Bosnia self-determination
In an editorial issue No.30 the Militant called on
working people around the world to support "the fight
of the Bosnian people for self-determination and their
right to live in peace."
The rapid and devastating events of the past two months in the former Yugoslavia have registered the widening of the war between the rival gangs in the region, and the deepening of imperialist intervention: In July rightist Serbian forces overran the Bosnian towns Serebrenica and Zepa with mass murder, rape, and the expulsion of tens of thousands. In the beginning of August the Stalinist misleaders of Croatia took over Krajina and carried out their own "ethnic cleansing" in that region. Then the new massacre in Sarajevo by the Serbian rightist gangs was followed by massive imperialist intervention by NATO's air forces and British, Dutch and French troops comprising the Rapid Reaction Force.
It is clear that the above events are further steps taken by the Stalinist regimes in Zagreb and Belgrade backed by imperialists in Washington and Bonn to partition Bosnia. This has been the aim of both the Milosevic and Tudjman regimes since the beginning of this bloody war of conquest. This is also Washington's latest so-called "peace plan" to be enforced by sending tens of thousands of US imperialist troops.
But have these events shown that the character of the war in ex-Yugoslavia has changed? In interviews with refugees from Krajina, reporters of the Greek TV station "Sky" asked them who they thought is responsible for this bloody war. They answered with anger in the following order: "Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic."
I believe that this answer points to the roots of the war in former Yugoslavia. Milosevic and Tudjman are leaders of rival bureaucratic forces of the former privileged ruling caste who use the banner of nationalism to wage this ruthless gang war for control of land and resources.
It is true that workers and farmers in Bosnia "have faced the most prolonged and bloodiest battles" as the Militant points out. On the other hand, the Izetbegovic regime in Bosnia is also one of the warring factions of the old Stalinist apparatus that has dragged working people into this war. It has refused to mobilize resistance by working people in Bosnia against the rightist Serbian attacks. Instead, it has been calling on imperialist forces for further military intervention as the road to peace.
We considered the united resistance of working people of different ethnic and religious background during the early stages of the war, especially in Sarajevo and Tuzla, as an expression of the legacy of the Yugoslav revolution in the consciousness of workers and farmers in Yugoslavia as a whole, as they continued to identify themselves as "Yugoslavs".
We don't have much of the facts that shows a struggle being waged by working people in Bosnia for self- determination. Very little information that points to deepening national identification and consciousness as "Bosnians" in face of continued brutal aggression by the Serbian forces. We have not seen mass resistance by working people in Bosnia against the rightist Serbian onslaught, such as that of the Chechen people put up against Moscow's brutal attacks. In fact, Serebrenica for example was taken without much resistance. Providing the above information that workers of the world need in order to obtain political clarity is the task of the Militant.
Bobbis Misailides
Athens, Greece
Crisis in Puerto Rico
I am a technician with the U.S. Geological Survey in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. I am a member of the American
Federation of Government Employees, the largest union
of federal workers. Federal workers are being told that
there is a very real possibility that with the coming
of the new fiscal year on October 1 that the government
will be shut down until President Clinton and the
Congress can agree to a new budget. At this time nobody
knows what will happen.
We have been told that it may only a few days or it may be a month or more. We were also told that nobody knows if we can receive unemployment, which may also vary from state to state.
In the federal government these type of short term layoffs are called furloughs. If 2 million federal workers are without paychecks and cannot receive unemployment then the social crisis in the United States will heat up a notch or two.
My main reason for writing is to alert you that struggle may flare up very quickly in the weeks to come.
Ron Richards
Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico
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