We urge our readers to join in actions demanding an immediate halt to the bombing and the removal of all U.S. and NATO troops from the Balkans. The June 5 actions in Washington D.C., San Francisco, and other cities across the United States offer such an opportunity. Opposition to the imperialist slaughter is completely intertwined with defense of the Yugoslav federation. And this in turn is tied to our call on workers, farmers, and democratic movements worldwide to support self-determination for Kosova.

Washington's goal in this war, as it was in Bosnia, is to dismember Yugoslavia and bring the country under its domination. Their crocodile tears notwithstanding, the U.S.- NATO assault has nothing to do with defending Albanians from "ethnic cleansing." The indiscriminate bombing of Albanians and Serbs in Kosova by the imperialist powers, their refusal to open their borders to the refugees, and their opposition to the self-determination for Kosova are a proof of that. The imperialist rulers hope to erase the gains of the Yugoslav revolution, to wipe it from the memory of working people in the Balkans and reimpose capitalist rule.

The Yugoslavia the imperialists want to cut apart was forged in the 1942-45 revolution, brought to victory by the Partisan movement. Workers and peasants of all nationalities united in this struggle against the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia during World War II. The Partisans' program called for equality and respect of all nationalities and religious beliefs, and opposed chauvinism and domination of one nation by another. This was a major factor in the victory of the antifascist movement. Working people then turned the victory against the Nazis into a social revolution that abolished capitalist property relations and established a workers state, even though it was deformed at birth because of domination by the Stalinist misleadership of Josip Broz (Tito).

Over the following decades, Albanians and others were recognized as oppressed nationalities and granted rights, such as recognition of their language and culture, that began to narrow discrimination. At the same time, the bureaucratic regime that crystallized under Tito carried out policies that produced an economic crisis that disproportionately affected less developed regions, eroding the initial affirmative action measures of the revolution.

In Kosova, 50,000 Albanians joined the Partisan struggle prior to the revolution, partly on the basis of Tito's promise that Kosovars would have the right to self-determination "up to secession." But following the victory of the antifascist struggle, Tito's armies drowned a rebellion by Albanian partisans in blood when they tried to carry out this agreement. The struggle for a republic in Kosova, equal to the six other republics that made up the Yugoslav federation - Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia - dates back to those days.

As a result of their fight for self-determination, working people in Kosova won autonomy in 1974. The Yugoslav constitution was revised twice, however, first in 1986, abolishing the territorial defense units in Kosova that were made up overwhelmingly of Albanians. In 1989, Milosevic revoked the region's autonomous status altogether. In the next couple of years Belgrade closed the Albanian-language schools in Kosova and fired the majority of Albanians from their jobs. This was part of the Milosevic regime's moves to whip up Serbian chauvinism to justify attacks on working people resisting its austerity measures and land grabs against rivals in the other Yugoslav republics. The recent mass "ethnic cleansing" of Kosova makes it clear that anyone who looks to the Milosevic government to lead the people of Yugoslavia to resist imperialist assault is setting themselves up for some demoralizing blows.

Washington and the other imperialist powers have seized on the war between rival gangs of the ruling bureaucracies as a pretext for intervention in Yugoslavia, including the occupation of Bosnia. Opposing their latest moves to occupy Kosova - whether under the UN banner or NATO's - and engineer the break off of Montenegro from what remains of the Yugoslav federation, is at the center of opposing imperialism's designs against Yugoslavia today.

Championing the right to self-determination of the Albanian majority in Kosova is an essential part of defending Yugoslavia against imperialist assault and against the reactionary line and actions of Belgrade that have opened the door for Washington to intervene. It is key to winning working people of all nationalities to the fight for Yugoslavia, as a voluntary federation based on the equality of all nations.

Even if the agreement Belgrade subscribed to goes through and a NATO-dominated occupation force enters Kosova, this is not a settled question. The working class in Yugoslavia has been dealt blows by the imperialist bombardment and by the Yugoslav government, but it is far from crushed. Many people throughout the republics still consider themselves Yugoslav, and aren't about to give that up. And a significant number of Serbs have a record of attempting alliances with fellow toilers among Kosovar Albanians, including supporting self- determination.

The Militant urges our readers to get out the truth about Yugoslavia, especially reaching out to workers in battle, from the Newport News shipyard in Virginia, to the Kaiser Aluminum picket lines in Spokane, to airports across the United States where workers at TWA and Northwest Airlines face possible strike battles. Use the book Capitalism's World Disorder and the Militant newspaper to help workers get these facts. And join with others in demanding: Stop the bombing now! All U.S. and NATO troops out of the Balkans! Defend the Yugoslav federation! Self-determination for Kosova!  
 
 
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