Mira Glavardanov
The biggest protest in Serbian history happened on 15 March in the capital Belgrade. The upper estimate is 800,000 people; the entire population of Serbia is less than seven million. It was a culmination of four and a half months of protests. Student and farmers’ marches and blockades and a teachers’ strike took place following the collapsed roof at the train station in the city of Novi Sad, and widespread revulsion at the corruption that is believed to lie behind the country’s poor infrastructure.
The protest on 15 March was regarded by many people as the ‘D day’. People were saying: “This time we don’t go home until it’s done”, and “Don’t bring your children or pets with you”. But the protest ended before the night came and the hated president Vucic is still standing. There was an attack on the peaceful demonstration, during the 15-minute silence (for 15 victims of the rail station disaster). A sonic cannon was used by the police, to spread horror among protesters, thus committing a terrorist act against their own people.
March on Belgrade
For days before, thousands of students from all over Serbia marched to Belgrade on foot, with thousands of others by all means. But the regime cancelled coaches and trains, blocked roads with ‘roadworks’ and huge lines of cars were held at toll stations. Without the obstructions the protest would have been even bigger.
For days, Vucic had been warning of violence during the protest, instigated by the students, despite the fact that all previous protests had been peaceful. He had a few hundred of his ‘loyalists’ encamped in the central location in Belgrade, close to the parliament building.
Many people guessed that Vucic was ‘predicting’ his own violence, which he would then use as an excuse for enforcing martial law, as a way of staying in power. Vucic knows well that his regime is shaken.
There is a lot of speculation on the nature of Vucic’s intentions for the day. It is thought that by using the sonic cannon he wanted to cause a stampede, which his thugs could use to attack the protesters. The police would intervene and extreme violence would take place.
But this did not happen. People ran for cover towards buildings rather than along the street. The student organisers also quickly called an end to the protest. The stewarding has been highly organised and important in defending against police violence, which is very likely to be increased in the next protests.
Vucic bragged of “defeating the colour revolution” – the name given to uprisings supported from the west, against rulers who do not act in western interests – implying that the whole protest movement was orchestrated by outside powers hostile to his regime.
The protests have not stopped. Students are organising another big protest for 4 April. But it feels like something has changed and the mood is sharper.
Inspired by the success of student ‘plenums’ (assemblies), the students have called the general population to organise on a similar model. In the week since the 15th there have been numerous local assemblies developing their own demands.
Cracks in the state have started to open. In the city of Niš, several people were arrested and quickly released as the authorities refused to prosecute them. One former police officer has written an open letter to the police, asking them not to be afraid of the “very scared individual” who is making them protect criminals and at the same time beat up their own people.
Teachers have been on strike for months, surviving thanks to donations from working people. The teachers’ union is calling for other unions to join. Students have also called on workers and unions to support them from the start. Unfortunately this has been painfully missing, most union leaders are wedded to the regime.
Significantly, in the aftermath of 15 March, five union centres have had a meeting with the students and come out in official support. The short statement says this is the first time unions will act together to change the anti-worker employment and strike laws. This development might be huge for the future of the movement, especially if it translates into active support of the teachers’ strike.
The solidarity that the movement has received from the neighbouring countries, thirty years after a bitter war between them, is also significant. Students in Zagreb, Croatia, have also started organising assemblies, as they are unhappy about tuition fees. Tragically, on the same evening as the Belgrade protest, a nightclub burned in North Macedonia, killing 59 young people. Solidarity from the whole of the Balkans poured into North Macedonia. The students and working people in North Macedonia immediately started organising assemblies, demanding resignations and prosecutions and an end to corruption.
Serbian students have not received support from any capitalist establishment and no wonder. The Serbian movement has no friends abroad other than working people. This is because, by rejecting the corrupt, comprador government at home, the mass protests also reject its dirty dealings with imperialist powers.
The protest movement in Serbia has grown significantly and more parts of the population are taking concrete action. The ‘people’s assemblies’ could start to form parallel institutions, preparing for the ‘day after’. They should call on workers to start organising in their workplaces in a similar way, forming ‘workers’ councils’ or ‘workers’ action committees’ that would by-pass the corrupt union leaders. ‘Workers’ councils’ existed in the former Yugoslavia in all workplaces, so it’s not an alien concept for many older workers, in particular. This time they need to be completely run from the bottom up and not stifled by bureaucracy. Rank-and-file democratic control of workers’ councils would ensure genuine representation of what workers want, with the right of immediate recall of elected representatives if needed. Such bodies linking up on a local, regional and national scale, and closely allying with the student organisations, would be the basis for a powerful alternative to the regime.
General strike
Mass actions aimed at bringing society to a halt, including a general strike, could get a powerful echo at the moment. Student organisations, local assemblies and those unions prepared to take action, like the teachers, could lead the way, calling for strike action to fully isolate the government and for its resignation. This would pose the question of who should run society and on whose behalf. A government genuinely based on the sentiments of the mass movement and wider population would be anti-corruption, anti-privatisation, anti-imperialist, anti-poverty, and pro-worker, student and the poor.
The movement has already bypassed the constraints of capitalist parliamentary democracy. But students and workers’ consciousness of their own power and ideas about the nature of a future society are inevitably lagging behind. Peoples’ assemblies, workers’ councils, and student protest bodies and networks can all offer both a precious experience and the building blocks of that society.
Settling for a capitalist parliamentary democracy would mean handing over the reins back to the foreign or domestic capitalists. To successfully make lasting and fundamental regime and system change requires an independent class approach and socialist ideas and programmes.
This means advocating policies in favour of working-class people and students and their needs for homes, good and secure jobs, free education for all, a free and accessible health system. This would require reversing all privatisations and implementing a socialist system that is based on the needs of ordinary people rather than profit.
The resilient mass demonstrations of the last months, with the newly formed truly democratic rank-and-file organisations that represent people’s needs, give the opportunity of building a strong socialist political alternative to the corrupt pro-capitalist politics that only benefit the rich.
It is important that the movement consciously orients itself in this direction, which would ensure that the effort and achievements so far gain a solid ground. It would offer a clear vision and would remove a danger that the mass movement becomes tired and disoriented, which the regime, or other capitalist forces, would use to gain the initiative.
