Counter-revolutionary
developments in Yugoslavia
Struggle continues
despite setback in Belgrade
By
Sara Flounders
and John Catalinotto
Faced
with enormous pressure from the United States and its NATO allies, a demonstration
of 200,000 people in Belgrade demanding that he step down, and violent attacks
by smaller organized paramilitary units, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
resigned Oct. 6.
These
events pose two questions of vital importance for the working-class, anti-war
and progressive movements around the
world.
The
first is: Which side are you on? Was this a people's victory, as the corporate
media claim, or a setback for the working class in Yugoslavia and
worldwide?
The
second question determines the outcome of this ongoing struggle: Which class
will control the state--that is, the army, the police, the laws and the courts?
Will the international capitalist class that controls the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund, the big investment banks and the multinational
corporations also control all the levers of economic and political life in
Yugoslavia?
The
mass demonstration gave the developments the appearance of a revolutionary
uprising. But it was a false appearance, for the event was a NATO-backed
counter-revolutionary coup that is still incomplete and can be
resisted.
NATO
leaders cheer
Kostunica
The
most obvious indication of the character of what happened came from the leaders
of the NATO countries that carried out the brutal 11-week bombing campaign
against Yugoslavia last year. The wild cheering by U.S. President Bill Clinton,
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his Green Party Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer
should clarify the significance of last week's events for anyone who thought
that the vote for Vojislav Kostunica or the upheaval in Belgrade was a victory
for
democracy.
Drunk
with their apparent success and anxious to take credit for it, politicians from
Washington to Berlin are now bragging about their organized efforts to overturn
the Milosevic government.
Here
are some examples:
"Oct.
7 (Reuters)--Germany said on Saturday it had supported the Yugoslav opposition
with millions of marks in financial aid.
"Norway
also said it had helped fund the Yugoslav opposition's election campaign, which
led to victory by opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica and soon afterwards to
the overthrow of strongman President Slobodan
Milosevic.
"[The
German weekly] Der Spiegel said around $30 million, mostly from the United
States, was channeled through an office in Budapest.
"Another
45 million marks ($20 million) from Germany and other Western states went to
cities that were under opposition control. Der Spiegel said the Foreign Ministry
sent around 17 million marks through 16 German towns, which also
contributed."
"Oct.
9 (Agence France Presse)--The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff,
General Henry Shelton, praised Bulgaria on Monday for helping bring about the
downfall of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic."
Their
tactics included pumping tens of millions of dollars into opposition parties in
a starving economy distorted by eight years of sanctions. Behind this were open
military threats to use NATO bombs and troops stationed in surrounding countries
if Milosevic won, and well-advertised promises to end the sanctions and begin an
era of peace and prosperity if Kostunica was
elected.
Kostunica
is a minor anti-communist politician and professor of constitutional law backed
by 18 small and completely divergent parties that Washington cobbled together
into the "Democratic Opposition of Serbia" with funds and arm-twisting.
Kostunica ran on the economic program of the Group of 17, drafted by economists
in Yugoslavia who work for the IMF and World Bank. Their "solutions" for
Yugoslavia involve ending free medical care and all subsidies for rent, food and
transportation.
They
would transform the whole economy, with most industries rapidly privatized and
the profitable ones sold cheaply to foreign investors. Even in far more
prosperous economies, this shock treatment has resulted in massive
layoffs.
One
can look at how the living standards for the workers of Yugoslavia's neighbors,
Romania and Bulgaria, plummeted after they opened their economies to the
imperialist banks and followed IMF
rules.
But
that seems to be exactly what Kostunica's forces have in mind. Reuters reported
Oct. 10 that DOS economist Miroljub Labus said the IMF would allow Yugoslavia
into the fold by Dec. 14 if the opposition forms its government
soon.
Role
of the Socialist
Party
Despite
many concessions and compromises, Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia has
struggled to maintain the independence of Yugoslavia. This earned it the
animosity of imperialist reaction worldwide. For 10 years the U.S. and European
Union imperialists made every possible effort to dismember the Yugoslav
Socialist Federation and wipe out even the memory of this multinational
state--while the SPS and its partner, the Yugoslav United Left,
resisted.
The
corporate media demonized Milosevic, calling him a dictator. But he and his
party were elected to their leadership role in Yugoslavia, won respect for
leading the heroic Yugoslav people during the 11 weeks of fighting NATO
aggression, and defended the Yugoslav economy from imperialist
penetration.
It's
true that the SPS lost the active support of the working class, its original
base. The party has so far been unable to mobilize street demonstrations to
defend itself while under attack. Still, Milosevic won 2 million votes and the
SPS still legally leads important parliamentary bodies, including the Federal
Yugoslav and Serb
parliaments.
But
it would be foolish to believe that Washington and its clients in Yugoslavia
will limit their tactics to parliamentary
legality.
Battle
for state
power
In
a period of peaceful competition and discussion, the 18 DOS parties backing
Kostunica would rapidly split apart. Kostunica is a monarchist and Serb
nationalist, while other parties in the coalition are anti-monarchist and fight
for independence for the provinces of Vojvodina and Sandja from
Serbia.
In
addition, any long period of peaceful political competition would prove
Kostunica's economic program a bigger disaster for the Yugoslav workers than the
sanctions. And the inevitable evaporation of Yugoslav and Serb sovereignty would
outrage many of his current
supporters.
That's
why Washington and its agents are switching rapidly to extralegal methods to
take over the whole state apparatus. They have targeted essential government
ministries, especially state security, police and banking, and the entire media
apparatus, while violently attacking the SPS and other left
parties.
In
the elections the Socialist Party and the United Left won control of both houses
of the Federal Parliament. Under the Yugoslav Constitution, Parliament is
legally more important than the presidency, a figurehead position. Even more
influential is the left-led Serb Parliament, which the DOS government has now
maneuvered into calling new elections for
December.
The
imperialist strategists are pushing to move quickly to command the whole state,
which also means purging the leadership of the police and destroying the
Yugoslav Army, which is rooted in the 1945 socialist revolution and the
anti-Nazi Partisan struggle.
Without
an armed apparatus to defend themselves, the people and especially the workers
of Yugoslavia will be at the mercy of the imperialist bankers and
industrialists, who have NATO forces in Kosovo and surrounding countries and
their own agents in
Belgrade.
Imperialism's
extralegal
gangs
The
anti-Milosevic gangs have also attacked left parties and government centers.
Velimir Ilic, the mayor of Cacac and a deserter who refused to cooperate with
the Yugoslav Army during last year's resistance to NATO, boasted to the New York
Times that he organized anti-Milosevic commandos.
Ilic
said: "We established a team of young professionals, paratroopers from the
Yugoslav Army and young policemen, and we coordinated this with the most elite
units of the Interior Ministry Police in Belgrade. We got martial arts experts
and professional boxers to join us. We even had plainclothes police coordinating
with nearby
towns."
Ilic
told Agence France-Presse he had 2,000 people and that some were armed. "A
number of us had bulletproof vests and arms," he said. "Our goal was very clear,
take control of the key institutions of the regime, including parliament and the
television." He didn't say if they were paid, and if so, where he got the money.
But he claimed his forces, dressed in police uniforms, opened Parliament and
sowed confusion in the police ranks. Inside, he introduced his gang to Zoran
Djindjic, Kostunica's campaign manager.
According
to Michel Collon, correspondent of the Belgian weekly Solidaire reporting from
Belgrade, Djindjic coordinated the attacks on Parliament and Serbian television.
Djindjic used threats and pressure against journalists to take over the major
public television, radio and print media, including the daily newspaper
Politika.
Djindjic's
gangsters also vandalized and wrecked the Belgrade headquarters of the SPS and
the smaller New Communist Party of Yugoslavia shortly after the seizure of
Parliament. In addition, homes of SPS activists have been burned in and near
Belgrade, and there have been even more serious incidents in the
provinces.
The
struggle
continues
On
Oct. 10, the DOS leadership made an agreement with the Socialist People's Party
of Montenegro to make that party's leader, Pedrag Bulatovic, the new premier in
the Federal Parliament of Yugoslavia. Bulatovic said his party, which had been
aligned with Milosevic's SPS, wanted to form a government with the DOS which
"balances political forces in the federal parliament."
Another
dozen paragraphs would be needed to explain all the possible parliamentary
maneuvering. But this is really secondary. Washington and its agents will use
every kind of pressure on individuals, political parties and the population as a
whole to keep peaceful democratic competition from reversing its
counter-revolution.
Collon
and other reporters in Belgrade have noted that the population was disgusted by
the burning of Parliament and the other violence. "Even the Kostunica supporters
say they voted for a better life, not for revenge." But if the police and army
withdraw from keeping order, only the active organization of the left can defend
its
positions.
Yugoslavia's
defense minister, Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, urged the SPS to rally. In an open
letter, Ojdanic warned the Serbs might otherwise face extinction as a people. He
said that "disunity among the Serbs is inciting the plans of our proven enemies"
to occupy the country, referring to NATO's ties to the
DOS.
Here
in the United States it's important first that the left understand that what
happened Oct. 5-6 was a setback for the workers and for Yugoslavia's
sovereignty. What is called for is active solidarity with those in Yugoslavia
who continue to resist these counter-revolu tionary developments, whether they
be in the SPS, the other left parties, the unions, or the army and the
police.
Imperialism
has ripped and clawed its way into a position of considerable power in
Yugoslavia today. But the struggle continues.
The
writers were organizers of this year's June 10 International War Crimes Tribunal
in New York that exposed U.S./NATO crimes during
the
78-day bombing of Yugoslavia.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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