Fascists versus Fascists

Bottom line:
Sometimes the word "fascist" is misused, or tossed about in a casual
way. But it is entirely appropriate to use that term to describe the
behavior of both the KLA leaders and the Serb leaders.

But, one does not know whether to be angered or amused at the sudden
interest in supposed humanitarianism by the forces of U.S. imperialism
and the remarkable gullibility of those among the general public who
support the NATO action  More ridiculous are the comments of those who
declare the the blood of innocent ethnic Albanians is on the hands of
those who do not support the NATO air strikes.

Over the past months in Ethiopia, there has been a malaria epidemic
which has killed 10,000 or more people. (This is a separate issue from
the war also going on there.) Those 10,000 constitute a number quite a
bit higher than the number of ethnic Albanians killed by the Serbian
military forces. They are dying because an ethnic-chauvinist government
has cut health care in certain regions, closed clinics, etc., partly
because of their ethnic chauvinist policies, and partly because they
need to "save money" to pay back the IMF because of the conditions
imposed by the Structural Adjustment Programs. 10,000. That's a lot of
dead people. Lots of children. Perhaps NATO should send in medical
personnel to southern Ethiopia instead of bombing Belgrade. It would
save lots of lives. Perhaps NATO should demand that the central
government of Ethiopia STOP KILLING THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE by neglect, and
if the government doesn't do it, perhaps NATO should bomb the government
to either force them to take care of the dying people or force them out
of power. Do we say that blood is on the hands of everyone who reads
this message and then does not demand NATO intervention in Ethiopia?
This only sounds far-fetched if you buy into the typical capitalist way
of counting victims--only counting the victims who are shot by the
enemy, never counting the far greater number of victims either shot by
the imperialists' allies or silently killed by the misery of every day
life.

How many hundreds of thousands died in Central Africa as the U.S. and
France (sometimes allies, sometimes competitors) used Tutsi and Hutu
proxies in a war for control of that region. The Guatemalan regime
killed 200,000 people, nearly all civilians, with the active support of
the U.S. government.

And the logic of supporting NATO would also be the logic of supporting
bombing the U.S., actively calling for the bombing of the U.S. during
the Vietnam War.  Anyone on this list care to advocate that?

The pictures on television of innocent ethnic Albanian civilians driven
from their homes are very distressing. But one wonders if there will be
pictures of the 200,000 Serbs who will have to leave Kosovo if the KLA
wins. The KLA isn't exactly the Sesame Street Citizens' Safety Patrol,
having killed their share of civilians, though much less in number than
those killed by the Serbian forces so far. But if we react each time to
those pictures, sometimes real, often stage-managed, we will continue to
be manipulated by the forces of one or another imperialism. We ought to
know better than that.

---------------
As another side point:

As someone who believes that Marxist analysis provides a very useful
general framework for evaluating situations such as this, I would have
to say that some of the confusion in some of the debates is the
responsibility of some "marxian" analysis. Specifically, Lenin, in
particular, popularized the concept of "self-determination" because he
believed that nationalist struggles against imperialism could militarily
weaken imperialism and help defeat capitalism. He never had any illusion
that nationalism as an ideology was progressive, but he did think that
nationalist struggles could weaken the enemy. Nearly one hundred years
later, however, we have the experience of now capitalist Algeria,
Vietnam, India and a hundred other countries -- living testimony to the
reality that militarily fighting against one imperialist is not
automatically virtuous, especially if a different imperialist is backing
the nationalist movement. Theoretically, "self-determination" was ALWAYS
plagued by a reliance on pro-capitalist, idealist abstractions that are
contrary to world egalitarianism ("communism" in the original meaning
that Marx expressed.) How is it decided? If Kosovo becomes independent
and a fundamentalist regime is established that denies women their
rights, do leftists, progressives, and Marxists say: "Well, we supported
you yesterday, but today we don't." after providing them with the
political support that bolstered the NATO bombing.  And if the 200,000
Serbs want to carve a region out of Islamic Kosovar, should that be
supported by the advocates of "self-determination?"  And if an Albanian
village of 5,000 in the now independent Serbian region inside Albanian
Kosovo wants to secede from the Serbian region, is that supported in the
name of "self-determination." And if a Romani (formerly called "gypsy")
settlement of 500 wants to secede from the 5,000, what then?

This is not to make light of the struggle against imperialism. And this
is not to make light of the victims. But rather, this is to make even
Marxists aware that their/our compromises with capitalism in the past
and present come back to haunt us and the rest of the working class. And
the concept of "self-determination" is such a compromise. As an African
leftist said to me once: "I don't see anything Marxist in the concept of
self-determination. Look at it. It says "SELF, SELF". What is
egalitarian about "SELF?"

Of course we should continue to oppose imperialism with every ounce of
energy we can summon. And we should continue to expose the machinations
of the corporations and governments and understand and expose how it is
tied into the structural contradictions of capitalism.  But that does
not mean that we support someone because they wrap themselves in the
flag of self-determination, whether it is the Kosovars or the Kurds,
(both of whom are oppressed.) Oppose the oppression, work to destroy the
capitalism that creates this, but that does not mean one must support
the nationalist leaders and that certainly does not mean that one should
support the biggest murderers of all, NATO and U.S. imperialism, as they
take sides with one group of nationalists against another.


Alan Spector