The History of Financial Violence and The Directly Democratic Response

In the twenty years since the nationalist takeover of state power in Croatia, the idea of collective good, beyond its mandatory and narrow identification with the nation, has  been absent from public discourse. In those rare moments when it appeared on the margins of public life, evoking the economic aspects of the collective, the state and media were successful in containing it, narrowing it down, rephrasing it ideologically, and preventing it from spreading in undesired forms [1]. For the previous forty five years, Croatian citizens have enjoyed the benefits of free education and health care. Even the most efficient ideological engine, the liberal parliamentary capitalist one, could not erase that over night. As less and less remains in the carcasses of industries to be ripped apart and stolen from the people (in Yugoslavian socialism, they were formally owned by the people, not the state, see Branko Horvat), the capitalist vultures turned to one of the remaining mainstays of the 45-year socialist project: free education and health.  Their problem this time was that they found a formidable opponent. (more…)

PAUL STUBBS
Institute of Economics Zagreb

Future generations may well look to the students’ blockades in various faculties throughout Croatia in the spring of 2009 demanding free higher education for all as a turning point in social policy in this country. If the challenge to market fundamentalism, unfettered individualism, and clientelistic elitism was not enough, these survivors of a
fact-ridden education system demonstrated a creativity, spontaneity, and tactical good sense which was as welcome as it was unexpected. This leaderless tribe of net warriors has transformed, for ever, the public sphere with two clear messages: that education and other services should not be commodities but should, rather, contribute to freedom and justice for all; and secondly, no less important, that nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of the right to dialogue, debate and discussion. The demand for free higher education for all is explicitly based on a view of education as a public good contributing to social solidarity. The students’ emphasis on transparency and on rational evidence-based policy making also offers an explicit challenge to ‘business as usual’ in Croatian politics. Perhaps more than anything else, the actions of the students in the Zagreb Philosophy Faculty provide the most hope. Their election of new leaders daily, the spirit of openness in plenary sessions, and the transparency in various blogs chronicling every move both carefully and consistently, offers a real alternative to political chicanery and medialed trvialisation. As others have written more eloquently than I can: »Studenti, hvala, vi ste naša nada«.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Šlaus, I. (2009). Studenti, hvala, vi ste naša nada. Accessed at http://www.vrijemeje.com/%C2%ABstudenti-hvala-vi-ste-nasa-nada%C2%BB

Article originally published in the Review of Social Policy, Vol 16, No 2.

Zagreb, 24. Mai: Nach einem langen Plenum entschieden sich die BesetzerInnen des Instituts an der Universität Zagreb aufgrund schwindender Unterstützung innerhalb der Studierendenschaft, die Räumlichkeiten den universitären Institutionen wieder zurück zu geben und den Streik vorerst zu beenden.

34 Tage hielten die GenossInnen durch – dann ließen die Kräfte nach.
Die Bewegung für freie Bildung in Kroatien ist noch relativ jung. Seit ca. zwei Jahren kämpfen die Studierenden in Zagreb und anderen kroatischen Universitätsstädten für eine Bildung frei von Kommerzialisierung und Studiengebühren. Dabei ist der Kampf gegen Studiengebühren schon älter: Studiengebühren sind schon lange fester Bestandteil vieler Fakultäten um ihre durch Unterfinanzierung entstandenen Haushaltslöcher zu stopfen. Doch bislang waren Studiengebühren nur partiell eingeführt: (more…)

Mi hanno chiesto di scrivere un testo sui Croati e su un loro simbolo. Non avevo nessun’idea di che cosa scrivere, non c’è niente di veramente originale, niente di cui vale la pena scrivere. Non ho scritto niente anche se quello era un compito obligattorio. Adesso, anche se forse è troppo tardi per parlarne, credo che ne vale la pena.

Croazia e i suoi studenti.

Mi ha fatto pensare questa lotta studentesca. Chi fa la storia davvero? Come sarà alla fine raccontata la nostra storia contemporanea? (more…)