Student protest in Serbia 06/07

[Revolucija]

http://www.b92.net/news/pics/2007/04/3190021154613de2293ef4657917456_extreme.jpg

Student protest in Serbia 06/07
In the may and June education union of Union Confederation
Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative
(http://inicijativa.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=SindObrBG) and
direct-democratic solidarity movement Social front
(http://www.socijalni.front.ru/) initiated campaign against scholarships
in Belgrade University "Down with tuition fee" (Dole skolarine!).
(http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/13)

First few weeks in October, when the university year have started,
passed in distributing of propaganda materials, collecting of signatures
against the tuition fees and organizing of student assemblies at the
Philosophical faculty with an intent of organizing protest in a more
radical form. (http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/24)

On 12th of October protest party which gathered several hundred students
was organized in front of Philosophical faculty.
(http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/22)

On 18th of October student organized a welcome for Serbian Prime
Minister, and Education Minister which were gathering in near by
building, wearing slogans such as "I don't want to pay", "Free
education", "Down with tuition fees" etc. the politicians were quite
scared. (http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/23)

On 27th of October protest walk was organized, more than more than 500
people attended the protest walk. Apart from tuition fees, new demand
was introduced - equalizing of the graduated student with the "master"
level from Bologne process which is being introduced in Serbia (while
University tried to take more money and organize extra education for
students who wanted to have a "master" diploma)
(http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/25 - photos,
http://inicijativa.org/files/video/2006102...stna_setnja.wmv (http://inicijativa.org/files/video/20061027-protestna_setnja.wmv) - video)

On 6th of November, while the meeting of the highest University body
(KONUS) was happening, protest was organized. More than 800 people
attended the protests. "Thiefs!", "Bourgeois gang!" was yelled and the
deans, and they were blocked inside of the building. We didn't let them
go out for some time, and students were yelling at them: "How expensive
your suites are?", "Thiefs!" etc. (http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/26)

On 16th of November protest walk was organized, the main streets of
Belgrade were blocked and students yelled in front of the Parliament
building, Government building and Education Ministry building "These are
the nests of the thiefs", "Down with tuition fee"
(http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/28)

On 17th of November we have organized travel to the city of Novi Sad
where KONUS was meeting again, some 100 students protested and entered
the meeting where they verbally attacked the deans.
(http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/29)

Parallel with this, bureaucratic student organizations, Student Union of
Serbia (SUS), and Union of Students (SSB), when confronted with big
numbers of students attending the protests and actions, tried to take
over the protest and to take the focus from the tuition fees and only
deal with "master" issue. In a longer analysis we'll show how we managed
to fuck them over. Without a doubt, our non-hierarchically structure,
with student assemblies deciding on everything played a key role in that.

On 22nd of November, Protest was organized in front of Philosophical
faculty, which was occupied as a result of the protest. Since,
Philosophical faculty was turned into protest headquarters for the whole
university. Permanently hundreds students are inside, they are eating,
sleeping, discussing, singing, watching movies, and preparing propaganda
materials and of course blocking the lectures.
(http://kontra-punkt.info/index.php?module=My_eGallery&do=showgall&gid=19&p=)

Two liberal politicians, from different parties, tried to enter faculty building and
were yelled out by the students "We don't want politicians here" and
"thiefs!" was screamed at them. One of them, who came with his
bodyguards, even attacked some students.

On 28th of November, Philosophical faculty agreed on the platform which was written by the students and faculty administration, which, among other things, is demanding huge increase in financing of education sector, changing of the status of ALL self-financing students to status which will be in big part covered by the State, and a request for a long term plan for the education sector, with progressive downgrading of the hight of the tuition fees. Later during the day, while several hundred students gathered for the protest that we assembled, the highest governing body of Belgrade University, the Senate, supported the document. The blockade of the faculty was taken down, and the protest is now spreading, and is being directed against the government. We'll see how it will go. We are hoping for massive anti-state protests.

Some pictures from the occupation - here: http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/30

The civilization leap that was made by faculty and university standing behind this document is absolutely great.

08/03/2007 - Some 300 students gathered at the protest in front of Faculty of Architecture today. After blocking of the major Belgrade boulevard for some time, just few hours ago decision was made to do a sleep-over in the faculty building, which can turn into a full-time blockade of the building tomorrow morning. This is just a first step in revival of the protest in this schooling year. As before, the infrastructure of the protest is provided by ASI-IWA.

14/03/2007 - At 19:00h tonight occupation of the Philosophical faculty has been declared. This is now second faculty that is being held by students, together with faculty of Architecture. The meeting was held with the minister of education yesterday, but his offer was rejected by the 600 students strong assembly at the Architecture faculty.

New pictures from the blockade of the faculty of Architecture are now on the protest site:

http://protest.zbrka.net/image/tid/32

It is kind of a mini 1968 - it is a first time that something so radical
(texts that are adopted by the assemblies will eventually be translated)
is happening at Belgrade University since 1968. Of course, since apathy
that is caused by betrayed revolutions and so called transition, all of
this is happening on much smaller scale, for the time being, and maybe
1000 students are actively involved in this - but nobody else,
especially bureaucratic student organizations, is capable of bringing
more people - so this is the biggest thing that can happen in present
situation.

My favorite picture from the protest here: http://protest.zbrka.net/node/275

Official web site of the protest: http://protest.zbrka.net
Photo galleries: http://protest.zbrka.net/image

(copy/paste from Libcom, msg by comrade Rata)

[Bobi]

This is a summary from book about student protests in Serbia 2006. Book is called: "The Struggle for Knowledge" (Borba za znanje). For more informations look here (http://protest.zbrka.net/node/606).

http://www.inicijativa.org/tiki/img/wiki_up//stud_prot_07_sl_01.jpg

The Struggle for Knowledge

In the autumn of 2006, students at the University of Belgrade launched the first organised counter-offensive against neo-liberal reforms of higher education in Serbia. In this way they continued the same struggle initiated earlier in the same year by their colleagues from France, Greece and other countries across the world.

The neo-liberal restructuring of society and education is not only an unsuccessful strategy of development for a peripheral economy, but it also has a very direct negative impact on both working and academic practice of professors and students. Knowledge and research are being turned into commodities, an investment by the state and private sector, the value of which is determined by the market. Due to the necessity of maintaining macroeconomic stability by a restrictive budget policy, the burden of financing education is increasingly being passed to the individual. Students are forced to take only the courses that they can afford to „purchase“ on the market, they are forced to buy new textbooks for each subject in every successive year of their studies, they even have to pay to apply for an examination applications or to change the examiner. Basically, they are forced to work for a wage in order to afford their studies…

The rejection of the notion of education as a commodity, to be bought and sold on the market, was the central focus of the Student Protest. This was most obvious from the official slogans: „Down with the tuition fees!“ , „We are studying – they are profiting!“ and especially „Blockade the faculty because knowledge is not a commodity!“. The most significant characteristic of the protest was its emphasis on collective and non-hierarchical modes self-organisation. All the main decisions were made at mass meetings open to all protest participants. Anyone could speak and state their opinion. These were the forums in which student demands and plans were made, changed and formalised.

Students demanded a 50% cut in tuition fees, clear and transparent criteria for establishing the amount of tuition fees and accounts in general, and the recognition of the title of (four-year) “graduated student” as equivalent to the new "master" (3+2) level introduced by the Law on Higher Education. After a series of unsuccessful negotiations with state and university representatives, groups of students decided to radicalise the protest and thus reveal the wider social potential of their own struggle. The first step in the radicalisation of the protest was to organise for a blockade of the Belgrade University Rectorate to coincide with the sitting of the highest body uniting all the universities in Serbia (KONUS). The most important episode of the protest, however, was the blockade of the Faculty of Philosophy, which lasted from 22 to 28 November 2006.

The Student Protest lasted three months, from the beginning of October until end of December 2006. It included eight public protest meetings, over 30 student gatherings at the Faculty of Philosophy and approximately 15 gatherings at other faculties across the city. Over 17 000 students of Belgrade University signed petitions in support of protest demands.

The participants of the protest realised that, acting collectively, they could change the conditions in which they work and live. The protest became a more and more articulate critical praxis aimed against the injustices of the system. With the ever deepening divide between the official and the unofficial Serbia as their context, the organisational methods, the direction and the social critique inherent in the Student Protest all indicate the appearance on the scene of a new generation ready to face the social problems of transition Serbia and eager to build a truly democratic alternative to the existing system.

http://www.inicijativa.org/tiki/img/wiki_up//studenti_prot_442007.jpg