27.07.1995

Revenge bombing

HE WEST’S attempt to contain the civil war in Bosnia has shown the imperialist powers - which many on the left demand action from - in perhaps their most cynical light. France’s secret bombing of Pale was a pure act of revenge for the Serb hostage-taking with little concern for the damage its weapons of mass destruction could wreak. Britain is already threatening the same type of unilateral initiative.

Nato allies are now preparing their combined force to ‘protect’ what is left of UN safe areas. But all are reluctant to throw themselves fully into the fray.

The imperialist powers are incapable of running their own territories humanely, let alone far away lands - especially as colonialism is, fortunately, out of fashion. However, indirect rule via economic pressure through the World Bank and Stock Exchange speculation brings everyone to heel in the long run. Imperialism does not need direct political rule while it can run everything through the neo-colonial economic system.

It was the ‘triumph’ of economics that brought about the collapse of Yugoslavia into warring ethnic groups. Bosnia is not a civilised attempt to maintain multi-ethnic harmony. It is a reactionary capitalist fiefdom that does not represent any working class interest. Any attempts to confine the ‘Bosnian Serbs’ against their will within this statelet only serves to institutionalise ethnic hatred and make the region a playground for imperialist rivalries.

The left needs to realise that the attempt to build a multi-ethnic state in Yugoslavia has failed for the time being. Socialists need to argue for the rights of all small nations to secede as a basis for rebuilding trust, so that the peoples can come together voluntarily, not at the point of a bayonet. This includes the Serbs in Bosnia, the Albanians in Kosovo and - remembering how all the state borders in the Balkans were drawn after World War I to appease great power rivalries - the Hungarians in Romania, the Slovaks in Hungary, etc, etc.

Arthur Lawrence