Verdict in the case of the Generals

After five and a half years of trial, during which the question of war crimes has fallen deep into the background of political controversies in Croatia, a landmark verdict on the three generals has been announced at The Hague International Tribunal. Despite the frequent emphasizing of their personal fates, the key political question in this case is not their personal responsibility for war crimes, but the conclusion of the court in which is stated that there was a “joint criminal enterprise” in the state leadership of Croatia whose goal was ethnical cleansing of those territories which were under control of Serbia and its satellites. Such conviction of the policy of state leadership from the 90’s allegedly caused a “big shock and discredit”, “disappointment” and “fury”.

Few have noticed how, contrary to the anti-Hague sentiment from the beginning of 2000's, this time, the disappointment with the verdicts of The Hague is fully a project of the regime. All forces of the ruling class have united in production of this shock: the Croatian president and Croatian Helsinki Committee, “independent law specialists” and political parties, media in the hands of capital and celebrities. Interesting enough, there is nothing distinctively new written in the accusation and the verdict. Not only are those individual executions and other war crimes well know from before, but the state policy of preventing Serbian civilians from returning was completely open, at least immediately after the war. Finally, who could honestly be surprised by the claim that Tuđman and his crew were a group of criminals? As if the people in Croatia do not know, and still do not feel the consequences of his “200 rich families” criminal projects, his tyrannical obsession with his own greatness and his affinity to war adventurism (in Bosnia), as well as his devotion to the idea that only mono-national states will be able to hold out. All this are extremely reactionary political views which Tuđman was never ashamed to openly display.

Contrary to what the regime is trying to persuade us, this is not a verdict on the state of Croatia, and even less on the Croatian people. In fact, the verdict even explicitly states that it does not even evaluate the justifiability of the operation Storm. This verdict is a formal confession of one segment of criminal politics of the ruling classes, of that part of the criminal politics which at this moment is not suitable to the interests of imperialism. Thesis that “Croatia is the convict” is actually a thesis of the ruling classes, which want to level their interests with the interests of the whole country, so they could mobilize the masses into defense of “national interest” (twhich is in fact only the interest of the ruling classes).

But, where is the contradiction between the local bourgeoisie and the imperialism that presents The Hague coming from? It has, above all, historic causes. Particularly, even if the war and the breakdown of Yugoslavia in its beginning has had the nature of a conflict between Serbian red bourgeoisie and other national bourgeoisies, then the course of the war and gradually increasing reinforcements of intervening imperialistic forces were constantly diminishing the maneuvering space for independent functioning of local bourgeoisies. In other words, original dreams of Greater Serbia, and then of Greater Croatia, as of a regional force, went by the board as soon as there were more serious players engaged on the territory, above all, the USA. Those who could not get used to their position quick enough, ended in disgrace, like Milošević did. This change of the role of local bourgeoisie becomes prominent in politics of the ruling classes in Croatia during the second half of the 90’s. They were simultaneously striving to stay faithful to the policy of an ethnically clean state, but were also compelled to cooperate with The Hague, who wanted to convict this policy. From these contradictions emerge the basic confusions about today’s verdicts. That’s how The Hague operated as a form of discipline for the local bourgeoisie in the process of systematic reduction of its influence. This reduction is emerging mostly from ever growing portion of foreign financial capital in Croatian economy.

If we observe how the reaction of the last remains of Croatian nationalism, to something which used to provoke the key political tensions in the country, is actually weak, this process of breakdown of the national bourgeoisie and its projects becomes even more evident. A dream about two hundred Croatian families in Croatian national capitalism turned into a reality of about twenty foreign companies that are holding the whole country and extracting the profit out of it. That was a necessary consequence of the development of dependent capitalism with full integration into the global economic system. Accordingly, instead of national bourgeoisie, we have comprador bourgeoisie of helpers of the foreign imperialism. Croatian nationalism similar to that of the 90’s is now an inanimate carcass because it lost the national bourgeoisie as its basis. We wish it to rest in peace. In the situation in which is Croatia currently ever more notable victim of imperialistic raiders, we need national liberation movement, but a movement which will not lean on war criminals and profiteers, but on the interests of the masses. Creating such a proletarian, anti-imperialistic movement is a fundamental task of the revolutionary forces.

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