Pumping it Up: Serbian Student Protests Three Decades Apart

• In Event: Yugoslav (Re)Visions II: Bullies Flying into Oblivion: Art, Activism, and Direct Democracy in the Student Protests in Serbia

Abstract

This paper deals with a comparative analysis of the practices and goals of two student protests in Serbia, which are three decades apart: The protests organized in response to the election rigging in 1996 by the regime of Slobodan Milošević, and the ongoing protests in the wake of the tragedy at the train station in Novi Sad in November 2024. Trough a comparative analysis of non-violent practices, performances, and actions in both protests, the paper analyzes the apparently non-political demands of the current protests, and their practices of solidarity, and direct democracy, in comparison to the protests three decades ago, organized with a clear political goal of regime change. The paper especially focuses on the media involved in the protest organization, representation, or mobilization of citizens, but also those used in the actions of government suppression of protests. The paper will consider why the protests from 30 years ago did not succeed, but instead made an entire generation to daily witness its own defeat. In constrast, although the current, 4-month long uphill battle with a profoundly corrupt regime has not yet ended, and its results are unknown, it has already achieved their main goal: psychological liberation of the people who, used to repression and humiliations, stopped believing that change was even possible. Whatever politics steps into the space created by these protests, it cannot be the same as the one that led to them.

Author

• Tatjana Aleksic, U of Michigan