INICJATYWA PRACOWNICZA

We publish the English translation of the interview conducted by our comrades from Inicjatywa Pracownicza with Veljko Radic, a Serbian student involved in the protests shaking Serbian universities and society for the past two months. The protests were sparked by the collapse of the roof of the Novi Sad railway station on November 1, which killed 15 people. The student-led movement is not only against Aleksandar Vucic’s autocratic regime, the lack of transparency, and the disregard of legality, but it is also challenging the neoliberal transformation of society, as Veljko said, demanding more money for education and better living conditions. The challenge now, as the interview shows, is how to strengthen the radical demands for change and to connect the students’ demands with other segments of society.

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Inicjatywa Pracownicza: Could you explain what’s happening in Serbia right now?

Veljko Radic: Seven weeks ago, a recently renovated train station roof collapsed and killed 15 people in Novi Sad. That has caused a series of daily commemorative 15-minute-of-silence actions and protests. During one of such actions, students and professors of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade were attacked by hooligans. The police did not identify the people who attacked them, and that made the students start the blockade of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, demanding their identification and submitting criminal charges against them. Afterward, a group of students from various universities started a blockade of the rectorate, adding new demands: making all the documentation regarding the renovation of the train station open for everyone, cancelling all court cases against students who participated in the protests, and increasing the budget of universities by 20%. Shortly afterward, all faculties started their blockades having the same demands.

IP: Why have you decided to strike?

VR: What makes these protests so special for me is the fact that students are organized horizontally. Every faculty has a local plenum where anyone can say whatever they want, then there would be a short discussion and voting. Most often, it ends up almost reaching a consensus. Furthermore, every faculty has a lot of working groups for strategy, donations, media, communication with other faculties, security, activities during the blockade etc. Every decision made at local plenums is sent to a big delegate meeting where every faculty has a delegate who shares what has been decided at their local plenum. In that way, decisions concerning the whole university are made. Also, any kind of collaboration with political parties and NGOs is forbidden. However, the system should not be idealized, many people think that a lot of things that end up discussed at the big delegate meeting are redundant and have already been discussed in other ways. Anyway, despite the protests largely being “apolitical” and “anti-corruption”, I think the experience of direct democracy can radicalize people and eventually create a more leftist front.

IP: What are your goals?

VR: I think that most people would say that they only want every demand to be met, or maybe that they secretly want to destroy the current ruling party. Some people, including me, hope that the protests and demands can be radicalized, connect with other groups, and create new demands such as anti-lithium mining, better student conditions, support for Palestine and against the sending of weapons to Israel from Serbia…

IP: What are your plans now?

VR: Honestly, I do not have a clear plan because I was not in Serbia when the blockade started. So, when I came back after 2 weeks of being abroad, I felt a huge cultural shock. It felt like there had been some kind of revolutionary spirit in the air. Personally, I have thought about starting some anticapitalist movie projections or reading groups, but I am not sure people would be into that at least at my faculty. At yesterday’s plenum, it looked like most people said that being an anticapitalist is almost like being mentally ill. It is of course an exaggeration, but it is not so far from what has actually happened.

The Faculty of Dramatic Arts proposed a letter with clear anticapitalist and anarchist ideas to be signed by faculties and then sent to international students. This letter was sent to all plenums and when it was about to be discussed at our plenum a few people just started shouting that it is obviously politically colored and that we are not communists and that it is even schizo because it says that the world is on the brink of a collapse and that representative democracy does not work. There was not almost any room for counterarguments, and comments of a few people made everyone think the letter was utterly stupid. Later, I talked to some people about it and they said that, even though they lean towards anticapitalism, they think the letter is cringe and common people would think we are idiots. I do not think it is cringe and to me it seems to be one of the best things that has happened in these protests. I do not know whether common people would think we are idiots, but to me that logic sounds populist and I do not like it.

It is quite impressive that all the universities (even in other cities) have organized horizontally and created a huge movement. None would have expected that a month ago, and that’s why it can give students in other places energy to work on their own issues. I think we all share similar problems. Neoliberalism made studying quite expensive, many students have to have a part-time job during their studies, then tuition is quite expensive, and dormitories are often non-existent, same with canteens. Then, there are other huge problems such as sending weapons to Israel to commit genocide and climate change… I think many people do not think these protests are connected to other struggles and find them as some kind of a moral issue that unites everyone. Sadly, maybe that is the main reason why they have arisen. Maybe because of that, we can hardly hope for any kind of anticapitalist front coming out of it. However, it is important to mention that the anarchist letter has been approved by a few faculties, so the situation is not the same everywhere.

IP: What does student life look like in Serbia? How much do you pay to live, accommodation and stuff like that? How many students live in a dormitory? How much does it cost?

VR: Well, when I tell international students about conditions for students in Serbia they tell me that I live in a utopia… Yes, there are a lot of awesome things that are Yugoslavian heritage. For example, dormitories and canteens are quite cheap: around 30€ monthly for accommodation and 2€ for all 3 meals. Even though tuition has recently started to increase tremendously, I believe that still around 50% of students are funded by the government and pay nothing for their studies. It is also important to mention that the prices for dormitories and canteens are only for students whose studies are funded by the government. For others, it gets around 4 times more expensive.

However, conditions for students who are not funded by the government are a lot worse. The tuition can rise up to 2500€ per year, which is very similar to the amount paid at local private universities. Actually, two years ago there was a huge protest against the rise of the tuition for architecture students. They also set a plenum and blocked the university, but after a few weeks, the movement ceased to exist. If I am not mistaken, the student parliament stopped supporting them, and then they slowly stopped existing.

Also, when your studies are not funded by the government, you have to rent a place and that gets a lot more expensive. There are private dormitories where the costs are around 250€/month. You can also live in a state dormitory and pay around 120€/month, but there are only a few places for that. Currently, I do not have the exact data, but I believe that no more than 20% of students who are not from Belgrade live in a dormitory.

On top of all that, it is important to mention that university dormitories are not in good condition. In almost every dormitory, there is no air conditioning in the rooms, and it gets extremely warm during the summer. Rooms are often quite small – just a few beds and little space to be able to move and place some stuff – almost like in a hostel.

IP: Which groups are supporting the students?

VR: At the most recent protest on Sunday, there were 120 thousand people in the street, most of them were students, but also many agricultural workers and actors and actresses. There were also many high school professors and students, as they have largely joined the strike too. In general, people from various backgrounds donate food and everything else that is needed to universities every day. Unfortunately, a local neonazi group does that too. It is quite hard to make them stop doing that as it is impossible to know who gives you a donation. Also, some large companies donated some stuff to us. I think it is just a way to promote themselves by doing something good while actually paying their workers poorly and perpetuating capitalism.

IP: Do professors support your goals and actions?

VR: It depends on the faculty. At my faculty, professors support actions and goals, but it has not been like that from the beginning. At other faculties, professors do not support them, and sometimes students have even completely blocked their faculty, not allowing administration to come to the workplace or professors to enter the building.