Boskovic, a technical science student at the University of Novi Sad, spoke to Militant reporters in an October 18 telephone interview. His comment was typical of the views that a number of youth and working people have expressed since October 5. That's when a general political strike and mass revolt forced Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to resign and concede victory to opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica.

Kostunica was sworn in as Yugoslavia's president October 7 and has been trying to form a new federal government since.

Meanwhile, workers in thousands of factories, hospitals, banks, hotels, transportation centers, and other workplaces have been replacing company directors and other managers hated because of their subservience to the deposed regime.

Boskovic said this process, which started right after Milosevic's resignation, "has only just begun."

One of the latest examples is action by workers in the largest state-owned oil company. The top managers there had initially refused to step down but resigned in mid-October. "Engineers and production workers have now formed a commission of inquiry to look into the practices of the old management," Boskovic said. "If they find any evidence of embezzlement or other pilfering of company resources, the commission will bring charges against those directors and they will be prosecuted."

This is beginning to spread to other industries as many workers seek to hold accountable the former officials for widespread corruption and mismanagement.

Working people detest the gulf in living standards between most of Serbia's citizens and those of the bureaucrats who used their privileged positions to enrich themselves. Millions have also begun to see through the "pro-worker" demagogy and lies of these parasitic layers that wore the mantle of socialism to disguise their bourgeois values and lifestyles.

In an October 12 phone interview, Branislav Canak, president of the trade union federation Nezavisnost (Independence), talked of the central role of workers in the October 5 revolt and the strikes and other street actions that preceded it.

Nezavisnost is the union federation that is independent of control by the former Milosevic regime. It campaigned against the U.S.-NATO bombing last year, and many of its leaders rejected the chauvinist campaign of the regime against Albanians in Kosova.

In addition to joining in the call for the October 5 general strike, Nezavisnost helped organize other walkouts in the first week of October demanding Milosevic step down. "We organized strikes in the copper industry, where Milosevic was securing cash for years before," Canak said.  
 
Workers stop 'diversion' of products
Nezavisnost members also took effective action in the vegetable oil industry. While workers at these factories received very low pay, managers organized in the last decade for most production to be diverted to the black market, where company officials and middlemen made a bundle from exorbitant prices.

As part of the rebellion, workers guards formed in these factories to stop this "diversion" of products, which many expected to intensify as Milosevic cronies began to see the end of their reign.

"From Monday, October 2, although the production was not stopped, our workers guards did not allow a single bottle to go out of the factory," Canak said. "We also organized strikes in the military industry to prevent production of ammunition that could have been used against the protesters."

Even the union federation that had ties to the Milosevic regime joined the call for him to step down days before his downfall.

"For the first time since I can remember, all trade unions seem to be doing what they are supposed to do--defend the workers," said Branislav Cale, a mathematics student at the University of Belgrade, in an October 17 telephone interview.

Canak said that in his personal view it's too late for the leadership of the former pro-government trade union federation to become a legitimate part of a transformed labor movement. "There are massive disaffiliations from that federation and thousands of new members are joining Nezavisnost."  
 
Kostunica sets deal with Socialist Party
In other actions, students have organized repeated protests in Belgrade and other cities demanding the former regime's law regulating university affairs be repealed. "We are not there yet, but that law will be history soon," Branislav Cale said. That legislation did away with all university autonomy and gave absolute power of hiring, firing, budget allocation, and other college policies to government-appointed rectors.

Meanwhile, Kostunica and the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), the 18-party coalition that backed him in the presidential elections, are making deals with the former ruling Socialist Party of Serbia about a transition in government. While Kostunica won the federal presidency and DOS has a majority in the federal parliament, Milosevic's Socialist Party still controls the parliament of Serbia. Montenegro and Serbia are the two republics of the current Yugoslavia.

On October 16, elections for the Serbian legislature were set for December 23, nearly a year ahead of schedule. At the same time, the Socialist Party will keep the office of prime minister of Serbia, with the constraint that decisions at that level can be made by consensus with two deputy prime ministers--one from Kostunica's Democratic Party and the other from the Serbian Renewal Movement.

Milosevic's Socialist Party also agreed to share Serbia's ministries of police, information, justice, and finance among three appointees with the main opposition parties.

In his first visit to Montenegro October 17, Kostunica also tried to convince the government of Milo Djukanovic in that republic to join his federal coalition regime. Djukanovic declined, however, reiterating demands for a looser Yugoslav federation and more autonomy for Montenegro, including for its armed forces. Djukanovic boycotted the Yugoslav presidential elections. Only the Socialist Party of Montenegro, the main opposition party in that republic, took part, thus winning all seats in the federal parliament allotted to Montenegro.

Kostunica had angered the Djukanovic administration when he earlier invited the SP deputies from Montenegro to join his governmental coalition in formation.

In a display of his Serb nationalism, Kostunica accepted the invitation by chauvinist Bosnian Serb leaders to go to Bosnia next month for the reburial of a Bosnian Serb poet. The Bosnian government protested the move, saying it showed a lack of sensitivity. Milosevic backers waged a three-year war in Bosnia with the goal of "ethnically cleansing" part of it from Croats, Muslims, and other non-Serb nationalities and annexing it to a "Greater Serbia" in order to maximize land and resources under their control to sustain their parasitic way of living.

This gave Washington and other imperialist powers a golden opportunity to intervene militarily. Bosnia is today partitioned and under the control of imperialist armies under NATO's command.  
 
Imperialists press for 'market reforms'
Imperialist powers, especially in the European Union (EU), have praised the new regime in Belgrade, announced the lifting of EU sanctions against Yugoslavia, and promised up to $2 billion in aid as long as Kostunica carries out his promised "pro-democracy" changes and market reforms. These are code words for integrating Yugoslavia more into the capitalist world and preparing the way for the central aim of these capitalist powers, which is to overthrow the workers state in Yugoslavia.

To do so, however, Washington and its imperialist allies in Europe will have to confront more directly the working class of Yugoslavia, which has opened up greater political space through its actions in the last two weeks and has gained self-confidence.

"[Kostunica's] economic program is seriously neo-liberal and I think, if nothing else, that would put workers and Nezavisnost in a confrontational position against him sooner or later," said Branislav Canak. "We will warn him first and then we will start behaving as unions are supposed to behave when their basic interests are in danger."

Others made similar points. During earlier protests for democratic rights in 1996 and 1997, which were dominated by students and professional layers, "we had become accustomed to 'saloon' demonstrations," said Branislav Cale. "But now we had our own 'October revolution,'" he added, making a parallel--in a semi-joking, semi-serious way--between the recent uprising in Serbia and the October 1917 Russian revolution led by the Bolsheviks.

"It is the power of workers in action that all the politicians are afraid of," Cale stated.

Bojan Boskovic answered continued allegations by the remaining supporters of the former Milosevic regime in Yugoslavia and other fellow travelers around the world that Kostunica's electoral victory and subsequent street actions and strikes were "a CIA plot."

"This is ridiculous," he said. "This bloodless revolution was organized by the people, not DOS. In Novi Sad where I live, the opposition parties continued to talk about peaceful protests and holding on for another day. It was only when factory workers and farmers came to Belgrade from throughout Serbia that things changed. And remember, Milosevic and [former Croatian president Franjo] Tudjman were responsible for the deadly wars that broke up our country, and the U.S. and Europe backed them along that way. Now the politicians know that if something goes wrong with Kostunica, we'll take to the streets again the new way."

Argiris Malapanis is a meat packer in Miami.
 
 
'Militant' reporting team going to Yugoslavia
An international team of worker-correspondents for the Militant is heading for Yugoslavia. They will interview workers, students, and others who were involved in the general political strike and mass street actions that forced Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic out of power, and who are now seeking to use their newly won political space to fight for their social and democratic rights.

Contributions to finance this reporting trip are needed now. They can be made to the Militant/Perspectiva Mundial Fund; checks can be made out to the Militant (see page 4 article).
 
 
Related article:
Workers 'crisis committees' defend state property  
 
 
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