* Kosovo attracting Western attention.
This was handicapped by the fact that the major bourgeois Serbian opposition forces had a line on Kosova either identical to, or more extreme than, Milosevic's.
However, in a 1997 "Serbian-Albanian dialogue" organised by the Serbian Helsinki Human Rights Committee, considerable support among antinationalist Serbs was expressed for Demaqi's idea that a Republic of Kosovo, on gaining self-determination, could enter into a new and equal federation with Serbia and Montenegro. He called this concept "Balkania"
Demaqi recognised that many non-nationalist Serbs had at least a nostalgic attachment to the multi-national model of Tito's Yugoslavia. He also argued that anti-Albanian and great-Serb prejudices were central elements of the ideological base of the Milosevic regime. "The same mechanism which keeps by sheer violence both Albanians and other peoples in captivity, has been hindering democratisation in Serbia for 100 years"
state the accr
Who are the KLA? The Kosovo Liberation Army has grown rapidly, and attracted the support of many young emigres and refugees. But little is known about the group, and how close it remais to its left-wing origins.
According to Michael Karadjis of Green Left Weekly, "Part of the Kosovo Liberation Army's core derives from 'Marxist-Leninist' Kosovan resistance forces which fought Belgrade's repressive rule in the 1980s, and had links with Albania's Stalinist regime. In particular, it appears to have connections with the National Movement of Kosova, which was formed in 1982."
There are also connections to the Red Front which developed in the 1980s in Kosovo and among emigrants in Germany. Inspired by Enva Hoxha's Albania, the group called for an Albanian-speaking Kosovo Republic inside the Yugoslav federation. According to reports in the German lett daily Junge Welt, 80 leading members were assassinated in Germany in the 1980s by Yugoslav secret service, with the help of the German authorities. This eliminated most of the left wing, Maoist, leaders of the Albanian resistance.
Those that remained were among the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (known by its Albanian initials, UCK) in the mid-90s. The most important founding group was the Kosovo People's Movement (LPK). They organised the 2 International Viewpoint #312 June 1999
By mid-1998, the KLA had appointed
Demaqi's party as its political leadership, in opposition to the Rugova line.
Branches of his party throughout Kosova merged with the KLA. While coming from varied backgrounds, these forces money-raising and worked out the theory had in common the view that Kosovans and strategy of the liberation struggle. It needed to rely on their own forces.
seems that by this time the UCK was not, or no longer, a Maoist movement.
Escalation
In 1997 the 300 members of UCK
In early 1998, Serbian extremists launched several attacks on the Serbian massacred members of the Jashari clan,
Police. Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the many of whom supported the UCK. This civil disobedience massive "Ghandian"
provoked a rapid growth in sympathy movement and "President" of Kosova in with and support for the UCK. In several an unofficial 1991 referendum, called the weeks an organisation of 300 grow to a
UCK a Serbian attempt "to provoke loose movement of 30,000. It became violence and justify even greater repression." Albania's ex-president Sali increasingly impossible for the LPK to guerrilla control
Berisha made similar allegations.
the new mass
In response, one pro UCK source protested that "Rugova and his clan are
Many Rugova supporters flooded into the UCK. According to Karadjis, the biggest land owners in Kosovo and
"Volunteers, arms and money have also the biggest bourgeois family. The come from the 600,000 Albanians
Rugova clan is, in general terms, a working in Germany and Switzerland."
classic comprador bourgeoisie."
After the breakdown of the Albanian
In any case, the Kosovar population was increasingly frustrated after 10 years of civil disobedience had failed to bring concessions from Serbia. According to
Karadjis, institutions' was providing Albanians with basic services denied them by the
Serb state, the feeling was growing that this policy only perpetuated Serbia's apartheid policies, paid for by doubletaxing the Albanian masses.
Radical politics
"By 1996, a section of the political leadership, headed by Adem Demaqi, who had spent 28 years in a Serbian prison, began agitating for a change of strategy. For Demaqi and his Kosova
Parliamentary Party, engagement with genuine Serbian opposition forces was more important than the hopeless goal of dov: fron doni whe pow and trian had emb com and agal insp in C were grou grou nece the l Ho sible the retur cert abro the stead obv clos grou effe with "the prot effec have not ! in th midsubs
----- photo credits and running heads -----
UCK
The economic collapse and civil war in Albania created a power vacuum, in
* Kosovo and Serbia increased its aggression, Kosovar politics increasingly concentrated on the question of NATO intervention.
In early April, the Voice of Kosova, newspaper of the main UCK faction LPK, still carried its traditional sub-title "long live Marxism-Leninism". Adverts listed the books of Albanian Maoist leaders Enver Hoxha and Ramis Alia. By April 25, the Voice of Kosova headline was "NATO thank you". Inside, there are no left books advertised. More significantly, not one of the old editorial board is listed. Presumably all the new editors are from the right of the party. It would be interesting to know what has happened to their predecessors.
As Samary notes, "NATO support is clearly motivating young people to join the UCK. But it is difficult to say how long this will last.
"On the one hand, the reluctance of Western governments to commit land troops could encourage them (particularly the USA) to support the UCK more directly. Like in Bosnia, the US will seek to identify and build up those local groups which are ready to fight in the
Transformation and regroupment
Regroupments of forces determined to learn the lessons of the historical abomination that was Stalinism and to continue, against the winds and the tides, to fight against capitalism are being realised in a number of countries.
In all the countries where such possibilities exist, the organisations of the Fourth
International are ready to be part of the re-groupment process. We consider this as important step towards the recomposition of the anti-capitalist left on a world scale.
At the international level, the Fourth International is an active participant in regroupment, bringing with it the advantages of a long tradition of combat against capitalism and Stalinism. *
Price: ES/$10 International Viewpoint, PO Box 27410,
London SW9 9WQ, Britain.
<International Viewpoint@compuserve.com>
4 International Viewpoint #312 June 1999 which the UCK could establish camps, win recruits, and acquire weapons. West's interests-like the Croatian and Serb minority. Most UCK-linked Bosnian armies. websites make no mention of the Serb
"At the same time, the UCK is in a minority, except to say that it is in the very weak position. The US has already interests of "peace in the Balkans, for criticised the group's intolerant practices, both the Serbs and the Albanians", for which Washington thinks might further the occupation of Kosovo to end. In destabilise the region: things lıke the support the right of self-determination of Demaqi has also urged Kosovars to Sa interdiction of political parties in UCK controlled zones, threats and violence the Krajina, a part of Croatia from which against moderate Albanians and those who refuse to enlist in the UCK, refusal early 1990s. Other UCK leaders have over 100,000 Serbs were expelled in the th of all dialogue with the Serbs, and the tried to gain weapons from the Croatian recent attempts to set up bases in dictator, Franjo Tudjman. Macedonia, which is contributing to a
Near to NATO? gr
"The final US position will depend Many UCK guerrillas would like to lir on a number of political and geostrategic become NATO ground troops. On 10 ar factors. But it is far from sure that US April a KLA spokesman told Britain's Sc interests will coincide with those of the Financial Times that "the KLA is also Pe helping NATO by supplying information, Se
There are a range of currents within including bomb damage reports." the UCK. Some call for NATO help but But NATO isn't giving them the openly protest that NATO will not give modern weapons or the support that they "c them independence. need. Germany is the imperialist state Se
Paradoxically, it was the more mili- most willing to run proxy wars in the On tarist faction of the UCK which signed Balkans, but the UCK is still on Bonn's the Ramboullet agreement (calling on the list of proscribed "terrorist" organisa- pu UCK to disarm and accept Western tions. German police have banned fund an "protection', while Demaqi's more raising by radical Albanian groups and C moderate, and more sophisticated current TI called for continued resistance. To the extent that it has a plan for be
Kosova, NATO's vision is a protectorate. et. Demaqi falls The western powers will not let Kosovo
In yet another twist, the new UCK join Albania or become independent. leadership say Adem Demaqi is a traitor, Most Kosovars have already realised that Z who will be executed. Demagi's crime NATO cannot and will not help the SC was to oppose the NATO bombings, refugees and displaced persons. Sooner W which he called attacks against Serbia or later, significant sections of the UCK "( and the Albanians." He said that "both will surely come into conflict with their th people must act against imperialism." "allies" in Bonn and ul
Currently hiding in the Slovenian Washington. * capital Ljubljana, Demaci calls for self-determination for Kosovo, with full b
* This article was compiled by International Viewpoint rights for the Serbian minority [about staff writer Mark Johnson, on the basis of reports by
"Rosa Liebknecht," (a regular contributor to the m It is unclear how many UCK German left daily Junge Welt), Catherine Samary of S members accept the idea of rights for the the French magazine Critique communiste and Michael Karadjis of the Australian Green Left Weekly. W
Reformist Party), and two moderate nationalist parties: the Democratic Party of M. Djindjic and the Serbian Renaissance Party of Vuk Draskovic. Zajedno had no real programmatic coherence, and suffered a disastrous series of power struggles and corruption scandals in the municipal governments of Belgrade and other towns.
A few small social democratic groups have formed, and split away from Zajedno. But they are very marginal. It is hard to be a leftist in Serbia, where Milosevic's own party is called the Socialist Party of Serbia.
Milosevic's wife Mirjiana Markovic leads a smaller "Yugoslav Left Union" (JUL) which includes many Serbian antinationalists and supporters of the original Yugoslav federation. Milosevic sometimes uses JUL support to present himself as an anti-nationalist, and sometimes distances himself from them to demonstrate his Serbian nationalist credentials. YUL's social base is among peasants and pauperised workers, and the party exp-