The problem of Kosovo was exploited by US imperialism.
In 1913 the Great Powers gave the region to Serbia as a way of appeasing it (and, by extension, Tsarist Russia); the original goal the Serbian rulers was to annex all of northern Albania in order to reach the Adriatic. More than half of the Albanian nation was thus severed from Albania itself. A national liberation movement started in the annexed region led by figures such as Bajram Curri, Isa Boletini, Shote Galica, etc. The Comintern supported this struggle.
Item 6 of the resolution adopted at the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in November 1928:
"The Party proclaims the solidarity of the revolutionary workers and peasants of the other nations of Yugoslavia, above all Serbia, with the Albanian national-revolutionary movement personified by the Kosovo Committee and calls upon the working class to extend comprehensive assistance to the struggle of the dismembered and suppressed Albanian people for an independent and unified Albania."
(Desanka Pešić, "The Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the National Question of Albanians between the Two World Wars," in Gordana Filipović (ed). Kosovo: Past and Present. Belgrade: Review of International Affairs. 1989. p. 95.)
This stand of the CPY was reiterated in 1940. During the war, however, Tito threw away this call in order to appease Serbian chauvinism. Albanian reaction, led by the Balli Kombëtar, had praised the "Greater Albania" which Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany created in an attempt show themselves as "liberators" of the Albanians rather than their occupiers. The Communist Party of Albania opposed all talk of a "Greater Albania" and instead called for the resolution of the problem of Kosovo to be solved after the war between an independent Albania, independent Yugoslavia, and the inhabitants of Kosovo itself.
After the war the Yugoslav state began suppressing any Albanian national sentiment. It wasn't until the fall of Ranković in 1966 that Tito (who used him as a scapegoat) began making some concessions to Albanian national sentiment through the establishment of a University, etc. The Albanians continued to struggle for genuine autonomy and equality; they called for Kosovo to be made a Republic of Yugoslavia just like Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and so on. In 1981 protests by Albanian workers and students were suppressed by Yugoslav tanks. As the 80's progressed many in the Serbian intelligentsia began fanning chauvinist sentiments against the Albanians.
In response to the events of 1981, Hoxha said at the 8th Congress of the PLA held in November that year that:
"If the present Yugoslav leadership proceeds on the course it has chosen and is pursuing, the opposition of the Albanians will continue, will grow and become even more acute. Only a solution of the national question which is well considered by the two sides without passion, a solution which is accepted and approved by the people of Kosova, can eliminate this very complicated situation which has been created not by the people of Kosova, but by Great-Serb chauvinism. The people of Kosova proposed the fairest and most suitable solution in this situation, which is difficult for Yugoslavia and for themselves. The demand to raise Kosova to the status of a Republic within the Federation is a just demand. It does not threaten the existence of the Federation....
Albania has never made territorial claims against Yugoslavia, and no demand for border re-adjustments can be found in its documents."
(Enver Hoxha. Selected Works Vol. VI. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1987. pp. 413-414.)
Hoxha also explicitly opposed any attempts to "internationalize" the issue of Kosovo by presenting it to the UN or other bodies for imperialism to take advantage of.
Then Milošević came to power and proceeded to carry out ethnic campaigns against the Albanians. During the 1960's-80's Marxist-Leninist groups led the way in the struggle against Serbian chauvinism. After 1991, however, right-wing émigrés in Europe and the USA began playing an active role, backed by an ardently pro-US Albanian government. The KLA was founded and served as a tool of US imperialism, which had initially supported Milošević for his pro-market policies and later turned against him.
Kosovo was proclaimed independent in 2008, but in economics and politics it is clearly a neo-colony of US imperialism. Genuine independence, like democratic rights, is achieved by the working-class, it is not granted by imperialist powers. As always, the question of Kosovo can be solved only by its inhabitants on the basis of the right to self-deterimination.
Last edited by Ismail; 19th January 2013 at 20:28.
* h0m0revolutionary: "neo-liberalism can deliver healthy children, it can educate them, it can feed them, it can clothe them and leave them fully contented."
* rooster: "Supporting [anti-imperialism] is reactionary. How is any nation supposed to stand up [to] the might of the US anyway?"
* nizan: "Fuck your education is empowerment bullshit, education is alienation, nothing more. You indulge in a dying prestige for a role in a bureaucratic spectacle deserving of nothing beyond contempt."
* Alexios: "To the Board Administration: Ismail [...] needs to be eliminated from this forum."