>The point where I am critical of the MADRE statement is in failing to
>uphold the Kosovans right to self determination. They emphasise
Kosovan
>oppression, but do not defend their right to decide their own lives.
>
>For my part the KLA certainly do deserve support. That need not be
>unconditional.
Chris,
I think your claim to support pluralist, as distinct from nationalist/chauvinist formations, just fell over at this point in your post.
support for self-determination is either a principled one, in which case it voided of any conditions, or it is annexed to conditions, in which case it is instrumentalised in the service of other, bigger nationalisms and/or global hegmonial agendas.
there are no countervailing hegemonial forces which we can pin our hopes on as there was in ww2, and that there are no small nationalisms which can be said to be anti-imperialist as in the post-ww2 period. these, no matter how critical we might have been of them, at least allowed for a convergence of class politics and geopolitics.
that is not the case now. which is why the whole thing will actually turn out to be more traumatic for the left, in the US in particular, where the reflexive position has for so long been that of opposing US imperialism with the compensatory nationalism of others as the vector of anti-capitalist politics.
the only people on the left it seems who are not traumatised by the whole experience are anarchists, which is not to say that I would applaud the analysis, merely to suggest that perhaps it is the role of the state in leftist thinking that is what needs to be focussed on here.
angela