Green awareness

State administration should be a service for citizens that works in their interest. When the state administration turns into a service of the executive power, political parties and their members and starts working in their interest, to the detriment of the citizens, the civil state collapses. When, in addition, the political opposition is barren, and most of the media is put under political control, the citizens have no choice but to suffer and remain silent, or to organize themselves and resist the state that has turned against them. Civil resistance, creating awareness of the expediency of civil association for the sake of fighting against an alienated state is the nightmare of every totalitarian system, or a system with totalitarian features.

The "Ecological Uprising" held last Saturday in Belgrade on the plateau in front of the National Assembly was a textbook example of such a thematic association of citizens against a privatized state that does not act in the public interest - against the cutting of forests, air and river pollution. Dozens of environmental organizations joined together, and many thousands of citizens responded to their call. It was the largest public, organized protest rally in recent times.

It was interesting how much the speakers, and there were too many of them, tried to emphasize that, God forbid, it was not about some kind of political manifestation, so that they would not be accidentally linked to Djilas and his ilk, but that, well, it's only about our health and that of our children. And it was also a political demonstrative exercise - the threat that mass association will strengthen the local fight against all kinds of toxic projects and current environmental poisoning, whether it is mini-hydroelectric power plants on Stara planina, the "Jadar" project of Rio Tinto in Loznica , smelters in Bor or ironworks in Smederevo, a forest in Košutnjak, some park that should be destroyed in Vračar for the sake of the interests of some Essene entrepreneur, or in Pančev... The authorities could not help but see a political danger for themselves in this gathering.

Because it's one thing when a few tens of some locals rebel against the work of local kabadahs, cutting down local birches, or waste water that a facility discharges into a village stream, and it's another thing when behind them is the entire infrastructure of related organizations, wider and longer than the one available to the majority opposition parties; when they can count on several thousand organized activists throughout Serbia, ready to engage in some local battle for the sake of common interests.

For the representatives of this Serbian government, as it is, the green awareness of people is not such a problem, which, admittedly, could hit them in the pocket if it prevents the implementation of lucrative jobs for the rulers that, well, slightly poison the environment; a much bigger problem for the Essenes government is to make the citizens aware that by joining forces they can resist its arbitrariness.

What if all those who live on thirty thousand dinars a month come to their senses and unite against those who convince them that Serbia is the European champion in economic growth and living standards? If workers understand that solidarity with vulnerable members of the same caste is also a struggle for their own rights? If the citizens of Novi Sad unite against "Novi Sad on the water" when the people of Belgrade have already failed on the issue of the Belgrade waterfront...?

The team gathered around Aleksandar Vučić recognized this danger, so Brnabić immediately said something about irresponsible, deranged people who did not respect epidemiological measures, and on pinks the "Ecological Rebellion" was linked to Šolak & Đilas, foreign intelligence agencies... This government is aware that if once it subsides, as, at least temporarily, in the case of the MHE on Stara planina, it can encourage people to join forces to dangerous proportions for the sake of civil resistance. Awareness of the possibility and potential power of civil association has been systematically erased in Serbia for decades.

The large response of citizens to the call of green civic organizations, which almost panickedly disassociate themselves from political parties, is not particularly favorably viewed by the opposition either. The question arises for its leaders, how many people would respond to the invitation of individual, or even semi-united opposition parties to a public protest?