Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-26T14:17:52.080Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

'It was like fighting a war with our own people': anti-war activism in Serbia during the 1990s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Orli Fridman*
Affiliation:
SIT Study Abroad: Balkans & Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK), Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

This article discusses anti-war and anti-nationalism activism that took place in Serbia and, particularly, in Belgrade during the 1990s. It analyzes anti-war activism as aiming to combat collective states of denial. Based on fieldwork research conducted in 2004-05, and particularly on an analysis of interviews conducted with anti-war activists in Belgrade, this text closely analyzes the nuanced voices and approaches to activism against war among Serbia's civil society in the 1990s. The article highlights the difference between anti-war and anti-regime activism, as well as the generation gap when considering the wars of the 1990s and their legacy. Finally, this text emphasizes the role of Women in Black as the leading anti-war group in Serbia, and examines their feminist street activism which introduced new practices of protest and political engagement in Belgrade's public sphere.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allcock, John B. Explaining Yugoslavia. New York: Columbia UP, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Cohen, Stanley. States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering. Cambridge: Polity and Blackwell, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Collin, Matthew. Guerilla Radio, Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio and Serbia's Underground Resistance. New York: Thunder's Month Press/Nation Books, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Ćurgus Kazimir, Velimir. The Last Decade: Serbian Citizens in the Struggle for Democracy and an Open Society, 1991-2001. Belgrade: Media Center, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Ivan, Čolović, and Aljoša, Mimica, eds. Druga Srbija. Beograd: Beogradski Krug, 1992. Print.Google Scholar
Dević, Ana. “Anti-War Initiatives and the Un-Making of Civic Identities in the Former Yugoslavia Republics.” Journal of Historical Sociology 10.2 (1997): 119–56. Print.Google Scholar
Duhaček, Daša. “The Belgrade Women's Studies Center – the Next Stage?The Making of European Women's Studies. Vol. V. Eds. Rosi Braidotti, Edyta Just and Marlise Mensnik. Utrecht: ATHENA, 2004. 4145. Print.Google Scholar
Erder, Ildiko. “Alice's Adventures in Studentland Narrative Multiplicity of the Student Protest.” Sociologija: Journal of Sociology, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology 39 (January-March 1997): 111–33. Print.Google Scholar
Fridman, Orli. “Alternative Voices in Public Urban Space: Serbia's Women in Black.” Ethnologia Balkanica 10 (2006): 291303. Print.Google Scholar
Fridman, Orli. “Anti-War Activism at Times of ‘Peace'; Alternative Voices and Street Activism in Serbia.” ASN Conference 2007 Columbia University. New York. 12-14 April 2007. Paper.Google Scholar
Fridman, Orli. “Breaking States of Denial: Anti-Occupation Activism in Israel after 2000.” Genero 6 (2007). Print.Google Scholar
Gordy, Eric D. The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruction of Alternatives. University Park, PA.: Pennsylvania State UP, 1999. Print.Google Scholar
Ilić, Vladimir. “Otpor” – In or Beyond Politics. Helsinki Files 5. Belgrade: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Jansen, Stef. “The Streets of Beograd. Urban space and protest identities in Serbia.” Political Geography 20 (2001): 3555. Print.Google Scholar
Jansen, Stef. “Victims, Underdogs and Rebels: Discursive Practices of Resistance in Serbian Protest.” Critique of Anthropology 20.4 (2000): 393419. Print.Google Scholar
Lazić, Mladen, ed. Protest in Belgrade. Budapest: Central European UP, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Obradović-Wochnik, Jelena. “Strategies of Denial: Resistance to ICTY Cooperation in Serbia.” Chaillot Paper 116 (2009). Print.Google Scholar
Papić, Žarana. “Europe after 1989: Ethnic Wars, the Fascistization of Civil Society and Body Politics in Serbia.” Thinking Differently: A Reader in European Women's Studies. Eds. Gabriele Griffin and Rosi Braidotti. 124-44. Print.Google Scholar
Spasić, Ivana and Pavićević, Đorđe. “Symbolization and Collective Identity in Civic Protest.” Sociologija: Journal of Sociology, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology 39 (January-March 1997): 7393. Print.Google Scholar
Spasić, Ivana and Subotić, Milan, eds. R/evolution and Order: Serbia after October 2000 Belgrade: Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Šušak, Bojana. “An Alternative to War.” The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis. Ed. Popov, Nebojša. Budapest: Central European UP, 2000. 479508. Print.Google Scholar
Tešanović, Jasmina. The Diary of a Political Idiot: Normal Life in Belgrade. San Francisco: Midnight Editions, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Thomas, Robert. The Politics of Serbia in the 1990s. New York: Columbia UP, 1999. Print.Google Scholar
Thompson, Mark. Forging War: The Media in Serbia, Croatia and Hercegovina. London: Article 19, 1994. Print.Google Scholar
Torov, Ivan. “The Resistance in Serbia.” Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia. Eds. Udovicki, Jasmina and Ridgeway, James. Durham: Duke UP, 2000. 247–66. Print.Google Scholar
Winter, Jay. “Thinking about Silence.” Shadows of War: A Social History of Silence in the Twentieth Century. Eds. Ben-Ze'ev, Efrat, Ginio, Ruth and Winter, Jay. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. 331. Print.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Eviatar. The Elephant in the Room: Silence and Denial in Everyday Life. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.Google Scholar