Bosnia and Herzegovina Teach EU a Lesson in Democracy: ?People know what they want!? ----
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---- People in Sarajevo, BiH, wait in rain for hours to be able to have their voices heard
at the plenum, which asked for the cantonal government of Sarajevo to step down. ---- Amid
calm euphoria, increased state repression, and mass-media lies, people in Bosnia and
Herzegovina move from street protests to plenums, or public assemblies. Plenums are about
taking back the power: political parties are banned from participating. ---- Meanwhile,
the state of BiH has bought 10,000 rubber bullets to use against the next uprising (one in
90 shot by rubber bullets is killed and 17 are mutilated).
J. ?AR?EVI?, SARAJEVO: ?Radical changes need to be made for justice. What suffering it is
for a man to see he cannot feed his children even if he wakes up every morning and works
in the woods or a factory for some marks. This crisis was caused by most of these national
businessmen, people who use the nation and religion so they can rule over others and thus
keep the people of this country impoverished? ?
Avi Blecherman, our correspondent in BiH, interviews people of Sarajevo:
?The huge state machinery is reinforced by nationalism, corruption, nepotism and
opportunism, and it will resist every kind of change, probably for some time,? as Nedzad
Ibrahimovic one of the participants at the plenum in Tuzla said. This is one reason why
political parties are banned from these people?s assemblies. The plenum in Tuzla has asked
that general parliamentary and municipal elections be held as soon as possible, ?to stop
the political elites from regaining their lost popularity and criminal ties, and not to
allow them to put the brakes on people?s liberties and push them in the opposite direction
of their will.?
Avi Blecherman, our correspondent in BiH, interviews people of Sarajevo:
In Mostar, Josip Mili?, a union leader and a professor were attacked in plain daylight and
beaten with baseball bats by unknown individuals.
And while the rebel people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have gained worldwide admiration for
their class war, they are increasingly condemned as ?terrorists? by the State.
While people at the plenum in Sarajevo demanded that police be investigated for the brutal
crackdown and abuse of protestors on February 7th (which resulted in government buildings
set on fire), the municipal court in Sarajevo assisted in the repression of dissenters and
ordered news outlets to submit all their video and audio material from February 7th
protests to the police.
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People demand that police be investigated for attacking and brutalizing demonstrators, the
State continues the repression. Residents of Tuzla say they have no regret for government
buildings set on fire: ?They should have let them burn. People are hungry.?
Journalist Rubina ?engi? said the protests were infiltrated by the undercover police: ?Why
they don?t use journalistic investigations on crime and corruption, which give them quite
enough evidence to launch a decent investigation against individuals in government, the
same way they now look for images and pictures to discover the culprit for demonstrations??
More and more people come to participate at these plenums ? over 1000 stood in the rain in
Sarajevo, because the hall was too small for everyone. Almost as many participated in
Tuzla, hundreds in Mostar, and other cities. On Sunday In Livno, such a plenum will take
place too.
In Sarajevo, after people waited in rain for hours to be able to take part, the plenum
decided that the Canton and federation government must resign.
At these plenums all over BiH people discuss their participation in the community.
?Collective rights arise from the rights of individuals/citizens. A citizen/individual has
(will have) all the rights guaranteed? with respect to the freedom and right to work,
health care, housing, retirement, rights to vote and be elected, etc. In principle, all
individual/civil rights belong to each citizen, all collective rights belong to each
person, in different ways according to the group in question (ethnic, athletic,
interest-based, professional, trade union-based, etc),? explained Nedzad Ibrahimovic.
?But the new government will bring us nothing, it will lead us from one cage to another?,
said one participant at one of the plenums in Tuzla. You may watch here how such an
assembly takes place, we thank @labournettv for translating the second plenum in Tuzla:
Here is a report published by Popular Resistance from the second plenum in Tuzla. People
spoke about their daily life and work, and provide some insight as to why burning down the
government seems like such a good idea to so many. They introduce you to the life of the
people of Bosnia and Herzegovina and actually, most of Eastern Europe:
Emina who spoke about labor unions at the Tuzla?s second plenum: ?Many people ask me these
days, ?How come we never mention the work of labor unions?? Many workers blame the labor
union and I personally blame the labor union for the state in Dita; so called ?Yellow?
labor union. The labor union did not listen to the workers and was protecting the
interests of the company. The leaders of the union are ?bought up? people. They isolate
themselves from the people when the protests started. Now they emerge as a group to
negotiate with the assembly. I have few suggestions, because I cannot let myself to be
represented by Ismet Bajramovic. I can?t let myself be represented by Kata Iveljic, who
sold me. I and a large group of workers propose that we form an independent labor union
for the county of Tuzla, and that the ?yellow? labor union does not have the right to
participate. I also want to encourage fellow workers that we can?t be quiet, to speak up,
and to make them feel fear. We need to show our determination, courage, and that we all
stand behind each other.?
sarajevo plenum 3
Plenum in Tuzla: ?But the new government will bring us nothing, it will lead us from one
cage to another.?
An anonymous protest participant speaks about the assembly: ?I want to ask: Is it normal
when you go to the health clinic to see a dentist and they tell you to come at 5:00 a.m.
if you want to be seen by the dentist, because he leaves at 9 a.m. to practice in his
private office to make money and not pay any taxes? I want the representatives to mention
this when they meet with the assembly. In addition, we do not know who the owners are of
many private companies. People work for years but do not know who the owner is; everyone
guesses who it is. For years in Croatia as well, they have been promising to release this
information, but we are still waiting.?
Mirsad Zafic asks that political parties not get involved in this gathering: ?This victory
and this gathering is an act of the people. Because of that I want to request that the
political parties do not get involved in this gathering. We deserve this gathering; the
ones who are not involved in political parties.?
Amir Sisic speaks about injustice in the work place: ?I hope that we form a TV channel, or
at least a public radio station. We will gather donations to form this channel. It would
be a place where the politicians would never be the main news. It would be a place for
the people to talk; to voice firsthand experiences of injustice, such as the one the
professor shared with us earlier where her superior attacked her for voicing her opinion,
and where she was afraid of losing her job. She shouldn?t have to be afraid; her superior
should be the one losing her job. There are many similar stories and they have to be
brought to light! There are companies who give their employees $50 in warm meals, to get
them to sign a paper that they are receiving $250 in salaries. We will bring all of these
companies to light! The people should have the main word.? Quotes above courtesy of
Popular Resistance.
So far, two local parliaments expressed support for the demands voted by citizens? plenums
? the one in the Tuzla Canton and the other one in Zenica-Doboj Canton. People from Tuzla
went to Sarajevo to help them with better organising the plenums.
?The demands are realistic.? You can read here the demands adopted by the people?s plenum
in Sarajevo. ?We?re expecting more demands, but as a new way of functioning for the plenum
it should also now focus on the implementation of these demands. As a person, I?m
overjoyed at having had the opportunity to witness this gathering of freedom,? concluded
Asim Mujki?, a professor at the University of Sarajevo who attended the second Sarajevo
Citizens? Plenum. Citizens demanded a non-party government of technicians who must report
back to the citizens once every few weeks, a revision of financial privileges (politicians
earn up to 20 thousand euro a month), the revision of all privatizations of enterprises in
the Sarajevo Canton, and an independent inquiry into what happened at the protests on
February 7th, when government buildings were set on fire. These are just 4 demands
selected from 200 put forward by people, which will be put forward in the plenum?s
discussion today and in the upcoming assemblies.There is another protest in Sarajevo at
noon today in front of the Bosnian Presidency building.
There?s a lot of talk about government buildings being set on fire. Some try to make the
people of Bosnia and Herzegovina feel guilty of it. Well, they ask these people back: why
should they?
Here?s the testimony of a retiree textile worker from Sarajevo: ?This (the uprising)
should have happened ten, twenty years ago, when the factories and the plants started to
disappear, and when workers were left with no chance to survive. Protesters had no choice
but to burn the government.
The union is supposed to come out on the street, not the people, not our children. And all
are silent because they agreed with what they were doing to us.?
Here?s how a participant and witness, Nikola ?upas, remembers the uprising, and then asks
pacifists: ?How hungry are you?? ? before they judge:
?It was quiet in Kru?evac this Sunday. Nothing remarkable happened. No doubt people are
waiting for the election campaign to kick off. Election campaigns, as we have learned,
mean politicians peddling a great big bag of lies and promises to the people. These
promises are always tailored to the broadest possible interest of the people. And then, in
spite of it all, we find ourselves yet again struggling with deficits, bills, poverty,
unemployment. How are people then supposed to fight for themselves?
how can I lose weight if I have no job to do
?How can I lose weight if I have no job??
Across the river Drina, 350 km from Kru?evac, on Wednesday 5th of February, a few hundred
workers and inhabitants of Tuzla gathered in a protest in front of the building of the
Tuzla Canton. This would have probably ended up like any other protest with the
authorities handling it according to the same old plan: by promising to find a quick
solution. Except something unexpected happened, something the authorities were wholly
unprepared for. The protest gained mass support.
Like a force of nature, other workers, the unemployed, and the students filled the streets
in solidarity in the struggle against the system that had robbed and wronged them. They
chose to fight for social justice. What followed was an awakening of all the peoples in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, and a rebellion that spread across the entire country.
The authorities in Republika Srpska tried to spin the protests as anti-Serb and instigated
from outside in an effort to maintain the supposed national unity. However, their actions
only showed how little they care about the people in this region, and how important they
feel it is to maintain status quo and the dominance of the national bourgeoisie. But their
cheap shots flopped when the people denounced them. This is a struggle which transcends
any ethnic, racial, religious or national concept. The people took to the streets because
their bellies were empty. Hunger forced them to fight for justice. But there is no justice
as long as there are classes! Not as long as there are oppressors and oppressed; those who
exploit and those who are exploited; those who know no hunger and those who are starving.
The power holders in Bosnia-Herzegovina showed with their actions that little, indeed,
does the fat man know what the lean one thinks.
Realising the anger and the threat from the suffering people, they brought police out on
the streets who clashed with the protesters. There was tear gas, rubber bullets and
beatings, but the people stood together and firm in their resolve to take on the robbing
and thieving ruling classes. At least for now. They occupied the building of the Tuzla
Canton. The police in Biha? admirably joined the protesters. They refused to obey the
system who manipulates them in order to sustain itself and chose to stand with the working
class.
The events in Bosnia-Herzegovina are our lesson of the week. They are proof of how
powerful the working masses actually are when they raise a unified fist. They also show
how much the ruling political structures fear a working class that unites. I am not
insinuating anything and I won?t rattle on about poverty, unemployment, harassment,
exploitation, corruption, thieving etc. No, I only have one question for you: How hungry
are you??
Here are more testimonies from the rebel people of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Mensud Grebovi?, a former worker at POLIHEMA, Tuzla: ?You should not be surprised this
started in Tuzla. Tuzla Canton was perhaps the strongest in the former Yugoslavia for
manufacturing and industry, and now it?s all ruined. Imagine how many of us on the street
have not been finding work since the war. How do I live? I survive from my mothers
pension, which is 308 marks. I worked for 27 years.?
Listen to what Hamel Sejranovi?, a student from Tuzla has to say: ?People keep this anger
for 20 years. We have come to a peaceful protest, but nobody listened to us, they would
not resign. That?s why it all happened. I know I?m just a student, but I know what the
situation is with my parents and friends and lousy their salaries are while, unlike
politicians who have salaries and hot meals and they keep stealing. People think
protesters exaggerated (that they set the government on fire), but I don?t. This had to
happen because there is no other way to make politicians understand.?
emina
Emina Babovic Gojacic, Tuzla
Emina Babovic Gojacic, Tuzla: ?My mom worked in this building (Government of Tuzla Canton,
set on fire). There I learned to type on a machine during the war, it was in ?92. When the
building was on fire I told her, ?Mom, that is where you worked all these years!? She told
me, ?Oh, fuck this building, let it burn. Burn them all!? Why have emotions for a
building. These workers built it, they burnt it, they will built it again. The building is
not important. What is important is that they have nothing to eat. They should have set it
on fire 15 years ago, and with it all of them.? Source
People in Bosnia and Herzegovina do know what they want and this explains it well: ?While
the call for ?a technical government, composed of expert, non-political, un-compromised
members who have held no position at any level of government? may sound naive to anyone
that has experienced unelected, neoliberal ?technical? governments in Greece and Italy,
the protesters see this as merely a temporary government to get them to elections, and
moreover it would ?be required to submit weekly plans and reports about its work? to ?all
interested citizens.?
This demand for such constant public oversight of the government ? borne of the experience
of decades of detached and arrogant rule by the three ?ethnic? wings of the Bosnian
oligarchy and suggesting a form of ?people?s power? ? already looks far in advance of
these other so-called ?technical? governments, and certainly coming from a different
direction.
However, it is the social program the people demand of such a government that makes it day
and night compared to these neoliberal, anti-people governments. The third set of demands,
regard? issues related to the privatisation of the major former state companies that
dominated the city?s economy (Dita, Polihem, Poliolhem, Gumara, and Konjuh).
After decades of neoliberal onslaught, both in practice and at an ideological level, for a
rising people to demand privatised factories be ?returned to the workers? is an
extraordinarily refreshing moment.
For example, in an otherwise useful article that details the theft, Aida Cerkez, writing
for Associated Press, tells us that ?more than 80 percent of privatizations have failed?
as well-connected tycoons have swept into these companies, stripping them of their assets,
declaring bankruptcy and leaving thousands without jobs or with minimal pay. ailed? More
like succeeded.?
historic post FB
Historical message: ?Going to the plenum.?
?A demand for factories to be returned to the workers ? i.e., to their rightful owners ?
cuts across these neoliberal illusions, and doesn?t allow them the time of day.? Source
Those elites who try to divide people using nationalism, religion or the ethnic card have
been called ?assholes? by a group who changed its name so such speculations could be
stopped: ?Dubioza Kolektiv can be just about anything, but not a ?predominantly Bosniak?,
?predominantly Croat? or ?predominantly Serb? band, but it seems to us that the attitudes
expressed in your article are predominantly ?assholeish.??
This is a country of less than 4 million people, not fully recovered from almost drowning
herself in its own blood, kept in humiliation at the feet of the mighty EU (?these BiH
people, they just don?t fit the EU godly criteria,? maybe they?re lucky though), that is
breathing more democracy lately than the EU ever will.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is actually teaching a lesson to everybody in Europe ? the cradle
of ?democracy? ? about how democracy should be. It?s not on papers, and NGO panels, and
sterile budgeted-conferences, it?s real and it?s actually quite rare, and usually does not
survive the smothering powers of the undemocratic ruling elites.
But this time, it just might, providing the people from Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar, Zenica,
and other cities do not let themselves fooled any more and don?t let others decide on
their name.
Demo in Zagreb, Croatia, in solidarity with the uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Democracy in BiH these days does not mean political parties, or politicians (they are
banned from public assemblies), does not mean technocrats in neoliberal suits, it means a
voice and a mandate. A decision from below transmitted to delegates to be applied or
passed forward to be applied. There are no other conditions imposed on these mandates ?
such immediate recalling if they break it, but still it?s a huge step.
It means that people are not just voters and tax-payers: they are real decision-makers. It
might develop further and begin to generate power from below, and industrial democracy and
horizontal decision making at the work-place, but it?s not clear whether they will go that
way.
There is a lot of state propaganda, threats and repression trying to silence this movement
? which has failed so far.
The ruling power of the governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina seems to be just on paper,
while the real power is in the hands of the people who last week set the government on
fire to demand space for their continued existence in their own country.
What people in Bosnia and Herzegovina live these days is something EU never had (maybe for
a few weeks in Paris, 1968). It?s something that EU is actually working very hard these
days to keep at bay. While people in Bosnia and Herzegovina teach the whole world about
direct democracy, the great EU destroys every single civil liberty in Spain, and
commodifies the lives of people in other countries.
People in Bosnia and Herzegovina should not expect any leaders to represent them. They
don?t need to feel inferior to anybody, or feel guilty for burning down some imperial
buildings which they hated anyway. They should work among themselves to make it happen.
Nobody else will do it for them and nobody else will care for what?s in their best
interest. EU does not care about democracy, they care only about their profits. Maybe they
should really be told: ?Go Home. Sit Down. Shut Up. Let Us Decide. We?re Not Interested.?
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