Studentske demonstracije u Beogradu 1968

Student protests were held in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

, as the first mass protest in Yugoslavia after World War II. Protests also broke out in other capitals of Yugoslav republics —

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

and

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

— but they were smaller and shorter than in Belgrade.
- After youth protests erupted in Belgrade on the night of 2 June 1968, students of the

Belgrade University The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...

went into a seven-day strike. Police beat the students and banned all public gatherings. Students then gathered at the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

, held debates and speeches on

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

and handed out banned copies of the magazine ''Student''. Students also protested against economic reforms, which led to high unemployment and forced workers to leave the country and find work elsewhere. In Ljubljana, more than 5000 people gathered on Prešern square. They were violently dispersed by police units from Croatia using batons, tear gas and water canons. Hundreds were injured. The protests were supported by prominent public personalities, including film director

Dušan Makavejev Dušan Makavejev ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Макавејев, ; 13 October 1932 – 25 January 2019) was a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s—many of wh ...

, stage actor Stevo Žigon, poet

Desanka Maksimović Desanka Maksimović ( sr-Cyrl, Десанка Максимовић; 16 May 1898 – 11 February 1993) was a Serbian poet, writer and translator. Her first works were published in the literary journal ''Misao'' in 1920, while she was studying at th ...

and university professors, whose careers ran into problems because of their links to the protests. President

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...

gradually stopped the protests by giving in to some of the students’ demands and saying that "students are right" during a televised speech on 9 June, but in the following years dealt with the leaders of the protests by imprisoning students ( Vladimir Mijanović, Milan Nikolić, Pavluško Imširović,

Lazar Stojanović Lazar Stojanović (1 March 1944 – 4 March 2017) was a director, journalist, intellectual, anti-war activist and one of the most prominent cultural dissidents of socialist Yugoslavia. His movie ''Plastic Jesus'' (1971) was banned in SFR Yugosla ...

and others) and by firing critical professors from university and Communist party posts.

References

Sources

"Down with the Red Bourgeoisie of Yugoslavia: An Analysis of the June Students' Insurrection in Belgrade, Yugoslavia"
(November 1968). ''Black & Red''. No. 3. *

Fredy Perlman Fredy Perlman (20 August 1934 – 26 July 1985) was an American author, publisher, and activist. His best-known work, ''Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!'', retells the historical rise of state domination through the Hobbesian metaphor o ...

(1969)
"Birth of a Revolutionary Movement in Yugoslavia"
* D. Plamenic (March–April 1969). "Belgrade Student Insurrection". ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...

''. No. 54. * {{Josip Broz Tito

Student demonstrations Events in Yugoslavia Political repression in Yugoslavia 1960s in Belgrade 1960s in Zagreb 1960s in Sarajevo

Protests in Serbia

See also

References

Sources