MIM Notes 186 May 15 1999

Analysis of fascism & current imperialist war in Yugoslavia
by MC12

In World War II, the communists correctly made a united front 
against fascism. They temporarily allied with the Amerikan 
imperialists to defeat the fascism of Germany, Italy, Japan and 
their allies. It is important to remember why this was the right 
thing to do when we are discussing what is best in the case of the 
Amerikan war against Yugoslavia.

The first point MIM has been making is that Yugoslavia is not 
imperialist. World War II was a war between imperialist powers. 
The communists correctly judged that the German fascist 
imperialists were the worse enemy -- that they not only were 
committing genocide against Jews, Roma (Gypsies) and others, as 
well as wiping out other groups such as gays -- they were also 
directly threatening socialism in the Soviet Union, and 
threatening democracy in the imperialist countries. Likewise, the 
Japanese fascists were perpetrating expansionist aggression 
outside of their borders in Asia.

Fascism is the middle classes and the labor aristocracy, led by 
the bourgeoisie, in opposition to the proletariat. It brings the 
middle classes and labor aristocracy on board with the big 
bourgeoisie's agenda. In the process, it is less democratic within 
the mother country, and more belligerent against oppressed nations 
and other capitalist powers. Genocide as it is popularly defined -
- the outright, direct attempt to exterminate whole peoples -- is 
not a necessary part of defining fascism. And, imperialist 
countries have been genocidal even when they were not principally 
fascist -- Amerika in its early years being a prime example. So we 
have to understand what fascism is, and not just use it as a 
buzzword for what looks like really bad capitalism or imperialism.
Imperialists have committed genocide before (that's how Amerika 
got to be where it is now, literally!). Imperialists have 
undermined democracy in many places, or not allowed it to develop 
in the first place. And imperialists have obviously expanded all 
around the globe, perpetrating colonialism and neocolonialism, 
running as much of the whole world as they can for their own 
economic and strategic interests.
So the Amerikan imperialists were not morally better than the 
fascist imperialists. Defeating Germany and its allies did not 
stop imperialism from causing the premature deaths of hundreds of 
millions of people in the Third World in the next 50 years. It did 
help the Soviet Union, it made socialism in China possible (1949-
1976), preserved some democratic freedoms in the other imperialist 
countries (which helped us build our movements), and prevented 
some outright genocide.
So, is Yugoslavia a fascist power now, such that communists 
should advocate that the proletariat once again temporarily unite 
with the Amerikan imperialists to stop them?
MIM does not believe that Yugoslavia is fascist. The Yugoslavian 
state is certainly perpetrating crimes against the Albanian people 
in Kosovo. Yugoslavia -- which was economically gutted when 
Slovenia and Croatia split off to join western European capitalism 
-- has been left with a relatively strong state, including a big 
leftover military from its Soviet client-state days, and a weak 
economy. That is a bad recipe for belligerence and aggression 
against others, not unlike the situation of Iraq before being 
devastated by Amerika in the 1990s. But we do not see a capitalist 
state with a strong bourgeoisie leading an alliance of the middle 
classes and labor aristocracy and threatening other countries. We 
do not see a large labor aristocracy there, happy to use the 
state's oppression of others to increase their share of 
imperialist pie. We do not see that lending our support to the 
imperialist intervention there stops a greater harm than the harm 
we would cause by strengthening imperialism.

People who support the imperialist intervention in Yugoslavia are 
in effect saying that the status quo before Serbian aggression was 
OK. They don't see the vast destruction and exploitation 
perpetrated by imperialist powers and their clients right now all 
over the world. They are saying: "Look at this bad thing on CNN! 
Can't someone stop it?!" That's a good question, but supporting 
NATO bombing is a bad answer.

The ugly truth is that the world is in bad shape, that there are 
no easy answers, and that the imperialists won't get us out of 
this mess. Even if the NATO bombing were to have stopped 
Yugoslavian atrocities in Kosovo, which is not the case, it would 
have been in support of the even greater crimes of imperialism the 
world over.

The beautiful truth is that the oppressed peoples of the world 
themselves do have the power to rise up in resistance and 
overthrow the imperialists and their war machines. The success of 
that struggle is the future of humanity. The primitive stage of 
that struggle's development -- and the losses we suffer from our 
relative weakness -- is the call to arms for all those who know we 
can be victorious.