towards the West.The rest of the big powers who are against the
independence of Kosovo are not deprived of cynical attitudes and profit
interests.
Russia, who stands by Serbia, is trying to exchange its solidarity with
a monopoly contract for Russia’s Gazprom, while at the same time,
together with other countries like Spain, Canada and China, is skeptical
because the independence of Kosovo will be a bad example for the ethnic
groups and minorities that are badly oppressed at home. Today, Kosovo is
at the heart of an intra-imperialistic conflict and the people of the
Balkans have nothing to hope for from these so-called “protectors”.
4. The pursuits of the imperialists should not be identified with the
just demand of the Kosovar people for self-determination, which must be
supported by the international working class movement and all the
progressive forces. It is a fundamental right of the Kosovar population to
define their future.
The real liberation –both national and social- of the Kosovar people
can only be achieved if it is linked with the struggle for the socialist
transformation of their society and not in the frame of capitalism.The
Kosovo Albanian people have been for many years the victims of a very
oppressive, antidemocratic and racist policy. The national-liberation
movement of Kosovo Albanians is not an artificial invention of
imperialism. Its root can be traced back at the beginning of the previous
century.
The texts of the left-wing Serbian socialists (as Dimitrije Cucovic)
and revolutionary socialists (as Leon Trotsky) revealed in the most
obvious way the colonial discriminations against Kosovo Albanians. Even
after the founding of Yugoslavia and the victory of the partisans, the
national issue of the Albanian people was not resolved, although their
autonomy was typically recognized. The Kosovo Albanians became the victims
of the conflict among the Yugoslavian bureaucracy who were reluctant to
implement a policy of equality.
The demand of Kosovo Albanians to become a separate federal Republic
within the framework of the former Yugoslavia was never met. The Kosovo
Albanian people used to be the most repressive and humiliated nation of
the ex Yugoslavia.The only exception was the period 1974-1988, when
Kosovar autonomy was upgraded and they gained some rights similar to the
other republics.
The full annexation of Kosovo to Serbia took place in 1989 after the
violent abolition of the Kosovar autonomy and the military coup d’état
imposed by Milosevic. Kosovo was condemned to “apartheid”, where the use
of Albanian language was forbidden, schools and universities were shut
down, all Albanian employees in public sector were fired and a lot of
Albanians were sent to jail as political prisoners (some of them are
still there).
5. The Serbian minority, as well as other non-Albanian ethnic groups
(Roma etc.), after the bombing of NATO and the de facto secession of
Kosovo from Serbia in 1999, are under persecution.
A big part of the Serbian population escaped into Serbia or other
neighbor countries. The majority of the Serbian people have gathered in the
north part of Kosovo, in the Mitrovica region, and there are still some
enclosed ghettos in the rest of the country. This unacceptable
situation that Serbian people suffer is not just the result of some personal
revenge actions.
The government of PDK (the main Albanian party that comes from
dissolved KLA), despite its hypocritical statements on co-existence and the
respect of minority rights, has occasionally encouraged the national
tensions against the minorities aiming to the “national homogeneity”. NATO
and the rest of the imperialist forces motivated the Albanian
nationalism through their diplomatic tactics and their refusal of a clear
independence for Kosovo.
The more unsafe the Albanian nationalists feel about the independence,
the more eager they were to create a “national cleansed” state.
Additionally, the main tactics of KFOR for coping with the national tensions
in Kosovo was the division of the people across ethnic lines, through
the implementation of the notorious “decentralization plans”.
Today, a real just solution for Kosovo comes through the restoration of
multinational co-existence (an aspiration that unfortunately has been
lost in most part) and the full respect of the rights of all ethnic
groups and minorities, including their right to define the level of their
autonomy and self-defense.
6. No progress in the national issue can be achieved if at the same
time there isn’t any social evolution reflected in the consciousness of
the masses. Today, in Kosovo the conditions for a “normal social life”
are absent –even by the criteria of an average capitalist normality.
The majority of the inhabitants are obliged to survive through the
donations of the western NGOs and other organizations. The social and
political life is somewhere between an ambiguous legality and an extended
corruption. The country is about to be offered to the big corporation
groups so they can execute their “business plans” in a small “paradise” of
a cheap and over-exploited labor force.We have no trust in the
international community that can prepare and implement a plan for the
restoration of economy, production and social institutions in favor of the
public interests.
Being fully aware of the difficult situation, due to the weakness of
the organized trade-unions and the lack of political and social forces
with a class and left-wing orientation, we still insist on the necessity
of building resistance movements as the only perspective for a just
solution in Kosovo.
During the last years there has been a movement among the Kosovo
Albanians (known as Self-determination – Vetevendosje) who are against the
presence of NATO troops and they defend a program of progressive social
reforms. This movement has organized massive demonstrations against the
imperialist troops and they have been brutally suppressed by the
occupying forces (last February, two members of this movement were killed by
Romanian soldiers and many Vetevendosje activists have been arrested).
Nevertheless, their nationalist rhetoric is a big political problem.
Some initiatives that are related to the anti-globalisation movements
such as the European Social Forum and the Balkan PGA (People Global
Action) can surely play an important role. Although limited, there have
already been some networks on various themes in the Balkan region that have
managed to break the isolation and to establish a co-ordination between
different social groups.
7. In the national question, the Left must implement a politics of
principles without being dependent by the temporary and opportunist
maneuvers of the imperialist forces who act according to their profit
interests.
The starting point should be the defense of the democratic rights of
the people. All those who say that, in the name of any “primary
antithesis”, the systematic repression of a people should be ignored it is not
anything else than a by-mistake or on-purpose racist attitude against
the oppressed people.The real guarantee for the defense of the democratic
rights should be based on the fraternity of the labor masses. The task
of the Left should not stop simply at declaring the democratic
principles.
An indispensable element of a left-wing strategy should be also the
unity of the workers and oppressed masses that live in the war-zone
regions. This unity cannot be secured with a typical maintenance of Kosovo
within Serbia proper; which actually it will be a big prison for the
majority of Kosovar people.
This unity can be forged only in the ground of joint fights and
demands, where the working class and the oppressed people could understand
that their real enemies are not the national but the class ones. The
maintenance of an obscure and uncertain status in Kosovo will always be an
excuse for the nationalists, the ruling classes and the imperialists in
order to divide the working class and impose their plans more
easily.The left-wing currents should defend the independence of Kosovo –keeping
alive all their critics for the process that is followed by the
imperialist forces and the dangers that can be produced by that.
Nevertheless, the borders of the contemporary world, which in general
have been formed after the end of Second World War, are the outcome of
the imperialist division.
The adoption of these slogans from the Left means that they do not
recognize actually the right of the oppressed peoples (like the
Palestinian, the Kurds, East Timor etc.) for self-determination. But above all, it
means their full adaption to the imperialist institutions and the
abandonment of the humanist demand of the communist movement that the
rights of the oppressed people are above any law. Finally, they consider
that for “destabilization” can be equally blamed both the “oppressor” and
the “oppressed” as well.8.
Today, the fight for the Balkan Socialist Federation is still live as
the only way for an internationalist and antiwar strategy that will be
based on the best experiences of the workers and socialist movement of
the peninsula.
Against the diplomatic realism that simply legalizes the nationalist,
militarist and imperialist violence we must oppose the class unity and
solidarity of the Balkan proletarians.
The tasks of the socialists is to fight for the unity of the Balkan
people and to demand
The withdrawal of all imperialist troops from Kosovo and the whole
region of the Balkans
Recognition of the right of self-determination for Kosovar people
Equal political and legal rights for all ethnic groups and minorities
Fight back all the neoliberal plans for the “reconstruction” of the
Balkans Cancellation of all privatizations that have been occurred – Defenthepublic wealth and national resources of the Balkan countries Defend the rights of women who are the major victims of reactionary
institutions and trafficking.