Dave B writes in reply to John W in Manchester: >In response to John; >1. Dual defensism? Defense against imperialism takes priority. But >Kosovars should defend themselves also against any Serb oppression. Right. Note that the Serb regime represents on the one hand an oppressed nation being attacked by imperialism (like Iraq) and on the other an oppressor nation with a clear record of fascist Master Race (in this case Greater Serb) claims over and against other nations. The one doesn't cancel out the other. (Compare under 2, where we can understand what's happening better if we remember the Chinese experience of resisting Japanese imperialism in a united front with the fascist butcher Chiang Kai-Shek -- not a popular front and not a situation where defence against imperialism required ignoring Chiang's butchery within the borders of his nation. It's not too great a strain to realize that the class independence required in China is a clear analogy to the national independence required in regard to Kosova and its need for self-determination. If Chiang (in the present case Milosevic) fails to make the struggle against imperialism his highest priority, the mobilized people should be able to dump him for treason.) >We hope that multiethnic militias can stop Serb oppression and unite >workers against imperialism. Is this consistent with reality? Well, >what else is? The 'reality' of today has been imperialism's revival >of old ethnic differences. Only the united working class can overcome >these differences in a new 'reality' of socialist federations. This is the weak, because relatively abstract, bit of Dave's argument. He abstracts from the reality of a growing popular mobilization on the part of the Kosovars that is led by a concrete organization, the KLA. He ignores the dynamic development of this group -- forgetting the ubiquity of arms in Albania after the uprising last year, and the pressures on a weak minority leadership of a great influx of young and oppressed men. Maybe the imperialist ties will win out in the absence of an explicit Trotskyist leadership so far, but the sitting KLA leadership fucked up by signing the Rambouillet cop-out which denied self-determination to Kosova and practically ordered the KLA to disarm. This treacherous accord has now been disowned by whoever's leading the KLA now, for the obvious reason that things are developing by the logic of social forces in historical movement, not just the plans laid out in the chancelleries of the imperialist powers. And the social forces in movement in Kosova (and stirring a little in Serbia) are those of first national liberation and second social justice (in terms of consciousness that is, in terms of historical clout the opposite holds -- no national justice without social justice ie workers' democracy to guarantee it). >2. Communist 'rhetoric'. John should know that communists must >have a programme for all situations. In this situation it is the >anti-imperialist united front. I might be located in NZ but the >international tendency I belong to is spread over a number of >countries. I agree that communists in oppressor countries have a >first duty to mobilise their working class against NATO. But we also >have to spell out the ABC's of communist leadership in oppressed >countries as well. Otherwise workers will fall into the trap of >popular fronts with their bourgeoisies. Exactly. And underlying this is the theory of the Permanent Revolution, in which the working class must realize what social power is latent in democratic demands such as national liberation and make sure they support these demands to the hilt while maintaining class independence and a capacity to construct workers' solutions to the deeper social problems caused by capitalist oppression so that the democratic problems not only get addressed and vindicated, but also find a lasting because non-bourgeois solution. >3. Most of the left is correct in giving unconditional support to >Yugoslavia. Those who put conditions on this either by opposing >Milosovic or supporting the KLA are offering a helping hand to NATO. The KLA is no limiting factor on the ability of Serbia to defend itself from NATO's aggression. The Serbian forces in Kosova are not defending Kosova or the Kosovars against anything, they're occupying it, violating it and slaughtering the people. If the Milosevic regime was in the least interested in focusing on the battle against NATO imperialism, it would immediately change its policy in Kosova, tell both the Serbs and the Kosovars what all this is really about, arm the Kosovars and offer its help to keep the imperialists out of Kosova. It would also arm the Serbian people and help them democratize the defensive battle against NATO. They would be able to immediately repel a dozen times more effectively any attacks against their factories, bridges, water supplies etc. NATO is already making a shocking balls-up of the propoganda battle as it is. Just imagine how it would crumble if the Serbian working people took over the fight and started telling European and American workers the truth. All this discussion slamming the Kosovars and their armed struggle for self-determination is a bit sick. If the Yugoslavs had listened to it during WW2 they would have cuddled up to Stalin because this kind of one-dimensional either/or crap is his hallmark. They would have been butchered and the Yugoslav revolution would never have succeeded. Neither, along similar lines, would the Chinese revolution. They would have gone the same way as the Spanish, Greek and (the less well-developed but nonetheless similar) Italian revolutions. Our war is on two fronts and always has been. On the one hand against the imperialist bourgeoisie and its direct representatives, and on the other against all kinds of treacherous non-revolutionary leaderships within the democratic and workers' movements. The war is simultaneous. Bob must be schizophrenic, cos he fulminates more than anyone against the risks of popular fronts, but forgets it all and goes to pieces when the double aggression we are facing becomes manifest. But there's hope, of course. Most people can chew gum and walk at the same time, even those who have unlearned it most diligently. STOP THE BOMBING! NATO OUT OF SERBIA! NO IMPERIALIST PROTECTORATE! NATO OUT OF THE BALKANS! STOP THE GENOCIDE! SERBIA OUT OF KOSOVA! SELF-DETERMINATION FOR KOSOVA! SUPPORT THE ARMED STRUGGLE OF THE KOSOVARS AGAINST SERBIAN OPPRESSION! ARM THE WORKING PEOPLE OF SERBIA AND KOSOVA! FOR A FEDERATION OF FREE, SOCIALIST STATES IN THE BALKANS! (And turn Cook, Robertson, Jamie-boy and that petrified NATO general wotsit into a cluster bomb and drop them on to Clinton from a great height! Blair and Schroeder can be tied to a cruise missile and programmed to ram home right up Milosevic's arse. Now that would be a *smart* bomb.) Z'ivjeli, jebi ga! Hugh --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---