Young people's demands as required reading

Every euphoria comes to an end, so in recent days there are more and more voices of criticism in the public and on social networks to students on blockades. Those criticisms branch out in several directions, but if we arrange them all (or at least most of them) in one place, we will see that a good part of the objections to the current strategy of the student protest it's not very well founded.

To demonstrate this, we don't have to go far. Moreover, we should go back to the very beginning, that is, to the student demands. Let's remember, first of all, what students are looking for...

The first request is the publication of all documentation related to the reconstruction of the railway station in Novi Sad, which is currently unavailable to the public.

The second request says: "We demand confirmation from the competent authorities about the identity of all persons who are suspected of having physically attacked students and professors, as well as the initiation of criminal proceedings against them." We also demand the dismissal of the mentioned persons if it turns out that they are public officials."

The aforementioned request applies both to the aforementioned persons and to any future person who physically attacks students and professors and all other persons who participate in peaceful civil gatherings.

In the third request, the students in the blockade demand the dismissal of the criminal charges against the arrested and detained students at the protests, as well as the suspension of the already initiated criminal proceedings.

And finally, there is the fourth request, which requests an increase in allocated funds for state faculties in the amount of twenty percent.

The requirements are seemingly simple and easy to fulfill provided there is will. And actually - they are not. These four seemingly simple demands require a deep and complete change, so to speak, the transformation of the entire system in Serbia. And when we face such, thorough and transformative, criticisms of student protests, maybe things will be clearer for us.

WHY STUDENTS AREN'T DEMANDING A CHANGE OF AUTHORITY

Two weeks ago, a student of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade was a guest on the show "Impression of the Week". Nova S Television, in accordance with the modern requirements of promoting media content, published only a small snippet of what this girl said on social networks. The audience caught on like a drunkard after only one sentence, which reads: "We are not looking for a change of government." Why did it bother them, since students have their four demands from the beginning? Because no one will read thoroughly and concentratedly. No one reads beyond the title, let alone looks at those student demands again and tries to understand why it is completely legitimate to say that the students are not asking for a change of government.

Let's look at the first request, the one asking for the release of complete documentation related to the reconstruction of the canopy. Or the second, the prosecution of all past and future (!) attackers of students... What do we see?

We see a request that the government has claimed to have fulfilled between three and three hundred and thirty-three times, although it is not actually up to them to fulfill it, but the prosecution. It is under the control of the executive power, which has no intention of changing it.

Now, everyone who considers himself a relevant actor in social events should ask himself whether the students really, really, really, really are not asking for a change of government? Frankly, it's not their job to ask for it. Nor do they have legitimacy for such a thing, because they are not a political option that aspires to come to power once.

The request to release the complete canopy documentation has achieved an indescribable amount. First of all, he more than obviously laid bare the entire partnership scheme on the executive power-prosecutorship line, confirmed the public's long-founded suspicions that the prosecutor's offices in Serbia do not work in the interests of the citizens and that they are under the control of particular SNS party interests. Because, if it were not so, the entire documentation would have been made available to the public immediately, no one would have had to look for it, let alone barricade themselves in the faculties in case someone would condescend to provide it.

That request allowed investigative, economic and all other journalists to roll up their sleeves and start combing through the available documentation and pointing out to the public who knows how many suspicious and potentially corrupt actions that would have gone unnoticed if the students had not asked for complete documentation.

Furthermore, the government's bragging, then the alleged publication of the complete documentation, then the second complete publication, and then "my mother, now the really complete" publication of the documentation, achieved another important goal: the forever shaken confidence in this government among its voters.

So it is true, the students are not asking for a change of government. The shift is too little compared to their requirements. What they are looking for goes beyond a mere change of government: they are looking for a complete change in the state's functioning system. And that is absolutely unthinkable with those currently in power. In order to fulfill only that first requirement, they (and here we mean both politics and the judiciary) must completely change their identity, their own corrupted and corrupt essence. It is unachievable. Therefore, students are not asking for a change of government, because that is not enough. Anyone who thinks it's okay for them to keep this team in power is simply not reading well and not listening carefully. It's not just a matter of getting them out of the way, but so that those who come after don't think of behaving in a similar way.

THEY HAVEN'T SEEN THEMSELVES YET

While the students are on blockades and liberation marches all over Serbia, in the local areas there is also cooking and "pumping". Not everywhere in the same way, and not with the same intensity, but we had the interruption of the assembly session in Bogatic, the blockade of the Rača Municipality building, then incidents at the session of the Kraljevo City Assembly and, last in a series, the disputed election of the new mayor of Novi Sad. The opposition is managing as best it knows how, but at the national, republican level it is still wandering and does not have a clear action plan of its own.

Meanwhile, student plenums distance themselves from individual incidents, events and organizations. First, they distanced themselves from the ProGlas initiative, and then from the informal youth groups Stav and Sviće. Then they distanced themselves from the incident in the Assembly of Kings. In Novi Sad, they came to clean up the eggs and flour that the opposition councilors threw at the gendarmerie.

There are certain currents in society that clearly get on the nerves of the fence and consider such moves excessive, and even go so far as to see the fence as a threat to the student movement itself, which would thus remain alone and isolated. But one interesting detail seems to escape them: none of those the students distanced themselves from got angry. No one at all. It will be that those from whom the students are dissociated can read. No announcement by which the students fence off is formulated in such a way as to completely exclude individuals and groups, nor do the students claim the exclusive right to fight for a better society. Each fence related to specific events, incidents and performances. Even the students themselves, who, despite the agreement with the plenum of their faculties, appeared in public, are not angry and do not renounce their colleagues.

The essence of fencing is not to put up walls between students and everyone else. Student fencing has a very meaningful purpose: preserving unity around what students call an ideological minimum. That phrase is laughed at by many these days, although it is not at all to be laughed at. It is very simple: the ideological minimum is contained in the Constitution of Serbia and anyone who is determined to defend that Constitution is welcome.

At the same time, students do not prevent anyone from fighting on another front (and there are as many as they want). Moreover, with a joint announcement, they supported all the local communities where the struggle for democracy and justice is being waged these days.

ABOUT FLOUR AND LEADERS

This brings us to the case of Novi Sad and the fact that, according to some critics, few people gathered in front of the City Assembly on Monday, February 24. Some, on the other hand, came forward to say that they did not come because the students did not invite them. Both groups deserve an analysis, and the right analysis, which does not pretend to scold or criticize anyone.

photo: screen shot

Did not enough people gather in front of the Novi Sad Assembly? To answer that, we need to know how much is enough. And to determine what number is enough, we have to ask: enough for what? For an even fiercer conflict between protesters and the police? That is not realistic or effective in Novi Sad. Since the rise of Bogatić, followed by Rača, a large part of the public wishes that the whole of Serbia would become Bogatić or Rača. However, whoever thinks this is possible does not know the local conditions in Serbia at all. Let's take the example of Rača: a small municipality, under the complete authority of the mayor who arbitrarily decided to raise municipal taxes by 60 percent compared to last year. Of course, it is quite possible for a critical mass of residents to go to the municipal building with tractors and keep it blocked for weeks. Novi Sad is not Racha, just as, after all, Kraljevo is not Racha either. But Novi Sad is specific for at least two reasons. First, the very heart of darkness of corruption and criminality of this government has gathered there and is ready to defend with its life all that it has stolen and plans to steal. The police and gendarmerie have practically not moved from key institutions since November. Therefore, only the one who is ready to have the gendarmerie jump on his head with turbans has the right to call for "pumping harder" in Novi Sad.

As for the group that didn't come because they weren't invited by the students, there we have a serious manipulation of the essence of everything on which the student protest rests. Students at the blockades are killing themselves trying to explain that they have no leaders. They have very clear procedures: only those authorized by the plenum go public. Whoever appears once, no longer goes to the media. For God's sake, they even hid from the public eye that guy, the security guard, who became the star of the general strike because of his good diction and the skill with which he navigated the embankment fence while directing citizens to cross the Branko bridge in groups. Since it was impossible to find leaders in individual students, part of the public declared the entire student movement as their own leader. We will agree - it is first of all not fair to the students. Let's go back to their four demands, read them carefully and we will see: these are the demands of every citizen of Serbia and all citizens of Serbia.

photo: fonet / instagram

FURIOUS ABOUT ROLLS

The impatience for the regime to fall inexorably led to the anger of a part of the public towards the students in the blockade, so these days voices can be heard opposing the student marches, and they are symbolically opposed to the rolls that the citizens bring to the students and the eggs that were pelted by the functionaries of the Serbian Progressive Party in Kraljevo and Novi Sad. Implicitly, there is a request that the students get hold of the chicken eggs. However, that is also wrong. It was also wrong to say to the students: "Thank you for everything you do for us." They don't do anything for us, whoever thinks that, again didn't read the requirements properly and handed over the baton too early.

With their demands, the way they articulate their protest, the way they plan marches and large blockades, the students in the blockade have set a framework for all the others who have why to stand up and what to fight against. All of us, the entire society, should be guided by those requirements and that strategy, which also includes fences. Now is a unique opportunity for us to reevaluate ourselves, choose our battles, and stop dealing with ourselves. The students gave us the framework, it's up to us to see what fits into that framework. Anything that cannot fit into it should be discarded as irrelevant. Or at least, irrelevant at this point.

And one more thing: let's ask ourselves whether Bogatić, Rača, Kraljevo, anyone, would have stood up if the students had not started.

Just as this government did not occupy us overnight, we will not be able to get rid of it overnight, and especially we will not be able to quickly clean ourselves of the poison and psychological abuse to which we are collectively exposed. If anyone is still wondering what the purpose of student marches is: precisely to recover us physically, to wait as sober as possible for the end of this monstrosity that occupied us.

This is a marathon, the game is played until one side scores a goal, the scoreboard is still zero-zero. There is still work to be done. And if we are all better people than three months ago, we are. Now we need to see how much we are still able to improve and what is our maximum.