[Marxism] A clarification of my view of Kosova independence and Kosova "independence"

[Fred Feldman]

Well, I screwed up this post by accidentally deleting the intro, which
enables it to make sense, insofar as my position does so politically.

Here is the post with the opening paragraphs:

On another list, Richard Fidler described me as writing articles opposing
Kosovo independence, which is a misunderstanding.

Here is what I wrote in response:
This is a quite distorted presentation of my position, one that would be an
easy target, even for myself, if I held it.

I do not oppose Kosovo independence. I oppose Kosovo "independence."  I do
not oppose Kosovo Albanian self-determination.  I oppose Kosovo Albanian
"self-determination" -- a liberal warmaking lie and an attack on both the
major oppressed peoples in the area.

This is not the repetition of the ongoing debates on the left between the
opponents of "greater Albania" versus those of the "Serbian oppressor
nation." Debates that have begun to remind me of bottle fights on the
streets between the denizens of rival nationalist bars.

I do not believe Kosova is the holy territory of Serbia, for example. Nor do
I wake up in sweats from nightmares about "greater Albania." If a Greater
Albania is the genuine wish of the masses in the region, I have nothing
against it all -- on the contrary, really -- although everything can be
effected by the over all social/class world struggle context.

Although I recognize that Kosovaa  was seized from Serbia not by the
Albanians of Kosova, which would have had a completely different impact on
politics locally and regionally and internationally,  but by the United
States and its imperialist allies who have occupied it ever since. 

As for self-determination and independence for the Albanians of Kosova -- as
Gandhi once said about Western Civilization -- I think it would be a good
idea but I see no sign that it is happening.

Quite the contrary in fact.

I think there is a clash here, on the ideological level, between Leninist
and liberal imperialist views of self determination, between
"self-determination" as something revolutionary fighters advocate and
advance through struggle and
Wilsonian-self-determination-as-ideal-imperialist-casus-belli.