For the past year, Serbia has been experiencing a wave of protests
against the authoritarian regime of President Aleksandar Vucic.Following the students, workers have taken up the movement. This
horizontal movement, which traditional political parties have failed to
co-opt, offers valuable insights for those who are fighting, both
locally and internationally. An article on this topic can be found in
English on the website of our British sister organization,
Anarchistcommunism.org.
On November 1, 2024, the canopy of a train station collapsed in the city
of Novi Sad, in northern Serbia. This accident claimed the lives of
sixteen people, including two children. In Serbia, this event was widely
seen as a sign of the corruption of the right-wing authoritarian regime
led by President Aleksandar Vucic. The canopy collapsed after a Chinese
subcontractor was hired to renovate the station. Many believe that
government officials and bureaucrats embezzled funds intended for the
renovation.
This sparked a protest movement against corruption that continues to
this day. On November 22, students from the drama school joined the
movement, blocking a street for a 15-minute silent protest. But
hooligans from a football club in Vucic's pay attacked them. The
students were not intimidated and went on strike three days later.
A "progressive" president turned fascist
Vucic began his career as an ultranationalist and has now adopted
populist positions. His Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) emerged from a
2008 split within the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), a fascist party. It
is riddled with nationalists and maintains ties with various fascist
groups. Vucic himself served as Minister of Information under President
Slobodan Miloshevic.
Demonstrations of up to 500,000 people have taken place against the
regime, the largest occurring in Belgrade on March 14. This was the
largest demonstration in Serbian history. In response, Vucic has
increasingly resorted to the police and fascist hooligan gangs to attack
the movement. In August, demonstrators in the towns of Vrbas and Backa
were attacked by these hooligans, with the complicity of the police.
This continued at the demonstrations the following day. In Novi Sad,
masked thugs attacked participants with bottles, batons, fireworks, and
flares. Street battles ensued, and an SNS office was set on fire.
Demonstration on January 24, 2025, in Belgrade.
EMILIJA KNEZEVIC
Vucic also increased the size of the security unit, the JZO, from 300 to
1,300 personnel. This unit is directly subordinate to him and acts to
intimidate protesters. He has threatened them with death and compared
them to fascists and Nazis, claiming they are paid by Germany or Great
Britain.
Although various Serbian left-wing groups have attempted to keep the
demonstrations apolitical, trying to prevent them from taking an
anti-capitalist turn, the movement remains organized in a federative and
horizontal manner. As student Veljko Radic stated in an interview with
Transnational Social Strike: "What makes these protests so special to me
is the horizontal organization of the students. Each faculty has a local
plenary assembly where everyone can speak freely, followed by a brief
discussion and a vote. This usually results in near-consensus.
Furthermore, each faculty has numerous working groups responsible for
strategy, fundraising, media relations, communication with other
faculties, security, activities during the blockade, and so on. Every
decision made at the local plenary assemblies is then passed on to a
larger delegates' meeting where each faculty has a delegate who shares
what was decided at their local plenary assembly. This is how decisions
concerning the entire university are made. In addition, any form of
collaboration with political parties and NGOs is prohibited."»
Blockade in Belgrade in July 2025.
WIKIPEDIA/SADKO
A victorious strike
The government made no significant concessions, despite the scale of the
movement. A one-day general strike, in which hundreds of thousands of
people participated, paralyzed all major cities, with farmers and their
tractors joining the blockades in Belgrade. Six days after the strike,
Prime Minister Milosh Vucevic, leader of the SNS, resigned. But this did
not quell the movement.
During a massive demonstration, the police used a sonic cannon emitting
high-pitched noises to provoke a stampede. Despite this, the movement
remains strong. The horizontal "direct democracy" employed by the
students has spread among the working class in many Serbian cities. As
one anarchist noted under the pseudonym Random: "I participated in an
assembly organized for several blocks. People immediately embraced
direct democracy. Almost everyone who supports this demonstration also
views this plenary assembly, this direct democracy, this way of
organizing, with great admiration. And this represents enormous
potential for the anarchist movement.[...]Anarchist organization is one
of the main reasons why this movement is so successful today." "
A Beacon in the Night
Similarly, traditional political parties have so far failed to seize
control of the movement. Another anarchist, Ilik, stated: "It is now a
social movement that began as a student movement and then grew. Workers
started to offer their support, farmers joined the movement, ordinary
people began to participate, and it is now a large social movement over
which the opposition doesn't really have any power. They are, of course,
trying to use it, trying to be a peaceful solution, with a transitional
government or elections, which they want to win because they are the
only other political option.[...]But they are not popular, and the more
they try to push for elections and a transitional government, anything
that can put them in power, the more people organize themselves."
It remains to be seen whether the movement will be able to withstand
repression. In any case, the example of Serbia needs to be more widely
known. Along with the movements in Indonesia, Nepal, France, Macedonia,
and elsewhere, we are witnessing the emergence of a horizontal
organizing phenomenon that has nothing to do with Leninist dogma and
offers a glimpse of a new society, of the evolution of humankind toward
a higher level: that of anarchist communism. In these dark times, this
phenomenon must be disseminated and celebrated. These heroic movements
are beacons in the human night.
Anarchist Communist Group
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Serbie-Une-reussite-des-luttes-horizontales
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