Dejan Sretenovic on Thu, 08 Apr 1999 20:26:00 +0200


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Syndicate: what to do?


Dear Syndicalists,

Thank you for your attention. First of all, I think that you should meet
in Budapest with or without us. There are some other topics to discuss
except the war in Yugoslavia as Heert pointed out. Since women are still
allowed to leave the country, you should invite Darka and Katarina from
Rex and Branka from Novi Sad to participate. Bojana and Zoran from
Apsolutno are already in Budapest. Male persons could contribute through
email.

Concerning B92, you should address to Veran Matic and ask him what kind
of support they need at the moment. I have just expressed my personal
thoughts about certain initiatives, but I am not a B92 employee.
Therefore, someone from REX or B92 should come to Budapest for that
reason too.

About the future of "other Serbia". Well, happy times are behind us, but
the future is still uncertain. B92 does not exist any more and the
destiny of NGOs, including Fund for an Open Society and SCCA, is still
under the question. You have all heard that NATO prepares itself for the
ground attack on Kosovo. If it takes place, and I don't see any
political mechanism which could prevent it, it will turn into a
massacre. What's the goal of a ground invasion? Just to conquer Kosovo
and to allow refugees to return? To give Kosovo full independence? To
occupy Yugoslavia and turn it into a NATO protectorate? Is Milosevic
going to stay in power? I doubt they have intentions to overthrow him
(remember Iraq). I highly appreciate the analysis by Zizek and Benson,
but they cannot give us a clue to predict the future. The economy of
this country is already ruined and political pluralism suspended. How it
will look like after the war? Which media, NGOs and individuals will
survive the war and what will happen to them after? What about post-war
trauma? Poverty? Cultural scene? Too many questions without answers. A
lot of people from the NGO scene, intellectuals and artists plan to
leave the country forever after the war. Most of the people here don't
feel in a shape even to think about the future. We can build different
strategies, but are they going to be useful after the war? I cannot give
any prognosis even to myself and therefore I cannot give you any idea
what's the best thing to do. I keep on working on some projects but is
there going to be any possibility to realize them?

Please, try to understand that disaster takes place around us each day.
We have no fear, but one cannot avoid the pressure caused by constant
air raids, news, rumors, political propaganda, shortages, destruction of
the country, humanitarian catastrophe, etc. We are experiencing the
politics of destruction at work and I truly hope that we'll draw certain
conclusions from it, regardless the price we have to pay as individuals
and a society as well.

Dejan Sretenovic

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