Easy Spring Works

Over 2,000, mostly elderly peasants held a "Rally of second-class citizens" last Tuesday (4 April) on Republic Square in Belgrade. The rally was organized by the Farmers' Independent Trade Union of Serbia (NSZS) led by Djordje Garabandic.

The peasants demanded the payment of agricultural products which the state had bought, lower taxes, realistic prices, a three year tax exemption, the resignation of Minister of Agriculture Ivko Djonovic...

The peasants' trade union accuses the Serbian Government of not punishing the robbing of the farmers, because it tolerates, among other things, the sale of mineral fertilizers without the prescribed quantity of chemical substances.

Garabandic claims that the peasants will not be able to ensure half of last year's yield, and that the grain yields will be 30% under the usual yield.

The peasants' delegation contacted the Serbian Government which came up with some hazy promises. When the rally started, Minister Djonovic was in the Assembly, defending the Government's thesis that compared to 1993, agricultural production in 1994 was greater by 5% to 6%, that agriculture had priority in getting fuel (diesel) under sanctions, that the peasants did get the money for the wheat through an exchange of goods in treasury bills, that the Government hadn't promised gold for the wheat but that the National Bank had promised gold for money from the sale of wheat, that the recent cash payment for grapes and tobacco could not be the reason for the shocks on the black market.

While Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) deputies tried to belittle the peasants' protest, presenting it as the opposition's set up, Djonovic said acquiescently that the demands of those farmers he had talked to, were to a great extent justified, and this seems to have referred to a tolerant view of individual wheat exports and the farmers' fuel smuggling.

The peasant protest came about because they hadn't been paid for their products on time, while the state had increased taxes and started to threaten with enforced payment. The National Peasants' Party (NSS) condemned enforced tax payment in early February: "Milosevic's state is resorting to medieval taxes in order to skin the peasants, even though it still hasn't paid for the wheat and sunflower seed it has taken".

According to research of the voting body, the peasants have been one of the SPS voting mainstays and occasionally the party's propaganda weapon (as against former Yugoslav PM Ante Markovic) and this is why the SPS showed a certain degree of concern that the opposition was "scratching about in its back yard" and defended the Government most persistently over the peasant issue.

Participants in the protest shouted "Down with the Government" -this is the reason that such rallies are held, and "Thieves" and "Red Bandits" in front of the Assembly, with the grumbling of more moderate participants.

There was a strong police cordon in front of the Assembly, and the opposition took the opportunity of accusing the authorities that they were intimidating those who were feeding them. The Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) walked out of the Assembly briefly in protest the next day, but the gesture failed because SPO leader Vuk Draskovic hadn't been informed that the police had withdrawn in the meantime, after a protest by a small group of Dafiment Bank account holders.

The organizers appealed without much reason to the participants' sense of dignity and good manners, cautioning them not to break something and see that no one was hurt. A sixty-year-old shouted back: "The peasants made these beauties!", referring to Belgrade's buildings, and not, as some journalists thought, to the uninterested young girls basking in the spring sunshine.