Don't Mourn, Balkanize!

Andrej Grubačić

Description

Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! is the first book written from the radical left perspective on the topic of Yugoslav space after the dismantling of the country. In this collection of essays, commentaries, and interviews, written between 2002 and 2010, Andrej Grubačić speaks about the politics of balkanization—about the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, neoliberal structural adjustment, humanitarian intervention, supervised independence of Kosovo, occupation of Bosnia, and other episodes of Power which he situates in the long historical context of colonialism, conquest, and intervention.

But he also tells the story of the balkanization of politics, of the Balkans seen from below. A space of bogumils—those medieval heretics who fought against Crusades and churches—and a place of anti-Ottoman resistance; a home to hajduks and klefti, pirates and rebels; a refuge of feminists and socialists, of antifascists and partisans; of new social movements of occupied and recovered factories; a place of dreamers of all sorts struggling both against provincial “peninsularity” as well as against occupations, foreign interventions and that process which is now, in a strange inversion of history, often described by that fashionable term, “balkanization.”

For Grubačić, political activist and radical sociologist, Yugoslavia was never just a country—it was an idea. Like the Balkans itself, it was a project of inter-ethnic co-existence, a trans-ethnic and pluricultural space of many diverse worlds. Political ideas of inter-ethnic cooperation and mutual aid as we had known them in Yugoslavia were destroyed by the beginning of the 1990s—disappeared in the combined madness of ethno-nationalist hysteria and humanitarian imperialism. This remarkable collection chronicles political experiences of the author who is himself a Yugoslav, a man without a country; but also, as an anarchist, a man without a state. This book is an important reading for those on the Left who are struggling to understand the intertwined legacy of inter-ethnic conflict and inter-ethnic solidarity in contemporary, post-Yugoslav history.

Sujets

• Croisades
• Anarchism
• Federalism
• Nationalism
• Socialism
• Anti-nationalism
• Left-libertarianism

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781604864700
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

“These thoughtful essays offer us a vivid picture of the Balkans experience from the inside, with its richness and complexity, tragedy and hope, and lessons from which we can all draw inspiration and insight.” —Noam Chomsky, MIT
“The history of Yugoslavia is of global relevance, and there’s no one better placed to reveal, share, and analyze it than Andrej Grubačić. From the struggle of the Roma to the liberating possibilities of ‘federalism from below,’ this collection of essays is required and radical reading.” —Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System
“This book of essays shows a deep grasp of Yugoslav history and social theory. It is a groundbreaking book, representing a bold departure from existing ideas, and an imaginative view to how a just society in the Balkans might be constructed.” —Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States
“Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! is a powerful and courageous book refusing to let the memory of a long history of colonization of the Balkans by the states-architects of Europe be erased or lead to a politics of resignation. Its vision of a ‘federalism from below’ sustained by networks of autonomous, culturally diverse communities has a significance that transcends the Balkans.” —Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch: Women the Body and Primitive Accumulation .
“I cannot think of another work that even tries to accomplish what Andrej Grubačić has artfully undertaken in this volume. Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! is the first radical account of Yugoslav history after Yugoslavia. Surveying this complex history with imagination and insight, Grubačić's book provides essential information and perspective for all those interested in the recent history of this part of the world.” —Michael Albert, author of Parecon: Life After Capitalism
“Andrej Grubačić is a rare genuine authority on the recent history and politics of the Balkans. I have known him for a decade, have followed and read his work with profit, and corresponded with him on matters which I found difficult in doing my own writing in this field.” —Edward S. Herman, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
“I can think of no better person than my close friend Andrej Grubačić to put the shattered pieces of a broken region back together again in a book that illuminates the abuses of rulers over the ruled. Grubačić is a native of the former Yugoslavia, an academic, and an anarchist historian; his encyclopedic knowledge make him a crucial commentator for all interested in this often under-reported part of the world. Turning a tragic past upside down while agitating for a new emancipatory future, Don’t Mourn Balkanize! is the perfect remedy for the elite narrative of domination.” —Chris Spannos, ZNet, author of Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century
“Andrej Grubačić returns with another magnificent book that in the finest tradition of Yugoslav Zenitism reinvents a concept of the Balkan barbaro-genius and its prefigurative adventure into new and authentic political structures and praxis. Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! shouldn’t be read solely as a hidden history of the Balkans and inspiring political struggles of the (newest) social movements in the region, but also as a much needed epistemological and methodological manual how to write such a history. Peranalogiam with Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Eduardo Restrepo, and Arturo Escobar, Grubačić develops other histories/history otherwise that builds on a new epistemological paradigm in attempt to visualize the hidden, and, above all, to give credit to all those ideas, practices, and subjects that have been for too long marginalized, trivialized, and excluded. Finally, we have a book that documents the Balkan anarchist movements and their share in a global struggle for another, better world, and their important contribution to win, ergo balkanize it!” — Ziga Vodovnik, author of Anarchy of Everyday Life and Notes on Anarchism and Its Forgotten Confluences
“It’s wonderful to read something on the Balkans that goes beyond doom and gloom. Andrej Grubačić turns the world on its head, especially with his notion of Balkanisation from below—a return to ‘what is the most precious part of our history … a pluricultural vision of multiethnic, indeed transethnic, antiauthoritarian society,’ from which he can convincingly call for a Balkanisation of Europe and of the world. A delight.” —John Holloway, author of Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today
“Andrej Grubačić shows that as their civilization collapses we barbarians must think anew. To turn the world upside down requires an uprooting of our political and geographic vocabulary, capitalist and socialist alike. Grubačić, a ‘foreigner’ in his native Yugoslavia, does this brilliantly. To ‘balkanize’ once described political, economic, and religious fragmentation. After this book it must mean anti-capitalist possibility, local autonomy, the organic commonwealth, and accompaniment of the Other. Bravo!” —Peter Linebaugh, author of The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All .
“Growing up in Austria in the 1980s, I had a number of Yugoslav friends; in the 1990s, I had to learn that they were not Yugoslav but Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, etc. It was a confusing time—not least because my friends’ new identities meant that some of them could no longer talk to one another. In this essential collection of essays, Andrej Grubačić describes the unraveling of Yugoslavia and its complex politics from an insider’s perspective. By doing so, he yields neither to nationalist sentiments nor to the glorification of state socialism. This is no easy task, as Grubačić treads on difficult terrain: the Balkans are arguably Europe’s very own ‘exotic other,’ a region that has always been both demonized for its alleged backwardness and barbarianism and romanticized for everything from freedom-loving mountain bandits to fiery Gypsy fiddlers. In Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! we meet none of these simplifications. Grubačić portrays a region haunted by a familiar struggle: that between authoritarianism and greed on the one side, and rebellion and solidarity on the other. Where Grubačić stands is never in doubt. May the ‘Balkanization from Below’ span all of Europe!” —Gabriel Kuhn, author of Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy and Soccer Vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics
“An absolutely top-notch scholar as well as a highly committed activist, Andrej Grubačić has succeeded again in writing a must-read for those interested in transformative social change.” —Daniel Gross, organizer, IWW Starbucks Workers Union
“Here are two books. The first book is a searing critique of U.S. imperialist aggression and official hypocrisy. Consider: At a time when the United States demanded of other, smaller countries that they approve bilateral agreements shielding U.S. citizens from extradition to an international criminal court, the United States compelled the extradition to just such a court of the president of Serbia, a sovereign nation. Further, the U.S. government, unable to obtain approval from the United Nations, misused a network of states created for another purpose (NATO) to approve the bombing of Serbia. For three months bombs were dropped from 40,000 feet on ancient bridges and innocent civilians without the loss of a single American pilot. Thereafter the United States created in its new southeastern Europe protectorate a huge new military base and, apparently, sites for the interrogation and torture of so-called enemy combatants, while insisting on structural adjustment and privatization that smoothed the way for investment by multinational corporations. These were the elements of the ‘shock and awe’ template that the United States then sought to impose on Iraq and Afghanistan. After preliminary invasions of Grenada and Panama, the Balkans thus served to launch what has come to be called America’s Long War against terrorism. The second book-within-a-book looks at the small green shoots of new life that have begun to come up through the floor of this fire-blackened forest. The courageous, persistent opposition to privatization by workers at the pharmaceutical plant Jugoremedija has prompted the federation of workers of a number of enterprises into a broader resistance front. Meanwhile, survivors of these hard times have begun to dream dreams that go beyond illegal diplomatic recognition of Kosovo as an independent nation or partition of Kosovo into Albanian and Serbian components. The hope is that the Balkans, precisely because of the many ethnic groups—including the Roma, or Gypsies—that have sought to find ways to live together there over the centuries, might pioneer for us all a model of regional community that avoids the concentration of all the means of compulsion in one centralized state and instead seeks horizontal bonds of mutual aid.” —Staughton Lynd, historian, attorney, labor activist, and pacifist, co-author of Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History

Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! Essays After Yugoslavia By Andrej Grubačić © Andrej Grubačić
This collection ’ PM Press 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
Earlier versions of these essays and interviews were first published on Znet, 2002-2010
Published by: PM Press PO Box 23912 Oakland, CA 94623 www.pmpress.org
Cover by John Yates/Stealworks Interior design by briandesign
ISBN: 978-1-60486-302-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010927780 10987654321
Printed in the USA on recycled paper
Dedicated to my grandparents
Contents
Preface
Introduction
The Dismantling of Yugoslavia: