Student Protests in Serbia

For seven days students of Belgrade University blocked the building of Philosophical faculty, until faculty and University agreed to support demands of students against tuition fees against the government. This is just a short overview of student protests in Serbia.

In the May and June education union of Union Confederation Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative
(http://inicijativa.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=SindObrBG) (ASI-IWA) and direct-democratic solidarity movement Social front
(http://www.socijalni.front.ru/) initiated campaign against tuition fees 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 Bologna 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/20061027-protestna_setnja.wmv - video)

On 6th of November, while the meeting of the highest body of all Universities in Serbia
(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 are your suits?", "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 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)(www.sus.org.yu), and Union of Students (SSB) (www.ssb.org.yu), 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. To make a long story short 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 were inside, they were 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...)

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.

There are no much photos from last seven days, since we are having a loads
of work, but everything is being pictured and filmed and things are going to be placed on line as soon as we finish with the blockade.

This whole thing is, of course, huge in the media. 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.

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. It started with quite a small number of students, as you can see, but it is getting bigger all the time.

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

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

Salud, Anarquia y Colectivismo
Rata