Genoa in the Serbian way

On that day, the Embassy of Italy in Birčaninova Street looked abandoned, as it did during the sanctions against the FRY. All vehicles were removed from the parking lot, metal blinds were drawn over the windows, and only one representative of Italian diplomacy was seen, who, having exited through the high metal door, walked away from the building with quick steps without looking at the crowd. Five vans with members of the intervention unit of the MUP were discreetly parked and ready behind a nearby corner, and the embassy itself was secured by twenty ordinary police officers. People saw and heard what was happening in Italy, several media outlets announced the Serbian anti-globalization protest, so police officers and journalists prepared together for the Serbian Genoa.

And only about twenty young people with black five-pointers hanging on their jackets gathered, a few punks and one stray dedi, a proud member of the KPJ - he shouts at the BK journalist threatening her - if he was only ten years younger, he would kill all her bosses in short order. The "Vremena" journalist did not fare better either. There were no banners, no Molotov cocktails and prepared oysters anywhere in sight, only one flag of the CNT anarcho union, celebrated in the Spanish Civil War, which was used for posing in front of the photojournalists. There were twice as many representatives of the so-called seventh force as anti-globalists (Karić Television sent as many as three teams), so the protest was reduced to making statements to the media and explaining who the anarchists are in Serbia and, for God's sake, what are they talking about against globalization.

Growing out of a circle of people who sympathize with left-wing libertarian ideas, the newly created Initiative for anarcho-syndicate counts, as Ratibor Trivunac, one of the activists of that organization, says, about twenty more people, adding to the protest in front of the Italian embassy: "With this rally, we drew the public's attention, primarily thanks to journalists. We wanted to show that we are not hooligans and that there is still international solidarity. People in our country do not understand what globalization is, and we want to point out that taking unfavorable loans will only improve the situation for a short time, and that the generations after that will have a hard time repaying it. Unfortunately, we cannot influence whether Serbia will take those loans.¨

That young left-wing world that gathered in front of the Italian embassy sees itself as the only true left in Serbia and as freedom fighters against all kinds of oppression, whether they come from the state, individuals, powerful multi-national corporations or institutions like the IMF or the WTO. a. Globalization the majority a priori they consider it a negative process in which they only see the desire of large corporations to ¨hold in their fists¨ small underdeveloped countries and expand their market, by uncompromisingly exploiting cheap labor, controlling the authorities in those countries, and ruthlessly sucking out what can be sucked out. They say that they are extremely tolerant, but they emphasize that tolerance does not mean tolerating intolerance.

Another organization was present at the anti-globalization protest, the Initiative for a Democratic Economy, which is not strictly linked to radical left-wing movements, but tries to unite centralists, social democrats, Trotskyists, and communists. It is part of the world ¨Attack¨ organization, insists on non-violent direct action, and specifies its goals in relation to current economic and political events in the country.

¨Capitalist globalization and recipes that have failed in other Eastern European countries are now being applied to Yugoslavia, which is very bad. We cannot prevent it, but we can warn the public about the new Labor Law. That law is insane, because it allows that the employee can be fired at any time, while the court process is organized in advance so that a dispute against the employer cannot be won. It is the shock therapy of the neoliberal economy that shook the whole of Eastern Europe. Minister Đelić is one of the people who are to blame for the biggest economic failures during the creation of the Polish Stock Exchange. It's the Jeffrey Sachs school. Secondly, you should read all the chapters of G 17 related to privatization, because it is a wrong model of privatization that they want to implement here and we want to point out that mistake". - says Andrej Grubačić from the Initiative for a Democratic Economy.

It is an interesting fact that globalization and anti-globalization mutually influence each other, so even the activists of various organizations opposing globalization today also deal with topics that are not necessarily related to local issues. G 17 plus, for example, has long been the subject of attacks by people from the Greek anti-globalization movement. One of the police officers present is walking around, impatiently waiting for the protest to end, then grumbles more to himself: ¨This ridiculous gathering was organized by those from the embassy. It's easy to trick us police officers, I just don't understand how the journalists believed this.¨ A colleague from Public Security, probably inconspicuously dressed in a suit, with a purse under his arm with a Motorola antenna sticking out of it, asks if those anarchists have any publications, organizations, secret plans.

After an hour, everyone dispersed in silence - journalists and policemen in cars, anti-globalists on foot, and all aware of the fact that in the country of Serbia, there is currently no healthy alternative to globalization. Either that or a return to the well-known isolationist policy pursued by the former regime and its satellites.