Spirit
16th April 2011, 16:40
Hello everyone!
Since I am new to this forum and this is my first post, I hope I don't break any non written rules.
Anyway, since the mid- february, the anti government protests in Croatia are the main political subject in our country, but unfortunately, few foreign media have touched the subject ( I will give the links to those who have at the end of this text).
They have started with two violent clashes with the police which was guarding the famous "Markov trg" ( St. Mark's square) in the nations capital, Zagreb, where the parliament is situated. And I feel a back story would be needed here. See, Markov trg is kind of a symbol to us, citizens of Croatia, because of a law issued in 2005. by the leading party HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) whose former leader and prime minister Ivo Sanader is now in jail in Austria under suspicion for money laundering, corruption and what not. He is alledgedly guilty for stealing more than 500 000 000 dollars in total. Anyways, HDZ proclaimed Markov trg in 2005. as a spot on which any public gatherings (in Croatian law that is 20 or more people) are prohibited. Obviously the law is not equal for all because G.W. Bush, a few years ago, has given a speech there and the presidentional inauguration has been held there last year. So naturally, the people feel that this is unfair and hold Markov trg as a symbol of democracy which has been taken from them.
Anyways, after these two clashes with the police, the second one being led by a group of football hooligans, the protests have taken another turn in a form of peaceful marches across the town. Somewhere at that time the minister of police forces tried to insult us calling us "Indians" alluding to the movie representation of Native Americans as a barbarian hordes, but we accepted that nickname and proudly called ourselves "Indians" afterwards knowing what pain and humiliation they had to go through when their land was stolen from them.
This lasted about a month and a half, during which we protested in front of the leading party's headquarters and in front of Markov trg on a routine basis and we also visited some leading party members, including the prime minister Jadranka Kosor and protested in front of their apartments. We protested in front of the national television which has censored us severely by publishing ridiculous reports such as saying that our number in one occasion was less than 1000 when in fact we were 10 000 strong. By the way, the strongest protests were well over 15 000 people in number in one night(it's not hard to calculate) while "official estimates" were 8 000-10 000. have in mind that Zagreb has around 700 000 inhabitants so 15 000 people is a fair number of protesters.
On one occasion some 200 people were protesting in front of a hotel in which some local branch of HDZ had a meeting and the riot police caused an incident, clashing with us, but we did not strike back. After that, some party members, standing safely behind the police, started making fun of us, giving us the finger and threw money at us while we were shouting "Give us our money back". After that the police arrested a protester simply because a party member pointed a finger at him and said "him". The protester was peaceful. It was probably the worst scene of the protests, we felt like we were in George Orwell's 1984. So we did a spontaneous sit-in in front of the police van after which 12 more people were arrested.
Unfortunately, protests were plagued by political opportunism of some individuals from the far right and by the various messages proclaiming various political programs while we only wanted one thing: the resignation of our thieving government. Also, we didn't have any centralized organization because of the splits between the protesters who are now divided in groups.
Also the infamous Croatian apathy has taken it's toll and it was disgusting and grotesque seeing people drinking coffee and laughing at us on trendy public places while we were fighting for our future.
Anyways, now the protests are in a pause phase, we are doing a lot of thinking and minor actions over the city, such as propaganda etc. It's a painful and hard job connecting so much opposing views, often selfish and opportunistic people. But we are working on it, planning massive sit-ins and different tactics.
It's interesting, the protests have united the people in a way I have never seen before in Croatia. On one protest, some members which are on the far right were inviting anarchist to lead the protest march. That moment was unbeliavable to me, as an anarchist and someone who never, ever thought something like that could happen in Croatia...
anyway, here are some links I thing can be useful
a video homage to the protests- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2Dm7C6tLc
an article from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/02/croatia-protests-economic-slump
an article on Croatia's government from The Washington Times (for some insight in the situation): http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/30/a-modern-mafia-state/
a facebook group for international support with further links on the subject: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-anti-government-protests-in-Croatia/191242717581230?ref=ts
Since I am new to this forum and this is my first post, I hope I don't break any non written rules.
Anyway, since the mid- february, the anti government protests in Croatia are the main political subject in our country, but unfortunately, few foreign media have touched the subject ( I will give the links to those who have at the end of this text).
They have started with two violent clashes with the police which was guarding the famous "Markov trg" ( St. Mark's square) in the nations capital, Zagreb, where the parliament is situated. And I feel a back story would be needed here. See, Markov trg is kind of a symbol to us, citizens of Croatia, because of a law issued in 2005. by the leading party HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) whose former leader and prime minister Ivo Sanader is now in jail in Austria under suspicion for money laundering, corruption and what not. He is alledgedly guilty for stealing more than 500 000 000 dollars in total. Anyways, HDZ proclaimed Markov trg in 2005. as a spot on which any public gatherings (in Croatian law that is 20 or more people) are prohibited. Obviously the law is not equal for all because G.W. Bush, a few years ago, has given a speech there and the presidentional inauguration has been held there last year. So naturally, the people feel that this is unfair and hold Markov trg as a symbol of democracy which has been taken from them.
Anyways, after these two clashes with the police, the second one being led by a group of football hooligans, the protests have taken another turn in a form of peaceful marches across the town. Somewhere at that time the minister of police forces tried to insult us calling us "Indians" alluding to the movie representation of Native Americans as a barbarian hordes, but we accepted that nickname and proudly called ourselves "Indians" afterwards knowing what pain and humiliation they had to go through when their land was stolen from them.
This lasted about a month and a half, during which we protested in front of the leading party's headquarters and in front of Markov trg on a routine basis and we also visited some leading party members, including the prime minister Jadranka Kosor and protested in front of their apartments. We protested in front of the national television which has censored us severely by publishing ridiculous reports such as saying that our number in one occasion was less than 1000 when in fact we were 10 000 strong. By the way, the strongest protests were well over 15 000 people in number in one night(it's not hard to calculate) while "official estimates" were 8 000-10 000. have in mind that Zagreb has around 700 000 inhabitants so 15 000 people is a fair number of protesters.
On one occasion some 200 people were protesting in front of a hotel in which some local branch of HDZ had a meeting and the riot police caused an incident, clashing with us, but we did not strike back. After that, some party members, standing safely behind the police, started making fun of us, giving us the finger and threw money at us while we were shouting "Give us our money back". After that the police arrested a protester simply because a party member pointed a finger at him and said "him". The protester was peaceful. It was probably the worst scene of the protests, we felt like we were in George Orwell's 1984. So we did a spontaneous sit-in in front of the police van after which 12 more people were arrested.
Unfortunately, protests were plagued by political opportunism of some individuals from the far right and by the various messages proclaiming various political programs while we only wanted one thing: the resignation of our thieving government. Also, we didn't have any centralized organization because of the splits between the protesters who are now divided in groups.
Also the infamous Croatian apathy has taken it's toll and it was disgusting and grotesque seeing people drinking coffee and laughing at us on trendy public places while we were fighting for our future.
Anyways, now the protests are in a pause phase, we are doing a lot of thinking and minor actions over the city, such as propaganda etc. It's a painful and hard job connecting so much opposing views, often selfish and opportunistic people. But we are working on it, planning massive sit-ins and different tactics.
It's interesting, the protests have united the people in a way I have never seen before in Croatia. On one protest, some members which are on the far right were inviting anarchist to lead the protest march. That moment was unbeliavable to me, as an anarchist and someone who never, ever thought something like that could happen in Croatia...
anyway, here are some links I thing can be useful
a video homage to the protests- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2Dm7C6tLc
an article from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/02/croatia-protests-economic-slump
an article on Croatia's government from The Washington Times (for some insight in the situation): http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/30/a-modern-mafia-state/
a facebook group for international support with further links on the subject: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-anti-government-protests-in-Croatia/191242717581230?ref=ts