We have devoted a section of this issue for news and resistance information from former Yugoslavia. While the embattled Balkan nation states are currently in a state of relative peace under the Dayton agreement, brokered by powerful international interestest and enforced by United Nations, the region threatens to re-explode at any moment into some of the most violent ethinic and nationalist conflict Europe has seen in the later half of the 20th century. With promises of United States troop withdrawels before years end, and true peace (perhaps impossibly so) over the horizon, the warring factions of Serb, Croat and Bosnian nationalists may again be at eachothers' throats in the very near future. This section is an attempt to document resistance and counterculture activities that have been taking place and are continuing to happen in this war-torn region. Much of the information in this section has been gathered and/or translated by On Gogol Boulevard, a section of the Neither East Nor West Network.
| OVER THE WALLS OF NATIONALISM AND WAR |
Following is an article from a four page paper called Over the Walls of Nationalism and War. It was produced and distributed throughout ex-Yugoslavia by anarchists from Serbia and Croatia.
Yugoslavia was bound to disintegrate; as any other "real-socialist" country, she was a dictatorship, a bureaucratic authoritarian regime that canceled freedoms. The so-called freedom that was intrinsic to "our" country compared to the other Eastern European countries was nothing but an illusion; again, whoever raised a voice against it, could expect a police baton.
Our abundantly praised self-management was yet another illusion; did working people have an opportunity freely to associate, to reproduce and to exchange their products benefiting everyone? No, they did not.
On the other hand we should not have illusions now about the Western capitalist chimera, which is no better; the "free" market is just another apparition ruled by the interests of the rich and powerful. It's foundations are savage competition and exploitation of human by human and of nature by human. It brings wealth and privileges to a minority, and repression, poverty and famine to the majority.
Due to the collapse of Yugoslavia a lot of state bureaucrats were left without their dole. Those who always wanted power masterminded the way to realize their ugly goals: new nationalist countries were born out of the will for power among the old and the new power-hungry nomenclature (administrative officials under Communism). The clash of their overlaying appetites caused the war. They are the ones who painted the picture of an enemy aggressor (Albanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Croatian, Muslim, ...) using the mass-media. Just the ideological facade changed; now it was nationalism, no more socialism. The enormous need for being in power at any cost behind the facade did not change at all.
The same responsibility bear international business and political structures too. They actually profit from continuation of this war; multinational corporations would get more things to rebuild, the U.N. will confirm its role as a world policeman of the New World Order, manufacturers and dealers of arms will make more profits quietly and "peacefully" supplying warring ethnocracies, various state run humanitarian organizations hiding in the guise of humanitarian aid take their government's side in the conflict. All of them are just speculators that build their financial, political, denominational and military power on violence and exploitation.
Therefore, we should remove the rag they put over our eyes: our enemy is not a Serb, a Croat or a Muslim. The aggressors and occupiers are states, all states, and masters, political leaders, the military and clerics. The victims are all exploited, hard working people, unemployed, retired, students - regardless of what nationality they belong to. Real solidarity shows through direct action against the causes of war. Anything else is manipulation, the inclination to war profiteering and an attempt to bring about an "armed peace" which exposes itself best in the present nationalist madness.
Up to date the powerful of all colors used us for their dirty games, giving to us war, death, violence, unemployment, destitution and despair in exchange for that. Enough! Rebel!
WE WANT TO ABOLISH ALL ARMIES, TO OPPOSE ALL WHO ARE IN POWER, TO DISABLE THOSE WHO USE WAR TO GAIN AND MAINTAIN THEIR POWER.
We wish to regain control over our lives to create a society without a state, without borders, without exploitation, a society based on free association between free individuals so each one of us may fulfill his/her needs and not lose empathy for the needs of others.
LET US NOT BE AT REST WITH THOSE WHO WISH WAR!
The purpose of this announcement:
This little newsletter, that gathers free-spirited people in Croatia and Serbia, signifies the beginning of co-operation between geographically distant friends, which are at the same time close in their thoughts, feelings and ideas. From this moment on starts our common cause to disseminate information in struggle for a classless and authority-less society.
Each article published here expresses individual opinion. All articles are published in the language in which they were written, and we are sure that they should be easily read by a lot of people living in the territories of former Yugoslavia.
Addresses:
ZAP (Zagreb Anarchist Organization) c/o ARK, Tkalciceva 38, 41000 Zagreb, Croatia
CRNI GAVRAN (Black Raven) c/o Dragon Marcovic, Filipa Visnjica 10, 11420 Smed Palanka, Serbia-Yugoslavia
TORPEDO c/o Milan Djuric, M. Velikog 12/10, 11300 Smederevo, Serbia-Yugoslavia
TRANSLATED AND DISTRIBUTED IN ENGLISH
BY NEITHER EAST NOR WEST, 528 5TH ST., BROOKLYN, NY 11215, U.S., TEL:718-499-7720,
212-979-8353
| WOMEN IN BLACK |
ANNOUNCEMENT:
FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR PROTEST AGAINST THE WAR
The acknowledgment of the date of our anniversary cannot have a ceremonial or celebrational character. We have neither put an end to the war nor had such an illusion. However, we have not abandoned ourselves to desperation, nor are we in the trap of helplessness, nor have we lost our hope. Despite the deep conflicts which war provokes in us we do not have doubts about continuing our actions. Despite insults, underestimations and condemnations that are addressed to the pacifist movement here, and not only here, we are still convinced that non-violent strategies are the only alternatives to war. Great energy and means are expended in war and armed violence, bringing only death, destruction and hatred. In non-violent strategies, almost no means are used and still their existence and dissemination encourage us, yet also disturb those who support, produce and lead the war. They would like to see us helpless, apathetic and passively accepting our fate; to see us in the condition in which they have already put most of the inhabitants...
For four years, since October 9, 1991, every Wednesday we have made visible our non-violent protests against war and the Serbian regime, which we hold responsible for war; we instigate civil disobedience against all forms of imposed indentification: nation, national state, all armies and flags.
We are transforming our anger over war and militarism into positive actions:
- We organize international meetings of our women's solidarity network against war. The last such meeting (our fourth annual) was held in August 1995 in Tresnjevac. Our friends came from all countries of the former Yugoslavia and from 14 other countries. The Serbian police regime constantly presents us with numerous obstacles to this form of communication: this past August, for 30 hours, they blocked the passage of a bus of Italian pacifists, not allowing them to enter the country to attend our meeting. They refuse to give visas to Spanish and other pacifists and feminists and put activists from our group, our friends from Croatia and other countries under police interrogation etc.
- What is it that the Serbian regime fears when it has in its hands such a police and military force? This proves that even our modest acts of non- violent resistance are a "threat" to the totalitarian regime which wants to control everything by instilling fear and through force.
We condition, spread and strengthen the network of international alternative relationships to overcome the limits which are placed on us and to confront obstacles by confirming local and global connections.
- We support men who refuse to go to war, who refuse forced mobilization and war deserters. We plead for conscientious objection of military service to become a basic human right here also.
In short, we are convinced that only a network of civil society and non-violent resistance can change the logic of war and stop war machinery. It is a long-term strategy that requires patience, persistence and whose results happen gradually. We lean on each other for support, in solidarity of common troubles and for projects within the autonomous women's and pacifist movements worlwide.
We will continue to be on the streets of Belgrade to publicly protest against the war and all forms of militarism.
LET US BANISH WAR FROM HISTORY AND FROM OUR LIVES!
WE INVITE ALL CITIZENS OF BELGRADE TO JOIN OUR NON-VIOLENT PROTEST ON OCTOBER 8, 1995 AT 18h IN REPUBLIC SQUARE and every Wednesday from 15h30-16h30 also in Republic Square.
WOMEN IN BLACK AGAINST WAR
BELGRADE, October 5, 1995
Women in Black / zene U Crnom / Cetinjska 26a / 11000 Belgrade / Serbia (tel/fax 381 1124 7877)
| EX-YUGO PEACE OPPOSITION GOES CYBER |
by Ivo Skoric
"The media were used to turn people against each other." That's what Eric Bachman, system operator of the new Zamir Transnational Net (ZTN), an electronic link that connects antiwar activists in the former Yugoslav republics, told Germany's Die Zeit newspaper. "We are building up a medium that brings people together." Zamir means "peace" in Serbo-Croatian, the language of what was once Yugoslavia.
Before Yugoslavia's violent collapse in 1990, youth in each of the country's six republics fought each other in soccer stadiums, listened to the same music (British), watched the same movies (American), smoked the same hash (Moroccan) and hated the same system (Communist). Rock bands from Serbia and Bosnia filled stadiums in Croatia and Slovenia, and vice versa. But this natural bonding among youth was discouraged by the top brass of the army and Communist Party, who considered rock'n'roll too Western, American and decadent. They hated the idea of letting anybody escape their ideological control. In the late 1980s, the official ideology abruptly switched from Yugoslav Communism to the Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Slovenian nationalism which had been taboo under the old regime. The ancient nationalist flags and popular nationalist songs (mostly left over from the Nazi period) became new symbols of patriotism as ex-Communist politicians promised to dismantle Communism while blaming the "other side" for Yugoslavia's economic decline. War became inevitable.
The key to the politicians' success was communication-or, more precisely, the lack of it. The formerly Communist-controlled media in each republic came under the control of born-again nationalists. Independent, alternative media-magazines, low-power FM stations-were confiscated by the police if they tried to cross republic lines. Reading newspapers from other republics came to be viewed as unpatriotic.
Finally, just before the war started, the Serbian and Croatian governments shut down all communication between the two nations and sealed the borders. The telephone lines in Bosnia-Herzegovina were destroyed when the war spread there in 1991. With the disruption of the postal system, local antiwar and human-rights organizations suddenly found themselves isolated from each other and the outside world.
Then, in early 1992, the Communications Aid Project for Former Yugoslavia was initiated by international peace groups, together with local groups like Croatia's Anti-War Campaign and Serbia's Center for Anti-War Action. Modems were distributed and the ZTN was launched. Activists in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia can now talk over the Internet, with the signal routed through Austria, Germany or Britain.
Thanks to ZTN, nationalist dictators have lost their power to prevent communication beyond the borders of their police states. Now independent propeace media like Croatia's Arkzin and Serbia's Vreme publish their electronic editions on ZTN and are read by the "other side." Bosnian refugees in San Francisco have e-mailed contacts back home and traced lost relatives. When Serbian authorities imposed their own directors on the Belgrade newspaper Borba in 1994, the ousted journalists gave the world their side of the story on ZTN. When Kosevo Hospital in Sarajevo, the besieged Bosnian capital, was in desperate need of antibiotics last year, it issued an appeal via the network and international volunteers got the medicine through. When 10 opposition activists from Split were arrested by Croatian authorities and beaten in prison in 1993, supporters sent out daily reports via the Net. The beatings stopped.
In 1992 a group of young people barricaded themselves in a local bar called the Zitzer Club in the small village of Tresnjevac in northern Serbia, refusing to be drafted for the war in Bosnia. As the Serbian army surrounded the village, they declared independence and sovereignty, assuming the name Zitzer Spiritual Republic in a parody of the ultranationalism sweeping the region ("zitzer" is a local term for a good pool shot). Their anthem was Ravel's Bolero and their coat of arms was a pizza pie surrounded by three pool balls. Peace activists across the border in Hungary spread the word through the Internet, and a New York group, Neither East Nor West, organized a benefit concert in CBGB in November 1993 to raise funds to get the Zitzer draft resisters their own computer. Today the "republic" is on-line at zsr@ZaMir-bg.ztn.zer.de.
One of the main sponsors of the network is international financial mogul George Soros' Open Society Institute, which also funds several alternative and independent media in the region, such as Arkzin and Vreme, and has poured war-reconstruction money into Bosnia. The Soros agenda mystifies many observers. After quietly funding prodemocracy movements in the Communist world for years, he has recently launched his first political project in the West-the New York-based Lindesmith Center, dedicated to challenging America's War on Drugs (Interview, Oct. '95 HT). Former Yugoslavia is just a part of Soros' financial-aid involvement in ex-Communist Europe. As he likes to put it: "Now they don't call it Soviet empire any more, they call it Soros empire."
| SOB or The Role Of Personalities in History |
When in 1983 someone described Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza as a 'son of a bitch' to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, 'Yes, I know: 'but he is our son of a bitch'. A new political category was born and was later exploited by many Somaza-like characters. Balkan nationalists-populist dictators, Dr. Franjo Tudjman and Mr. Slobodan Milosevic are exploiting that particular stereotype of the US foreign policy, each in his own way.
Dr. Tudjman - with his white uniforms, decorations, dark glasses and shark's grin - spontaneously and effortlessly fits the familiar image of Latin American dictator. Mr. milosevic, on projecting to Americans is the sterotype of a grey, stern and dangerous Cold War Communist leader, a 'strong man to talk to' typical mid-70's real-socialist nomenclature boss. Dr. Tudjman is outspoken and mostly outrageously candid; Mr. Milosevic is secretive, rarely seen in public, a silent power broker. They are both undisputed leaders of their ethnic groups; they weild considerable local power broker; without them no peace in the Balkans can be brokered. Humoring them keeps the diplomatic industry working and 'international negotiators' of all kinds employed. They both know it, there is no better way to upset them than to walk out on them- and that's the sword they both skillfully wield. They are selling their nuisance value, make us happy, we'll kill another couple of thousand poeple...
A veteran, bitter and disappointed US diplomat told this author in 1993 that 'all those international negotiators are not after the peace in Bosnia; they are after the Nobel Peace Prize. But they aren't gonna get it. Milosevic and Tujman are gonna get it; If Henry Kissinger could, why shouldn't they?
From War Report, September 1995
| "POLITICAL PORNOGRAPHY" IN CROATIA |
By Eric Chenoweth (From Uncaptive Minds Fall/Winter'94)
Feral Tribune and it's editors have gained a reputation as humerous, irreverent,
muckraking, and informative. It is a distictly independent newspaper, "against
all politicians," as one of the editors, Boris Dezulovic says. Feral
Tribune is particularly against the ruling politicians of Croatia, who have
made it their business to try to shut the weekly newspaper down.
Feral begins in 1984 as a one-page weekly satirical insert in Nedjajna Dalmacija, a daily newspaper in Split, on the Dalmatian Coast. It then moved to the major daily, Slobodna Dalmacija, where it was published in a four-paged version. In the mid- to late 1980's, Slobodna was known as a liberal newspaper that was not afraid to challenge the ruling communist authorities. Feral's biting satire fit right in. But when the Tudjman regime ordered the "privatizing" of newspapers in early 1993, that spelled the end of the newspaper's independence. After it was taken over by supporters of the ruling HDZ party, most of Slobodna's journalists left. Ten joined Feral Tribune's three editors to transform the insert into a seriously weekly newspaper.
In the last two years, Feral Tribune has become one of the most popular weekly newspapers in Croatia. It has 48 pages in large tabloid format, with 40 pages of news. At 50,000 copies, its circulation is the highest among independent publications in the country. The editors claim a total of 200,000 readers all told.
The regime is going to great lengths to silence the newspaper. Why? "We became public enemy number one when we wrote about Croatian war crimes in Bosnia," says Dezulovic, who joined the Feral editorial team in 1991. "We are traitors only because we publish the truth."
In February, the draft board called up the 34-year-old editor-in-chief, Viktor Ivancic, to military service and placed him in a unit of professinal soldiers for six months- the only newspaper editor in the country to be called to military service. Throughout the year, various party and government officials have filed civil lawsuits against the newspaper for libel and insults. A total of fifteen lawsuits have been filed claiming damages of nearly $1 million. Among the plaintiffs are Ante Djapic, head of the extremist Croat Party of the Right, Tomislav Mercep, the deputy minister of police who is widely accused of war crimes, and Zljko Olujic, a former prosecutor. One case has been decided and found in favor of djapic. Feral was ordered to pay DM 40'000 ($25,000) in damages.
A worse blow came in July, when the Ministry of Culture and Education decided that Feral Tribune was "political pornography," suspeneded it's tax-exempt privileges, and began forcing it to pay a 40 percent circulation tax that is intended exclusively for pornographic magazines. The determination was based on the front page that showed Franjo Tudjman and Slobodan Milosevic in bed together, with the headline "is This What We Fought For?", an allusion to widely believed alliance struck by the two dictators to divide Bosnia. The consequences of the tax are catastrophic for the newspaper, which already requires some outside support. Taxes are now deducted from payments on all sales by the monopoly state distributor, Tisak. The total lost income is DM50,000($30,000) per issue. Besides being relieved of this onerous tax, one hope for the paper moght be an independent distribution system, a dream af all independent newspapers in Croatia. Its prospects have been boosted recently through a grant of the European Union to a consortium put together by Feral.
To protest the government's decision, the editors ceased publication for a week, "so that we can prove that Croatia will not fall without Feral, as those who brought it before a firing squad wanted." In a statement, the editorial board wrote:
It is clear to anyone with a gram of healthy reason that Feral Tribune
is not a pornographic paper, but a kind of official sanction has been put
it on it for "higher political interests." The taxation of Feral-
whatever one thinks of its contents- heralds a complete purge of the Croatian
media .... and a treacherous blow to democratic processes.....Through the
legalization of state violence-from the establishment of a one-party parliment,
to "legal evictions," to legalized thievary through ownership
transfers, to the introduction of state censorship applied either through
"taxation politics" or through the monstrously named Law on Freedom
of Public Communication-the way is guaranteed to a classic dictatorship.
| SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT PILE! |
The New Boss Is The Same As The Old Boss: Post-Communist Croatia
Since 1990 The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)has won absolute power in elections. The favorite motto of the HDZ now is "Only God above the Croatian Parliment." But this slogan has been severly tested by the implementation of the new Croatian constitution. The semi-presidential system that was established, operating under conditions of war in a country lacking democratic traditions, has grown into an all- powerful and authoritarian rule of state president, making Croatia efeectively a national, or one-party state. The parliment, the oppostition, the public, and the political pluralism have all been marginalized.
Despite the expressed ideological anti-communism of the new authorities, Bolshevik means have prevailed in practice. So-called national and state interests have been placed above democracy. Corruption and arbitrariness are a rife in the privatization of property. There is state and party control over key mass media. Human rights are neglected and the courts hold dubious independence. There is scorn expressed towards national minorities and the protection of their rights and interests, especially Serbs. This official attitude- which includes rejection of an anti-facist Croatian tradition- has resulted in terrorist acts against Serbs.
Edited from "A Croatian Reichstag Trial"
by Goran Vezic, Uncaptive Minds Fall/Summer'94
| ON GOGOL BOULEVARD |
YOU CAN HELP THIS MAN SPREAD ANARCHY, PUNK &
CHAOS WORLD-WIDE!
'Madman' Ivo Scoric in one of his usual poses. Ivo ditched Croatia years ago to stay out of the army. He now lives in NYC and works with Neither East Nor West... a one person army promoting the alternative ex-Yugoslav opposition.
On Gogol Boulevard (OGB) is the irregular bulletin of New York City Neither East Nor West, networking East and West alternative oppositions and printing news and documents unavailable in the corporate and "left" media, using mostly material from Communist/ex-Communist countries. We singularly fill a void and we use this needed Eastern specialty as a doorway to incorporating concerns of "Third World" and "Fourth World" (land-based Indigenous peoples) struggles, with a particular focus on supporting activists with antiauthoritarian and anti-Stalinist perspectives.
This OGB New Service section in Profane Existence and other papers serve the same function. We encourage all those involved in "Neither East Nor West"-type activity to regularly contribute to this section. Please address letters, reports, documents, debates, graphics, photos, etc. directly to OGB. This is not a section for anarchists only. We are interested in all things promoting freedom, workers; rights, womens', minority and gay rights, environmental, self-determination and antimilitarist issues-any struggle pursuing paths outside the capitalist and state bureaucratic models.
Our title refers to Moscow's Gogol Boulevard - a favorite hangout for the counterculture youth dissidents, anti-war, and human rights activists. On May 3, 1987 this milieu braved poking a hole in the Soviet dictatorship by organizing a small art exhibit / demonstration on Gogol Boulevard. It was met with a violent riot by plainclothes agents, police, and special internal forces soldiers. On May 4, blood was spilled again with Gogol Boulevard being raided and swept with mass arrests. On May 10 Gogol Boulevard witnessed one of the Glasnost era's first ever youth demonstrations that openly called for human rights. Though also repressed, it was a formative event, and we take our name from that week. See you on Gogol Boulevard!
For more information on us, please send $1 to:
On Gogol Boulevard / Neither East Nor West-NYC / 528 Fifth Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215 · (718) 499-7720