A defeat for the party that supervised the cleansing of Kraijina should be welcome to all subscribers, but I suggest some thought is needed.
In many ways it was the mirror image of Milosevic's Socialist Party in Serbia. Both structures led by former communists who had abjured communism, but kept the centralised apparatus, the control of the media, fostered links with business, and played the nationalist card ruthlessly. They needed each other. And they worked together well when they carved up the map of Bosnia Herzegovina on a piece of paper with nowhere left for the muslims but down the mineshafts.
Leftists who want to make out that such gross political malformations that come out of the wreckage of state socialism are somehow still socialist and anti-imperialist if they run into an argument with imperialism, need to think again. These structures are essentially fascist.
By comparison, the left-centre social democrats no doubt have all sorts of liberal weaknesses and ways themselves of conciliating with capitalism but they defend basic democratic rights. That is the difference which should not be overlooked.
Genuine communists coming out of the debris of state socialism will prefer respect for democratic rights and a genuine internationalism that cares about the suppression of minorities even at the expense of having a diversified market economy. Prodi as head of the European Commission, pressing for an end to effective domination of the media by one group or another, whether it is in Croatia or in Italy (by Berlusconi), is more progressive than the successors of Tudjman.
These alignments in post communist societies are complex. At present in Russia it is the socialism of the Communist Party that is more progressive than the hastily cobbled together war coalition of oligarchs and media magnates headed by Putin and Berezovsky.
But in Croatia, today we should, with our eyes open, welcome the defeat of Tudjman's party!
Chris Burford
London