It started on March 19 - citizens, following the example of student plenums, organize themselves into assemblies all over Serbia. It is an extra-institutional response, which is in accordance with the letter of the law, against dormant competent institutions.
Students of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences published a concise and precise manual for choir organization, under the slogan "smarter does not give in, smarter organizes", in which they tell citizens that it is extremely important that the choir is not limited to discussion, but should take concrete actions that will contribute to the solution of the problem.
CRAB, ONE STORY
Civic assembly, Saturday March 22, 17 p.m., plateau in front of the municipality of Rakovica.
Half an hour before the start of the choir, together with the stewards, there is the moderator of the choir Todor Šoštar, a second-year student of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, majoring in energy. When asked what he thinks about civic assemblies, Todor says for "Vreme": "To be completely honest, I only found out a few weeks ago that there is an institution such as a civic assembly. And I was glad because that institution is very reminiscent of a student plenum and, if we follow that analogy, it could be very effective for local communities."
Citizens are slowly arriving. Part gathered at the already hung banner - CRAB WITH STUDENTS AND TEACHERS. There is also a Serbian flag, and two young men carry a mysterious banner - VDK FTW. Whistles are heard sporadically.
Todor Šoštar goes on to talk about the shortcomings and scope of the assembly: "The only drawback I see is perhaps too large a mass, in the sense that we cannot invite the entire city or the entire state to a civic assembly. I want to say - this type of gathering should concern small local communities such as local communities, villages, smaller municipalities and, eventually, smaller cities." In that case, he continues, it would be possible to achieve good results, for example, to propose some laws in the local municipality, to get people together, fix what is wrong, create a sense of community, maybe collect donations, simply solve some concrete problems. "Because the congregation can act somewhat autonomously in relation to the municipality itself or the local community," adds Todor. With a glance, he finds the girl in charge of being the recorder, they consult about technical details. "My God, how big is Rakovica, and only this many people came", comments a middle-aged man.
A murmur developed in front of the municipality; the whistles fell silent. Biljana, a nurse, says: "Since the institutions are not doing their job, for us citizens, ordinary people, for whom justice is unattainable at the moment in Serbia, the only way to possibly realize some rights is precisely these assemblies." Furthermore, he complains about the inertness of the residents of Rakovica, especially considering that, as he points out, it is known that the local municipal officials were in "Ćaciland".
"There was the president of the municipality, a bully, then the one from the board of directors, he broke a boy's nose when he was leaving Ćaciland, well, that's why I'm sorry that there aren't more people here to show direct democracy, I'm sorry that there are no balls and I'm sorry that it's not a working day so we don't let them leave the building", he continues.
The whistles returned, louder, more nervous; the clock shows 17:06. Nataša, from the administration at the Faculty of Medicine, emphasizes at the beginning of the conversation that she is currently without a salary, as is already known, and continues: "All of this is a consequence of losing contact with our institutions, both locally and on a broader level, and the assembly could be a way for each of us to contribute. Not to wait for someone else to do something for us, but to take matters into our own hands."
SHORT MANUAL OF PLENUM COMMUNICATION
The assembly of citizens has officially started; moderator Todor Šoštar introduced himself to the citizens. The citizens demand that he be louder, Todor climbed onto the bench and raised his voice. He received applause. He said that it is a great honor for him to be the moderator, especially because he has been a resident of Vidikovac all his life. He then invited the citizens to observe a minute of silence for all the victims under the canopy.
Soon, Todor explains to the citizens what signs (from asking for the floor, etc.) the students use to communicate at the plenums:
"When someone wants to start a new discussion, a new topic, raise an open fist; when someone wants to give a reply to an already existing topic, raise an index finger; when someone wants to ask a question, raise two fingers; when someone wants to approve, without wasting a new word or reply on - I agree with the person, I like it the same - you can use the so-called jazz hands (fists are open, palms are turned forward, and fingers are spread; fists shake left-right as a sign of approval; if you don't like something, you can use the thumbs down. At our faculty (ETF), the practice is to use the crossed hands (X shape) and if the moderators judge that several students, in this case - citizens, use the repeat sign (X), then we have a time-out sign, which is used if someone presents some misinformation interrupt, and how would you correct information was presented in a hurry".
SUGGESTIONS AND NO OBSTRUCTIONS, PLEASE
Todor noted that there is no applause at the plenums, so he asked the citizens if they were in favor of applying this practice to the civic assembly; citizens smoothly adopted the proposal.
Then the agenda was read. The proposals were related to helping educators in the fight against the pressures coming from the municipality of Rakovica. A request to the president of the municipality of Rakovica, Miloš Simić, to immediately stop the illegal pressure on the principals and teaching staff of schools in Rakovica who are on strike. If the president of the municipality does not act on the request of the citizens' assembly, that request becomes a request for removal and accordingly the procedures for its implementation will be initiated.
The second proposal refers to the organization of sending requests to local communities to solve the problems found in each of the settlements. If the requests are not acted upon, the replacement of all those responsible in the chain will be requested. The third proposal - the working group for the formation of a solidarity fund for financial aid to education has achieved cooperation with the IT community, and the proposal of this group is that all those interested should register on the platform created by this community.
Finally, the moderator asked if anyone else had any suggestions. A citizen leaning on the Serbian flag came forward to speak, he proposed a blockade for March 28, and that SNS supporters should not be allowed to come to the rally because of public transportation that was not running on March 15. A retort followed: one of the attendees, a student, believes that the best option is to completely allow them to organize that public meeting. "That meeting will look miserable compared to what we organized on March 15, and the difference between ours and theirs should be seen. So, without obstruction because if we do that, they will whine about how we prevented them from bringing a million, of course, spoiled people." The student gets applause, the moderator asks the citizens not to applaud, but to use jazz hands.
And everything flowed... New word, replica, suggestions; respecting and listening to each speaker. No insults, no incidents. From the humiliated and belittled citizen, only occasionally did loud protests erupt. From all those tired faces, however, there was some hope, whatever that means. And the hope of those gathered at this gathering did not look passive, like waiting, but on the contrary, like a readiness to act.
Interview: Nevena Novaković
Counterbalance to local authorities
Nevena Novaković is a sociologist in doctoral studies at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. She is currently working as a researcher intern at the Institute of Social Sciences and actively participates in the student revitalization of the Student Cultural Center in Belgrade. A specific area of interest to which she has been dedicated for many years is the relationship between culture and politics
"WEATHER" What is a citizens' assembly??
NEVENA NOVAKOVIĆ: Citizens' assembly is a way of organizing local self-governments, i.e. municipalities. If we consult the Law on Local Self-Government, we will see that it is one of the forms of direct participation of citizens in the implementation of local self-government (Article 67 of the above-mentioned Law), and that the assembly of citizens discusses and makes proposals on issues within the competence of local self-government bodies (Article 69, paragraph 2). In this sense, it is clear that the assembly of citizens is one of the ways of gathering citizens around a common interest, and for the purpose of formally exerting pressure on the municipal government and on the decisions of the municipal assembly. In light of current faculty blockades, and civil and student protests, which students organize plenums - that is, through direct democracy in which everyone present participates (there is no quorum), the assembly is the most similar form of civic organization to plenums popularized today. Namely, "the assembly of citizens adopts requests and proposals by the majority of votes present and sends them to the assembly or individual bodies and services of the local self-government unit" (Article 69, paragraph 3 of the Law on Local Self-Government).
Although it was legally regulated before, how come nothing has been done about it?
Yes, although this law exists in the modern history of the Republic of Serbia, it tends to be in the shadow of local authorities, because imagine what a disaster it would be for local authorities if citizens knew that they have the right to self-organize around specific goals, and that "organs and services of the local self-government unit are obliged to take a position on them within 60 days from the holding of the ASSEMBLY of citizens, i.e. take an appropriate decision or measure and inform the citizens about it" (Article 69, paragraph 4 of the Law on Local Self-Government).
The assembly is as much a threat to the local self-government units and their rulers as it is to the current authorities, making citizens aware of their own sovereignty and emancipation from imposed force. Hannah Arendt wrote a long time ago in her essay "On Violence" that the difference between power and violence lies in legitimacy, and the current government in its powerlessness, historically precisely, resorts to violence - which we had the opportunity to witness on many occasions during student blockades and student and civil protests, but perhaps the most illustrative was the breaking of silence, dedicated to delivering mail to the victims of the fall of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad, using a sound cannon.
What are the advantages, and what are the shortcomings of civil assemblies?
The advantage of the civic assembly is perhaps first of all in building a political culture and emancipating citizens from the despotic attitude of the government towards the local self-government units that they manage in a similar way as the president manages the state - arbitrarily. Citizens' assemblies, if they were to develop into a standard form of organization in local self-government units, would become a counterweight to the authorities of a specific local self-government unit, i.e. municipality/city. Furthermore, the citizens' assembly is perhaps the simplest way to organize the collective around one topic, goal or problem in the shortest time frame, and the local self-government unit must respond within the given time frame of 60 days. "Obligation" is a very debatable matter in the legal sense when it comes to Serbia, but there would be political pressure and a trump card for legislative pressure on municipal authorities.
On the other hand, the shortcoming of the civic assembly is its voluntariness, i.e. the lack of obligation for citizens to attend it. If a topic is less popular, there is a possibility that fewer citizens will show up, and that the discussions will be less fruitful and the results weaker. The fact that "the way of convening the assembly of citizens, its work, as well as the way of determining the opinions of the assembly is regulated by the statute and the decision of the municipal assembly" (Article 69, paragraph 5) makes the assembly vulnerable, in the sense that the manner of its functioning is defined by the municipality, but its legal existence protects it because the statute is below the law. However, I strongly believe that the power of civic self-organization once observed, as a counterweight to the arbitrariness of local authorities, cannot lose its political appeal so easily.
