The student protests in Serbia have turned into a nationwide uprising against the government, and as the movement grows, it is becoming clear that the authoritarian capitalist structures that have consolidated the government and made it a reliable junior partner in the capital centers could also be shaken. But there is still a long way to go to bring down the capitalist Death Star, argues Dušan Maljković.
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I have rarely commented on the current student protests in Serbia; I have mostly been their chronicler, reading widely – mostly critically – across the political spectrum, from hard-right perspectives to third-world leftist viewpoints. My direct participation has been minimal, limited to attending the first major gathering in Slavija on December 22, 2024. A few days ago I was prevented from attending by a combination of factors: the suspension of public transportation, my own poor physical and mental condition, and the blockade of Branko’s Bridge.
My support for the students has been selective, focusing on specific aspects – most notably the call for a broad-based organization modeled on plenums and the insights of Boris Buden, Slavoj Žižek, Jacques Rancière, and Alain Badiou. The latter, like me, was cautious in his assessment, seeking more information before concluding. Alain Badiou reiterated a point I have been stressing for the past 25 years about the LGBT+ movement: it needs to connect with the working class and peasantry, break out of its insular, petty-bourgeois framework and seriously engage with class issues.
When I first saw the students’ demands, I had no doubts: they wanted more rule of law, functioning institutions and better living standards for students – essentially social-democratic demands without a radical call to challenge capitalist social relations. This was confirmed by the Niš Edict, which contained classic liberal demands mixed with meritocratic ideals. The underlying message was: let the experts rule – that is, us, the students, as future specialists! This also fostered a supremacist cultural racism against the ‘ćacis,’ mostly the lumpenproletariat working for the current regime of President Aleksandar Vučić, without understanding its social genesis. The student movement must confront this issue: the so-called ‘fascism of Belgrade’s inner circle’ despises the ‘toothless’ and ‘uneducated,’ but fails to recognize how this attitude perpetuates class oppression, keeping both the working class and the lumpenproletariat subjugated and reduced to ‘cheap labor.’
From privileges to class to issues
From the outset, the middle class has dominated the protest ideologically, as most students come from this background. Higher education no longer guarantees a comfortable life; instead, success requires affiliation with the party-state, where key positions are already distributed among the ruling elite. This elite, symbolized by the ‘Belgrade Waterfront’ project, represents a new republican upper class – a bourgeoisie that is eroding and proletarianizing the middle class. Hence the emergence of the ‘Don’t Drown Belgrade’ movement: an attempt by the middle class to resist the encroaching elite and to protect their urban property from devaluation by riverfront development.
Attempts have been made to radicalize the movement to the left within the plenums, but they have not yet succeeded. Although the so-called international community has abandoned the movement – remaining silent and giving the president a free hand within limits – there is still little recognition that corruption is a symptom of the colonization of Serbia by foreign capital. The political representatives of that capital – from Washington to Brussels to Moscow to Beijing – have no interest in changing the status quo as long as Serbia’s comprador government remains stable and servile. Consider, for example, the recent sale of the General Staff headquarters and the visit of Donald Trump Jr.
Nevertheless, the student movement has successfully mobilized other political actors. Workers and peasants are now marching alongside students, carrying index books and driving tractors; work is being stopped, strikes are being organized. But every aspect needs to be questioned – what does it mean to stop work at a university? Haven’t the students already done so through blockades? The academic community, which protects its privileges, has only symbolically supported the movement, but it has at least rejected the president’s indecent offers of communication and put pressure on him This is a step forward after 13 years of inertia, although it remains shameful that the university took a stand only after the students revolted.
Beyond ‘bourgeois’ ideology?
The dominant ideology of the protest remains crucial – if it is ‘bourgeois,’ then the participation of the working class and peasants does not automatically change that fact; they may be acting against their interests or in complicity with ‘bourgeois’ interests. But the process is dynamic: students are learning from these groups, embracing direct democracy, and challenging the subservience of the parliamentary system to capitalist interests. It is a long and uncertain process, but it offers young people – who never experienced Yugoslavia’s version of the socialist project – a chance to break free from the dominant ideology shaped by global capital-liberalism.
New forms of solidarity have emerged, emphasizing care and mutual aid. We have witnessed a transcendence of Islamophobia through genuine respect for people of Islamic faith, efforts to engage trade unions (despite their government control), and calls to restore political community care through local assemblies and plenums. Whether these efforts will succeed remains to be seen. Perhaps most importantly, fear has been overcome and hope has taken its place as the driving force. People have lived in fear for too long – subjected to inhumane working conditions, abuse, and repression – believing that the current regime was untouchable. But now it has been exposed as a paper tiger. There are two main reasons for this.
First, the president has surrounded himself with incompetents, fearing betrayal, as he once did with his former mentors, Vojislav Šešelj and Tomislav Nikolić (ex-presidents of the Serbian Radical Party, ousted by Aleksandar Vučić). In order to prevent the emergence of a rival, he has refused to allow charismatic figures to gain prominence. This explains his appointment of Ana Brnabić, the openly lesbian prime minister – not only for the sake of pink washing, but also because she posed no political threat in a homophobic country. This was followed by a series of failed smear campaigns against the student movement, all of which were debunked by the movement itself, from accusations that the students only wanted to study to claims that they had injured a police officer.
Second, the decentralized structure of the plenums allowed intelligence and courage to be used effectively without creating figureheads who could be bribed, silenced, or removed.
‘You have morality, we have power’
At a recent protest, a ‘sound cannon’ or similar device was used against peaceful demonstrators. We do not know the exact type, but it is not difficult to determine who used it. I consider this an act of terrorism by the government against its people. Therefore, a new demand must be added: to find out who authorized the use of this banned weapon and to ensure that appropriate legal action is taken. Until now, the students’ demands have been implicitly directed against the government. After this incident, they must become explicit. The regime has shown that ‘nothing is sacred’ to it – not even a moment of silence in honor of the dead.
I do not support moral ideology as an ethical framework, but such moments are crucial for maintaining social cohesion. The student movement used morality as a weapon, and the regime responded with violence: ‘You have morality, we have power.’ The movement has chosen to resist force with morality, using what many call a ‘Gandhian’ strategy of continuous peaceful demonstrations. To be effective, this must be long and massive. The goal is not an abrupt overthrow, but a sustained, multifaceted resistance that gradually delegitimizes the regime, creating fissures and divisions as it expands its network.
Whether this will lead to socialism – the name of true systemic change – I remain skeptical. But I do see a point in a process that contains socialist elements. At the very least, concrete victories must be secured, such as the reduction of tuition fees to make education accessible to the working class and peasantry, who currently make up only 2% of university students.
The capitalist Death Star must fall
Some wonder why Aleksandar Vučić used a ‘sound cannon,’ arguing that it was counterproductive. Some even theorize about a ‘space weapon’ used to provoke rebellion. No, this was not the Death Star from “Star Wars” – it was a calculated show of force, a warning of what would happen in the event of an uprising. The president wants to keep dissent within parliamentary politics, where he rules over a weak opposition, the media, and public opinion. But if we want to change not just the government but the system, the struggle must be long-term, rooted in direct democracy and non-cooperation. A multi-day general strike would be ideal, but is difficult in a context where most people have to work and protest at the same time. Expanding the assemblies beyond university campuses is crucial to replacing the crisis of parliamentary idiocy with direct democracy.
This is the reason why the protest will not be supported by the EU, the USA or other similar structures. They support the president because he maintains multi-party clientelism, which upholds capitalism and keeps Serbia in its proto-colonial status. The goal of the protest must be what people generally feel is necessary: systemic change. The students will either advance this in some form of community organizing, or they will fail, even if the government falls. Almost the whole world is against this protest. That is its horror. But that is also its greatness. It demands nothing less than a total investment of life in the months and years to come. The capitalist Death Star must fall, or we will all be buried in its ruins.