Serbians protest rulers’ lies, demand gov’t step down
https://themilitant.com/2020/07/25/serbians-protest-rulers-lies-demand-govt-step-down/
BY TERRY EVANS
Vol. 84/No. 30
August 3, 2020
Reacting with anger to the government’s decision to reimpose curfew
measures after a resurgence of coronavirus infections, thousands in
Serbia took to the streets of Belgrade and other cities beginning July 7
to protest against President Aleksandar Vucic.
The government had imposed severe constraints on people’s movements in
March, including a total weekend curfew, weekday curfews from 5 p.m. to
5 a.m., and the suspension of all public transportation. All those over
65 years old were banned from going outside for over a month.
But Vucic ended all these restrictions and declared the virus “defeated”
in early May, to facilitate holding parliamentary elections. Most
opposition parties had long ago said they would boycott any vote because
of the government’s grip on the media.
He also dropped the government ban on public gatherings, leading to
crowds of tens of thousands at sports matches, election rallies and
other activities. Nightclubs and bars, as well as churches, were told
they could operate at full capacity.
As predicted, Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party won in a landslide June
21, tightening his control over the government. Still, the election was
marked by the lowest voter turnout — 48% to 49%— since the former
Yugoslavia state was torn apart in the early 1990s.
Coronavirus infections soared, rising from under 40 a day in June to
over 300 in July. Belgrade’s hospitals were swamped, and field hospitals
are now under construction. Vucic closed the universities once again and
re-imposed sharp restrictions on people’s movement, including a
three-day curfew, sparking widespread outrage.
“We want authorities to stop lying to us and we want to know the entire
truth about everything that has been happening in connection with the
coronavirus epidemic,” Stefana Radjenovic told Reuters at one of the
protests in Belgrade.
Vucic blamed “foreign intelligence agencies” for the anti-government
protests and urged demonstrators to go home to avoid the risk of getting
coronavirus. Concern for protesters’ health was not evident when
government security forces brutally beat demonstrators with batons and
fired tear gas at them.
Vucic backed off from shutting down campuses and from the three-day
curfew. Instead he ordered more limited constraints, including
restricting gatherings to no more than 10 people.
However protests continue, with demonstrators demanding the government
resign. They are fed up not only by recent events, but also by the
growing crisis for working people of the capitalist system. Unemployment
was 12.7% before the current crisis hit, and leaders of the
Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions say over 200,000 more workers
face losing their jobs in coming months.
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Richard Dawkins
“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all
decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this
sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running
for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from
within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation,
thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this
very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the
natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons
and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people
are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find
any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has
precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no
purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
― Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life
