"We're not Backing Down": The Serbian students toppling a corrupt regime
What Can We Do #13
What Can We Do? is my free weekly newsletter covering case studies of collective organising from around the world.
On 15th March, at least three hundred thousand people poured out onto the streets of Belgrade to protest the corruption that has become endemic in Serbian society. These were some of the largest protests in the country’s history.
While observing a fifteen-minute silence the students claim that they were attacked with an illegal weapon: a long-range acoustic device (LRAD), a sonic weapon that has been linked to permanent hearing damage. There is astonishing footage of students scattering from a central point, where the weapon is alleged to have been directed.
This was just the latest battle in a long-running war against one of the most corrupt regimes in Europe. Students across Serbia have been organising mass demonstrations across the country since November, when part of a railway station collapsed in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second city.
Fourteen people died immediately, with a fifteenth victim dying in hospital soon after. Another person who had been injured in the disaster – nineteen-year-old high-school graduate Vukašin Crnčević – died from his injuries just a few weeks ago. Protestors blamed the canopy collapse on government corruption.
I spoke to one of the students who has been involved in the protests about what it’s like to live under a broken, authoritarian regime, and why she decided to start fighting back.
Corruption Kills
“Corruption is a small word for what’s been going on,” says Nina.
“It goes from the very top – the large investments, factories, mines – all the way to the individual lives of the common person who can’t get a job if they don’t have a party membership.
“When you have all these layers, everyone wants something, and by the time you feed every mouth in the chain, there’s nothing left. There’s nothing left for the salaries of the construction workers, for the materials they’re using, for the experts to design these structures.
“This is what led to the collapse of the station at Novi Sad. It was a symbol of how corruption kills.”
After the train station canopy collapsed, students organised vigils to honour the victims and shine a light on the role of the regime in the Novi Sad disaster. They held fifteen-minute silences across the country to honour the fifteen victims who had died. At one of these vigil at the Faculty for Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, students and citizens were violently attacked during their peaceful vigil.
“The student movement didn’t happen immediately after the fall of the canopy. It happened after the government responded violently to the peaceful silences. That was the spark.”
In response to the government’s repression, the students began to blockade educational institutions across the country. Protestors staged daily traffic blockades for fifteen minutes, to symbolise the fifteen lives that had been lost.
By December, more than 50 university campuses and many secondary schools had shut down. As the movement grew, the students realised they needed to get organised.
They developed a set of four demands: the publication of documents relating to the railway station’s reconstruction; the dismissal of charges against those involved in protests; criminal charges against those who had attacked protestors; and an increase in the education budget.
“We just want a normal society, nothing extravagant. We’re asking for the people who were involved in a in a criminal affair to be arrested and prosecuted,” Nina told me.
But they realised the government wouldn’t give in without a fight. So, they started to build structures that would allow them to continue their protests for as long as was necessary.
“We set up working groups to organise the protests; on investigating the canopy collapse; on spreading the movement to other universities. My first role was to drive around from town to town and talk to people in different universities to build the network.”
“Everyone found a way to participate, whether organising the donations, organising logistics, communications and media strategies, or keeping people safe at the protests.”
Keeping students safe was a challenging task, both because of government repression, and because of the individuals driving their cars into protestors during the blockades. Thugs and hooligans attempted to attack protestors on multiple occasions, and have targeted activists and unionists involved in the movement. Some of these incidents have been tied to the government.
“There was a trigger moment that made everyone who had been silent come out and support us. And that was when our colleague from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade was run over by a car during the fifteen minutes of silence.
“She wasn’t even in the road, she was on the pavement. And the video was horrific enough to make everybody angry.”
Solidarity strikes
Over less than a month, a tightly organised group of students had managed to build a mass political movement.
“Everyone thought that the young people were apathetic and not interested in anything but social media. And I am so thrilled that we proved them wrong.”
It wasn’t long before other groups started stepping up to support the students. Workers across the country announced solidarity strikes with the students – from teachers, to lawyers, to employees of the state energy and public transit companies. Farmers across the country have joined in, blocking roads with their tractors.
“Lawyers, medics, agricultural workers, pharmacists. Almost every industry found a way to participate,” says Nina.
“High school teachers have stopped working completely. Primary School teachers just as well. My little brothers haven't gone to school for God knows how long.
“These teachers aren’t receiving salaries because they're not working. The same is happening with the university professors. But the attitude is very clear: we're not backing down. People have demonstrated such incredible solidarity.”
The prime minister, and two other ministers, have been forced to resign as a result of the protests. It seems clear that Vučić’s political career is also over, though he is clinging to the presidency for dear life.
“We have a technical government that is not really legitimate, and they are in charge of the universities. It’s a really complex octopus of a regime that is tightly connected to the criminal organisations, the oligarchs and the corporations.
“But also the pillars of support for this regime come from Germany, the United States, Russia, China and the UAE. Everyone wants our resources.”
The government’s response has been to evade accountability, repress the protests, and attempt to turn public opinion against the students.
At first, strongman President Vučić claimed that the protests were being funded by foreign powers trying to destabilise the country. These claims were amplified by state-owned news agency, RTS.
“The national media we all pay is one pillar of the regime. The narrative that was coming from the media was that we are all paid to protest by foreign governments, by Soros and USAID, and all kinds of other foundations and criminal groups.”
“But it didn’t work. Everyone everybody has a child or colleague who has been on a protest. So, when you tell someone them that their grandson is paid by someone to destroy the country he lives in, it doesn’t work.”
Walks across Serbia
By February, the students decided to adopt a new tactic – they would organise walks across the country, to bring people together in support of their movement. At first, Nina was sceptical of the plan.
“They were talking about walking to Novi Sad from Belgrade, and I remember thinking, ‘who's going to walk all that way?’ It’s two days walk!”
Nina decided to follow the walkers in her car with supplies and emergency equipment. What she found while travelling across her country blew her away.
“We were welcomed to every little village along the way, people came out of their homes and waved and gave us food. We couldn’t take everything they wanted give us.
“The socioeconomic situation here is awful. But people still gave us what they had. The posters they made for us,” Nina started to tear up as she recounted the reaction.
Soon, students all over the country were organising walks from one university to another. Nina recalls the incredible sense of community that the students found when organising with their fellow activists.
“We all found this connection. The professors in the faculties were cooking all day long for the students. The doctors offered to take care of the injured students when they arrived.
“I was organising logistics, which was a big job, but it was easy. It was easy for me, because everywhere I looked, people were willing to help, and so many people applied to host the students.
“When we walked through my hometown, in eastern Serbia, I’ve never seen so many people on the streets. They told us that the students were the only ones who did not forget that this part of the country exists. Because this area had been neglected for decades.”
The regime is coming to an end
The protests reached their apex on the 15th March, when hundreds of thousands gathered in Belgrade. The sonic weapon that was allegedly used against protestors has caused serious health issues for many of the protestors. The students have made a documentary investigating what happened.
“We don’t know what it was. But there was a wave of sound and it made everyone stampede. The people who were there said it sounded like a really fast train coming through.
“People reported feeling dizzy and sick, some temporarily lost their hearing, some people’s pacemakers stopped working.”
The students are now working on discovering precisely what happened and holding those responsible to account.
“We have petitioned the United Nations to investigate what happened, because the weapon is illegal, not just in Serbia, but in most countries in the world.”
The European Union has remained completely silent on the demonstrations in Serbia, despite calls from left groups within the Parliament for European institutions to condemn the violence unleashed against protestors.
Some have speculated that Europe’s silence is about securing access to Serbia’s raw materials. In July last year, the EU signed a deal with Belgrade for a strategic partnership on ‘sustainable raw materials’ to allow it access to Serbia's lithium reserves.
The next action the students have planned is a 12-day bike ride from Belgrade to Strasbourg to bring attention to the protests around Europe.
Despite the extraordinary challenges the protestors face, and all the horrors they have experienced, Nina remains optimistic.
“The government has fallen. But the regime is also coming to an end. The task for the students is now to decide how to replace it.”
The opposition parties are all tainted with the same problems as the ruling party, and the election process is not free or fair. So, the students have decided to take matters into their own hands.
“We have weekly meetings from all universities across the country. We're trying to hear everyone out and to develop proposals.
“We already started inserting the plenum sessions into everyday lives. Workers in factories have plenums. Professors have plenums. Citizens started organizing plenums as well. These are actually recognised by our legal system as a legal entity.
For Nina, the long-term aim of the movement has to be a bottom-up transformation of Serbian society, not just a switching of the current elite.
“It’s not just about changing the government. It’s about reassuring people that they should have a say in all the decisions that affect them. It’s not just about voting. You have to have responsibility for the industry you work in, your neighbourhood, your city.
“We have to build these new structures. And that’s what we’re doing.”
Read about the protests on the students’ website here. Follow the students on Instagram.
This is why the powerfull are so afraid of public unity. I cried when I saw so many people together in silence, in solidarity. What a beautiful moment born from tragedy.
Excellent! Your report highlights the current worldwide problem — systemic corruption, and a possible solution to a fresh start and a more equitable future. The use of these new weapons are a horrible reminder of what “we the people” are up against. Also, thanks for exposing another example of the common playbook being used — “they’re all paid actors paid by Soros.”