Besides national symbols and anti-Milosevic slogans many workers proudly waved their union flags. Word on the street was that the contingents of workers from other cities were coming to the capital in order to finish up what they started a few days earlier when they shut down most of the factories in Serbia and a general strike was announced. Residents were on their windows and balconies saluting the incoming vehicles.

Around this time huge groups of people started to arrive on foot from various suburbs and neighborhoods of Belgrade. When I arrived downtown, around noon, city streets were already jam-packed and the atmosphere was electrified. People were passing out food and drinks from their trunks. They said they were ready to camp in the streets as long as it took and that they would not go home until "the man" resigned. A few came armed with bars and clubs.

It was clear to many that Milosevic wasn't ready to give up power easily, at least not without a fight. Some people ran through with red eyes reporting that the police were being "easy on the tear gas trigger," and that a few incidents between the police and demonstrators had already taken place in various locations around the city.

The main gathering spot organized by the opposition leaders was in front of the state parliament. Although mass protests on the streets of Belgrade are not a new sight, the author of these lines had never witnessed such a huge and heterogeneous crowd. Students, teachers, workers from different unions all marched separately through the city and met in front of the parliament. Every square was covered with people and you could see heavy trucks, buses, and even bulldozers parked all over, serving as roadblocks.

"It's now or never" was the phrase often repeated among the excited masses. "We're going all the way!" was the general sentiment that afternoon.

An official estimate of the number of people present downtown has not been given here, but more than half a million were definitely there.  
 
Decisive role of the working class
Actually, the decisive events began not in Belgrade, but miles away at the Kolubara coal-mining complex.

Protest rallies around the country and Belgrade had started as soon as the dubious official results of the September 24 elections were announced. People flowed into the squares in all the larger cities across the country demanding justice and calling for all-out civil disobedience.

At first, this seemed deja vu in many ways. In late 1996, massive street protests were sparked when the Milosevic establishment annulled the results of local elections that had been won by the opposition, and eventually the regime was forced to acknowledge the results. But the mobilizations were limited largely to certain social layers. Middle-class professionals and the student movement were traditionally at the core of these protests.

Small businesses, cinemas, theaters, schools, and universities responded to the opposition calls and went on strike immediately, but industry to a large extent remained untouched by these movements. This was partly due to the openly elitist and anti- working class politics of the middle-class opposition leaders, as well as the manipulation of the unions dominated by Milosevic's Socialist Party through the union bureaucracy. As a result, a big wave of strikes was not seen in the last 10 years of protests against the regime.

This time things went further--much further. The wave of strikes went deeper than anyone could have imagined. By the first few days of October, less than 100 factories were operating across the country. It started with public transport and garbage collectors, and culminated when the country's most important coal mines in the Kolubara district were shut down.

The miners strike threatened to leave half of the country without electricity. Police squads surrounded the plant immediately and the government launched a tremendous propaganda campaign against them. The establishment threatened the miners with layoffs. Despite these pressures the workers resisted, refused to back down, and demanded that the opposition leaders address them personally.

On the evening of Wednesday, October 4, a bus with one opposition spokesperson managed to break through the police roadblock and go inside the plant. By Thursday morning, miners were on their way to Belgrade, determined to put the final nail in Milosevic's coffin.

The Kolubara miners are just the best-known example, but a similar pattern applied to industrial workers all over Serbia. This was evident at the October 5 mobilizations in the streets of Belgrade, which were filled with heavy machinery and workers.

It's hard to explain everything that was happening that chaotic afternoon in Belgrade. To a casual observer it might appear that the people had "gone mad," and many people will tell you that they witnessed "anarchy." But as Leon Trotsky, the Bolshevik revolutionary leader, noticed a long time ago, "Revolution appears to a conservative as collective madness only because it raises the normal insanity of social contradictions to the highest possible tension."

It is exactly thanks to this "insane majority" that history keeps moving along. It is exactly because of this half a million "lunatics" that we got rid of the parasitic regime that was on our backs for decades.

I'll try to describe what I saw--or what could be seen through the tear gas clouds.  
 
Revolt erupts in Belgrade
By 2:00 p.m. hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the area around the state parliament. Opposition leaders held speeches. They announced they were giving Milosevic a 60-minute deadline to resign.

It would be a big mistake, however, to believe that the organizers had absolute influence or control over the crowd. Everything that happened that day grew directly out of the general atmosphere, and the initiative came from the people. The opposition leaders were taken by surprise and were hesitant. The masses made them go further, probably, than they imagined.

Around 3:00 p.m. the crowd ran out of patience. Surprisingly, the police roadblock at the front of the parliament was not that massive, and this sight encouraged the crowd to charge up the main steps. After a short fight with the cops the steps of parliament were won.

This symbolic act released cries of support and cheering from the masses. People climbed the steps and started to celebrate, vigorously waving their flags and chanting. But this turned out to be a trap. All of a sudden, tear gas bombs started to fall onto the steps and into the crowd from all directions. Police evidently had agent provocateurs in the crowd and strategically placed cops on the rooftops of local buildings showering the crowd with tear gas.

At that moment all hell broke loose. So much tear gas had been released that a huge cloud of smoke could be seen rising from the other side of the city. People were crying and coughing all over Belgrade. The crowd was chased away from the steps.

People were outraged. Shouts of "They are trying to suffocate us all!" could be heard. A second wave of demonstrators charged. The crowd broke into a dozen smaller groups and surrounded the parliament and spilled across the area. In face of this, the police scattered and abandoned their positions and vehicles. Nothing could stop the sea of people. Police cars were set on fire and now nothing stood between the protesters and the legislature.

You could see individuals climbing and entering the parliament building through smashed windows. Meanwhile, others armed themselves with police equipment that they seized and with bats and shields made out of the parliament's furniture. Pointing to the next target nearby, many chanted "RTS, RTS!" referring to the Radio and Television of Serbia, the much-hated national television building controlled by Milosevic. All along, the rain of smoke bombs was falling over the scene.

From this point on, people organized themselves and took over several crucial buildings. Most "private" TV stations and newspapers that were also controlled by the regime were freed without much trouble. Local apparatchiks and "program directors" began to "abandon ship" like rats before the flood. Many of them got caught in front of these buildings and roughed up. "Get out! Get out!" the crowd demanded. Much of the staff inside these buildings refused to take orders from the managers and joined the protesters.

The national television building remained guarded by police forces only briefly. The police then scattered. Many of them took off their uniforms and joined the masses, while others desperately tried to stop the crowd with tear gas and, in some cases, rubber bullets. With the help of a bulldozer the entrance was pushed open, and soon the whole television building was in flames.

The parliament was also set on fire. People kept leaving the building with "souvenirs." Many took turns sitting on the "minister sofas," which they placed in the streets, and enjoyed themselves reading classified documents and papers with the parliamentary seal.

"Rioting" and" looting" was reported all over the city. The targets, however, were obviously not picked for material gain by the protesters. Only particular shops were looted. Every target had some kind of symbolic significance. For example, an exclusive perfume shop in the center of the city was looted because it is believed that it belongs to Milosevic's son, hated for his corruption and brutality. The parliament represented political oppression. The national TV building symbolized the media propaganda and lies of the regime. Of course, the local police station was not spared either. Unknown quantities of weapons were taken from this station before it was set on fire.  
 
Celebration
By the evening, most of the battles were already won. Cries of "Belgrade is ours!" could be heard from thousands of throats. Anger slowly transformed into happiness and rioting into celebration.

People gathered once again from all sides in front of the liberated parliament. Two trucks carrying huge speakers made their way through the crowd, which was singing and dancing to the music. The already legendary bulldozer was exhibited for the people, while fire extinguishing vehicles were let through to water the burning parliament.

People began to debate and organize among themselves. Some took things out of the parliament and TV buildings and continued to destroy what was left of them. Others argued that things should be collected in one place and saved because they were all "our things" and we would need them in the future.

Despite these discussions, no one could relax completely. People did not throw away their "weapons" immediately, since a counterattack by the police and army was expected. A rumor started to circulate that army tanks were already on their way to Belgrade.

Opposition organizers and politicians finally reappeared and began to make speeches to "calm down the masses." Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition presidential candidate, was announced as "the new president of the country" and people greeted him with cheers.  
 
Kostunica seeks to demobilize protesters
Kostunica assured the crowd that it was all over, that there was no need for further fighting, and that the police would not intervene. In the meanwhile, news came that the tanks had stopped and that the army would not go "against its own people."

As I am writing these lines, on Sunday, October 8, the celebration is not over. People are still in the streets beeping their horns and taking pictures by the burned-out parliament. TV channels have begun broadcasting again, but now they are publishing uncensored news and playing formerly blacklisted artists.

Tons of foreign journalists are on the scene. This morning a French reporter asked me to give a statement. She asked me, "What can the European Union do for you now?" "Leave us alone and let us continue what we started yesterday," I answered.

The perplexed journalist thought I had misunderstood her and said she was referring to credits and investment. I began to explain how all of this did not bring any good to the peoples of Eastern Europe or Russia, but she told the cameraman to cut and went along looking for a suitable comment and a victim.

A ceremony was held October 8 honoring the newly formed government. Kostunica, however, is not an unanimously supported political figure in Serbia. He is a founding leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia, one of the petty-bourgeois groups of the opposition. The capitalist media labels him a "moderate nationalist."

I remember Kostunica, however, as a chauvinist who never said a single word against Milosevic's reactionary war crusades and who fetishizes the market economy and private property.

He does not hesitate to say that he is speaking for and addressing "the Serbs" and that he will help us to finally step out of the "communist stone age" and jump on the train with the rest of the "civilized world," referring to the capitalist world.  
 
Imperialist sanctions remain
The imperialist powers, of course, are giving Kostunica their full support. Some have already mentioned that sanctions against Yugoslavia will be lifted, but I doubt they will all be eliminated soon, at least not without a long list of demands delivered straight to Kostunica's office.

The opposition alliance organized a public concert and held speeches October 8. When the presence of the Kolubara miners was mentioned, the crowd gave a big applause. But instead of the miners, the microphone was passed to a local church figure who said a collective prayer.

The Kolubara miners union, however, has issued a proclamation stating that it will reach the people despite the opposition's effort to silence them now that they are deemed "not needed anymore."

The strikes are not over yet. The miners have demanded that the new government dismiss the minister of energy and mining or Belgrade will lose electricity again.

These events indicate that valuable lessons were learned during the last few days. The working class demonstrated its courage and has gained a better sense of its power.
 
 
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Yugoslavia: victory for workers