Oh, What A Party!

Veterans Day falls on July 4 in Yugoslavia marking the day in 1941 when communists met somewhere in Belgrade and decided to escape the tropical heat by taking to the woods.

Fiftythree years later the July 4 celebrations held throughout the capital of the third Yugoslavia were muggy and tropical. Most shops and state instutions closed in defference to the public holiday although they had the choice of staying open.

But not the United Left. They had announced a gathering at the Students' Cultural Center (SKC). The perfomance had a fantastic nameCelebration Dedicated to Feedom.

The crimson invitation cards explained that the script for the ``Celebration'' was written by Milisav Milenkovic (the president of some association, which recently awarded gold pins to Mirjana Markovic, the wife of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and the leader of the Communist Leaguethe Movement for Yugoslavia, and General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb Army Commander, for their contribution to something that has to do with patriotism), that Jovan Ristic directed the performance, and listed the names of the casting actors and actresses...

Was it easy to get into the Students' Cultural Center? Sure. No sweat with the invitation or a press card. Right at the entrance, a wooden board held a sign saying ``Ideal Tshirts 19411994.'' One could actually see white Tshirts bearing the slogans, ``Left to be right,'' ``How the ideals sang,'' ``With hearts to freedom,'' ``Fire to manPrometheus,'' ``Heart is also on the left.'' Fiftyfour followers of the United Left became the owners of fiftyfour Tshirts that were folded on the sky blue seats in the auditorium of the Students' Cultural Center. ``Take them, they are yours,'' said the message on the pamphlets distributed to visitors. There was no Tshirt on my seat. Maybe because I took a seat on the right and not the left side of the aisle.

Who was there? Mirjana Markovic, for example. She arrived with a big bodyguard with a moustache who was one of the few wearing a jacket and a tie in the stifling 47 degrees Centigrade. Since I am familiar with the tragic experience of Belle Stambo, the journalist of ``Vanity Fair'' whom Mirjana Markovic criticised because she (Belle) didn't describe her accurately in the ``Vanity Fair'' article, I do not dare go beyond a melancholic statement that Mirjana Markovic wore a black dress sprinkled with ``lightning,'' i.e. the pattern where a shade of blue could be made out. She had a black handbag and sat in the front row. Naturally, left from the isle.

On the same side of the auditiorium (``Left to be right'') she was joined by Nada PopovicPerisic (the Minister of Culture in the Serbian Government) and her husband Predrag Perisic (permanently employed by Television Serbia), then Slobodan Unkovic, the former Speaker of the Serbian Parliament, confortably cushioned in his seat. Uros Suvakovic, one of the more popular young Socialists from Belgrade, in a white shirt with short sleaves and freshly ironed pants. One could easily notice Snezana Aleksic (before and during the 8th session of the Serbian Communist Party actively engaged in the University later a member of the Women's Movement for FurCoats in the name of Yugoslavia), who held something that looked like a rose but could have been a carnation. And, finally, it was difficult not to notice Ivica Dacic, the spokesman of the Socialist Party of Serbia, who stood out in the crowd of white shirts and short sleeves with his othodoxly silk light green twopiece suit.

The recital began with the International. Obeying an invisible command the entire auditorium got up and stood at attention. I remained seated, determined to get up only to the tunes of the Rolling Stones or Stone Temple Pilots. Then those who stood sat down and the actors who sat got up. Each held a file with texts. A huge red canvas nonchalantly thrown from the ceiling was in the background. Some flowers. A few mikes. The screen and the film projector. Dimmed lights.

And then an actor marched to the microphone and stated, ``The word lust... the word death... the meaning of salvation... the word fire... the so near and yet so far 1941, first in Serbia, and then everywhere... the sound of axes in the woods... fleeting centuries... oh, land, mother of all, I am calling you!''

He went on along the same lines. On the screen: black and white partisans on horses. Voice: freedom is only for the free. Suddenly: Warren Beatty. The clip from the film ``Reds'' where Warren tells the Soviet proletariat that the whole American proletariat will join them in their just fight against capitalism. Cut: excerpt from the film ``Hair'' (directed by Milos Forman), the song ``Let the sunshine in'' and then the actor talking about sunflowers, golden corn waving in the wind and the sun whose rays nurse freedom the same way freedom nursed us. Or something like that. Images of Vukovar and Mostar. The actor and his colleagues are silent. No one had written any lines for them. And then the words in the swift rhythm: freedomcloudsbloodlife.

Just when I thought that they will stick to agriculture and meteorology (harvestblue skies, forestsrains of freedom), another partisan hero stopping the German machinery in an excerpt from a domestic WW II movie. More verses and songs.

``The less we have the richer we are,'' the stage rings out. ``The sun will remain where the heart was, the new Yugoslavia!''

The band from Nis concludes the ode to freedom.

The lights are on. Not wasting one second, Mirjana Markovic leaves with her bodyguard, while others join the cocktail party where supporters and the curious are served warm Coke and hot orange juice made of powder dissolved in water (one bag of orange juice powder costs 0.5 dinar and serves five).

Several goodlooking leftwingers in miniskirts make me wonder. Is their heart on the left, and if it is why don't they show it publicly and revolutionisingly?

I slowly say goodbye to Veterans Day. The OB van of Television Belgrade, parked at the entrance to the Students' Cultural Center, is a clear warning that the recital will be broadcast in its entirety on the state television the same evening.

Some notice that General Stevan Mirkovic was absent. I dare notice that Tito was absent as well.

No one mentioned him on the 4th of July.

Happy Holiday, Freedom!