By Bob Travica
This is the sequel to part 1 of the account of the student protest
in Serbia 2025, which is not finished at the time of writing. While part 1 is a
report, part 2 is a commentary.
Organizational Forms Under Lenses
The protest was led by a flat, complex organization with decision-making hubs. The occupied faculty buildings were used for discussions in plenums (in addition to boarding). The central plenum in Belgrade was seated in the Rectorate building of Belgrade University; it summarized ideas of faculty plenums and made decisions about upcoming actions, which were then relayed back to the faculty plenums and further down to individual protesters. Protesters used Telegram as the main communication system for organizing. While in action, they deployed two-way radio devices similar to those used by the police. The smartphone has been the staple of protesters; they even read speeches on it.
In spite of a deep involvement in critical social events, protesters prevented public insight into the workings of their organization. Key figures have also been unknown since protesters rejected basic principles of political organizing, including leadership. Such secrecy imparted an aura of plotting upon plenums, and it gave rise to important questions: How exactly were decisions made and differences in opinion managed? Where did ideas for goals and actions come from? Were there any external influences that “pumped” the pumping students?
A more comprehensive insight into the financing of the protest is also missing. Who financed the costly signage, food, travel, and various equipment? Some Western media cite grassroots fund-raising via websites, individual donations, and diaspora support; for example, one Serb from San Francisco set up an online platform that raised $73,000 (1). On the other hand, sources close to the government allege that NGOs with ties to foreign actors provided the main funding. Evidence so far on financing the protest is apparently inconclusive.
When students relayed the protest torch on June 28, they implied citizens gathered in a form of local organizing – zbor (assembly). An Assembly is a lawful form of self-management that is subordinated to a Municipality. Scores of Assemblies appear to be active in bigger cities in Serbia during the protest months. My own encounters with Assemblies were not quite pleasant. In the area of Belgrade where I resided, I tried to touch base with a group of neighbors who discussed protests, but with no avail. I saw kids making noise with whistles and horns in the afternoon hours on balconies of residential buildings and streets. And members of some assemblies forcibly limited my free movement, imitating the student protesters.
Several times, I was forced to modify my driving routes because local assemblies blocked main intersections with their bodies, tables, chairs, and political signage. The traffic police always secured the space they used. On one occasion, I asked a policeman whether his job should be to secure free, safe traffic rather than the protesters appropriating streets. The man’s face displayed embarrassment, while his mouth remained shut. I can’t help but wonder if, in the ongoing second violent phase of the protest, the attacks on private property, functionaries, and the police are workings of the assemblies or someone else? What indeed are the relations between assemblies and the municipality in charge, particularly when the legislative body of the latter is controlled by SPP? Is assembly what the law prescribes it to be, or just a convenient label for something else?
Gamers’ Revolution
The student protest/movement in Serbia has been called various names, such as anti-corruption uprising, civic awakening/disobedience, blockaders, terror of the minority, and color revolution. Each label bears a grain of truth as well as some ideological charge. Evidence is missing to allow for affixing any label upon the movement, including the last one cited. For example, it took some time for the revelation that the upheaval by the end of the 1990s was indeed the first color revolution in Serbia, involving a foreign factor. While awaiting more evidence, let me propose yet another label for the student movement – gamers’ revolution.
Protesters belong to Generation Z, born between 1995-2010. Although generation studies are an American discipline and internally focused, electronic technologies facilitated some isomorphism globally. The Serbian Generation Z grew up in Serbia, which came out of splitting the previous, four times larger state of Yugoslavia through the 1990s. Serbia has gone through painful transformations since 2000. Specifically, transitioning toward a capitalist economy was executed haphazardly, under foreign pressures and with abundant malpractice; the process impoverished masses of surplus workforce, and created a minority of nouveau riche. Larger firms disappeared, and the economy took the shape of small and mid-size enterprises. Finding employment and bare survival became tall orders. Essentially, a counter-revolution to the communist revolution decades ago was executed bloodlessly, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, imparting hardship on the mass population, which was apathetically sitting on the fence. However, youngsters may know of or care little for these transition pains and expect to live in a wealthy society, such as those they see on their travels abroad or view on the Internet.
A multi-party parliamentary system surfaced in Serbia in a similar chaotic way. There were about 100 parties at the first elections, and lots of confusion. Later modifications of election regulations provided some fixes, but many things remained half-baked, leaving space for manipulations. Governments lasted two years on average. Worse yet, due to missing checks-and-balances mechanisms and a weak judicial branch of government, politics became the fastest path to amassing wealth as in other Eastern European countries. So, the true goals of political parties (ruling and opposition alike) are likely to be self-interested and monetary – get in power and suck on the corruption pipes. Politics has been criminalized as in historically preceding banana republics.
Foreign developmental aid and large investment projects bypassing regular tenders provide for oversized investment figures and ample slack for officials close to contracting and funds. Another corruption pipe is managed by organized crime, a new, powerful player in the economy and politics. Profits from narco-trafficking bribe power holders and low enforcement. With this backdrop, it’s no wonder that so many individuals from various walks of life pop up on the Serbian political scene, attracted by easy money like bees to honey. In this situation, young people may mistake honest public service for political ambitions; they can also reject the political establishment at large and dream of a world where politics is replaced by some pure technical mind, as the Serbian protesters appear to do.
The old and new Internet-based mass media create a confusing space. It’s polluted with downright ideological content, being eons far from journalism based on professional standards. Foreign powers have their share in the media space and use it to spread directly opposite worldviews. The audience thus feels safe only under the auspices of the select media, thereby reinforcing their beliefs. In effect, social divisions are deepened, as parts of the population live in different perceived realities. The media are likely to baffle the insecure generation Z, which then opts to reject political content in general or to seek refuge in their social media, which also shape perceptions of reality in a particular manner.
The ethical system in Serbia is in shambles. Wealth and greed for material goods have become driving values to be satisfied with no regard for moral scruples. The values of moderation, solidarity, and compassion, which underpinned the ethic of socialism, lost public affirmation. The abundance of imported goods teases consumer desires, while the pocketbooks of many can’t follow these. Olympians of mass entertainment and tycoons show off in luxury, the staple of success. Generation Z can’t be immune to zeitgeist, and so it experiences frustration that Serbian society can’t warrant individual wealth, even with higher education.
Education has been going through significant changes, too. Relevant here is the reduction of social subjects across school levels. I randomly asked young people about branches of government, parliament setup, and responsibilities, executive power; I’ve got consistently unsatisfactory answers. Some understanding of these topics could be expected from people who want to change the world. Instead, self-hypnotizing “Pump it!” replaces sober reasoning about society as if history has reached the end with their generation. They may think of themselves so because they grew up as digital natives, embracing smartphones, computers, social media, and video games. Thus, students may mistake technological savvy, googling, and social media informing for knowledge, and believe that technology and technocrats (experts) alone can change society for the better, as if the social context is a world-building video game.
Tightly-knit social networks of peers can bolster self-confidence and assuredness of Generation Z, which otherwise is stressed, anxious, and feel lonely (2). This applies to Serbian protesters who overlook limitations of their knowledge of social matters, while it actually borders on naiveté. They use political symbolism with little care for the meaning of symbols and consequences. Bloody hands are mixed with signs “Pump it!”, political slogans, and flags of Serbia, Russia, the EU, Ferrari, the Orthodox religion, and others. They complain to EU institutions and talk with whoever wants to meet them, while being blind to political connotations and implications. They spread “pumping” into the parts of Serbia where ethnicities, religions, and national loyalties sit in a delicate balance, while being unaware of history and possible disturbances. Undeterred, students are self-assured in their proves and revolutionary significance, but would have a hard time lining up political actors in Serbia along the left-right political spectrum.
The social context, its consequences on protesters, and their generational characteristics described above suggest that for them, society looks like a video game – a simplex environment in which daring action wins. Insensitivity to the problems their blockades caused to fellow citizens, as well as the effects of their actions on social divisions and the international positioning of Serbia do reaffirm this assumption. Early success in gathering followers and the police's inaction probably strengthened this initial illusion. Protesters attempted to realize some worthy ideals by inappropriate means that fit the artificial milieu of a video game. That’s how Serbia became the cradle of the gamers’ revolution.
Cultural Roots: A Chip Off the Old Block
One thing protesters and supporters can’t understand is that not giving support to their blockading tactic doesn’t necessarily mean supporting the current government. ‘If you aren’t for what we do, you must be for the regime’ – rings among Serbian protesters. This attitude fits sharp social divisions anywhere, but it has a cultural twist in Serbia. This intolerance and exclusivity have roots in a propensity for extremist thinking, which amplifies divisions and nurtures confrontational behavior. Protesters are trapped in this traditional aspect of Serbian culture as much as their parents are.
Students enacted a disrespect for rules as another cultural trait. Serbs consider rules to be a burden in any context – the neighborhood, company, society at large. Common sarcastic wisdom is that rules are made to be broken rather than followed. Protesting students exhibited this by violating ownership rights and civic freedoms with their disruptive actions, while firmly believing in the righteousness of their conduct.
Students are a chip off the old block also with regard to disrespecting hierarchy (of social institutions, age, competence). They showed no respect for the institutions of the university, the Ministry of Education, the city authorities, or the government. Students took the liberty to teach elders and their own professors about social matters they don’t know much about. This practice and belief liken Serbian students to Generation Z in the West, but Serbians pushed it further, perhaps even more than their parents and professors expected.
Serbs can easily get dissatisfied (not always for obvious reasons), be grouchy, and exhibit a choleric outlook. Their relation to political leaders draws a circle from love to hate, possibly murder. Although students didn’t have much chance to participate in elections featuring Mr. Vučić, they still enacted this cultural pattern. Conditioning could have come from parents, teachers, and other elders, although students’ reasons for following suit might be different (say, a video game must have a chief villain to be eliminated).
All in all, despite initial hopes and the self-aggrandizing picture of a historically unique generation, protesting students appear as a chip off the old block. But this isn’t the biggest problem with their act.
A Goal Doesn’t Justify the Means
Students brought up worthy ideals and grand goals, and awakened hidden energies in the population. The facts are that the ruling SPP has brought some material progress, but the cost is the party’s omnipresence and overwhelming control; it’s corrupted, and it corrupts. SPP keeps beating easily the weak, divided opposition in elections with no end in sight. President Vučić’s public appearances antagonize the younger city population, as he comes across as talkative, moralizing, patronizing, and irritating, and resembles a strict traditional patriarch at his 55 years of age. Segments of the voting body share a feeling of fatigue, and the students’ movement has brought this to the fore.
It also stands, however, that the student movement has been opaque and chaotic goals-wise; there is no visible program for change, or a visible political figure and party capable of challenging the President and SPP. Disruptions across social domains have been made and damages inflicted, social divisions deepened to the brink of civil war, Serbia’s international positioning shaken up – but to what end exactly? Students stirred up energies and passions without knowing where to lead, but to some Shangri-La, like in a video game scenario. All the while, they have been refusing to engage the opposition, hoping that their candidates (never revealed) will win amid the social chaos created or, if necessary, in snap elections. Students left excited masses on tiptoes to hope and wait for a messiah instead of putting in an effort to mature politically. This is a significant culpability of the students, but still not the biggest one.
Students’ major culpability has to do with the manner in which they fought for their shifting goals. They broke the law and disrupted the educational system and regular life. Students fell into the Machiavellian trap that the end justifies the means. That is a mistaken approach pertinent to social changes marked by destruction, pumping up social tensions until society blows up. No, the goal doesn’t justify the means. A society based on the rule of law can’t be built by unlawful means because such means easily become habitual practice. If illegality is utilized while fighting for a change, what can one expect when the change agent gets in charge? Serbia’s history is replete with examples that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
All
things considered, it’s unlikely that this “pumping” part of Generation Z is up
to the tall task of improving Serbian society. Yet, the fire ignited by the protest has created embers. It remains to be seen whether the embers will
materialize in constructive social changes.
Sources used:
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