Portrait of Josip Broz Tito
Head of former communist Yugoslavia
Portrait title “Josip Groz Tito” by Charles Billich

When groups of people, of former or current communist persuasion, bandy together and intimidatingly label as fascists all those who are calling for the condemnation and prosecution of communist crimes, for honour and respect of Croatian independence and Homeland War of 1990’s, then you know you are dealing here with utter and ultimate evil.

The Social Democrat led government in Croatia is in serious trouble; whispers and loud calls for the government to step down and for early general elections have become a daily presence in the media and on the streets. So, as one might expect, communists, former communists who now call themselves antifascists are cranking up their noise about an existence of fascist elements in Croatian society to the point of irritation and annoyance. They do not, as one might expect it to be the decent thing to do, ever specify any person attached to the fascism they say exists! They rattle on in the hope of keeping the myth alive and keeping some votes in what looks like a fierce battle for survival in the next elections.

The days of May 8th and 9th are so well known in our democratic world. The 8th marks celebrating V-E Day, or V-Day from 1945 as the Allies celebrated victory over Nazi-Germany unconditional surrender. The Day marked the end of WWII.

9 May is Europe Day – united Europe day a strong part of which is Germany and other WWII Nazi Germany allies. In 1950 the nations of Europe were still struggling to overcome the devastation of WWII and then came the 9 May Declaration of French foreign minister Robert Schuman that proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community, whose members would pool coal and steel production. The Declaration, among other matters of unity said that “world peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it”.

On 10 May, Zagreb, Croatia, held a celebration to mark Europe Day, Victory Over Fascism Day, the 69th anniversary of the liberation of Zagreb and the 70th anniversary of the Third Session of the Regional Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH).

The rotten communist scoundrels currently holding governing positions in Croatia slipped into this end of WWII and post-WWII European unification celebration the “Third” Session of Anti-Fascist Council which was held on 8 and 9 May 1944, scandalously suggesting that their efforts have a great deal to do with the creation of today’s free and democratic Croatia when in fact their lot were against it and walked out of the Croatian Parliament in 1991 when independence and secession from communist Yugoslavia were on the agenda.

Surely, even if the Croatian Constitution does refer to the historic ZAVNOH sessions from WWII it clearly states: “At the historic turning-point marked by the rejection of the communist system and changes in the international order in Europe, the Croatian nation reaffirmed, in the first democratic elections (1990), by its freely expressed will, its millennial statehood and its resolution to establish the Republic of Croatia as a sovereign state”! And yet, this communist or antifascist lot have made it their business to disrespect the veterans of the 1990’s war of independence, to ignore and disrespect the sacrifices made and suffered by towns and cities, symbolized today by Vukovar.

Deputy Prime Minister Milanka Opacic greeted at the celebration in Zagreb Saturday 10 May the anti-fascist fighters in attendance, saying that they had laid the foundation for present-day Croatia. “In the Second World War, people were killed because of different religious, ethnic or political affiliation. The same thing happened in 1991 when we again faced fascism, albeit of a different kind, which killed innocent people just because they defended their country. We should thank them too, because without them we would not have present-day Croatia,” she said. She said children in school must learn about fascism – I hope she meant the fascism employed against Croatia in 1990’s from Serbia and it’s Yugoslav People’s Army! Somehow, I doubt that she meant this.

So, I ask, why was there no celebration at the same event in Zagreb on Saturday of 6 May 1990 when the Second round of first multi-party elections were held in Croatia as the beacon that lit the way to Croatian independence of today? I tell you why, because these communist scoundrels passing themselves off as antifascists are still in the business of denying freedom-loving Croats (not those that wanted communist Yugoslavia to survive) their deserved accolades. The red government pays lip-service to the Homeland War veterans as in “we should thank them” – as Opacic said – but the veterans are not include in this celebration of freedom from fascism.

It is actually quite frightening to watch what is happening on the political scene of Croatia today, more than two decades after the door to democracy was opened with rivers of innocent Croat blood at the hands of Serb and Yugoslav Army aggression. On Friday 9 May 2014 a group of anti-Croats, communists and former communists founded the Croatian Antifascist League!

The initiators of the League said that there is a need for such a body because the past twenty years there has been denial and demonising of antifascism at work, Croatian HRT TV reports. Such a body as the League is necessary, they say, to integrate antifascism into the foundations of Croatian society. “Today antifascism is civilized battle against every hatred,” said one of the League founders Ivan Fumic (Alliance of antifascist veterans). “I think that the judiciary reacts inadequately to hate speech and that that is a part of the problem we have in the affirmation of antifascism and tolerance in Croatia,” said Vesna Terselic from Documenta.

The Declaration charter of this League was signed by no other than the well-known anti-independent-Croatia propagandists, which include Serbian National Council and NGO Documenta; people such as Slavko Goldstein, Juraj Hrzenjak, Ognjen Kraus, Veljko Djakula, Milorad Pupovac, Vesna Terselic, Zoran Pusic and others.

No word in here about the need to integrate democracy, not antifascism, into the foundation of the Croatian society! Although he is a former Social Democrat and most likely still holds leanings towards the former communist Yugoslavia, let’s hope that Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic’s words spoken on Saturday that all retrograde ideas should be nipped in the bud will actually spill over into denial of any state funding of this shameful League. Wouldn’t it be a total disaster if this League attracted NGO funding from the state budget! Hopefully early general elections will occur before any such idiocy gets its foot scraping the bottom of the empty state coffers.

The terrible reality is that these so-called antifascists are nothing but fascists, if we must use that antiquated word that depicts the mainstream political orientation of some WWII countries in Europe. They are the people who use the word of antifascism as a way to climb high in the political scene from where they can continue denial of justice to victims of communist crimes by labeling all those who insist on processing WWII and post-WWII communist crimes as fascists.

If the aim of the League is, among other things, “to integrate antifascism into the foundation of Croatian society and systematically oppose all manifestations of Nazi-fascism” (as they say it is) does that mean that pursuits for justice for communist crimes will be considered “Nazi-fascist” manifestations? If the aim of the League is “that Croatia consistently applies its constitutional articles on rule of law, democratic, secular and socially sensitive state while taking into consideration the dignity of workers and human work in general” (as it says it is) then why don’t they see themselves as part of that constitutional obligation which, I would say, directs us that if it already isn’t then labeling people with opposing political views and those seeking accounting for communist crimes as fascists must become an unlawful act under the Constitution.

They might be thinking that the very word “antifascist”, with which they insist on describing themselves, exonerates them from any responsibility or accountability under the Constitution! Not in my book, it doesn’t!

The reality tells us that fascism/Nazism rather than communism/antifascism (both of which “regimes” have equally grotesque crimes to answer for and wear an eternal label of condemnation) has become the weapon of moral intimidation and economic progress retardant! Fascism/Nazism has, since WWII, been put to us as the worst thing that has ever happened to the human kind – the supreme evil, if you like. And yet, communism/antifascism has perpetrated much more widespread grotesque crimes against innocent people – not on the grounds of race, as fascism has, but on the grounds of political beliefs!

While History means that what really happened, we do not know the true history because we are fed historiography, or the record and interpretation of what happened by fallible men and women – usually those at the sides of the victorious armies. And since Russia’s Stalin was with the Allied forces (WWII and immediately after) the History of communist regimes was thus served with severed limbs and empty pages. And anyone who tries to rectify historiography of WWII and post-WWII communist/antifascist regimes is labeled a historical revisionist and a fascist! Revisionism in my eyes is necessary because its stake is in historical truth.

Croatia cannot waste time in its hard road to democracy with individual political point-scorers such as those who subscribed to the Antifascist League! It must develop an antidote to these poisonous destructive forces of democracy that mask themselves as righteous under the banner of antifascism! They were never righteous – not during WWII, not after WWII not in 1990/1991 – not after – not today – millions of innocent deaths through communist purges (estimated 1 to 1.2 million in former Yugoslavia alone/ in total population of around 23 million) bear witness to that! It is to be expected that the coming “Bleiburg Massacre” commemorations, which symbolise innocent deaths at the hands of Yugoslav communists/antifascists after WWII will also be labeled as “fascist” by these antifascist thugs in Croatia. Well – let them! In my book all victims deserve equal respect.  And the fact the their “beloved” Social Democrat led government is in real trouble of surviving to the end of its mandate does not excuse them from bringing up, once again, the politically corrupt and humanly pathological lie about fascist elements in Croatian society. Such intimidation, based on lies and communist corruption must be firmly ousted. Croatia must refuse to tie itself and its future to those who were at the helm after WWII – it must apply lustration not only from public service key positions but also from NGO’s who seem to be dictating to the nation instead of being dictated to by the nation (the taxpayers). Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)