How the public wakes up

The blockade of the faculty has lasted for more than a month and a half, a fifteen-minute tribute to the victims across the country that reverberates with powerful silence and protests attended by thousands and thousands of people. Students illuminate the social darkness with his creativity and persistence. In addition to regular plenums, various lectures, guest appearances by actors and other public figures, performances, workshops and film evenings are held at the faculties... The demands of the students have not yet been met. Although the government tries to thwart them in all (dishonorable) ways, the youth does not stop. Older people join them, and support for students comes from all over.

Lists of those who stood by them, as well as those who did not, are circulating in the public. Among them are professors, actors, athletes and other public figures.

But how important is the support of public figures? What does it provide to student protests? What kind of legitimacy? Is it about acknowledging that someone hears them? Or about something much broader?

HOPEFUL MEETINGS

"Every form of support means a lot to us, both from citizens and public figures. Given that the foundation of student blockades is exactly solidarity, we believe that the involvement of all social groups is necessary so that our demands reach every individual. And precisely public figures, because they have access to the media, can make our voice, that is, our requests, reach as many people as possible", Iva Kojić, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences (FPN) in Belgrade, told "Vreme".

By the way, as Iva Kojić says, the experiences that will remain in the memory of all students are the performances and lectures. Each guest is first proposed at the plenum, and then voted on.

"Every kind of support is important for students," says FPN professor Marko Nedeljković. From family, through acquaintances and unknown fellow citizens, all the way to public figures. And just as the support of public figures means to students, in the same way, Nedeljković points out, it means to public figures that they can finally, without reservation and honestly, support someone. And the solidarity shown by the citizens is reflected in the constant help, which is proof that the students have awakened something good in everyone.

"I have to admit that one of the most impressive impressions of the last month is when I see citizens who come to greet students, to leave food and refreshments... Those meetings are so impressive, because they are sincere, full of mutual respect, support and hope". says Nedeljkovic.

And it is known that students are also noticed by the government. It's just that, instead of trying to fulfill their demands, the president and the prime minister call them by name, use their hard-hitting tabloid fists to launch reckless attacks on twenty-year-olds... And try to single out a leader among the strong students who would then, according to the tried and tested recipe, pass through "warm rabbit". But the authorities do not manage to do that either, because the students clearly show day by day that they are united, that they decide in plenums (what kind of school of democracy for this kind of society) and that there is no such leader who asks about everything (which must cause confusion in the top of the government).

"It seems to me that for all those people who support the students, knowing that there are so many brave and smart young people around us was exactly what they needed. Faith has been restored that our society has a better future. Those young people were invisible in public, which is devastating. Now they just fought for us to hear them, and I believe that the realization that they exist is actually the greatest encouragement for all those who show that they are with them", says Nedeljković.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPPORT AND NETWORKING

The post-holiday period forces the question "what next" for students. Some went to their homes, some stayed to guard their faculties and welcomed Christmas in amphitheatres, halls and auditoriums. In the coming period, as Nedeljković notes, support for students will be increasingly important, because it is not easy to maintain motivation and mass in the long term, and to persevere in the fight with the same intensity. "The pressures will be more and more intense. That is why the support of public figures is important, but it motivates and encourages in the short term, and that alone will not be enough. I believe that students need networking with other citizen movements or social groups with whom they share a common initiative and desire to fight for changes in various aspects of society, and that networking is not at all easy if you want to keep the authenticity of student protests as their greatest strength."

Also, Nedeljković further explains that one should neither exaggerate nor downplay the importance of coming forward and supporting public figures.

He reminds that student protests generate their strength precisely from the fact that they are not personalized in the image of a few prominent students, so he does not see why anyone would insist on personalizing support. It is important, but it is not the point. The public figures themselves differ, some did not advertise, but joined the protest. Many colleagues from the field of art and culture in some way, before or after the performance, sent their message to the students.

"It is not only the loudest and most visible form of support (public speaking) that is important. It is much more important what each one of us does every day and how much he contributes in various ways to make society better, than whether he publicly supported someone or something", concludes Nedeljković.

As professor and political scientist Dušan Vučićević explains for "Vreme", the support of public figures is important, especially world-famous public figures such as Novak Djokovic. However, he believes that it is reflected more in the symbolic than in the essential level.

"Students' demands will not be fulfilled more easily and quickly because some actor or singer supported them in one tweet, nor will they remain unfulfilled because they were not. But given that the regime is used to one-mindedness, which it has been promoting for years on television with national frequencies, every dissonant tone in the public sphere, latent support for students or sharing of a photo from the protest hits them with the false image they have projected about themselves," says Vučićević.

photo: lenka pavlović

RED FIST ON TO THE BOARDS THAT MEAN LIFE

Among the first faculties to join the blockade was the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Also, the actors' guild publicly supported the students to a great extent, and among the first, if not the first.

As actor Uroš Jakovljević explains for "Vreme", they would like to do more than what they are doing now, but they are limited in that action. "There is not much we can do except to provide public support. The rest is a matter of the union, not only the actor's union, but also others because they have their own demands and contracts, they protect jobs, they protect the functioning between the employer and the employee", says Jakovljević.

After the performances, in several theaters, the actors in their bow to the audience also send a message that they are with the students by raising their red fists or holding out a banner. As Jakovljević explains, they have never met with public disapproval or any remarks.

"For us elders, it is very important that young people initiate things and that they are not as quiet as the older generations who spend their lives in such a system of values ​​and work. Even if there are parents who find it difficult that their children are on roadblocks, they should know that they did not make a mistake. We live in a kind all the time toadflax, as Estragon says in 'Godot': 'Look at this swamp, I spent my whole life crawling in it'", explains Jakovljević, then adds: "We all feel that we are stuck somewhere and we have to untangle it together".

The changes that have begun

When talking about the effects of blockades and protests, Professor Vučićević explains that they have already borne fruit. He says they awakened great energy and irreversibly activated a generation that was (wrongly) assumed not to be that interested in politics.

"The promotion of incompetence, the meaningless and collapse of all state institutions, verbal and physical violence, the normalization of corruption - it is unlikely that all of this will have such fertile ground in Serbia after these protests as it did before them. Not only students stood up, but also high school students. These are the new generations of voters who are politicizing the youth in Serbia, who will acquire the right to vote only in the coming years," explains Vučićević.

As for the demands of the student blockades themselves, he believes that most of them will eventually have to be met. How quickly and whether all of them probably depend mostly on the support of other social groups for student protests. January 20th, when the second semester in secondary and primary schools should start, is an important date for that assessment.

The demands are basically simple and understandable to the voters of the Serbian Progressive Party, adds Vučićević. That is probably why they are not even mentioned in the regime media, but they are replace demands that students never had. The goal, as usual in similar situations, is to hide true information from the electorate of the regime parties.

And the demands, although they are simple to understand, are not easy to fulfill because they fundamentally undermine the model by which SNS has ruled this society for a long time.

"Whether or not Mr. Vučić will have to let some of his people down the drain, to make them equal before the law with other citizens of the Republic of Serbia, depends on the intensity of the pressure that the protests create. If it is estimated that the damage is too great, and the latest research by Crta shows that the damage to the regime is substantial, we could expect another, last turn in the regime's strategy and the fulfillment of all demands", emphasizes Vučićević.

However, after a month and a half of protests and blockades, it does not appear that the opposition political parties are any stronger than they were before. The students are clear that they do not want political parties and party symbols near their protests. Vučićević points out that there is a huge space for the opposition parties to attract some other social groups, parents of students and high school students, their grandparents to themselves and their ideas.

"Looking from the side, it seems that the opposition, for the umpteenth time, is not doing very well in what is one of its main tasks: to articulate the interests of a society and shape them into clear policies and programs. This task, of course, is not easy because it takes place in a hybrid mode, but the students have shown with their organization and creativity that it is possible to perform it even in such unequal conditions", concludes Vučićević.

Finally, as Vučićević emphasizes, the regime irretrievably lost control over the formal bodies of student representation. In the past few years, and especially since the changes to the Law on Student Organizations, the regime controlled the student bodies through its student representatives elected to the student parliaments, most often in elections with a single regime student organization. The law on student organization also enabled the students thus elected to participate in the election of faculty administrations with 20 percent of the electorate, which extended the influence beyond the student bodies, to the functioning of all faculties and universities. He believes that after these protests, such a thing will not be possible.