A few brief thoughts on yesterday’s municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
​

1. The results are more or less in line with what was expected: Dodik’s unconstitutional referendum gambit paid off, as the SNSD utterly routed the SDS-led opposition bloc in the RS; the SDA, while actually losing a number of key municipalities, nevertheless remained the biggest vote-getter in the Federation; the left-civic vote, fractured along at least four parties, failed to compete in a meaningful sense against the dominant nationalist blocs.
   
   
2. More alarmingly, these were the most irregular elections in nearly a decade, and possibly since 1996—the first post-war polls. A brawl in Stolac completely suspended voting in the town, while similarly ugly scenes played out in Bihać, Livno, and a handful of other locations both yesterday and in days leading up to the election. Independent observers noted over a hundred “critical incidents,” which is to say, voter fraud. Tellingly, the key architects of the violence and fraud were the main nationalist blocs. This is a reflection of the increasing dissolution of law and order and parliamentary procedure in BiH, and the willingness of the SDA, SNSD, and HDZ to use all means at their disposal to remain in power.
   
   
3. Srebrenica has its first Serb mayor in more than a decade. Yesterday evening’s scenes—drunken youths waving flags, hurling insults and slurs, and the town divided by cordons of police—suggests that we’re in for renewed tensions in BiH’s “open wound.” Expect Dodik and the SNSD to increasingly make the town more and more inhospitable to the large returnee population, as I have previously projected.
   
   
4. Once again, there was no voting in Mostar, one of the largest municipalities in the country. Taken together with the events in Stolac, it’s becoming ever clearer that the SDA and HDZ remain patently authoritarian movements, willing to outright suspend democratic processes, with a preference for resolving debates with fists and explosives rather than ballots.
   
   
5. Speaking of which, the post-election press conferences by Bakir Izetbegović and Milorad Dodik were ominous, indeed. Both men attacked the assembled journalists, spoke venomously of analysts and observers, and dismissed municipalities where they fared poorly as irrelevant backwaters. They spoke more as leaders of militias than democratic blocs.
   
   
6. On the whole, last night did nothing to improve the worsening political climate in the country and the utter chaos of the whole event is another indictment of the international community’s complete abandonment of meaningful democratization projects and processes in BiH, but also the region.
   
   
7. Looking ahead to 2018:
   
   a. It is imperative that the SDP, Democratic Front, Naša Stranka, and Citizen Alliance form a single left bloc. They can delay formal (re)unification but continuing to split the crucial civic vote in BiH is irresponsible and self-sabotaging.
   
   b. The RS opposition has to articulate a meaningful alternative program to the SNSD. Their soft nationalist, “anyone but Dodik” approach has failed. Mladen Bosić and Mladen Ivanić both need to clear the way for young, new leaders in Banja Luka. If they don’t, the SNSD will destroy what little remains of the “Alliance for Change” in 2018—even if Dodik’s party (like the SDA) is hardly the machine “the Baja” would like to have us believe. Still, the nationalists have the more disciplined base, and control the public apparatus after decades of rule, and thus will continue to win any “toss up” vote; challengers need landslides in BiH, and landslides require real campaigns and real programs.   
   
   ​c. After the referendum and these botched polls, alarm bells should be blaring in Brussels and Washington. The country turned a key corner yesterday—not towards the EU, but towards outright illiberal, managed democracy. Democratic processes and norms were always weak in BiH but yesterday was a dark day, even by these standards. At the very least, a statement should be released indicating the conduct of yesterday’s vote was disconcerting and not at all becoming of a (supposedly) soon to be EU candidate state. If Brussels et al cannot manage even this, BiH is in truly dire straits.     

Two years ago I wrote a piece examining the then concurrent social and protest mobilizations in BiH, Ukraine, and Taiwan. Yesterday, developments in Taiwan have given me cause to return to this topic, in particular in relation to the situation in BiH.

One of the major critiques of the plenum movement in BiH was/remains that it failed to coalesce into a political party that could enact "meaningful" political and social change. That argument was and remains bankrupt: it completely ignores the long-term process of political "education" that needs to occur in a society in order for social movements and establishment political actors to exist on a like plateau of social action. More importantly, the argument ignores the way in which the BiH constitutional system is designed to actually prevent participation. The whole point of the Dayton order is reserve political power for ethnic oligarchs. That was the price of peace when the international community brokered its deal with the region's warlords, and it is the price the citizens of BiH continue to pay. Finally, this analysis ignores that the plenums were an accomplishment in and of themselves; the most significant "political moment" (see Sheldon Wolin) in post-war BiH, out of which concrete demands and even legislative changes came.   

That having been said, Taiwan is nevertheless a model for BiH. Yesterday, amid the hoopla of the DPP storming to power and the complete collapse of the KMT, a small "third force" party emerged, winning an impressive five seats in the Legislative Yuan. The success of this "New Power Party" (NPP)--which grew directly out of the student occupations of 2014 a.k.a. the Sunflower Movement--suggests that the vitality of post-authoritarian (and post-conflict) democracy depends vitally on "anti-system" movements. These can, and in the final analysis should, manifest themselves both inside and outside of the official structures.

​Success, however, depends on effective mobilization. There are specific political and historical reasons why the students in Taiwan have been so successful--not only today but going back to the collapse of the old regime, in the first place. Conditions in BiH are doubtlessly different. The essential lesson is the same though: change only happens through participation. And politics happens everywhere, the square as much as the parliament. Finally the perceived contradictions between "inside" and "outside" political actors which too often dominate theoretical and abstract debates are in practice relatively insignificant. Or, at the very least, that in the act of doing, we discover that democratic movements can be multifaceted. Indeed, in this frenetic and creative energy is their strength, not their undoing. 

Photo Source. 

Friends and colleagues alike frequently ask me how I manage to find the time to remain so engaged with social media, to write for various blogs, and give media interviews at the same time. Doesn't my academic work take a hit, they wonder, aren't I behind on my dissertation? It occurred to me at some point that my answer could and should be a "teaching moment." Not because I am some paragon of knowledge but because I know too many brilliant people, toiling in virtual obscurity, to not share what I've learnt about engaged scholarship, for lack of a better term. The short answer though is "I find the time" because I consider media, social or otherwise, to be simply part of my job requirements. It just so happens that I really enjoy my job, granted. 

Face facts: as far as less-than-ideal life choices are concerned, "a career in academia" increasingly ranks up there with indentured servitude, at least as far as some of the contemporary job market data would seem to suggest. For junior scholars, the prospects of obtaining stable, tenure-track employment, a comparative norm among our predecessors, are few and far between. As the academic labor market increasingly begins to resemble the precarious economy more broadly, with low-paid, part-time appointments drowning out fixed, well-paid positions, remaining sequestered in the proverbial ivory tower is for most only a guarantee of remaining working-poor.

For those of us still invested in the idea of at least trying to make a living in the academy, the task is to stand and be recognized. Establishing an academic profile as a young scholar or graduate student, however, is difficult. Making your work known to the reading public is difficult when your only means of publicity are paywall journals, obscure academic tomes, or overcrowded conferences. When confronted by overwhelming odds, the solution is simple, however: asymmetric warfare. For our purposes, this means harnessing the incredible potential of social media such as Twitter (and Facebook, to a lesser extent) to establish that much vaunted and necessary profile.

A basic primer then on social media for academics.

Specialize & Professionalize

If you're reading this, you've likely already got a Facebook profile though you may not necessarily have a Twitter account. Facebook, for all its popularity, is not a very good medium for gaining exposure. Your network is likely closed to your friends and acquaintances and, at the very most, numbers a few hundred people who run the gamut from high school friends to that one aunt in Virginia. In short, this is not your ideal audience. Twitter, on the other hand, when used properly is a truly dynamic marketplace of ideas and yet just minimalist enough to avoid Facebook's overload of information (and sheer noise).

Consider this: the Twitter account of Princeton University's Political Science program has (as of this writing) just under 1,900 followers. I have somewhere around 2,100. The Princeton account is part of a multi-billion dollar institution. I, on the other hand, am not. Yet our social media reach, in this respect, is very similar. This is significant.

I think of my Twitter account as an interactive business card. Over the past two years, especially, I have increasingly professionalized and specialized my account to more accurately reflect my academic interests. Where once I used to tweet about anything and everything I found vaguely interesting (essentially, a personality-driven profile), I now focus almost exclusively on a small number of professional interests (in other words, a knowledge-driven profile). In my case, this is mostly the former Yugoslavia, specifically Bosnia-Herzegovina, though I occasionally venture into international affairs more broadly.

Nevertheless, for most of my followers I am "the Bosnia guy." Call it the theory of comparative advantage, if you will, and it works. Princeton has the funds and labor power to be a literal department worth of experts and expertise. You or I cannot compete with that. But by specializing, you can become a trusted source of analysis in a very specific field, a luxury brand, as it were. Don't think of yourself as the Mom 'n Pop shop being squeezed out by the Wal-Marts of the world. Think of yourself as Ferrari: custom-made.

If the urge to share all the weird things you find online nevertheless compels you, keep it to your closed Facebook account. As a general rule, however, your social media profile, from Twitter to Facebook to your (forthcoming) blogs should be consistent. You're building a brand and it's not helpful to the growth of your brand if in one breath you're a serious post-colonial theorist and in the next there's cats, so many, many pictures of cats.    

Share your Knowledge

Now that your Twitter profile is all set-up and you're letting everyone know about how important the finer points of Hungarian tax law are (as an example interest) it's time to transition from short-form to long-form writing. Think of it as the transition from undergraduate to graduate school.

When I began seriously blogging, I did so with a terrific little outfit called Politics, Re-Spun. I was so eager for the opportunity to have someone (anyone) read my writing that I produced the equivalent of free verse prose. As it turns out, there is something to be said for editorial constraints after all.

Nevertheless, the blog was a launching pad and as my focus increasingly sharpened on the Balkans, so did the attention I received, in turn. Suffice it to say, from there I moved on to more region-specific blogs which, in time, eventually led to some general interest publications.

In the process, I met wonderful people doing all kinds of wonderful things or otherwise just became aware of wonderful projects. For instance, one of my favorite Twitter accounts is @Medievalists. They have nearly 30,000 followers and tweet exclusively about the Middle Ages. On the face of it, an account dealing entirely with events from the 5th to the 15th centuries shouldn't be one of the most popular on Twitter but it is. Why?

Because the architects of @Medievalists care about their subject, they care about their field. They think it's the most important, coolest thing in the world. Presumably you, young academic, feel the same way about your field. Otherwise you wouldn't have spent the best years of your life in dimly lit libraries. You think what you do matters. But the only way it matters to other people is if they know about it. So, start writing.

Ideally, you'll jump on board with an existing venture, as I did with Politics, Re-Spun, but you can also start your own website--as I have since then--and make it a destination for everyone interested in your field. You're already writing, you're working on articles and chapters all the time. Why not share some of your work with the world? At worst, you may need to make the material marginally more accessible for a general audience, a valuable exercise in and of itself. At best, you're sitting at a conference and a tenured professor approaches you, telling you how they like your stuff. Or you get an email from a major news outlet asking you to write an op-ed for them on the subject at hand. Or a major news outlet asks you to do a TV spot or radio. And suddenly you're no longer a nameless commodity; you're an expert, an analyst, a scholar with name-recognition.

A final point on this subject bears repeating: keep at it. As with anything, success is unlikely to be immediate. But the odds are that there is an audience for whatever you're researching and sooner or later it's going to become topical--even if you're a Medievalist. You want to be ready for that moment. As a political scientist working specifically on the politics of participation and protest in southeastern Europe, for me that moment was the February protests in BiH. But crucial to seizing that opportunity was years of tweeting, blogging, and writing about BiH when, by comparison, hardly anyone in the English-language world cared about the country or the region. That's when you start.   

General Advice

With all that having been said, let's talk general principles, especially as it concerns Twitter.

-        Write, just do it. Do it every day. Twitter is great for floating those first few atoms of an idea. Then you develop these into a blog. Then the blog becomes the basis for a journal article. That's the pipeline but it begins with that first, timid injection of energy and effort at the beginning. Start today. 

-        The medium is the message. Whenever possible, make your tweets coherent and simple and therefore attractive to read. Refrain from unnecessary abbreviations. If you still have four characters left, change that "u" to "you."

-        Become a resource. Odds are, once you build a significant following (a few hundred followers), there'll be a few journalists in the bunch. These hardworking souls are your main audience as an academic attempting to broaden your impact. They need raw data, they need contacts, and they need insights. You can provide all three of those things for them. In turn, they can provide you with venues for your writing and likewise valuable media contacts. At its best, this is and ought to be a symbiotic relationship. Likewise, cut them some slack. I've spent an hour talking to some journalists only to have my name not even appear in the final article. That’s the nature of the game, there’s a pecking order. Your task is to hustle hard and make sure that the next reporter you talk to will think you important enough for inclusion. Simple.  

-        Learn the format. You learned the difference between APA and Chicago style citation at some point, now it's time to learn proper hashtag use. Think of hashtags as article keywords. As such, #thedecliningpopulationofBengaltigers is not a hashtag. #BengalTigers and #Tigers, however, is. As is #India and #conservation. Proper use of hashtags can mean the difference between four and four hundred people reading your article--and I won't even get into what it could mean for the tigers.    

-        Engage with your audience but pick your battles. Field genuine questions and critiques. Friendship and opportunity may lie at the other end--and certainly a publication. But refrain from feeding the trolls. Make ready use of the block button and move on with your life.

-        Be civil. Twitter is a remarkable tool for interacting with the "celebrities" of your field. Occasionally, these are people whose policies or writing you may really object to. Nevertheless, diplomacy is an art form to be practiced daily. A mean-spirited put-down may feel great the moment you write it—but will it change the thinking or behavior of your interlocutor? And remember, you're performing for an audience. So while a well-composed critique may not convince your opponent, it's the crowd you're trying to sway, above all.

-        People love pictures. If you're promoting a piece of writing, embed a picture with the tweet. It makes a significant difference to the amount of people sharing and re-tweeting the text in question. By the same token, if you come across a neat picture somehow related to your field, share it. Things you find interesting and are related to your discipline always make for terrific content, whether they're news articles, videos, or photographs. 

-        Be humble. Those first few opportunities to share your writing that come along may not be the high-profile platforms you were hoping for but they're only the first step. Credibility is something you can help to build, after all. Even the most upstart publication is a space, put your foot in that door, and ask if you can have a moment of your audience's time. Then show them that really incredible archival photograph you discovered and tweeted out moments earlier.

-        Be generous and help your friends (and soon to be friends). Over the past few months, I've been approached by several media outlets asking me for a quote or a blog on a given subject. Either because I didn't have the time or because I really didn't think I was the best person for the job, I passed. But I always make an effort to respond by offering alternatives. Often, these alternatives are friends of mine. Sometimes they're just people I know from Twitter, who I barely interact with at all. But I've read their writing, I think they're smart, I know they're capable, so I pass their info along. Maybe one day they return the favor, maybe they don't. Regardless, pay it forward.    

So, that's that. Hopefully some of this advice will prove useful to you. If it does, share it with your friends and if you have questions, let me know in the comments below. Now, go on, show us what you've been working on—I bet it's awesome. 

The end of summer and the start of another academic year brings with it all the familiar ritual joys (and punishments) of returning to the keyboard. As I enter what I hope to be the final year of my PhD program, "interesting times" continue to keep me invested in both academic and popular writing. Especially with election season in full swing in BiH, it's been a whirlwind of op-eds and interviews as of late. 

In late August, I published my analysis of Russia's growing influence in BiH, and growing interests in the region more broadly. The piece was subsequently translated into Russian and (unfortunately) continues to be a matter of discussion as the fighting in Ukraine drags on and Europe's response remains anemic. 

Also around this time, the second issue of the newly launched Harriman Magazine appeared, featuring a piece by Tanya Domi and I reviewing the February protests in BiH. Tanya is a colleague and a co-conspirator with whom I've been organizing a slew of Balkans-related events at the Harriman Institute (in fact, if you're in the NYC area, come join us for a BiH elections event on October 30th). Aside from being a wonderful human being, Tanya is also real fount knowledge on all things LGBT in the southeast of Europe (e.g. her recent blog on the Belgrade Pride Parade).

The big project of the past few weeks, however, was my primer for the BiH elections over at Balkanist. Aside from very kindly publishing this somewhat lengthy text, Balkanist has continued to publish incredible analyses from around the region and eastern Europe more broadly. This rookie operation has made the Balkans relevant and engaging in a way many (much!) larger and (much!) better endowed establishments have consistently failed to do. Editor-in-Chief Lily Lynch deserves heaps and heaps of credit for this. I cannot say enough good things about this project, honestly. As a writer, the response to both of the texts I have so far written for Balkanist has been incredible and a large portion of that success is owed directly to the presentation and growing reputation of the medium, namely, Balkanist. I would strongly encourage other scholars and observers of south and eastern Europe to not only follow this little magazine-that-could but to consider sharing their work on its pages, as well. 

In any case, the elections text has been very well received, especially by the local (that is, BiH) media. I'm indebted to the team at Media Centar in Sarajevo for the opportunity to weigh in on the campaign to date. Like many of my colleagues, I've been admittedly cynical about the prospects for change at these elections. Nevertheless, I've also continued to insist on the need to think about these polls in the context of of a year of hitherto unseen civic mobilization in the country. In the final analysis, reform in BiH will require not only new institutional actors, it will require the presence of an organized and mobilized civil society--beyond mere NGOs--to keep these newly elected officials accountable. Social movements, in short, are imperative for the country's re-conceptualization as a democracy rather than as an essentially failed state. 

The coming days will bring with them flurries of further projects but for the time being, I leave you with an always topical message from my recent stay in Sarajevo.  

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of participating in "The Great War: Regional Approaches and Global Contexts" conference in Sarajevo, marking the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. The conference was well attended, covered extensively in local media and featured a host of engaging speakers. Those interested can listen to own comments in the video below, courtesy of the Croatian Institute for History in Zagreb. 

The blog has not been updated in a few weeks but it's not been for lack of activity on my part, rest assured. There's been plenty of conferences, panels and talks that have kept me quite busy. 

The site has also expanded, with a new media section where folks can check out some of my recent commentaries and the journo crowd can also get a sense of where my commentary has appeared previously when thinking about contacting me.

In this vein, I'd like to draw your attention especially to the pieces on openDemocracy--a great network that has been kind enough to publish a lot of my recent writing. And my thanks especially to Heather McRobie who runs the terrific 50.50 blog over on openDemocracy and who has been my primary interlocutor there. 

For those who may have missed some the recent analyses, here's a quick review:

- Democracy blooming at the margins: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Taiwan 

- Elections and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina

- The evolution of Bosnia’s protest movement: an interview with Jasmin Mujanović

I've also posted some new strictly academic writing over on my Academia.edu profile where the Princip, Valter, Pejić and the Raja text has proven especially popular. 

In addition, the Emerging Democracies blog has also been garnering attention. My recent interview with Josip Glaurdic on the "Yugoslavian dimensions" of the crisis in Ukraine has proven to be popular and the EDI events schedule is also frequently refreshed.

For day to day analyses, of course, you can always grab a hold of me on Twitter. In the meantime, thanks for all your feedback, support, and shares. Ciao! 

Those who missed my appearance on February 13th, 2014 on HuffPo Live's #WorldBrief program, discussing the current events BiH can view the show below. Our segment begins at around the ten minute mark. Speaking of which, to stay up to date with everything that's going on in the country, please visit our BiH Protest Files site, where we're translating and posting the actual citizen demands coming out of the plena in Tuzla, Saeajevo, Zenica, Bihac and elsewhere.

The situation in BiH is changing rapidly. Numerous cantonal governments have already resigned and we can expect further protests in the coming days. The authorities in BiH have already begun a concerted campaign of disinformation about the causes of these protests and their aims. In an effort to support the struggle of the workers and students in BiH, I am publishing here the English translations of the demands issued by representatives of the people of Tuzla, Sarajevo and Bihac, ably translated by my colleagues Konstantin Kilibarda (Tuzla #1, RS Veteran's Association statement) and Marina Antić (Sarajevo #1-3, Bihac, Mostar, Zenica, Prijedor).  Amila Jašarević' has also been helping, she has translated the statement of the Belgrade Police Union. In the case of the second Tuzla list, it is the official translation emailed to me by the Tuzla Plenum organizers. The original texts can be viewed here, here, here and here. 

Please share these demands widely, copy, paste and disseminate them as you see fit. Change is coming to BiH and we can help be a part of it. 

UPDATE: There is now a dedicated archive of all the declarations, articles and footage we have so far been able to translate located at "Bosnia-Herzegovina Protest Files." Please visit that website for all future update and further information on English-language coverage of the events in BiH. 

Tuzla #1

DECLARATION 7 February 2014. Today in Tuzla a new future is being created! The [local] government has submitted its resignation, which means that the first demand of the protestors has been met and that the conditions for solving existing problems have been attained. Accumulated anger and rage are the causes of aggressive behaviour. The attitude of the authorities has created the conditions for anger and rage to escalate.

Now, in this new situation, we wish to direct the anger and rage into the building of a productive and useful system of government. We call on all citizens to support the realization of the following goals:

(1) Maintaining public order and peace in cooperation with citizens, the police and civil protection, in order to avoid any criminalization, politicization, and any manipulation of the protests.

(2) The establishment of a technical government, composed of expert, non-political, uncompromised members. [They should be people] who have held no position at any level of government and would lead the Canton of Tuzla until the 2014 elections. This government should be required to submit weekly plans and reports about its work and to fulfill its proclaimed goals. The work of the government will be followed by all interested citizens.

(3) Resolving, through an expedited procedure, all questions relating to the privatization of the following firms: Dita, Polihem, Poliolhem, Gumara, and Konjuh. The [government] should:

§  Recognize the seniority and secure health insurance of the workers.

§  Process instances of economic crimes and all those involved in it.

§  Confiscate illegally obtained property.

§  Annul the privatization agreements [for these firms].

§  Prepare a revision of the privatization.

§  Return the factories to the workers and put everything under the control of the public government in order to protect the public interest, and to start production in those factories where it is possible.

(4) Equalizing the pay of government representatives with the pay of workers in the public and private sector.

(5) Eliminating additional payments to government representatives, in addition to their income, as a result of their participation in commissions, committees and other bodies, as well as other irrational and unjustified forms of compensation beyond those that all employees have a right to.

(6) Eliminating salaries for ministers and eventually other state employees following the termination of their mandates.

This declaration is put forward by the workers and citizens of the Tuzla Canton, for the good of all of us.

Tuzla #2

Official Translation

Manifesto of the Plenum of the Citizens of the Tuzla Canton

                                                                   February 9th, 2014

Peaceful protests continue in Tuzla. We issue our support to all the protests in the various cities of Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

The Assembly of the Tuzla Canton, in keeping with its constitutional responsibilities, has all the necessary legal mechanisms at its disposal to ensure the functioning of the government in the interests of the citizens. It is misinformation, which is attempting to mislead the public, that the resignation of the government of Tuzla Canton has created a legal vacuum. 

                                       WE DEMAND:

1.     That the authorities of the Tuzla Canton, in keeping with their constitutional responsibilities, ensure the safety of all participants engaged in the protests.

2.     That the Assembly of the Tuzla Canton, in keeping with its constitutional responsibilities, immediately ensures functioning governance of the territory of the Tuzla Canton with no members of the previous government appointed to it. 

3.     That in cooperation with the Citizens’ Plenum, the Assembly of the Tuzla Canton will appoint an expert government, no later than March 1st, 2014, comprising non-partisan, ethically uncompromised experts.

This Manifesto is issued by the Plenum of the Citizens of the Tuzla Canton, and is for the benefit of us all.

Sarajevo #1

With regards to yesterday’s protests across Bosnia and Herzegovina and the media’s attempt to discredit this justified rebellion, this informal group of citizens and protest participants repeats our demands to the government.

 IN THE NAME OF CITIZENS ON THE STREETS OF SARAJEVO

We declare:

We, the people who went out onto the streets of Sarajevo yesterday, also regret the injuries and damage to properties, but our regret also extends to the factories, public spaces, cultural and scientific institutions, and human lives, all of which were destroyed as a direct result of actions by those (ALL THOSE) in power for, now, over 20 years. We ask our fellow citizens and fellow sufferers not to allow these unpleasant scenes to cloud the fact that this kind of government and those in power have costs us immeasurably more.

We, thus, demand:

-        Unconditional and immediate resignations of both the Sarajevo Canton and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina governments; and the formation of non-party governments.

-        No measures, of any kind, to be undertaken that would limit peaceful citizen protests.

-        The immediate release of demonstrators, no criminal case filings against them, and an end to the witch hunt of people.

When these demands are met, we can then ask for the start of conversations and actions at all levels of government in order to establish a more socially just order for all social strata; and for all those whose human dignity and material basic needs have been endangered or destroyed by the transitional theft, corruption, nepotism, privatization of public resources, an economic model that favors the rich, and financial arrangements that have destroyed any hope for a society based on social justice and welfare.

To establish such a social justice order, before we undertake any social measures are, we demand an immediate end to the larceny of this society cloaked in politics, and criminal prosecution of those responsible. Only when all of that is complete, can we begin to build something new for all of us. 

Sarajevo #2

This is based on the leaflets being passed around Sarajevo on February 9th, 2014 from a group calling itself "Ja BiH Bunt" ("I'm for Rebellion"). Once again, my thanks to Marina Antić. 

CITIZENS' DEMANDS, GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Lower salaries and compensation for political functionaries at all levels of government!
2. End compensation with the end of the term!
3. Sell the new car pool and invest that money into development of factories in bankruptcy!
4. Reform and make transparent public expenditures and revenues!
5. Pass the law on property origins!
6. Process the suspects for abuse of power!
7. Invalidate all illegal privatization contracts and establish the responsibilities of authorities.
8. Form an independent anti-corruption commission.
9. Damage resulting from protests cover with that part of revenue intended for compensation of government representatives.
   
   

Sarajevo #3

DECLARATION        

Sarajevo, February 10, 2014

Peaceful protests in Sarajevo are continuing. We support protests in all cities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We demand:

1. SECURITY MEASURES

Not taking any steps that would limit the peaceful citizens’ protests. Those in command in agencies of the Sarajevo Canton, must provide security for all protesters, in line with the constitution and the laws.

1. GOVERNMENT OF THE SARAJEVO CANTON

Considering the failures and irresponsible functioning of the government to date, we demand that the formation of the next government is determined on the basis of the result of the Plenum of Sarajevo Citizens.

1. GOVERNMENT OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Immediate resignation of the entire government, led by the prime minister.

THESE REQUESTS WERE HEARD ON THE STREETS OF SARAJEVO THESE DAYS.

In order to prevent political brokerage, we ask Sarajevo citizens not to enter into negotiations with the government, but rather, following Tuzla’s example, to come to the plenum and open discussion of equals, so as to formulate demands and decisions that will halt the larceny of this society and thereby establish the foundation for a more just order.

THE FIRST PLENUM WILL BE HELD FEBRUARY 12, 2014.

THE TIME AND LOCATION ARE TO BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW.

The Initiative Committee for organizing the Plenum of Sarajevo Citizens is a temporary, informal group that will cease to exist at the first meeting of the Plenum. 

Bihac

Protesters have sent their list of 13 demands to the Parliament of the Una-Sana Canton:

1. Resignation and replacement of the Una-Sana Canton (USC) government and all directors of public institutions and public enterprises.
2. Appointment of the new government of USC and the new directors, without influence of politics in choice of prime ministers and ministers (professional governance – with public release of biographies and the reasons for their appointment).
3. Matching salaries in the public sector to the industrial sector, so that the highest public sector salary cannot be higher than three average salaries in the industrial sector.
4. Matching salaries in the public sector to the educational/professional level.
5. Public release of documents for tenders in the last 10 years and in the future.
6. Matching levels of budget appropriations for agricultural production in the budgets at all levels of government to the European Union standards.
7. Matching educational standards, at all levels, to the European Union standards.
8. Matching the number of employees in the public sector to the European Union standards.
9. Finalizing construction of the veterans’ building, at the latest by the elections of 2014.
10. Ending all additional privileges for government officials.
11. Ending additional financing of representatives and employees in the administrative institutions, on the basis of various commissions.
12. Ending the salaries and other privileges of all politicians following the end of their term.
13. Immediate end to the use of force by the police toward the protesters and vice versa.
    

Mostar

Radio Sarajevo reports Mostar Demands:

• Resolving the status of workers from destroyed companies.

• Employment of social workers in elementary and high schools.

• Securing the funds for [support of] unemployed mothers.

• Raising and matching social contributions across the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Right to life.

• Right to work.

• Linear raises of pensions.

• Ending additional financing of representatives and administration employees on the basis of various commissions.

• Ending minister salaries after the end of their term.

• Matching politician compensation with compensation of other employees in public and private sectors.

• Government resignations: prime-minister resignation and resignations of ministers.

Zenica

Zenica Demands February 10th, 2014. Reported here originally. A background-primer to ecological situation in Zenica can be read about here. 

The first demand is for the Cantonal government to fulfill the agreement with students regarding disbursement of stipends, as agreed upon at the end of last year.

1. Limit citizens to one position in case there are adequately educated persons to take up any other positions (this is primarily the case with professors who lecture at several colleges and in several subjects).
2. Disburse new-mothers’ subventions to those who’ve been protesting for several months now.
3. Resolve the status of all workers from companies destroyed in the process of privatization, whose rights were denied.
4. Representatives at all levels of government to stop receiving compensation for work in commissions.
5. Immediate resolution of the air pollution problems in Zenica, in cooperation with federal and local municipality governments.
6. Securing internship/residency work for graduates within six months of graduating, establishment of a program for employing young people who have been unemployed for years, since their graduation and therefore, without work experience; as well as revision of employment practices in the public sector.
7. All government employees to give up 30% of their compensation for the duration of their term, to be escrowed in a common account, in a savings certificate of 4 years’ duration, upon whose maturation it would become public property. This would serve to finance expensive medical procedures for citizens in need, but not for medical treatment in Turkey, Germany or other countries, but for the purpose of educating the local medical professionals, purchasing necessary equipment, so that the need for foreign treatment would be lowered. The focus should be on conditions caused by excessive exposure to sulfur dioxide and other environmentally harmful substances Zenica’s residents have been exposed to.

Prijedor

Here are the clear demands of citizens:

1. We demand resignations of all directors of public institutions in Prijedor!
2. We demand concrete results in the struggle against corruption (autonomous functioning of inspection agencies, frequent inspections of enterprises owned by persons close to the authorities, end to political-based hiring in public institutions)!
3. We demand an increase in employment (resolving the problems of Old Mines in Ljubija)!
4. We demand a public apology from Prijedor’s mayor for all the years of irresponsible management of public goods!
5. We demand realization of all workers’ rights in Prijedor (creating conditions for organizing independent unions in all enterprises in private ownership)!
6. We demand that the old City Hall building not be demolished!
7. We demand an explanation as to why more and more young people are leaving Prijedor and the realization of concrete measures to stop this drain!
8. We demand that the local parliament representatives give up their compensation, which is to be sent to the food pantries in Prijedor and Ljubija!
9. We demand an end to all forms of copayments for health services!
10. We demand no legal/police repercussions for the protesters!

Obtained from representative of today's protests, Žarko Trivunić.

Statement by the Belgrade Police Union

Originally reported here. 

It’s obvious that the example from the west coast of the Drina will be very carefully followed by Serbia’s politicians and its institutions, but especially by the columns of hungry and unemployed citizens. We’re steps away from similar events as our neighbours are now in the midst of—events which we yet have to see the outcome of. After all, we're talking about the region where the bloodiest act of the disintegration of our once shared country took place so we cannot rule out the possibility that the current events might spark a similar 'spring' both in Serbia and our other former sister republics. State institutions should therefore disregard pre-election party interests and take the many warnings that police union representatives have been giving them for years, especially leaders of the Belgrade police union and police chiefs. 

It wouldn't be the first time in history of nations—our own included—if those of whom the authorities expect to protect their seats and positions, if the men in blue joined the debased and wronged citizens when they take to the streets. It's not that long since that happened in Serbia because society then as now had been brought to the brink of collapse while the authorities only thought of themselves. That won't work this time, and if warnings like this one from the ranks of the police are not enough, there will be much more brutal and direct warnings and actions in the streets that no one will be able to stop. Won't be able to, or won't want to—either way, the outcome will be catastrophic.

Declaration by the RS Veterans' Association 

Original reported here. 

The simplistic, naive, and even cynical statement of the Prime Minister of the Government of Republic of Srpska (RS) about how the RS is stable, and, the threatening tone adopted by the RS President - who proclaimed that the state will find the mechanisms necessary for preventing an uprising - will not meet the goals of the ‘Order for Defending the Republic [of Srpksa] from the Spillover of Chaos from the Federation of [Bosnia and Herzegovina].’

Instead, these statements will only stoke flames that have been lit by those in power, who are attempting by any means necessary to preserve a State that is based on crime, corruption, nepotism, and on a horrendous education system whose consequences are already being felt.

As much as they swear by their patriotism, calling ‘traitors’ all those who choose to believe their eyes more than they believe the peacetime pumping of ‘heroic’ chests, we the Veterans of the Army of the Repblic of Srpska will not give them the deed to the Republic, but are calling on them to take the first steps so that ‘the Federation’ doesn’t happen to us.

1. [We demand that the] RS President, in accordance with his constitutional duty to promote unity, should call on the President of the [Fighters Organization of the RS] Pantelija Ćurguz to tender his resignation without further delay, since it was the RS President who appointed him to this position.

For a long-time already, Ćurguz has not represented the majority of unhappy, demobilized veterans of the war, whose discontent culminated when he assented to the humiliating Law on Combatant and Veteran Disability Protection.

If the President of the RS fails to meet this demand by February 15 at 12pm, the Veterans of the Army of the RS will begin signing a petition under the title “SO THAT THE FEDERATION DOESN’T HAPPEN TO US,” which will demand that Ćurguz tenders his resignation. This will be the first demand in a ten point petition.

In the meantime, we call on all officials in our Republic to allow for the participation of the RS Army Veterans Association in all meetings that take place relating to veterans.

2. We demand that the President of the RS recall Ranko Škrbić our ambassador to Belgrade, and to leave him to the judicial organs in order to give us a first sign of good will that as president he is not ignoring his people.

Under this demand we also ask for the uncompromising support of all governing structures and the opposition in firmly standing behind the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in order to prioritize investigations into criminal privatizations and begin an eventual showdown with the tycoons who created empires in our country and abroad at the cost of the suffering workers and by manipulating all of us.

At the moment we don’t want to create demands but to test the will of the RS government, which we have entrusted to them for protection. We want to see if they are really protecting the RS or simply an armed criminal structure and its cronies.

Unlike all salaried republican and state institutions we predicted that “the street [protests] and sticks” would happen, as well as the resignation of the coordinator of all police forces in Bosnia, which we see as an opening for once again placing police reform on the agenda.

Strategy and tactics are above all about military discipline and we understand this very well.

That is why you, the President of the RS, must know that your strategy and your tactics are transparent like the goals of all political leaders in the RS. So smarten up officials, otherwise risk losing the whole army!

{SIGNED} RS Army Veterans Association.

Over the past two years, a collection of photographs of WWII memorials from (the former) Yugoslavia has made the rounds on social media. Popular sci-fi and fantasy blog io9 reported on it and this post from Crack Two appears to have been "liked" over 173,000 times on Facebook alone.  And here is the same article, with more or less the same perspective, on a blog from BiH. This process of "re-discovery," however is to me the truly fascinating aspect of this phenomenon. 

The authors of these articles, as well as those leaving comments, repeatedly refer to the monuments as "bizarre," "haunting" or, at best, as "modernist," which one can safely interpret to mean "weird." This commentary is essentially an inversion of the Stalinist insistence on "socialist realism." We are now surprised that a society once existed, some long ago civilization which we relate to as though it were an artifact of Tolkien lore, which was capable of producing abstract representations of real events. What does it say of our societies that in the second decade of the 21st century, we consider symbolic representations to be "strange?" 

As it concerns the Balkans, this fascination is emblematic of the virtually wholesale dissolution of culture and art in the post-Yugoslav space. It reminds us, I argue, of the anti-political nature of the post-Yugoslav, neoliberal-nationalist political order. 

On the one hand, the eternal specter of "joining the EU" has been revealed as illusory not only because of the global financial crisis but also because former socialist states and now EU members like Romania and Bulgaria, as well as former Yugoslav republics like Slovenia and Croatia, appear no closer to resolving their internal political contradictions in 2014 than they were in, say, in 1984. Oligarchy still defines these political systems and kleptocracy their economies, as I continually stress. Whereas they previously felt themselves marginalized by Moscow and Belgrade, they are now marginalized by Brussels. Incidentally, was this not also the central motif of  David Černý's brilliant EU installation from a few years ago? The rage comes precisely from the realization that this abstraction reveals much more of our sordid reality than the neoliberal insistence on no possible alternative to the EU project. 

On the other hand, the nationalist dream of ethnically pure "nation-states" constitutive of the Yugoslav dissolution but also of the anti-migrant and anti-Roma policies of most of Europe is likewise a bankrupt one. As we are asked to engage in successive rounds of purges of [insert preferred current national enemy here], we seem to come no closer to resolving the underlying problems of our societies. And as "new" terrors emerge, with new grievances (e.g. the LGBT movement), the true intent of the national dream reveals itself. It is to fundamentally deny popular participation in politics, to crush dissent and debate. 

Yes, we are invited into the streets to defend our communities from the enemy but we are presented with a finished program. We are asked merely to become grave diggers and executioners not citizens. And when the Muslims are gone, we'll turn on the Roma, and when the Roma are gone we'll turn on the homosexuals...and then? Then it's the turn of the domestic critics, the liberals and the communists and perhaps our own selves because by this time the "purging" seems never ending and the factories are still shuttered. Wasn't it the fault of the Muslims and aren't they gone now? The Roma too, and homosexuals and liberals and communists. They're all gone, the factories remain shuttered and yet there's still shining BMWs among the wreckage. And to ask to whom these belong is to find our own selves declared national enemies, in turn. 

So perhaps those photographs reveal all this in of themselves, but what is that we see? I am particularly interested in the "local gaze," that is of the (former) Yugoslavs themselves.

The sight of these monuments is a moment of dislocated recognition. As we are still unable to really talk about the horrors of the war, nor the horrors of the post-war period, to accept and acknowledge the suffering of our former friends and neighbors, we remain largely frozen in place. In this frozen space, trauma is dealt with differently; anger, suspicion and paranoia fester but the the freeze remains. And yet when presented with these photographs we are haunted by a suspicion. The suspicion that what was necessary to create these monuments was a complex society, one we have forgotten and were forced to forget. A complex society which had memorialized the past, however problematically, and devoted most of its energy on imagining a future. A "self-managed society," where we were political agents and if we felt frustrated by the actually existing imperfections of this system, the solution(s) were self-evident; it was not to dissolve the system but rather to insist on the actualization of its ideological principles. 

The mere recognition of these monuments' complexity, however, allows for a kind of mourning that has otherwise been denied to us. Their now crumbling edifices allow us to mourn for the future that was taken away from us, to mourn all that which we individually and collectively lost, without having the process interrupted by emotionally charged questions of who did what to whom, when and how. 

Beside the overt chauvinist implications of many contemporary monuments in the Balkans, their primary failure is that they are essentially ahistorical constructs or, at least, this has been their intent. They memorialize a kind of ethereal suffering that serves not to turn us toward reconciliation but rather to keep us frozen in trauma. Whereas the Yugoslav monuments were massive, abstract, leaping out of the earth with little to hide precisely because this was a society with a future that allowed for participation and interpretation (a truncated kind, granted), the contemporary monuments are small and literal. They are our tombstones not memorials in the true sense. 

The Western fascination with these installations is by comparison much simpler: a long-standing Oriental fixation on the East, their odd customs and spectacularly horrific political systems. If they are beautiful, they are either beautiful in a vacuum or in the way the Ryugyong Hotel might be deemed spectacular. This is not to accuse individual viewers of these photographs of racism. The monuments are beautiful. But it is to point to a generally banal conception of Yugoslavia in the Western imagination, which naturally places all "socialist experiments" on a spectrum between Stalin and the Kim dynasty. Hence, the likening of these structures to UFOs as though the whole of the Yugoslav period was not merely one of fiction but of spectacular science fiction. 

Yugoslavia was real, once. And it once had a future. It was a society capable of producing complex structures and systems: political, economic, cultural. These structures and their remnants ought to be taken seriously on their own terms precisely because they point to the absence of all these phenomena in our present. A fact worth mourning, indeed.   

Čekamo uzalud već godinama neki dogovor ili kompromis između vladajućih elita u BiH koji bi definitivno poveo ovo društvo na put prema Evropi. Evropa nama znači prosperitet, vladavinu prava i nadu u zajedničku budućnost. Ali dogovora nema i Evropa nikako da nam se približi. Zašto? Koja nam to karika u lancu  nedostaje?

Politička elita u BiH davno je shvatila da im vječna i prividna kandidatura za članstvo u Evropskoj uniji donosi mnogo više profita i mnogo više slobode nego stvarno članstvo. Takvo članstvo nosi sa sobom očekivanja iz Brisela da će ovdje doći do stvarnih reformi i promjena. U ovoj kvazi-kandidaturi nema ni očekivanja ni odgovornosti, što nam najbolje dokazuje rasprava među tom istom političkom elitom  oko slučaja Sejdić-Finci. Borba se ovdje isključivo vodi za podjelu fotelja, ne za prava građana. A ta prava ne zanimaju ni same EU predstavnike, pogotovo ako ta podjela fotelja može zadovoljiti sve ključne lokalne aktere.

Ali to je već stara priča i u svakom slučaju, što bi popularni bh. reper Frenkie rekao, “ako im i danas vjeruješ, onda si glup.” Nije pitanje više šta se dešava nego šta građani BiH očekivaju da će se dogoditi? Ako vam je dobro, onda ništa. Ali svaka anketa, svaki internet komentar, svaki članak potcrtava  katastrofalno stanje u ovoj zajednici.

Moguće je da to nije apatija već međugeneracijska trauma. Iskustvo raspada SFRJ i rata apsolutno je razbilo u ljudima ideju politike (ustvari, ideju političkog, the political, das Politische) kao društvenog, kolektivnog i zajedničkog projekta. Sa kulturno-socijalne strane, raspad bivše države ostavio je iza sebe samo kosti. A mi još uvijek preživljavamo od trulog mesa, dok gradimo luksuzne hotele i tržnice za turiste po tim istim polomljenim kostima.

Ipak to što nedostaje BiH nije ni odgovorna elita niti neki dogovor između njih. Ono što nam fali je izgubljeno i uništeno u procesu raspada SFRJ. To su građani. Ali građani koji trebaju ne samo da se pojave kao neka društvena jedinica na popisu, ili čak kao neki četvrti konstitutivni narod. Potrebno je baš ono što nedavna anketa UN-a tvrdi da mi nemamo: volja da se borimo sami za sebe i budućnost naše zajednice i naših mladih ljudi.

Dok se građani ne pojave na ulicama, oni i ne postoje. Dok se političari ne boje mase na ulici, i znaju da nije spremna da se pojavi po trgovima i ispred zgradama vlade, onda ni demokratski izbori ne znače ništa. Izbori u kojima elita ne strahuje od naroda samo su rotacija oligarhije. A to je stvarna slika sadašnje BiH.

Slobodno društvo je ono u kojem su građani autonomna, nezavisna sila. Ona sama sebe organizuje i spremna je da insistira i da se bori za svoja prava. Elita koja će vladati odgorovrno mora računati s time da će biti svrgnuta s vlasti ne samo na izborima, već i protestima.

BiH u kojoj građani nisu politički factor neće doživjeti ikakve značajne promjene u skorijoj budućnosti. A zato smo sami mi krivi. Naravno da eliti ovo stanje odgovara i naravno da EU, u kojoj nezadovoljstvo također gori, neće nas ohrabriti da se okupimo i krenemo rušiti njihove “lokalne partnere”. Ali za građane je ovo jedini izlaz iz zamke kleptokratije i oligarhije koja nam uzima dane i godine života.

Momenat kad su se roditelji, djeca, studenti i radnici pojavili ispred zgradama vlade i počeli proteste za JMBG bio je možda i najvažniji posljeratni događaj u historiji ovog društva. Tog dana su političari plakali i bježali kroz prozore. A kad se dokazalo da su se protesti definitivno završili, došli su do sada već klasičnog dogovora. A to je samo još jedan pokušaj da u temelju aparthejd u BiH.

Ova nas budućnost čeka ako ne budemo spremni da sami krojimo svoju sudbinu. Apatija ili trauma, u svakom slučaju ovo stanje je zasluženo ako radije biramo biti kmetovi i etnički subjekti, a ne građani.

Zahvalan sam Nedadu Memiću za pomoć sa ovim tekstom.