Serbia: the revolution has outgrown its naïve phase Since the collapse of the canopy that killed 16 people last November, Serbia has seen massive mobilisations, including the largest in the country’s history on 15 March. They have continued down to the present yet still no justice has been had for the victims. Patience has run out. Instead of justice, the regime has met the masses with continuous violence that has added to the bubbling anger in society. Back in January, members of the ruling party, the SNS, emerged from their party offices and broke the jaw of a female student. Other students attempted to enforce restraint by cordoning the offices to prevent violence from escalating. Since then, the culprits in that attack have been pardoned by Vučić. And we’ve seen more attacks by thugs and car ramming attacks on students. Still, throughout it all, the official stance of the students was that the violence of the Vučić regime should be met with restraint and dignity. But now things have reached their limits. Fatigue had been setting in without justice being achieved, and many began to feel that the students did not have a way forward. The blockades of the university faculties were slowly falling apart. It had become clear that the students’ attempts to peacefully achieve justice were ineffective. It was in this context that, on the national Vidovdan holiday, 28 June, the students gave the green light for the masses to use any form of civil disobedience. Until this point, only the restraint of the students themselves, whose authority had provided the leadership of the movement, has held the masses back. In a speech, the students have now given the “green light” to the masses not to hold back any longer in the face of a regime that clearly will not refrain from using violence.
https://marxist.com/serbia-the-revolution-has-outgrown-its-naive-phase.htmThe Alternative: Zarah Sultana interview Zarah Sultana is among Britain’s most prominent socialist leaders. Born in Birmingham in 1993, she became politically active in the student movement and later in the upsurge of Corbynism: serving on the national executive of Young Labour, working as a community organiser for the party and eventually running for parliament, where she now represents Coventry South. Her electi
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