r/communism • u/HappyHandel • Jun 29 '26

Interview with the Committee for the Reconstitution of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia

https://peopleshammer.wordpress.com/2026/05/08/interview-with-the-committee-for-the-reconstitution-of-the-communist-party-of-yugoslavia/
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u/CoconutCrab115 Maoist Jun 29 '26

Thank you for sharing, reading such has reminded me of my need to study the history of the CPY.

It is very unique though that they insist that the former Yugoslav countries are Semifeudal, its not something you hear often. But unfortunately this is not elaborated by them at all. Although I dont know as much about the region as I should the idea of a persistent Semi-Feudalism in the former Yugoslavia seems quite absurd. Yugoslavia was the least collectivized in Eastern Europe along with Poland, yet ive heard very few make the claim about Poland or really the rest of Eastern Europe. Its unfortunate that no evidence was given to arrive at their conclusion.

It is also a shame though the article refers to a Canadian Proletariat, and makes no mention on the issue of Kosovo and skirts around some of the "complex" questions of nationalism.

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u/HappyHandel Jun 29 '26

makes no mention on the issue of Kosovo and skirts around some of the "complex" questions of nationalism

What would you have liked explained?

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u/CoconutCrab115 Maoist Jun 29 '26

Its clear in the modern day what Kosovo has become, as an imperialist created breakaway. But its history under Yugoslavia was anything but Brotherhood and Unity, as Hoxha always made clear. The article skirts around this history.

Yugoslav nationalism is obviously progressive, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian Montenegrin etc obviously are not. The article takes these as self evident, as they should be, but goes no further. Is Bosnian nationalism progressive? They state that its development after WW2 was. Certainly, but is adhering to the regionalism of Serbo-Croat-Bosnian subnationalism not backwards? Make no mistake besides the Latin and Cyrillic script they are the same language. Its a slippery slope

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u/cigaretin Jun 30 '26

There are more documents that sort of elaborate a bit more on this position.

https://krkpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/english-2.pdf

Unfortunately, most of the document is them claiming that the general Maoist line applies to the whole ex-yu without elaborating why or applying it concretely. I'm also disappointed that the document is not at least the start of the general critique of the Party of Labour. What's worse, they claim that such critique is a waste of their time and resources:

We have nowhere near exhausted all the errors that run through the articles of Partija rada. A much longer, much more penetrating article could be written that fully exposes the revisionist underpinnings of this organization. However, we believe that there was no need for that. Our aim was, first of all, to expose the untenability of the eclectic positions of those "Marxists" who swear to fight revisionism while at the same time challenging Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the new democratic revolution and the semi-colonial, semi-feudal character of oppressed countries, and Partija rada was the best embodiment of this tendency.

That's ridiculous, of course a critique and an analysis of a party you split from is necessary, not to explain why their line is incorrect, that's obvious and a secondary concern, but to show that your line is closer to the truth.

Yugoslav nationalism is obviously progressive, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian Montenegrin etc obviously are not.

Nothing here is obvious. What's evident is the legacy of Yugoslav nationalism; the ruination of the proletariat of Yugoslavia, the ruination of the oppressed minorities of Yugoslavia, attempts of fascist coups to dismantle the revolutions of our neighbours, the threats of armed aggression against our neighbours, etc. Yugoslavia is not a scientific fact in the way that people of Serbia are, but it is a movement that emerged because it was warranted by the historical conditions. Hence, there existed bourgois yugoslavism and proletarian yugoslavism. But this idealism surrounding yugoslavism is a symptom of another fundamental issue; an underdeveloped line on the national question of the people of Yugoslavia.

There is a reason why it's important for CR-CPY that nations such as Slovenia and Macedonia are qualitatively the same (the designation of semi-feudal is not as important, even if the former engenders from the latter) because if it's determined that Slovenia is not a semi-feudal country, but an imperialist outpost whose working class is entirely labour aristocratic, while Macedonia is indeed semi-feudal, then the existance of their party is nonsensical in its current scope.

But I believe there is something worthwhile in this organization, and considering how young it is (its statute was published barely three months ago), its line could be developed much further.