IN BELGRADE, OIL JUMPED FROM 15 TO 51 DINARS
"Democracy" will not fill all pocketsIn Belgrade, the price of one liter of oil had jumped from 15 to 51 dinars, price of bread from 6 to 14 and of sugar from 6 to 45. "Democratic prices", mock the consumers, already disappointed. In Kragujevac, trade unionists of Zastava are beaten and persecuted. At the same time, the Western financial press celebrates "good business in sight." And finally, one US senator already threatens Kostunica that NATO will expand to Slovenia. What are the connections between these four facts?
Michel Collon
Our Western media do not speak about Yugoslavia anymore. Still, important things are happening there. And revealing...
Before, the government gave subsidizes for the production of basic food products. So farmers and merchants still had enough gain, but consumers could buy in spite of embargo. Nobody was dying of hunger.
But the DOS opposition had announced, in its "G 17 plus" program, that "the new government will immediately suspend all the subsidies, with no regret or hesitation, because it will be difficult to apply this measure later". Indeed, it didn't take them long at all!
Los Angeles Times of Oct. 15 writes: "When Kostunica supporters forced out most managers in state-owned shops and factories and put their own people in charge, that system of controls collapsed and prices immediately shot up. New directors are moving quickly to make their plants more profitable."
Problem: consumers are dissatisfied and elections are in two months. So, director of G 17, Mladjan Dinkic, is accusing... the Serbian government, still run by SPS socialists, of "wanting to create chaos." But this argument can’t hold water: the new government is not functioning precisely because of the chaos created by DOS, its street-violence and the "crisis committees" which forcibly took over the control of all institutions.
We will be able to export to Yugoslavia
Therefore we see already that the "prosperity" announced in election promises will not fill all pockets. But whose will it fill? This is answered in the Italian financial supplement of International Herald Tribune of Oct. 10 (Italy is Yugoslav economic partner No. 2):
"Perspectives seem good and Italian export goods - shoes, textile, food products will be the first to profit from the occasion. But privatization in Yugoslavia might also attract the interest of foreign investors. Lot of public sectors - including energy and airports - can get licenses soon and their re-structuring might open space for new foreign capital.
What does it mean to "open space"? On the spot, at the moment of putsch, a friend of mine, Radmila, warned me: "Actually, our electricity worked really well. Foreign companies would want to put its hands on it. But to invest, they would demand substantial profits, which means huge rate increases. People do not understand that this G17 program will ruin them!"
About the export of Italian shoes...Having forgotten my moccasin's back home, I had to buy a new pair in Belgrade: 1,100 dinars. One third the cost of the Italian shoes I usually buy. Maybe somewhat less fashionable, but comfortable and well built.
What will happen under the new regime? With their financial power, western multinationals will take the control over Yugoslav factories, closing a big part of them, and Western products will flood over the local market. Europe would be able to get rid of its food-stocks, at unbeatable prices, because of European Union subsidies (so there! in this case, it's good to subsidize, isn't it?). "Mad cows" and other genetically altered food-products can feed the Serbs then, they're too numerous anyway, right?
But West will throw in some aid, they say..."Aid"? Germany wants absolutely to re-open the Danube, so it will provide funds. Gifts? No, loans. To keep Yugoslavia "cooperative" while extorting payments like numerous other countries forced by spiral of debts to always grant greater concessions. In short, Yugoslavia will pay for the bombing damages! Scandalous.
And what will this cleaned Danube serve for? First of all, to flood the country with German merchandise, which will eliminate local products from the market.
In short, instead of promised prosperity, one New York Times editorial (Oct. 15) predicts that "at worst Yugoslavia's economy could follow Russia's path, to corruption and decline".
Why are syndicate activists beaten?
In Kragujevac, car factory Zastava trade unionists have been kidnapped and beaten by ex-opposition gangs. People responsible for truck department were forced to resign. The progressive Italian daily Il Manifesto (which rather supported Kostunica) was appalled:
"Union members have been as independent from Milosevic as from the opposition. They relayed humanitarian operations of Italian unions. But opposition union activists (trained in Rumania by U.S. experts) are pressuring the workers, threatening them with massive layoffs. 'We fought for the workers, without engaging in politics. This is our crime!' one of them concluded.
All those facts are linked together. To push through this IMF policy - high prices, shutdowns, layoffs and gifts to multinationals, all possibility of union or leftist resistance - must be eliminated. In Belgrade, one office of the New Communist Party was burned down by rightist militia.
And if all this is not enough, listen to the threats of American senator Joe Biden: " If Mr. Kostunica thinks he will be able to continue with an aggressive nationalist Serbian politics, only under milder appearance, then we'll have to talk him out of it. In this case, we should concentrate our ex-Yugoslavia politics on preparing a more democratic and more prosperous Slovenia, for the next NATO enlargement."
NATO, again? So there, and they kept telling us that Milosevic was the only problem over there! And what if the problem was the resistance of Serbian people in general, to economic imperialism and military interventions of the West? Kostunica - or some other soon - being put in charge to bring those people up to date.
In Yugoslavia the game is far from being over. A lot will depend on the capacity of workers to resist. Some leftist alternative is indispensable, and resistance is being prepared. We'll return to this question.
Michel Collon is an author of two books on the Balkan crisis and a resolute anti-war and anti-NATO activist
Anti-Imperialist League -- www.ptb.be/international/indexfr.htmlposted 14 Oct 2000
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