(22/11/1997) Nell'occasione delle elezioni che si tengono questo fine settimana nella Republika Srpska (Repubblica Serba di Bosnia, una delle due "entita'" in cui e' divisa la ex Repubblica Federata di Bosnia ed Erzegovina secondo il piano di Dayton) giriamo a tutti gli iscritti alla nostra mailing list il seguente breve articolo, che abbiamo ricevuto nei giorni scorsi dai compagni della Corrente Leninista Internazionale, ispiratori tra l'altro della manifestazione contro la NATO a Belgrado del 18 ottobre scorso. L'articolo si riferisce tra l'altro agli episodi di agosto e settembre a Brcko, quando contro le forze di occupazione dello SFOR, che tentavano di occupare stazioni di polizia e trasmittenti radiotelevisive nel quadro di una operazione ben piu' vasta di delegittimazione del governo e del parlamento a favore della presidentessa della Repubblica Biljana Plavsic, si e' scatenata l'ira di migliaia di persone che hanno reagito innalzando barricate e lanciando sassi contro i militari stranieri (cfr. anche "il manifesto" di fine agosto). __________________________________________________________ Date: Sat, 01 Nov 1997 15:44:01 +0100 From: RKL Subject: ilc_communique_1_demo_belgrade (...) International Leninist Current (ILC) Communique No 1 (available in English, Spanish, German and Serbocroat) ILC Permanent Burau c/o RKL PF 325, A-1060 Wien Austria Tel / Fax +43/1/504 00 10 e-mail: ilc@comports.com (...) _______________________________________________________ Nato coup d'etat has failed so far (Article published in Klassenkampf No 50, October 1997) ------------------------------------------------------- Since the destruction of Yugoslavia by the western imperialist powers, the Serbian population of Bosnia has been fighting for its self-determination. In this struggle the people cannot find another leadership than that around Karadzic. But the massive support for Karadzic and Krajisnik annoys the imperialists intensely. With economic, political and above all military means they are working hard to overthrow the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) and thus smash the mass resistance. * Looking back at the past The Federation of Yugoslavia, emerging from a proletarian revolution , granted equal rights to all cultural, religious and ethnic groups and thus made their peaceful and multi-cultural co-existence possible. In order to destroy the anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist achievements of Yugoslavia and to restore capitalist exploitation, the secession of Croatia and Bosnia was pressed ahead, in particular by the German imperialists. It is obvious that Croatian nationalism was helped - in the late 80ies - by Serbian nationalism fuelled by the Belgrade leadership. However, the nationalist-capitalist aggression originated in Croatia. Under the pretext of national self-determination capitalism was restored in Croatia and the Serbs - one third of the population - were denied the right to self-determination. Eventually this led to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Serbs. The events in Bosnia that were to follow were similar. The Serbian uprising is therefore no nationalist aggression, but the democratic defence of the right to national self-determination which - facing the overall support of imperialism for the aggressors, necessarily had to assume an anti-imperialist character. It is obvious that in the multi-cultural Yugoslavia the secession of Croatia and Bosnia as "ethnically" legitimated states necessarily led to enormous displacements of the population, that is to say expulsions. If the Croatian aggressors claim the right to national self-determination, it is not surprising that the Serbian defenders mount resistance in the name of this very right. * The role of Karadzic's SDS The nationalist-capitalist attack on Yugoslavia took place at the time of a powerful international counter-revolutionary wave whose most characteristic element was the decline of the communist movement. Facing those international circumstances as well as the decay of the Titoist Yugoslavia, the Serbian masses in defence neither had a combative communist leadership nor were they able to develop one. Consequently, the leadership of the mass uprising fell into the hands of nationalists. It is beyond doubt that Karadzic's SDS has been formed around capitalist war profiteers and finds its place in the tradition of bourgeois nationalism. Its anti-Western stand is not an inherent anti-imperialist attitude but the result of the pressure of the political and military mass movement against the imperialist aggression. This pressure forces them to take that position. There is no doubt that they will grasp any opportunity to compromise with imperialism if their leading role is in danger. * Nato putsch attempt Imperialism strives for the destruction of the resistance against the extension of its rule, the resistance being represented by the Republika Srbska (RS). But an open military attack would lead to a war on a large scale and would set the Balkans on fire. Therefore imperialism triggered the splitting up of the Pale regime, which was successful as Bilijana Plavsic changed sides. But for the time being she still has got important parts of the state apparatus against her. Only with the help of the open intervention of Nato troops, who disarmed police forces loyal to Pale and conquered transmitting facilities (or where not possible interfered with transmissions)., imperialism has been able, for the time being, to take the Western part of the RS under its control. The reaction of the masses against this attack - led and organised by the SDS - was strong. The transmitting facilities and the police station occupied by the Sfor were attacked with sticks and stones. Eventually, the confrontation culminated in the attempt of the Nato to take control of the corridor of Brcko, the strategic link and eye of a needle between the Western and Eastern parts of the RS. Facing this open rebellion, the Nato troops had to withdraw and for a short period even had to leave Brcko. The Eastern part of the RS is therefore still under the control of the SDS. On September 9, the SDS of Krajisnik tried once again to gain control of Banja Luka and the Western part. In the course of an election rally banned by Plavsic the regime should be overthrown. The entire Pale leadership moved to Banja Luka and mobilised hundreds of cars and busses. It deployed its special units in plain clothes to the town. But this counter-coup failed - not because of the resistance of the population as the Western media try to tell us, but because of the tacit military intervention of the Sfor, which stopped the buses and reinforced the military power of the Plavsic units decisively. So the stalemate between Banja Luka and Pale persists. * Anti-imperialist solidarity Imperialism is trying to gain complete control of Bosnia with the help of the Nato. Thereby it violates all the democratic rights it pretends to fight for. It basically negates the right to self-determination for the Serbian population! Furthermore, the Nato intervention serves as a training camp for the "New Nato". The multinational rapid deployment troops are being trained to smash any resistance against imperialist exploitation and oppression in every part of the world in order to suffocate any revolutionary blaze immediately. Every real democrat, let alone anti-imperialist, communist and revolutionary must support the Serbian resistance against imperialism. That means we have to fight against the anti-Serbian propaganda of the mass media, we have to mobilise against the imperialist intervention and we have to defend the right to national self-determination which expresses itself today in the RS. The fact that Karadzic's SDS is no democratic, let alone communist movement, should not stop us from supporting the resistance movement. All over the world, the anti-imperialist resistance has predominantly anti-communist leaderships at present. The struggle to transform all forms of this resistance into a revolutionary communist resistance against imperialism can only be fought successfully with and within the mass struggle but not in opposition to it. Vienna, September 20, 1997