Counter-Revolution is a Long Way Off

Apart from breaking the habit of ruling (which seems to be going rather slowly) and growing accustomed to the street, being the opposition now (the learning process has just begun), the socialists obviously also have to start getting used to modesty, cut off phone lines and coping  in an environment in which Bracika Kertes and directors who pay all expenses with a single phone call in name of higher national goals no longer exist.

No matter how many of them were out on the streets of Belgrade that evening (they say twenty thousand, experienced reporters claim two thousand at most), history will note that the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and Yugoslav United Left (JUL) took to the streets for the first time as the opposition when the high EU official Javier Solana, also known by the nickname “angel of death”, came to Belgrade. While they were in government, both SPS and JUL members were known to take to the streets only when they were organizing some kind of counter-rally or rallies which they usually called in a rather peculiar way – rallies of support against something. Now with Solana they’ve lost their street chastity as the opposition and demonstrated that their “first steps” in street protests aren’t bad, especially for beginners.

They demanded that the new government arrest Solana and send him to jail, they claimed that the new government had become an accomplice to NATO’s bombardment of FRY, they blocked traffic in Kneza Milosa street and most often loudly shouted “gang, gang” (albeit, omitting the “red”), or “Serbia has risen”. That evening on the streets of Belgrade one could hear other, similar, remodeled or spruced up slogans taken from the rich street repertoire of the former opposition. The only thing no one screamed was “we’re going to Dedinje”. Namely, the rally was also attended by many of the once renowned government representatives who arrived in Kneza Milosa street from Dedinje. Otherwise, the left faction on the streets of Belgrade was irresistibly reminiscent of Russian communists who protest from time to time on the streets of Moscow, all hoping that suddenly Brezhnyev himself will pop out of a side street and personally reassure them that soon everything will go back to the way it was. That evening the loudest person from the left faction was a certain Chetnik duke who claimed in front of the TV cameras that Serbia has jumped to its feet and predicted that the current “non-people’s regime” could topple by the end of this year. Just as we became accustomed to the revolution, it seems we’re to face a counter-revolution. 

GROPING AROUND: Apparently, that rather widespread belief amongst many of the members of the former government that things could quickly return to the way they were prior to October 5th, followed by Slobodan Milosevic’s uncertain fate and along with the threat that after the political, financial bankruptcy could befall this party as well, are definitely three of the greatest problems which the former ruling left, primary the socialists, has to face today. On the surface it seems as though the socialists have mended the cracks of defeat which they had experienced in the last couple of months – at parliamentary sessions their delegates are hyper active, they no longer look petrified, many of them have returned to their former arrogance and judging by the manner in which they arrive at the sessions (security, cars) and the way they talk, it is difficult to conclude that they haven’t been in government for a few months; the party’s top officials issue statements on a daily basis in which they are attacking the new government for a betrayal of national interests, the arrival of Solana, collaboration with The Hague tribunal, indications of the upcoming arrest of Slobodan Milosevic or the former Radio Television Serbia (RTS) director, Dragoljub Milanovic; Ivica Dacic and Branislav Ivkovic have started appearing before the reporters once a week, while Milosevic is popping into the party headquarters more and more often in the JUBMES bank building; the party is hurriedly preparing itself for an election of new local and municipal leaderships; the socialists are growing accustomed to the street as well… However, Dacic himself admits in front of the reporters that SPS hasn’t found its feet in the best way in this transitional phase to the opposition. One of the top officials of this party however claims that “not finding their feet” isn’t the most appropriate expression which could describe the current situation in SPS. 

“Those who haven’t found their feet are the Democratic Opposition of Serbia’s (DOS) members who never stop criticizing the government even though they are the government” says this socialist. “What one could say about us is that we most resemble a boat which has run aground, corroded on a number of spots and more than ready for full maintenance. Many of our members, including some esteemed officials, truly believe that the people will soon tire of DOS and that our return to government is a question of months, as soon as the people “come to their senses”. And then we will return to the way it was, as though absolutely nothing had happened in the meantime. Our party program was drawn up for a ruling party and belongs in a museum, but hardly anyone is thinking about that now. In a parliament in which DOS has a two-thirds majority we have ambition to push our legal projects through, instead of fixing what can be fixed and slowly becoming accustomed to the fact that in the next four years we have to painstaking prove the advantages of our political option. Step by step. And our chance will come, just notice how quickly these DOS members have jumped into the jeeps, even those who until yesterday were allegedly merely modest students. However, if we are to be convincing one day, we first have to rid ourselves of many of our renown members. That is a fairly difficult process. At the so-called party coordination meetings many of those who are responsible that we are no longer in government still take part. I don’t understand what they’re “coordinating” and who they are “advising”, especially since at the last party congress no one nominated them or voted them into the top party leadership.”    

ICON IN CONFINEMENT: The general maintenance of SPS probably isn’t even possible while Slobodan Milosevic still heads this party. The majority of the socialists have practically been waiting for weeks to see what will happen to the “boss” and they usually respond to every mention of The Hague or an eventual court case here with a thesis that something like that would drag Serbia into a period of political instability with an unforeseeable ending. The party leadership has obviously relayed this story to lower party echelons which any socialist will recount these days – for all that they had thus far achieved, especially the speed by which FRY was recognized as a new UN member, many DOS leaders have (naturally, according to SPS criteria) already “earned” multi-year long prison sentences which is why they should keep in mind that no rule is everlasting. In any case, the recent protests over the arrival of Javier Solana in Belgrade could be interpreted as a rehearsal of taking to the streets in case Milosevic finds himself in jail one day. And Milosevic in jail (domestic or in The Hague, whichever) would once again become some kind of icon or martyr for the socialists who was sacrificed by the “will of the international strongmen and domestic traitors”. At the same time, while defending Milosevic with the chants “We’re guarding you, Sloba”, SPS without him at the party helm stands a chance of surviving maintenance, of freeing itself of the compromised people and policies and, eventually united with the other left parties, could one day truly become a serious opposition and constructive left alternative to the existing government. There is usually work for such in periods of transition. Anyway, the newspapers have noted these days that the leaders of the left non-parliamentary parties seem to be contemplating how to stand united in future. Zoran Lilic (SSDP Serbian Social Democratic Party), Milorad Vucelic (DSP Semocratic Socialists Party), Aleksandar Vulin (PDL Party of Democratic Left) and Mihajlo Markovic (for now only former SPS member) allegedly met these days, probably convinced that over time their “coordination” could become more significant than the one in SPS, which apparently Sainovic and Suvakovic are still attending. At the end, SPS members might secretly thank Vladan Batic, Dusan Mihajlovic and the authorized ministries one day for enabling them to change the party top since they didn’t have enough strength to execute this on their own.   

The socialists are worrying about the state of their party strongbox no less than about the fate of Slobodan Milosevic. Those in the know claim that the deficit has reached some 200 million dinars. The debt appeared in the time when no one made any distinction between the state and party strongbox in the SPS, while they still believed that the final bill would never arrive. Six months ago no one could assume that one day RTS, for example, would demand that the socialist pay for all they had spent on the pre-election messages at the time of the election campaign. Or that anyone from Politika daily would ever dream of asking for money because SPS activists and pensioners could pick up these newspapers free of charge at the newsstands for months. Now it turns out that nothing was free, i.e. that this only applied while Hadzi Antic was treating. They should now pay around 65 million dinars for the “free” reading of Politika. As a state party in a party state, it seems SPS hadn’t paid any telephone bills for years either, due to which telephone lines have been cut in many of the party municipal organizations. What could soon follow is a serious cut of the party machine. And the worst is yet to come. Until the beginning of June, the inventory of SPS party property should be completed, after which a confiscation of a large chunk of that property and its return to the state will ensue, as foreseen by the new Law on Financing Political Parties. When it is known that SPS had at a certain time preempted the entire property of the former Communist League and SSRN (Socialist Alliance of Workers, disformed in 1990) the expected loss, expressed primarily in real estate and exclusive office space, could be measured in millions of Deutsch marks.

Apart from breaking the habit of ruling (which seems to be going rather slowly) and growing accustomed to the street, being the opposition now (the learning process has just begun), the socialists obviously also have to start getting used to modesty, cut off phone lines and coping  in an environment in which Bracika Kertes and directors who pay all expenses with a single phone call in name of higher national goals no longer exist. Anyway, one of the definitions of politics says that it is a job in which, while in government, you usually spend other people’s money. Once you join the opposition, you mostly spend your own, or what you scrape together.

ELECTIONS

In the next few weeks, the socialists will elect new local and municipal leaderships. Only a year ago at the same elections held prior to their regular party congress, a function on the municipal level was exclusively reached with the signature of the then party general secretary Gorica Gajevic. Those who failed to receive Gajevic’s signature then kept vainly calling upon the support of the party base. This time elections within an opposition party are of little interest to anyone, but some sort of "fire” could be expected in Belgrade. According to certain information, the people from the “coordination” meetings would like to push through Bogoljub Bjelic, the former mayor of Pancevo and current president of the municipal organization of Stari Grad, to the position of first socialist of Belgrade. However, it is  questionable how Ivica Dacic rates that idea who, according to everything, intends to keep his position as president of Belgrade’s SPS and seems to have the support of a significant part of the membership. Prior to the recently held extraordinary SPS congress, it was often hinted that Dacic could become the sole party vice-president to whom Slobodan Milosevic could shortly afterwards transfer party leadership. According to some claims, the “boss”, prior to the congress, changed his mind and surrounded himself with a few vice-presidents until further notice.