Shelia Malone and interviewed Serbian activist DRAGOMIR OLUJIC on his recent visit to Britain organised by Workers Aid for Kosova. Dragomir is a member of the Independent Union of Journalists of Serbia. He was an active participant in the 1968 student demos against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and one of the founders of the Free University, the main opposition organisation in Tito's Yugoslavia. He was arrested 20 times and spent two years in gaol. In the late 1970s he argued for the establishment of independent trade unions. In 1988 he was one of the founders of 'SelfManagement', the first independent non state newspaper in Yugoslavia.
As one of the first members of the Union for Yugoslavia's Democratic Initiative he campaigned against the break-up of Yugoslavia, and against nationalism and the war policy of Milosevic's regime. Over the last ten years he has been active in many antiwar anti nationalist and civic groups in Serbia. Q: Can you say something about the new Kostunica the Milosevic state government? A: You can characterise the situation in Serbia now in media. Today, there's two ways. One view is that that the worst is yet to come! Yugoslavia, bringing about a was found that from 5 he was responsible for the destruction of 500,000. million refugees. In Serbia itself, there are now 700,000 refugees. The Serbian economy is working at only 15 Unemployment stands at 50 survive in Serbia? A: Refugees in Serbia are can only work illegally. They first there was a lot of but nowadays there's nothextreme poverty. If they have for help, but many have So the new government is faced with enormous tasks, its feet, to return Serbia to Serbia. That's very difficult work. For example, $6 billion is needed to renew the economy, and Yugoslavia going to give it to us.
different and the same. The policies are no different from the previous one. It did not Milosevic before, when in nationalism. They used to they would better defend the Kostunica, who is a hardand soft, but ideologically Milosevic.
In my opinion, only the people have changed in Serbia, not the politics, not the regime. For example, during Milosevic's time, there were two pictures of Serbia - one given by media, the other by the alternative independent only one image - everybit stronger, especially Q So what do they October (when Kostunica unite around, other November there was only rid of Milosevic? published in all the media.
against Milosevic. People in radio stations, 5 daily papers, • Q How long can this coalition survive? Firstly, the atmosphere is ple are discussing and talk- lem among ordinary people is decisive - for the first time Every day at 8 o'clock, they the working class has come the prices of basics such as The workers as citizens risen by 200-300 per cent.
Wages have fallen by 50 per but at the same time, as neously occupying their fac- And people connect this tories, seeking to take them This means that there is a This is still going on today, returned at the next elections. Especially since the So the Kostunica governstronger than the central, ment has the support of the and his party are dominant workers they have their own Montenegro does not respect lem, regarding this activity of occupations and self management, is that the inde- This is the other problem pendent unions also do not Q: How can Milosevic Q Are they actually come back? Wouldn't A: If the new government tion, it increases the possichauvinist unions are Because there is no real their leaderships are against, the rank and file support Milosevic or another. tion of workers' rights and gramme being put forward.
interests of the workers will be the main problem of the O: Does the new There is a further problem. control of all aspects of the army, police the elections is a coalition of left to the far right. The left changes as regards police, Kostunica: a new face at the top, but what else has changed? the secret service or the military. The same people are The government? A: No one really knows - it's we don't know about! in Cyprus, Greece and the beginning, about Milosevic destroying Yugoslavia... does the new government also A: Kostunica doesn't talk nevertheless he supports the policy, and supported it durFor the new government it Milosevic waged the wars, Greater Serbia is not possiSo they don't talk about it. Q But this means they will do everything part of the Federation government, like that of Milosevic, especially in relaKosovar Albanians don't won't really do anything about the issue, so they keep Kosova is part of Yugoslavia, UN. But in reality, Kosova is tional community. Q: Do you think Kosova and Montenegro should be independent, If the majority of people want this? A: Together with a lot of people in Yugoslavia, I think that Kosova has a right to self-determination, and the left parties in the coalition support this! And also Montenegro. But there is not a strong wish for it in Montenegro, as there is in Kosova.
For me and for the workers movement in Yugoslavia, it is very important to defend the right of the Albanians to self-determination.
For example, the lead mine in Trepca in Kosova: three times the miners have demonstrated demanding from the international community firstly, to have their jobs back, secondly, their mine back. Many enterprises in Serbia still use products from Trepca. If the mine is returned to the Trepca miners, it would help us in our struggle to have our mines and factories returned to us.
One reason why I've come to Britain is to seek support for this struggle.
In Yugoslavia there are a lot of illusions still about privatisation - they don't have a lot of either knowedge or experience about it, and we need this, which you already have.
The leadership of the unions is for privatisation, but the rank and file workers Also, we need help to renew the links between the unions in Serbia and the unions in Kosova and the former republics. At the beginning of the 1990s we had those ties, but the NATO bombing destroyed them. It had taken us 5 years to build up these links. Now we don't want to wait another 5 years to build them up again. With your help we can do it quicker.
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