Sam Marcy 

It is impossible to seriously consider the Yugoslav situation without first taking into account some pertinent aspects of history and politics. 

The imperialist conspiracy to break up the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia didn’t start yesterday. It didn’t start with the UN Security Council voting for sanctions. It didn’t start with the earlier meeting of the European Economic Community in Spain. It started a long time ago, when the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), led by Tito (Josip Broz) and the Communist Party, defeated the royalist and reactionary forces of Col. Draza Mihajlovic and his Chetniks. 

The front mobilized the workers, peasants, progressive intellectuals, and thousands of middle-class people into the Partisan guerrilla army that defeated the German Nazi and Italian fascist invaders and their quisling regimes. 

The U.S. and the British until 1943 recognized Mihajlovic and his royalist, reactionary coalition and refused recognition to the representatives of the Yugoslav people organized in the AVNOJ. Then, seeing that the progressive and revolutionary forces were on the verge of scoring a historic victory, the imperialists suddenly changed sides and began to give token support to the Partisans. They did so largely to disrupt the socialist solidarity between the Yugoslav leaders and the Soviet Union. 

The very same forces that fought in Yugoslavia against the revolution, particularly the royalist riffraff and pro-fascist groupings, have all these years been promoted, secured, cultivated, and supported financially by the U.S. and European imperialists. Now they are being pushed forward as an authentic leadership to replace the Yugoslav government in Belgrade.