Crvena inicijativa, komunistička grupa Srbiji
This year marks a quarter of a century since the NATO attack on Serbia and Montenegro. It was one of the more dramatic episodes that took place during the wartime and bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia. The imperialists took their chance by physically occupying a part of its territory with the largest NATO base at the moment.
The excuse for an intervention was stopping of an ethnic cleansing over Albanians, but arrival of NATO troops marked the beginning of expulsion of other ethnic groups from Kosovo, like Serbs, and other Slavic population, and most of all Roma.
After 25 years, Serbia is politically on the road towards so-called Euro-Atlantic integrations. The 1999 bombing was a precedent for the normalization of military attack outside the UN body, which ushered imperialism into the phase of permanent war. Just two years later, the wars in Asia began, which are still not over and left behind instability, millions of dead people and destroyed infrastructure.
The consequence of 1999 bombing is establishment of a complete political hegemony of NATO and EU structures. Anti-capitalist left in Serbia didn’t have illusions regarding the character of the Milosevic’s regimen. Its interests clashed with the interests of NATO, that is, the USA, and this itself regime led a reactionary and chauvinistic politic.
Milošević was just a well-served old ally who was sacrificed like General Noriega, Saddam Hussein, Mobutu Sese Seko and others who, after many years of cooperation, are removed if they become a threat. This is the case with Milosevic, and not some kind of anti-imperialism that he never even mentioned, until he was attacked himself.
Imperialist intervention didn’t resolve any contradiction in the process of disintegration of Yugoslavia. On the contrary, it only controls local chauvinisms which all by one serve to the same imperial center, while maintaining decades-long status of frozen conflict which keeps at a high level nationalism and national-chauvinism inside all Yugoslavian states.
In Serbia itself sentiment against NATO is at a very high level that is not decreasing, despite serious propaganda efforts that have been going on for 25 years. On the other hand, in Kosovo, in the majority Albanian community, the occupiers are still perceived as liberators. During that time, large-scale depopulation of all ethnic communities, both majority and minority, took place in Kosovo. During that time, the de facto power in Pristina is held by the American ambassador, with the help of some of his colleagues from Great Britain or Germany.
This is one of the undoubted consequences of imperialist interventions – the displacement of the population due to the lack of economic and social perspective. Because no economic infrastructure has been built in Kosovo since the war, while the old one has been destroyed. The Kosovo apparatus and political elite live on donations and crime.
The predominant anti-NATO sentiment that reigns in Serbia prevents the political elite, which is politically and economically subordinate to the West, to give in to pressure and impose sanctions on Russia or to join the war in a more direct way. The authorities in Serbia cooperate with the West and NATO, but to a lesser extent than is expected of them. Sanctions have not been formally introduced, but some of the weapons produced in Serbia somehow end up in Ukraine.
A quarter of a century after the bombing, most of large companies in Serbia, especially if we talk about industry, are owned by Western capital. At the moment, the largest single trading partner of Serbia is the EU, or more precisely, Germany.
In the meantime, Serbia, as a country, did not condemn either the attack on Afghanistan or Iraq, nor the imperialist dismemberment of Syria, nor the bombing and destruction of Libya… Official propaganda often likes to portray Serbia as a victim, but when it comes to other victims, then the official solidarity is suspended, and depending on the pressure, it also shows understanding for the imperial cause.
Our organization believes that victory over imperialism is possible only in uniting the struggles of the working class and peoples from the entire Balkans. Imperialism used the previous chauvinist policies for its own goals. Therefore, for the victory over imperialism in the Balkans, it is also necessary to win over the chauvinisms that serve it.
Long live the united Balkans, free from imperialism.
Long live peace!
Ένα τέταρτο του αιώνα από την ιμπεριαλιστική επίθεση στη Σερβία
