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the significance of the fall of milosevic
The mass uprising against the Milosevic regime in Yugoslavia may mark a new stage in the breakdown of Stalinism. It is a grave blow for the entire neo-Stalinist current in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, China, and North Korea. Neo-Stalinism, along with neo-Social Democracy and neo-liberalism, is one of the major political currents that arose in the Stalinist bureaucracies as their system broke down. It is distinguished by its attempt to merge elements of the old authoritarian Stalinist ideology and its strong-arm political methods with fascist-like oppressor nationalism, what has come to be known as the “Red-Brown Alliance.” It also includes as an integral part of its politics, despite its anti-imperialist rhetoric and gestures, the restoration of capitalism through an alliance with imperialism, the course that Milosevic championed since his coming to power a decade ago.
Until his overthrow, Slobodan Milosevic was the most successful exponent of the neo-Stalinism current and to a large extent its international symbol.
Neo-Stalinism has been a major obstacle to the revival of revolutionary Marxism in the bureaucratized workers’ states, and worldwide, in particular because it has claimed to be anti-imperialist and to defend the working people against the worst effects of the attempts to restore capitalism. To a considerable extent, it has diverted opposition to these disastrous policies into reactionary channels.
The mass uprising against the Milosevic regime offers new opportunities for Socialist Action and the Fourth International.
The insurrection in Yugoslavia has reconfirmed the historic revolutionary program of the Fourth International. The workers and youth were the vanguaurd of the mass movement that overthrew Milosevic’s regime. They mobilized in support of democratic demands, but in a number of instances moved beyond these demands to challenge the bureacracy’s control of the economy and the robbery represented by the Milosevic’s regime’s attempts to restore capitalism. They startled the Kostunica-led pro-bourgeois opposition by staging a mass uprising it did not want and tried to prevent.
The turning point in the development of the mass insurrectionary movement was the strike of the miners in the Kolubara coal mine and the mass mobilization in their defense when the regime tried to break their strike. These workers are the most powerful contingent of the Yugoslav working class. The NATO bombing weakened the Yugoslav workers but it was not able to destroy its basic economic and social power.
Specifically, the October 5 insurrection and subsequent events confirm the line Socialist Action adopted toward the crisis in Yugoslavia in opposition to almost all the remnants of the left in this country.
This uprising came in a direct line of continuity with the mass protests against Milosevic’s war in Kosovo while it was going on. This continuity is personified by the central role played in the insurrection by the mayor of the southern city of Cacak and the working class contingents from that city in the insurrection. Cacak was the center of the movement among Serbs against Milosevic’s war in Kosovo.
The now explicit support of the United States and the other imperialist countries for the Serbian nationalism of the new Yugoslavia rulers confirms the need for support for the national struggles of the peoples oppressed by Serbian dominance in the former Yugoslavia, who now face new threats from a U.S.-supported oppressor nationalism. Socialist Action, almost alone on the left in the United States, has unconditionally defended the struggles of the oppressed peoples of the former Yugoslavia.
Socialist Action hails the mass uprising against the blood-drenched, corrupt, and reactionary Milosevic regime as a victory for the working people of Serbia, for the other peoples of the former Yugoslavia, for the working class of the Balkans and of the world. We hail it as a victory for our political line, since we have unconditionally defended the victims of Milosevic’s oppressor nationalism from the start f his wars of “ethnic cleansing” and championed the overthrow of this regime through the armed resistance of its victims and the outrage of the Serbian workers.
The resolution adopted at our March, 2000 convention saw the mobilization of the oppressed Kosovars in defense of their very existence and their right to self-determination, along with the mobilization of the Serbian workers in opposition to Milosevic’s murderous war and restorationist policies, as the only forces capable of defeating the U.S. and European imperialist assault.
The fall of the Milosevic regime, as well as the increased imperialist intervention in the Balkans for which that regime opened the way, has now placed the Balkans in the political cockpit of the fight to defend the remaining gains of the post-WWII anti-capitalist overturns in Eastern Europe. We are confident that the political positions we have taken over the last ten years have kept our revolutionary principles clear and prepared us to better participate in the impending struggles in this region.
The continuing mobilization of the Serbian workers has already ousted a number of Stalinist factory managers, who have been summarily dismissed by mass worker actions. The continuing capacity of the workers and their allies to unite and mobilize against both the remnants of the old regime and the pro-capitalist forces and government represented by Kostunica depends on the emergence of a revolutionary leadership. The process of constructing such a leadership has been given a might push by workers in struggle. Socialist Action will make every effort possible to advance their fight.
The text above is excerpted from the Political Resolution that was adopted at the Oct. 20, 2000 Socialist Action National Committee plenum.
