Bosnia issue divides the comrades Will Militant Labour support Workers' Aid?
Socialist Outlook newspaper1990sPaul ClarkeTranscribed or corrected by hand from the printed page.
MILITANT Labour's line on the conflict in ex-Yugoslavia is in chaos and confusion. The reason is not hard to find: in union branches up and down the country Militant supporters have been forced to decide how to respond to resolutions supporting International Workers Aid, which campaigns in defence of multi-ethnic Bosnia.
Militant supporters have supported, opposed and abstained on these motions – sometimes in the same meeting.
The point of analyzing Militant's line is not to score cheap points. Some Militant Labour members have given strong support and this is to be welcomed. Socialist Outlook would enthusiastically welcome the wholehearted support of Militant for the campaign.
Militant's gyrations are symptomatic of wider debates on the left about the national question.
Last summer Peter Taaffe clarified Militant's line. He argued that all communities under attack had the right of self-defence, but socialists could only support arms to the Bosnian resistance if they were 'under control of democratically elected workers committees'. Militant's 28 January issue changed this position.
Right to fight back
Now we learn: 'In former Yugoslavia we support the right of all communities to defend themselves against attack - the right to arms. The Bosnian Muslims have this right.' The 'democratically elected workers committees' precondition has been dropped. So far, so good.
However, the same editorial immediately opposes the lifting of the arms embargo. It says:
'The principal political and military forces on all sides are pro-capitalist nationalists. It is ethnic warlords, including Muslim warlords, who would receive the benefit of lifting the arms embargo'.
This is plainly contradictory. The only community under attack which is the victim of the arms embargo is the multi-ethnic community of Bosnia (which is not just a community of 'Bosnian Muslims').
The Bosnian Serbs have the weapons of the former Yugoslav army. Huge amounts of arms are being sold to Croatia by the Italian arms industry. The UN arms embargo is against Bosnia.
This embargo is not a workers' embargo, it is enforced against Bosnia by international imperialism.
Whilst Militant support the imperialist arms embargo against Bosnia they call for the lifting of imperialist sanctions against Serbia. There is clearly a contradiction here. Either you are for or against imperialist intervention. You can't have it both ways. Unless, of course, you think there is something progressive about the Serbian regime or Serbia is the major victim of imperialist policy.
Which is precisely what Militant's supporters in France do. They prioritise campaigning against 'The Crime of the Embargo' and organising an aid convoy to Serbia. They prioritise links with Serbian trade unions. These campaigns, endorsed by Militant, do not imply a 'neutral' position. The logic is support for Serbia.
The overall solution to the war presented by the Militant editorial, despite some correct positions, misses the main point. It is worth quoting at some length:-
'..the international labour movement's priority must be to develop independent class action; to assist the organisations of the working class in Bosnia that can cut across religious and racial divisions....Socialists must build support across sectarian divides. Salvation for the working classes of Bosnia lies in creating unity between Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim peoples. There is a solution. It lies in the potential power of the regions's working class which can overthrow the nationalist leaders....A combination of workers' movements could unite under the banner of the struggle against poverty, unemployment, rampant inflation and for peace. Forging democratic defence committees could protect communities, combat the nationalist murder gangs and would not be seen as a threat by other communities. It would be this that would lay the basis for workers' unity and a socialist federation of the Balkans.'
The war is not a religious war between 'Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim peoples'. Slav Muslims are primarily a national, not religious, entity. Nor is it a war between competing 'ethnic warlords'. It is a war launched by the degenerate bureaucracy of Serbia against Kosova, Slovenia, Croatia and now Bosnia, to whip up national chauvinism as a mechanism to stay in power. At stake is the right of self-determination of nations.
To regard multi-ethnic Bosnia as simply the 'Muslim people' is a massive betrayal of the tens of thousands of Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins and others who continue to defend the towns and cities of Bosnia. To present the fight for national self-determination, and the heroic resistance of multi-national communities like Tuzla and Sarajevo, as the activity of Muslim 'warlords' and the 'murder gangs' on the 'Muslim' side is absurd.
Militant's editorial makes favourable reference to the article by Ken Loach in the Guardian (31/12/93) which mentioned the resistance of multi-ethnic brigades in Tuzla. But those brigades are part of the overall defence of Bosnia against Serbian and Croatian aggression.
Working class
It is in the urban areas - that is, amongst the working class - that commitment to multi-national Bosnia is strongest. It is precisely the 'organisations of the working class of Bosnia that ...cut across religious and racial divisions'. Nationalism and religion hold sway in the backward, rural regions or amongst the more recent arrivals in the cities.
Defence of Bosnia is not counterposed to a working class solution: the very existence of a Bosnian working class depends upon the right of Bosnia to exist. That is why the Bosnian working class - of all nationalities - is in the forefront of that fight.
In the long term there is no solution in ex-Yugoslavia other than the building of solidarity between the peoples, which means building independent class organisation. But a precondition for solidarity between the peoples is the ending of aggression and mutual recognition of the democratic right of self-determination. The road to an eventual socialist federation of the Balkans goes through the fight for self-determination - for Bosnia as much as Serbia and Croatia. Indeed, how can Bosnia be part of a federation if it no longer exists?
Confusion and self-contradiction on the arms embargo, sanctions and self-determination is topped off by confusion about International Workers Aid's convoys. They say: 'International Workers Aid has organised convoys of humanitarian aid to Bosnia which has attracted support from trade unionists. But even they admit that the UN has tonnes of supplies stashed in warehouses. There is no lack of food and medicines...Together with aid, the international labour movement's priority must be to develop independent class action...'
Does the 'together with aid' part of this passage mean Militant supports the convoys? When Tommy Sheridan spoke at the outset of the first convoy it seemed the answer must be 'yes'. The 'no lack of medicines and food' seems to imply...'no'.
The convoys of International Workers Aid are acts of political solidarity. Through the convoys practical links with workers organisations in ex-Yugoslavia have been made, including the SSSH - the largest trade union federation in Croatia - which openly opposes the war against Bosnia. They help rebuild the tradition of international workers solidarity in Europe as a whole and within the former Yugoslavia.
Socialist Outlook has no illusions in the UN or imperialism. We are against western military intervention. We are against the economic blockade of Serbia, which is not hitting the Milosevic gang, only the Serbian working class.
We are for the rebuilding of independent workers organisations, and pan-Balkan workers solidarity. But the first step is to stop the war against multi-ethnic Bosnia, and that means the right of the people of the country to defend themselves.
Comrades of Militant Labour should know by now that it was not us who invented the idea of the 'right of nations to self-determination' as a key part of the arsenal of Marxism. It was VI Lenin, who you claim as your inspirer as much as Socialist Outlook does. It is time to end your confusion and back up your comrades in the labour movement who have come forward to support International Workers' Aid.