Louis wrote: > >Yes, the same thing was true of Nicaragua. The Sandinistas acted in a >racist manner toward the Miskitus, who they intended to "civilize". The >problem is that the Miskitus then got used as pawns by US imperialism. As >far as the Kosovars are concerned, I am afraid that the character of the >movement in the 1980s had very few progressive possibilites. It was >inspired by the desire to have a racially and religiously pure republic. >The central government struggled to raise the Kosovars to the same level of >the rest of the republic, but as often happens, the inability to >immediately resolve inequality only led to more unrest. The same thing >happened in the US among the black community in the 1960s, but with a more >progressive dynamic. Here is an article that illustrates the good-faith >intentions of the central government, but the obstacles that stood in the way: To their credit, the Sandinistas recognized their error and tried to correct it, but the damage was largely done. The analogy here is the damage in Kosovo was done by failing to carry through the early promise of the Yugoslvian revolution, and now may be compounded by socialists elsewhere who fail to support the *principle* of self-determination in Kosovo asnd elsewhere. I don't know enough to cite detailed evidence, but I think your statement that the Kosova nationalist movement "was inspired by the desire to have a racially and religiously pure republic" is slander. What is your evidence for this? I think the implication they were fighting for an Islamic republic is particularly dubvious, and perhaps an example of what I argued against in an earlier post about how "Islamic fundamentalism" is often a reactionary description. Even the CSM article you appended described opposition to social service cutbacks, unemployment and the like - which were part and parcel of the resort to market mechanisms, reliance on imperialism and so on. As always, national and social demands are mixed up togeather. Bill Burgess
