At the same time as the international press makes a big tuss on the normalisation of relations between the Yugoslav Government and the Vatican and when and "tolerance" of the Yugoslav regime as an example, a complete silence is maintained regarding repression against left-wing students The "tolerance" of the bureaucracy, in fact, only extends to its critics from the right. For students, who are fighting for the institution of a genuine socialism of workers' control, against social inequality and the bureaucratic control over the political and economic life of the country, a process of repression has started, which constantly gets worse (bureaucratic replacing of the editorial board of the Belgrade students' newspaper, Student, judicial proceedings, imprisonings). The Yugoslav student movement like the Polish and the Czechoslovak has played an even more important political role than in the capitalist countries.
In a society where the Communist Party has a monopoly on political life, the student movement is the enly force to have put forward an anti-bureaucratic political programme and to have fought or these slogans.
The following demands were advanced by the Belgrade students in June 1968: - A reduction of social inequality: - The drawing up of a plan to abolish unemployment; - Extension of workers' control to society as a whole; - The democratisation of public life; - A halt to the breaking up of social property into private property corresponding to the real wishes of the Yugoslav working class.
They prove-let it be said in passing the impossibility for the tendencies which talk of the restoration of capitalism being already effected, of finding an echo in the vanguard of the Yugoslav working class.
The bureaucracy must at all costs prevent the radical wing of the students goring up we working is.
June 1968, Tito, doubtless with the French events in mind, defused the movement by promising to satisfy all the student demands. Today having solved nothing, the bureaucracy embarks on repression. In the crisis which confronts Yugoslavia today and in the face of the growing mobilisation of the working class in defence of its social conquests (more than 2,000 strikes in two years), the bureaucracy must cut off all means of expression to the left-wing students.
It falls on us to make known the fight that our comrades are leading for the institution of a true socialist democracy in Yugoslavia.
CHRONOLOGY 1966: 23 December: violent spontaneous demonstrations against the Vietnam war were the first event which showed the Belgrade students the difference between the professed policy of the Yugoslav Government and its actual practice; the demonstrations were condemned by the League of Communists, which started proceed ings against the "ringleaders" in the Faculty of Philosophy, as a result of which Alexander Kron, they were not Party members (which is in con Assistant Professor of Philosophy, was barred from the Party and Jadran Ferlugai, history teacher, and Alia Hodjie, sociology student, given a serious warning. 1967:
An open conflict broke out between the autho rities and an important group of intellectuals (essentially teachers in the Philosophy Faculty). The latter were accused of having criticised the market economy and demanding authentic WOLKETS COHEO The authorities bring political pressure to bear on the intellectuals involved, the students professors and students under attack 1967-68:
Students of the Philosophy Faculty organise various actions: against the fascist regime in Greece; in support of the German extra-Parliamentary opposition; on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the NLF. The authorities don't react. 1968 March: At the time of the events in Poland and Czechoslovakia, the Philosophy Faculty students lead a solidarity action with the Professors and students of Warsaw, write petitions and hold meetings in the course of which the situation in Poland is analysed and compared to the Yugoslav situation. Inspired by the Czechoslovakian events, the students advance demands for the democratisation of Yugoslavian society. The harshest reaction comes from the leader of the official student organisation with whom the students enter into open conflict for the first time. The militants of the Philosophy Faculty are widely supported by young intellectuals as well as the student press.
The growing unemployment (10%), enormous social inequality (wages scale of 1:40), economic emigration (1 million), the privatisation of collective property, the penetration of foreign capital, the politics of peaceful coexistence and indiscriminate trade with the whole world, the limits on workers control as well as the expressive character of the measures taken as a result of demonstrations of discontent, make a wave of dissatisfaction explode which culminates in violent spontaneous demonstrations of several thousand students.
June: All the faculties in Belgrade are occupied and a general strike of the students and teachers of the University of Belgrade follows. For a week the strikers hold meetings in permanent session and demand real workers' control and the democratisation of Yugoslavian political life.
The principal demands are the following: abolition of growing unemployment, of economic emigration, of social inequalities, of the privileges of state officials, of corruption, etc; then demands for democratisation of political life especially in the Party, for the realisation of workers' control (which is official policy) at every level, etc.
The strike ends after an address to the nation by Marshal Tito on June 8th.
August: The Party Committee by an administrative decision and without consulting the base, dissolves the Philosophy and Sociology groups of the Philosophy Faculty.
The Belgrade students' paper Student after three seizures and a final prohibition, maintains the orientation of the June Programme of Action. Violent and pernicious attacks follow in the evening press without any reasoning, as well as in the Party paper Komunist.
In the Philosophy Faculty a group of militants propose a new Programme of Action to the Assembly of the student organisation (SSFF) affirming that students have no other interests than "society as a whole". They demand that the SSFF organisation cease being a sterile syndicalist organisation to become a political organisation. After the proposal the Party representative accuses the advocates of this proposal of trying to create a new political opposition party. 1969 Spring: In the March/April elections, the students of the Philosophy Faculty proposed candidates for the Parliament of the Republic as well as for the Federation. A rigid indirect selection prevented them from officially being candidates, the reasons given among others that tradiction to the Yugoslav constitution) and that they had been involved in the June '68 events After the dissolution of the students' organi sation of the Philosophy Faculty (SSFF), the students elected a new SSFF Committee in which the militants of June '68 found themselves again. The new SSFF Committee, supported by the students, delays the institution of the censorship of Student and proposes to the Assembly of University Students to organise meetings on June 3rd to commemorate the anniversary of the Programme of Action of becoming politicised in the course of the defence June '68. Every faculty approved of this proposal as well as that of electina a group charged with analvsing the extent to which the demands would serve as the starting point for the meetings. In this group are likewise elected militants of the Faculty of Philosophy.
The Party Committee at the University does not approve of the decision and tries to impede the organisation of the meetings by every possi ble means. Result: from June 2nd all convoked meetings are cancelled, the Philosophy Faculty meeting included.
The elected group puts forward as an analysis of the realisation of the June '68 Programme of Action a document (called 3,000 Words); the University student committee rejects this document with the help of the Party and State bureaucrats who take part in the meeting of the committee of May 28th.
June: The beginning of attacks in the Press and by all possible means against the authors of 3,000 Words and against the editorial board of Student, the latter presented as the most dangerous enemies of socialism.
The text of 3,000 Words contains analysis of the Yugoslav situation and its principal conclusion is that nothing has been done to realise the students' demands of June '68. It notes for example that social inequalities grow wider and wider (from 1:40 to 1:50), that the enormous privileges of the bureaucracy remain intact, that there exists no single system of workers' control, which is far from being realised in practice, that no measures have been taken against the destruction of collective property or against corruption, that unemployment and economic migration increase and that no serious efforts are made to solve these problems, that workers control at the level of society as a whole does not exist even at an embryonic stage, that the number of workers in Parliament is very low (about 1%), that the process of democratisation of political life has been stopped, especially in the Party, that the democratisation of the means of communication has not been started (on the contrary, the cases of banning of student newspapers are numerous enough), that culture becomes more and more commercialised, that no attempt has been made to reduce the number of illiterates (20 to 25%) and finally •that there is a resurgence of chauvinism inspired precisely by leaders who exploit the national sentiments of the people with a view to the struggle for power.
At the same time, the Philosophy Faculty students appear in front of a court as a measure of intimidation, charged falsely with having shouted "enemy" slogans during the Festival of Documentary Films in Belgrade (in reality they had shouted revolutionary slogans). Involved were Bube Rakic, philosophy student and President of the SSFF Committee, Ljilja Jovicic, sociology student, both members of the same committee, and Boza Borjan, philosophy student.