At Field D and three other open pits in this area, some 7,500 coal miners produce 26 million tons of lignite per year, enough to generate more than half of Serbia's electricity.

The region takes its name from the Kolubara river. Driving south in the surrounding valley toward the vast pits, we could see one thermoelectric power plant and a huge steel mill. These factories, mines, and related industrial facilities in the Kolubara complex employ 17,500 workers.

On September 29, the miners here put down their tools, occupied the pits, and declared what turned out to be a nine-day walkout. Their main demand: that Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic respect popular will expressed in the September 24 elections and resign.

The miners' strike inspired similar job actions by industrial workers throughout the region. The movement that mushroomed in solidarity with the strikers helped the miners face down attempts by the police to break the pit takeovers and contributed to the decision by the Yugoslav army top officers not to intervene.

In the month since the October 5 toppling of the hated bureaucratic Milosevic regime, the miners have remained in the vanguard of struggles by working people throughout Yugoslavia to expand the new political space they have won--fighting to replace hated managers who were cronies of the ousted government, to improve working conditions and living standards, and to protect in practice the gains of nationalized property.  
 
'The mines were never supposed to stop'
"The Kolubara mines are a huge industry that was never supposed to stop," said Ruza Todorovic. "That's why our strike was central to the fall of Milosevic." A dispatcher at the Field D control center, Todorovic spoke to Militant reporters at the mine October 26. Sumadja, the broader region of central Serbia that includes Kolubara, is dominated by industrial workers and farmers. It had until then been considered a bedrock of support by the regime in Belgrade.

Todorovic and most of the two dozen miners interviewed here seemed to have a sense of their social weight and the importance of their actions in the changes taking place in all spheres of life in this Balkan country over the last month.

At the same time, many of the miners and other workers interviewed here were sober about the challenges they face. Some expressed a growing realization that the new regime may in many ways prove not to be very different from its predecessor, and that the struggle for better working and living conditions will be long.

"Rapidly deteriorating working conditions at the mines over the last five years and the general repressive situation in the country, as a result of the policies of Milosevic, were the main factors, developing over time, that led to the strike," said Rado Jovanovic. A member of the Kolubara miners strike committee, Jovanovic spoke to Militant reporters in an October 24 interview at the Belgrade office of the Trade Union of Electric Power Workers of Serbia, which organizes all coal miners. "The presidential election simply provided the spark."

Milosevic initially refused to recognize outright victory for his opponent, Vojislav Kostunica, candidate of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), and called a second round of voting for October 8. The leadership of DOS, a coalition of 18 parties, rejected the decision, citing fraud, and called for actions demanding the president's resignation.  
 
A political strike
"At 6:30 p.m. on September 29, a call went out from the union hall over the phone and all the machines were turned off," said Miodrag Rankovic, president of the miners strike committee. Also serving as president of the Kolubara miners union local, Rankovic spoke to Militant reporters October 26 in an interview at the union hall in Berosevac.

According to Rankovic, Jovanovic, and several of the workers, the miners occupied the pits and other facilities from the first moment of the walkout. At least one miner stood guard by each piece of equipment during their regular shift, while other workers gathered mainly at two designated assembly points in the area. The first day of the strike, 50-100 people other than miners came to the pit entrances to show their support, we were told.

The second day, when management threatened to bring the police into the mines, supporters outside the pits doubled. A local radio station in the nearby town of Lazarevac began broadcasting union appeals for more help.

The third day of the strike, the Yugoslav army chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, arrived on the scene with an ultimatum to the miners to return to their jobs.

Several miners and others joked about the opening comment the general reportedly made in his meeting with the strike committee. Pavkovic said something like, "I happened to be in the area and heard there was a problem here. Let's settle this quickly and get back to work."

The miners said this was laughable because the army chief was accompanied by the general manager of Serbia's electric company, the firm's entire national board, and two or three top officers of the special forces of the police.

Milena Stanjevic, who works in Field D's telecommunications center, said the general soon saw nearly 7,000 miners and supporters fill a soccer field at the footsteps of the small hill where the general and the strike committee met. "Our attitude was unambiguous. We would not back down, no matter what."

Stanjevic, Radisav Jovanovic, who supervises the second shift in the control room, and several miners said the firsthand view Pavkovic got of workers' determination to press for Milosevic's ouster played a role in the army leadership's decision not to send the tanks to Kolubara or later to Belgrade. Others reported widespread resistance within the army ranks--made up largely of conscripted youth from working-class families--to obeying any orders to move against the protesters.

The miners' union, workers reported, agreed to management's demand that company representatives be allowed to address one of the solidarity rallies where thousands from the area brought food for the strike pantry and exchanged experiences. In one such speech, the main point of a manager who addressed thousands reportedly was: "This is a political strike, it has nothing to do with trade unionism. You should go back to work."

Workers replied, "So what?" said miner Zoran Sulejmanovic. "This is a political strike. You and Milosevic tried to take away our democratic right to vote and that is a worker's issue. Get lost."

By the morning of October 2, thousands continued to swell the lines of supporters outside the pits. They included large numbers of steelworkers and others who stayed out with the miners. The only exception, we were told, was the thermoelectric plant workers who struck only for two days and then returned to the job so electricity would not go down in the area and beyond. Workers interviewed thought this was a correct judgment--it helped them draw more support from throughout the region as far north as Belgrade and as far south as Cacak. That day, the public prosecutor issued indictments against all 11 members of the miners strike committee for "sabotage" and for being "enemies of the state."

The government threatened to bring in scabs from the Trepca mines in Kosova, union president Rankovic said. The large underground mineral mines in Trepca have been occupied since last year by NATO troops, which have prevented miners--Albanians, Serbs, and other nationalities--from returning to the job. That effort fell flat, however. The miners union in Kosova got word of what the Kolubara workers were doing and issued a call against scabbing, Rankovic said.

The last attempt to break the strike took place October 4 when 800 officers from the special police forces moved in to take over the mines. The cops, dressed in riot gear, beat their batons on their shields. Until that point, the police presence had been heavy in the area, but "there were no bloody incidents, mainly the psychological pressure," Rankovic said.

In a tactical move to defuse tension and buy time, the strikers decided to let police enter one of the four mines. "But we fixed the equipment," said Radivoji Urosevic, who operated the machines digging the coal seam at Field D for 10 years and is now off work on disability and is on the union staff. He accompanied Militant reporters around Field D for half a day. "Miners pulled the plug off the electrical system in a way that would have been impossible for outsiders to start the machines."

In a dramatic turn of events, however, thousands of people began to arrive on the scene, chanting "He's gone!" referring to Milosevic, singing, and pushing the police blockades away. Before midday on October 4, between 20,000 and 50,000 workers, farmers, and others had arrived, many in miles-long convoys of cars.

"That was a turning point," Rado Jovanovic said. "I knew then that 'the man' is gone."

The police soon gave up. The cop units remained in town for another day but were then forced to leave as news of the huge October 5 outpouring in Belgrade spread.

Keeping the mines shut and under tight control allowed several busloads of miners to join the half-million-strong demonstration in Belgrade October 5. They traveled along with a large contingent from Cacak, several workers said, and were among the first to enter the building of Radio and Television Serbia (RTS). One of the miners who was on the front lines of those who took over the national parliament building that day, Branko Ilic, said, "What we started in Kolubara, ordinary people have finished here in Belgrade."

The next day Milosevic resigned and conceded victory to Kostunica.  
 
'The power is here'
During a tour of one of the pits of the Field D mine, the miner driving the jeep that took us around pointed to the top of the 43-meter-high machine digging the coal seam. "You see that flag up there?" he asked. "We took it from the parliament in Belgrade. That just shows that the power is here. It has always been here, only now it's clearer." The other miners laughed.

It was a telling political moment, as worker after worker described his determination to press for protecting and extending the degree of control they have begun to exert on the job since October 5.

Immediately after the ouster of Milosevic, the strike committee met and drew up new demands by the miners, who kept the pits shut for a few more days. The first was the removal of the entire management board of the Kolubara complex and the energy ministry officials who tried to orchestrate the assault on the strike. The miners restarted production October 8, only after that demand was met.

The workers we interviewed, however, said they did not know who the new managers were or how they have been appointed. According to union officials and the local press, the new management board is composed of leaders of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia.

The other main demands of the miners included signing a contract that would codify improvements in wages and working conditions and immediate payment of several weeks of back wages. Rado Jovanovic said miners have not had a contract for three years and had been fruitlessly negotiating a collective agreement with officials tied to the Milosevic regime for two years.

A number of workers described the difficult conditions they face on the job.

"We lack the special large light bulbs and other spare parts," said Zoran Bantelic, an electrician who is part of the crew of six to eight operating the coal harvester on the night shift. After dusk, the open pit is almost completely dark. Only 10 percent of the lighting works. Miners often have to walk to work for three miles in pitch black because of lack of flashlights. Uniforms provided by the company are especially necessary in the subzero winter weather, but are supposed to last for four years. Some equipment sits rusting on coal heaps with no parts for repairs, because economic sanctions by Washington and other imperialist powers have made such imports prohibitively expensive over the last decade. Mechanics have to rely on swapping parts from one piece of equipment to another, and on pure ingenuity, to keep the 33-foot digging wheels churning on the mammoth machines, most of which were purchased from east or west Germany. The equipment is old, the newest bought in 1985, and potentially dangerous, workers said. Because of accidents and black lung disease, some 1,300 of the 7,500 miners are now on disability.

According to the miners interviewed, union officials, and the local press, miners earn between 150 and 220 deutsche marks per month (US$1 =2.29 DM), down from an average of 500 DM five years ago. Minimum expenses for food and utilities such as electricity and telephone for a family of three was around 200 DM per month last year. Transportation, clothing, and other necessities can bring monthly bills up to 1,500 DM.

How do people make ends meet? "Growing food in the garden, getting help from relatives with some land or selling things on the side," said Radivoji Urosevic. "Besides, we pay no rent and have health coverage." Most working people in Yugoslavia own their apartments or houses and pay no rent, one of the gains of the 1945 Yugoslav revolution.

The economic crisis, which affects not only the miners but working people throughout this country, is the result of the world capitalist economic crisis combined with the anti-working-class methods of planning and management by the previous bureaucratic regimes. It has also been exacerbated to intolerable levels because of the military assaults and economic war by the imperialist powers.

"In the last 10 years Milosevic took us decades back," said miner Tejic Zivota. "He left people without money, and destroyed our factories and industry as a whole--yes, the whole economy."  
 
Opposition to NATO air raids
Zivota operated the coal harvesters for more than a decade. He can no longer do that job since he suffered serious injuries in Belgrade's war with Croatia in the early 1990s.

"We were forced to go there and fight," Zivota said. "I escaped the draft from the Yugoslav army twice, but they got me in the end. It was Milosevic, and others like him in the government, who broke up Yugoslavia. He was the one who introduced nationalism, which brought us back 50 years. His nationalism was imposed on us."

Zivota's views on this question, and his equally strong opposition to the U.S.-NATO bombings, were shared by most workers interviewed.

In his comments, Zivota was referring to the 1945 revolution, brought to victory by the Partisans, led by the Communist Party whose central leader was Josip Broz (Tito). The Partisans united workers and peasants of all nationalities behind the struggle against the German imperialist occupation of Yugoslavia during World War II. Practicing a program that called for equality and respect of all nationalities and religious beliefs, and that opposed chauvinism and domination of one nation by another, was a major factor in the victory of the antifascist movement.

Working people then turned the victory against the Nazis into a socialist revolution--abolishing capitalist property relations and establishing a workers state, even though it was deformed at birth because of domination by Tito's Stalinist misleadership.

At the opening of the 1990s, as the League of Yugoslav Communists broke apart, Milosevic, former president of Croatia Franjo Tudjman, and others in the top echelons of the bureaucratic caste that succeeded Tito's rule began to use nationalism to justify assaults on miners and other working people. They launched wars that led to the breakup of the Yugoslav federation in order to gain control of land and economic resources to maximize their parasitic existence and bourgeois way of life--giving Washington and other imperialist powers a golden opportunity to intervene militarily.

Zivota, Stojan Aksentijvic, and other miners were opposed both to the wars Milosevic initiated and to the military assaults by NATO.

"Milosevic did not get bombed--we did," Zivota said. "In fact the bombings made him stronger for a while." The government used that assault to crack down on democratic rights further, he said.

Zivota and the other miners pointed to the bombings of the Kolubara thermoelectric plant and a similar power plant in Obrenovac, 20 miles north of here, last year. "That was a crime against us, the workers," Zivota said.

To address the problems the Kolubara miners confront, DOS leaders have proposed foreign investments in the mines, including the possibility of selling them off to capitalists from abroad. This is consistent with their program of "market reforms" and taking steps to integrate Yugoslavia further into the capitalist market.  
 
Debate on 'market reforms'
This perspective is backed by top officers of the Trade Union of Electric Workers of Serbia. During an October 24 interview at the offices of this union in Belgrade, Dragan Veric, one of its national officers, said he was worried that workers may get the wrong idea from their recent actions, especially the swift replacement of former managers, that we can move "to a new kind of socialism." That's not possible, he emphasized. "We need a transition to a 'Western-type' democracy with a capitalism that's not exploitative."

Most of the miners interviewed, however, backed the idea of capital investment to improve conditions and productivity, but opposed privatization. "The state must keep at least majority control, if investors come in," Aksentijvic said.

Albanian and Serb miners in Kosova have also opposed not only the takeover of the Trepca mines there by NATO troops but also attempts to privatize those mines.

Among these workers, however, there were a variety of views on the overall political program of the DOS and how to go about fighting to improve working and living conditions.

"I have faith in them," Aksentijvic said, referring to the Kostunica regime in Belgrade. Others did not identify with the DOS politically.

"Even though the whole world supports Kostunica, we see no improvement now or in the near future," said Milina Pantelic who works in the mine canteen. "We may have to go out again if we don't get a contract soon."

Gordana Jevremovic said she was among the few miners who had voted for Milosevic in the elections, for which other workers teased her amicably, but she was one of the militants in the strike. "I've been a socialist but I have always been with the workers, unlike Milosevic, I see now," she said.  
 
'We are watching you'
Regardless of views on other matters, these workers were united on one point. They are determined to take strike action again to press their demands and seek greater control over conditions on the job. As of the end of October, their demands for back pay and a decent contract had not been met yet.

Miner Jubisalav Perisic pointed to a slogan coined during last month's revolt that is now scrawled on several pieces of equipment: "We are watching you." That's now directed at the new regime, he said.

Catharina Tirsén is a member of the Metalworkers union in Stockholm, Sweden. Argiris Malapanis is a meat packer in Miami. George Skoric, a student in Belgrade, and Bobbis Misailidis, an airport worker in Athens, Greece, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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