Mira Glavardanov, Enfield and Lea Valley Socialist Party
A roof at the train station collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in Serbia on a busy November morning, killing 15 people. It collapsed two months after a ‘reconstruction’ job where tonnes of new material were added without adding more structural support. Reconstruction was done quickly and the new glossy train station was opened. The corrupt government officials took photo opportunities, while wilfully ignoring alarm calls from some building experts.
This event prompted huge protests all around the country, at the same time as protests were going on against the Rio Tinto lithium mine. The protests more or less merged and 15-minute (for 15 victims) blockades of roads and towns centres have been organised.
Students then took the centre stage, starting to occupy university campuses. By now most campuses in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš (the three largest cities) have been occupied. Students had issued demands, including publishing all documents on the reconstruction of the train station, releasing all arrested student protesters, and importantly, increasing funding for state universities.
Very significantly, they are organising assemblies in occupied universities, taking democratic decisions on further actions. Students are also protesting on the streets, and in some cases joined by secondary school walkouts. Most teachers are coming out in support.
The regime’s answer from the start has been heavy handed, with full riot police and also plain clothes police arresting protesters, or simply using thugs to bully and beat up people on the streets.
Meanwhile, several prominent anti-mining and anti-regime farmer activists had their farms closed by the authorities. This has prompted further protests and blockades by farmers, who have also declared solidarity with students.
Students’ protests
Even though many teachers support their students, and there was a teachers’ union one-day protest, the workers’ unions are still largely absent. One student banner said: “Students in blockades. Workers on strike”, clearly calling on workers to take action, recognising its potential significance. Many people remember that former president Slobodan Miloševic was only toppled in 2000 once the miners went on strike, after many months of street protests by other sections of society. This is clearly what is desperately needed now.
The regime feels shaken and very nervous. The student and farmer protests are genuinely from below and not led by the largely distrusted official opposition. But the regime has support from abroad, from all imperialist sides. President Aleksandar Vucic has promised lithium to the EU. China has mines and other stakes in Serbia, and so does Russia. No power wants him gone because it is equally risky for all. Ordinary people do not have friends in foreign powers. But they have in other ordinary people – students in the Croatian city of Rijeka held a 15-minute protest in solidarity.
The question who will replace the Vucic regime also looms. The opposition is mainly pro-EU and nationalists are pro-Russia. The left is small and many are pro-China. The student and farmer protesters are not visibly signed up to any camp. Their simple wish, to live in a ‘normal’ country not ruled by autocrats and not threatened by the interests of foreign mining or other interests, where ‘the country belongs to us’, can only be realised in a democratic socialist society. Student assemblies give a taste of that.
