On 28 January eight dissident Yugoslar professors in the Philosophy Faculty of Belgrade University were dismissed from their posts.
Their case has for some time been something of an issue both inside and outside Yugoslavia, highlighting among other things the shift in the Yugoslav regime a way from a relatively liberal one to a more repressive bureaucratic system. This latest event appears to suggest that the bureaucracy has won a decisive round in its Jong battle with its left critics. But has the battle been won as well?
An open conflict between the Serbian leadership of the Yugosiay League of Communists and the Philcopay Faculty of the University of Belgrade has, with varying intensity. been going on since about 1968. In the last instance, this has been an as pect of a struggle about the moral and political leadership of the country, which both divides the bureaucracy Itself and has involved intellectualsnotably those around the radical journal Proxis and the student vanguard. The latter has maintained considerable political activity throughout right of its militants received jail sentences of ten months cach in 1974 DIFFICULTIES The economic and political difficulties of the last decade, partly related to the troubles in the capitalist world ecosomy and partly to bureau Cent, have drastic political climate, it preferred to move against the dissident intellectuals in a The students in the phili aculties uf the three main universiies have for some time declared their intention to strike in the event of the profeisons" dismissal.
There is also the important question of the attitude of the mass of working people. Although as yet unwilling to question the credentials of the leadership, they have nevertheless shown little enthusiasm for persecution of the left, particularly as these students and intellectuals have given political and theoretical expression to many of their own aspirations and grievances.
LAWS CHANGED
It is notable in this respect that the Republican Government of Serbia has been forced to change its own laws in order to get rid of the professofs. Until 1974 the University of Belgrade, like other basic social and economic units, was run on the basis of "self-management" by an elected University Council. Unable to oust the eight professors simply by the sheer weight of its authority, the Serbian Government had to change the law to curtail the principle of self-manapement', so that half of the Council members would be government appBut even this measure did not succeed: carly last autumn the University investigation of the case against the eight rejected the charges against them as false and unfounded. In the end, late last year, the law had to be changed again to allow the Government to temporarily dissoive the self-managing hody and directly suspend the eight professors.
This move is unprecedented in recent Yugoslav history, The irony is group working underground in Czechoslovakia. One of the proudest boasts of the present Czechoslovak has managed to win over the opportunist and revisionists' by purely political means. about the Soviet tanks which brought this government to power, thare remains a fot of evidence indicating the use of 'non-political. means.
Czechoslovak learers try to their power by the use In addition avidence provided by prisonmants, the apparatus has othar neans to repress and literally hunt down people who are 'undesirable. ABOVE: Tito (right) greets Soviet leader Brezhnev-but thair polinical relationship is reaily not so simple. BELOW: Tito opens 1972 conference of League of Communists.
management. Now it has been forced openly to go against them.
trated the tensions that exist between the Federal Centre, represented by President Tito, and the Republican bia. If the old Serbian leaders-realav League of Commu- moved by Tito in 1972were silent of its author in their refusal to use openly repress te measures, the new leaders- themo identify selves until now unwilling to move. cas of self- tried to demonstrate their loyalty in Ivan Dejmal, a militant revolutionary socialist arrested in 1970 after the more in prison. Below we print an appeal on his behalf produced by a socialist regime is thet it of the victims of the present regime who is in danger of liquidation.
He has been the object of repression If we forget since the beginning of 1970. arrested and member of the youth revolutionary movement just before he was due to finish his studies et the University retain (faculty of agriculturel. these For to the hard in custody and im. along with his friend Peter Unl very n, in the face of the physical an psychological torture conducted by the secret police. wave when he refused to participati • the staged farce of a court trial not testifying repression by the authorities, leading to any action.
The case of the eight has also illusdies.
- in particular, that of Ser He was accused of being a months he was detained brave and refused to giv He was equally words, causing great commotion in the media since the most drastic measures were announced without ever This has, among other things, pro duced a considerable political ferment among the students, which has resulted not only in a firm show of solidarity with the dissideat intelletuals, but has also flowered in independent political initiatives (see the "Resolution of the Students' Unions of the Faculties of Philosophy of Bel grade, Ljubljana and Zagreb' in Critique No. 3*), The present victory may indeed bear bitter fruit for the Serbian leaders, because there is considerable doubt as to whether they will be able to muster sufficient popular suppart to survive Tito when he The paradoxical attitude of the publication of Trotsky's Repolution Betrayed while at the same time denouncing the professors for allegedly being in contact with Trotskyist groups abroad, stems from its own inbionsi.
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hand.
witnesses.
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sive He was classifiod as politically un desirable and therefore had to be CONTIS AVAIL Therefare the army was in fact an extansion of concern.
The limited possibilities, the per sistent threats to his individual treedom. his continous chadowing by the secret ternal tensions. First of all, there are the potentially powerful nationalist tendencies-to be found both inside and outside the burcaucracy -that represent perbaps the single greatest threat to the integrity of the country.
The radical critics of the bureaucracy associated with the journal Pravis, and the student militunts, have consistently defended the unity of Yugosiavia in theory and practico against nationalist attacks. They have therefore been significant allies of those forces within the leadership trying to check powerful nationalist and parocitial interests. Then there is the constant danger uf pro-Soviet tendencles: any Stuliaist-type cracking down on liberalisation and democracy inevitably strengthens the pro-Soviet factions. The recent discovery of an underground pro-Soviet party which even managed to bold a congress in the town of Bari last year only bighlights the danger of a pro-Soviet fifth But the eight professors have now been suspended, and Prair is being starved of funds so that it may have to close down. While there are undoubted lintitations in the scope, content and aims of the intellectuals opposition, the fact nevertheless reamus that in their stand against the bureaucracy they have made a major contribution to the creation of a vanguard out of which a future revolu tionary leadership will be boen. The international workers movement must theretore stand unhesitatingly alongside them in their hour of need *Critique is a Marxist journal of East European studies which can be ordered from RED BOOKS. 97 Caledonian Road, Lon don N.li, ptice S0p plus 10p p&p. police, all led to his attempted suicide in the summer of 1974 However, the leaders and their assis tants were not satisfied by all this He was treated in a moled peychiatrie ward of an army hospital in Pragu Tagain very similar to prison condiAfter soleral weeks he was returned to his division.
It did not take the secret police aven a week to produca evidence leading to further derantion. Ivan Dejmal was sent to Ruzyna prison charged with slandering the Soviet other fraternal countries and their representatives; and with under mining the morale of the jarmy, and The maximum sentence under thes lawe is three years. There is no doubt that the sentence will be carried out. In Caschoslovakia the serdict and sentence are decided before The regime has the resources 1o provide the requisite mumber of There it every reason to be wor ried over ivan Delmar's fate. It is pt so much a matter of the langel of santence as the psychological pressure exorted by Husak's secrat Without the solidarity, support and an appeal by the world's progres and democratic public, it is cartain That there is littie chance of saving ivan Deimals life.
He would not be the first Czecho slovak political prisoner in the 1970s to voluntarily choose death, be it in prison or after returning home. The fact that he was followed persis when he was unable to undertake any political and professiona aclivity highlights the reasons for our He has had a terrible time sineady, waiting to learn of his fate and the means that the regime will use to carry out their sentence.
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Yugoslav bureaucracy, not least shown by its willingness to allow the