Turning Back the Clock in Yugoslavia
DRAGNICH, ALEX N.
TITO'S NEW CRACKDOWN TumingBack the Clock in Y'ugjosl&visi by alex n- dragnich Belgrade Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who last month turned 81, no longer exudes the pride of achievement and...
...During the liberalization period the more highly developed areas benefited most, and talk persists of carrying out the decisions made then to break up large financial and industrial concentrations in Belgrade...
...Nonetheless, it seems the liberation that has characterized Yugoslav society over the past decade has come to an end, at least for the time being...
...young people were wearing blue jeans and jackets that closely resembled U.S...
...If the 'argument' of necessity is the only argument of which the government disposes, then in public there remains the bitter knowledge that the government does not tolerate any reproach or alternative and that it fears public statement of the truth...
...Various issues of two journals with which they were associated, Filoso-fija and Praxis, were banned...
...At first Tito could find no more than a handful of Serbian Central Committee members willing to criticize these men...
...The group that has been hardest hit by Tito's new tough line is the intelligentsia...
...At the same time, the Marshal was beset by a multitude of economic problems: Many enterprises were operating with chronic deficits...
...The LCY, Tito declared, had simply abandoned its fundamental duty and let matters get completely out of hand...
...Few studied Marxism any more, and fewer cared about it...
...As a result, Tito's economy continues to be bailed out, and instead of being objectively examined, "self-management Socialism" will no doubt go on receiving extravagant praise from foreign officials ignorant of the real situation...
...The Croats see themselves as having paid a high price for these gains, since they have lost much of the autonomy (or even independence) that once appeared to be within their grasp...
...Neither have the conflicts between the economically underdeveloped and the more advanced regions of the country been resolved...
...The same month, eight Belgrade University philosophy professors were publicly denounced for allegedly propagating harmful foreign influences in their teaching and writing...
...It is generally believed that the regime will not be able to handle the corruption issue because so many Party members are among the profiteers...
...Indeed, the Yugoslav president gives the impression of being a man who recognizes that much important work remains to be done, that serious political errors need to be corrected, and that time is running out...
...TITO'S NEW CRACKDOWN TumingBack the Clock in Y'ugjosl&visi by alex n- dragnich Belgrade Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who last month turned 81, no longer exudes the pride of achievement and mellowness that were so characteristic of him only a few years ago...
...His confident and relaxed demeanor has given way to anxiety, fatigue and even belligerence...
...Similarly, the Cyrillic alphabet they use has been totally abandoned in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where some 2 million Serbs live...
...In March, some of Djuric's colleagues were reprimanded and others ousted from the Party because they signed a petition asking that he be pardoned...
...But so far nothing is being done to bring home the million Yugoslav workers now living abroad?a large part of them military reservists who, Tito warns, would be lost to the nation in the event of war...
...Though economic difficulties continue, Yugoslavia's much-publicized "self-management Socialism" avowedly will be retained...
...Though Tito was previously aware of the rising Croatian discontent, he had been assured by the republic's new Communist leaders, notably Savka Dabcevic-Kucar and Mika Tripalo, that they could control it...
...Indicative of how far things had been permitted to go was a reporter's remark to Tripalo printed in a Croatian newspaper in March 1971: "You are a Croat, a member of a small European people, which after 800 years is for the first time creating its own sovereign state...
...The term "dictatorship of the proletariat," long in disuse, has been resurrected...
...Sparked by students, the protests spread quickly and clearly carried separatist overtones...
...ment, an embarrassing situation for a "workers' state," as Yugoslavia's Marxist philosophers insistently pointed out...
...The crni tolas ("Black Wave") engulfed Yugoslav art...
...Occasionally someone raises the question of possible Soviet intervention in the event of domestic disarray caused by Tito's passing from the scene, but few Yugoslavs think that will happen...
...Their traditional enemies, the Serbs, who are roughly twice as numerous, consider themselves to be suffering discrimination again, forced to pay the penalty for the outburst of Croatian nationalism...
...Most informed Yugoslavs do not believe Tito will succeed in his attempt to turn back the clock to the rigid discipline and centralism of the past...
...Several other Serbian leaders submitted their resignations, but most of these have not been accepted...
...The nation has simply become too used to doing things otherwise, and the LCY has gone too far toward a confederal arrangement with eight separate parties (one for each of the six republics and two autonomous provinces...
...An "offensive" Filosofija issue declared that "repressive measures are a sure sign that political life has become impoverished...
...The Law School journal, Anali, was forbidden to appear because it planned to publish the debates...
...Publications have been banned, editors forced to resign, writers arrested and imprisoned...
...The purging of Communist leaders has been accompanied by a new emphasis on the importance of the LCY, which has been instructed to intervene anywhere and everywhere...
...This criticized Djuric's imprisonment as well as the confiscation of passports from several philosophy professors, and asserted: "We are convinced that maximum, broad, and free discussion and criticism is a prerequisite for the development of humanistic, self-governing, and democratic socialism...
...Rightly or wrongly, however, few Yugoslavs have much confidence in the government's ability to manage the economy effectively...
...They view the actions taken against the Belgrade University professors as more anti-Serbian than antilib-eral...
...In addition, to judge by the number of private automobiles, vacation homes and other luxuries in evidence, many Yugoslavs were becoming disturbingly adept at utilizing legal loopholes and evading economic regulations...
...After exerting heavy pressure, the Marshal got his way, and Mirko Tepavac, the Serb who was Yugoslavia's minister of foreign affairs, was also forced to quit...
...over the past 20 years has produced considerable economic growth...
...literature, films, television, and modes of dress...
...They allowed, and may tacitly have encouraged, Matica Hrvatska, a prestigious cultural organization, and similar groups to demand still greater concessions for Croatia...
...Subsequently, the Yugoslav press published a speech Tito had allegedly delivered to the Croatian leaders in the summer, warning of the situation they faced...
...There followed an eloquent essay by the Serbian novelist and Party member, Dobrica Cosic, verbally nailing the regime to the wall for its prosecution of Djuric...
...In 1971, it is noted, a parliamentary deputy introduced an anticorruption bill, but he was soon pensioned and the proposal has not been heard of since...
...His eventual departure, once contemplated with foreboding, is now eagerly looked forward to...
...The change first became evident in late 1971, following the nationalist demonstrations in Croatian Zagreb, Yugoslavia's second largest city...
...More recently, the Soviet Union has extended credits, and private American capital continues to flow into Yugoslavia...
...These professors, who supported the liberalization experiments of the '50s and '60s, had suggested that Tito's government was deviating from basic Marxist principles...
...Courses in Marx-ism-Leninism are being reintroduced throughout the country and being made a compulsory subject in the schools again...
...Dabcevic-Kucar and Tripalo, who had won significant economic and political gains for their republic through the constitutional amendments adopted in July 1971, apparently hoped for more...
...The powers that control the government in this country must be aware that closing mouths and a monopoly on truth irrevocably lead to overpowering dominance and a pogromistic atmosphere in which harangue and ideological labels finally replace debate...
...Last summer Mihailo Djuric, a Belgrade Law School professor, was sentenced to two years in jail (later reduced to nine months) on charges of spreading national hatred and discord...
...Deciding that it was time to take firm action on all these fronts, Tito swiftly put down the Zagreb demonstrations, replaced the Croatian leadership, and then began tightening his dictatorship throughout the country by purging several leaders in the other republics...
...People are heard asking why he does not follow the example of Churchill, Adenauer and de Gaulle-all of whom left the political stage before their deaths...
...Among the sins of Praxis was an article entitled "For Free Academic Discussion...
...Already smarting from the dispersal of 40 per cent of their kind to the other republics, they recently witnessed the abolition of Prosvjeta, a magazine designed for Serbs residing outside of their native territory...
...But Mrs...
...Rumor has it that the future Yugoslav Parliament will be chosen by indirect vote, and that the collective presidency set up a few years ago to provide an orderly succession after Tito's death will be reduced from its former 23 to about 8 members...
...Such manifestations of Croatian nationalism, Tito knew very well, were bound to produce repercussions in Yugoslavia's other republics, particularly Serbia, which had long been smarting under policies and programs that it considered discriminatory...
...A general price freeze has been instituted, as well as campaigns against corruption, profiteering and legal loopholes...
...Finally, emergency economic measures have been applied with the greatest stringency in Serbia...
...His actual "crime" was criticizing proposed amendments to the Yugoslav Constitution during a special meeting of the Law School faculty called for the specific purpose of discussing them...
...Tito saw undesirable developments in culture, in the styles and tastes of the people, in education...
...Army issue...
...Still, extensive financial aid from the West (mainly the U.S...
...American movies were being widely screened...
...The greater danger, they feel, is that pressures for liberalization will coincide with a succession struggle to produce an extremely difficult transition period...
...the rate of inflation was at an all-time high...
...A constitutional commission, under the chairmanship of Tito's close collaborator, Edvard Kardelj, is expected to propose alterations in Yugoslavia's political system that will conform with the new orthodoxy...
...Western influences are being purged from every educational and cultural field, and religious activities are again under attack...
...Their ouster was not easy...
...The reaction in Croatia, the nation's second largest republic, is one of disappointment, despite the substantial concessions it received following the change of leadership?the hard currency earnings it can now retain are about three times what they were before...
...and roughly a million Yugoslav workers had gone to Western Europe to find employAlex N. Dragnich, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, recently visited Yugoslavia...
...The nationality problem may once more be successfully swept under the rug, but Tito's popularity has sunk to an unprecedented low...
...This failure, called "anarcho-liberalism" in Yugoslav parlance today, was the charge Tito used to bring about the resignation of two Serbian leaders, Marko Nikezic and Latinka Perovic, in late 1972...
...Peyton Place was on national TV...
...Thus, after a visit just two months before the trouble broke out, he proclaimed publicly that he had seen no signs of unrest...
...You are one of the ideologues of that statehood...
...Yugoslav educators, meanwhile, traveled to Western countries and became tainted with non-Marxian ideas...
...He laid the blame for the problems that had arisen squarely on the liberalization initiated in 1952, when the Party changed its name to the League of Yugoslav Communists (LCY) and proclaimed that its future role was to be one of education and persuasion rather than direction...
...This pointed up the ideological drift of Yugoslav society...
Vol. 56 • June 1973 • No. 13
