Under the Thumb

Desperate people pressed against each other on bus and tram stops were trying in vain to get transport into the direction of the city center. The few buses that were in the streets on that morning were either removed due to a break-down or on their way to the garage, while taxi drivers who were inundated by an avalanche of customers stopped taking calls. The day was unusually cold for September, which made bad things go worse for the people of Belgrade, while the stink of garbage that littered the streets was spreading around them.

If the city authorities are to believed, the entire chaos was caused by a handful of members of the Independent (state) unions of the City Public Transport, who, by calling a strike of unlimited duration, blocked all the exits at the garages "Zemun", "Kosmaj" and "Centrala." At the same time, someone caused damage to four vehicles at the tram depot, so that the remaining ones could not leave. Thus, only 364 buses and trolley-buses out of the 970 planned appeared in the streets on that day. Due to the excessive overload they began to break down at a fast pace, so that it was ordered that they return to the garages. At the main garbage depot at the city in Vinca, some twenty workers (allegedly armed), headed by the President of his union Momir Jaranovic, placed heavy construction machinery in front of the entrance and then disabled the engines. All in all, it turns out that Belgrade was thrown on its knees by a group of about one hundred organised and well placed people. The city fathers were proving that the strike was illegal, since, according to the law, the union was obliged to assure the functionability of seventy percent of public transportation so they asked the police for help. They were told that the workers of the Ministry of Interior Affairs were not entitled to intervene in "the interior of the objects", i.e. the depot. They refused to intervene in Vinca offering the same explanation. At one point, the Yugoslav Army was asked to send its buses, as it did in a similar situation last autumn. The Army replied that it will provide the buses, but only if it receives a request to that effect by the Federal Government.

Belgrade Mayor Zoran Djindjic addressed the public accusing the left coalition of being behind the strike. "This is a quite conscious and deliberate sabotage against Belgrade. They have tried to incite the citizens to desire a return of the firm fist of JUL and SPS," Djindjic said at a press conference. The accusations were supported by the fact that since the "Zajedno" Coalition took control over the public services, the payment of salaries was behind by a month, whereas now is nine months late, and that the handing-out of coupons to the socially-affected workers has been organised. Momir Jaranovic was not troubled by these accusations. "I am a member of SPS, but this strike is strictly social in nature," he said, and then turned on Djindjic, whom he accused of executing terror and of wishing to hang all those who are not members of his party at the Terazije Square.

Things got additionally complicated the next day. The crowds at the bus stops disappeared, since the people gave up on waiting in vain. Everybody tried to handle the situation the best they could, so that nearly all main thorough-ways in the city were clogged by an excessive number of private cars. The morning negotiations between the city authorities and the strikes failed once again, since Jaranovic first refused to go over to the City Assembly to meet Djindjic. Eventually, he went only to announce that he was leaving the talks. The Government showed mercy and asked the Army and the Interior Ministry to dispatch the buses. Some 29 vehicles (twenty from the Yugoslav Army and nine from the Interior Ministry) appeared. This is not an impressive number, if one remembers an impressive contingent of buses that the police showed to the citizens of Belgrade during the winter protests. There was a change of guard in front of the Vinca depot: a member of the City Government, Goran Vesic (DS) with a group of his men (allegedly armed) removed the heavy machinery from the entrance and dispersed the members of Jaranovic's union. Djindjic threatened to initiate bankruptcy procedures at the Belgrade Public Transport Company, which would cause a mass dismissal of workers, and once again accused SPS of being behind the strike. The Serbian Radical Party, which on all earlier occasions fiercely condemned the strikes of public services, now unambiguously supported Jaranovic and his strikers.

And then in the early evening, a major turn of events took place: the Serbian government, headed by Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic, took charge of the affairs. Representatives of the Independent Unions and Spasoje Krunic, the President of the City Government, were summoned to the talks, but not Zoran Djindjic. It was decided that the union's demands be met, and the strike called be off. "We sat down and reached an agreement," Krunic said in a good mood after the meeting. The next day, public transport in the city was back to normal - if the situation that the citizens of Belgrade face every morning when they go to work can be called normal. It is interesting that on the same day Krunic accused Djindjic's democrats of organising the strike, by saying that "the strike was organised by those parties that are boycotting the elections." One ought to remember that Djindjic and Krunic have not been on speaking terms for several months, and that they fell out when Krunic stated that "Djindjic was planing to cause chaos in the city by a series of strikes in September and thus prevent the holding of the elections." The Mayor said that such claims were absurd, so that he has been communicating with Krunic via a mediator since then. Thus, the gap between SPO and DS deepened in the aftermath of the strike, which reduces the likelihood that the "Zajedno" Coalition may survive at the local level after their leaders fell out.

But, before all, SPS struck a painful blow to those who voted against them in the last elections: they demonstrated how vulnerable Belgrade is, and how helpless the city authorities are if they are not backed up by the state apparatus. Djindjic's predecessor Nebojsa Covic, while he was with SPS, did have that support, so that it was not much of an effort to crush the attempted strike at the Belgrade Public Transport Company last autumn. The message to the citizens of Belgrade is that the keys of the city are in SPS's hands, regardless of who is occupying the building from which the five-point star was ceremoniously removed this spring. No one should be surprised by the fact that it is the ordinary people who suffered most due to this small demonstration of power. If, as many people tend to think, a two-day chaos in Belgrade was only a rehearsal for the final blow to Djindjic - which should take place after the elections- what will then the proper show be like?