>>> "rc-am" <rcollins at netlink.com.au> 05/10/99 11:41AM >>>
thanks for the clarification, Chaz. I was a little taken aback, as must've
been obvious.
but, let's clarify something else further a little:
I would certainly look around for such an explanation in access to resources, control of markets, etc., but the presence of these is, as far as my own reading has gone, somewhat negligible. the coal and oil in the area would explain the Belgrade govt.'s desire to control retain economic control of the region more than it would explain the actions of the NATO countries. I haven't found this explanation convincing.
Charles: See. I told you you weren't vulgar. However, I am. The way to think of it is not in terms of those specific mines and oil fields ALONE but in conjunction with and as an emblem, an example for OTHERS. It is sending a message to others: We're the boss and this is what we will do to you. It is establishing state power in the region and in other regions that see themselves as similar to Yugoslavia. The bourgeoisie definitely and vulgarly include the mineral resources as part of a total money package. They kill two or three birds with the same stone.
The response to those who see the mines and oil as SOME of the motive has been that is vulgar, as if we think it is ONLY the mines and oil. It IS the mines and oil and the many other economic prizes , especially Yugoslavian labor power, which I have said a number of times.
I would remind that "vulgar materialism" is not an error when analyzing bourgeois motives. The bourgeoisie are vulgar materialists. The dialectics comes in in taking account of the contradictions of class struggle, as you discuss below.
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there are however other ways to look at money and both how it expresses certain relations and seeks to reconstitute those relations. it's important to go back to 1980 when Yugoslavia joined the IMF, and in 1983 entered negotiations to reschedule its humungous debt. the IMF's conditions included a quarter % devaluation of the currency, massive closures of unprofitable enterprises, and slashing social expenditures. from then onwards, the Yugoslav workers fiercely resisted, forcing the govt to wind back the closures and refinance the remaining enterprises listed for closure. steep inflation served to heighten resistance rather than dampen it, as well as forcing a massive movement of people from the country to the cities and into emigration. as a mark of the extent to which resistance was outpacing the structures available for controlling workers: in 1986, the union agreed to the closures only to be faced with its swift collapse as the representative organisation. it is in this context that milosevich and his faction stepped in, calling for a 'return of what rightfully belongs to Serbia (kosovo and voivodina), calling for embargoes on Croatian and Slovenian products, and nurturing dissatisfaction only to the extent and direction of Serbian nationalism, as did other petty nationalists such as Tudjman. here, the disintegration of Yugoslavia begins, and there is no end in sight to this conflict through the path of nationalism: it only displaces what began as a class struggle onto the terrain of a nationalist rivalry. with this last assessment you might disagree, but we both know that austerity has been applied to the people's of the ex-yu; and whether it happens via a subordination to the IMF through the creation of UN protectorates and proxies or through the war and demands that workers now sacrifice for the nation, makes little difference in the end: the result will be the crushing of the resistance.
Charles: Don't disagree with any of that. You have given the fuller class struggle analysis. However, the above only bolsters the vulgar materialist explanation of the NATO bombing. NATO is part of the state apparatus of the IMF and new transnational imperialist organs. It is really sending a message to the Yugoslavian working class that this is the new superstate you are part of. This all follows from the logic of _The State and Revolution_ , only on a new level of transnational state apparatus which serves the transnational bourgeoisie or ruling class. That the warriors motives are vulgarly economic does not make them simple or entirely open. We have to dig and think to establish the specific money trail , long and short term. It is a complex class struggle, with the current heating up of the war a part of that.
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as for the reasons behind NATO's intervention, I think we have to look at both the necessity to give effect to IMF decrees and the credibility of NATO, and by implication (and paradoxically, even if NATO's actions are seen as a failure) the emergence of the EU as a global power. NATO is the site of contradictory agendas, that much should be obvious by now. but, whatever happens in the actual perceptions of who wins or loses, the EU will have its cheapened pool of labour at the margins, will have established itself as a moral (read: imperial, civilising) force on the global stage, there will be a process of establishing EU military independence from NATO, and the US will take the blame for any stuff ups and heavy-handedness. Albright will not take the fall, the US will.
Charles: One important element in this for communists is the potential new level of split in the transnational bourgeoisie between the U.S. and E.U. sectors which is implied in the above, not to mention a further split with the Japanese bourgeoisie. The working class must use divide and conquer with the bourgoisie as they have on us. What you seem to project is a new configuration of interimperialist rivalry, with greater contradictions between imperialist centers.
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I had written:
>and, a question about the knock-on
>effects (specifically re the banks or institutions which have laid out the
>cash they are unlikely to see returning) is a question for elaboration, not
>even a question for either an explanation or an analysis (though it
>would inform one). stuff like this is data -- as is the fact that US arms
>companies are making money out of the war, but it is not an explanation of
>why the war is occurring, nor is it an assessment of what the war means for
>the left or for the working class of various countries.
Charles wrote:
>>Yes, it is good data to show the political economic motive of the
bourgeoisie in this war. Some have been claiming that such would be a vulgar
explanation, for example, when the mines and oil in the area are mentioned as
coveted by the imperialist bourgeoisie. Your comment is some refutation of
those who see no "vulgar" economic motive in the bourgeoisie waging this
war.<<