The URL for his article is
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/zorich/strike.htm
For a printer-friendly version of this article, please click here.
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
As Serbian workers threaten nationwide General
Strike -
The Issue is, Who Gets the Shares?
By Milos Zorich - Special to Emperor's Clothes
Belgrade, 2-12-2001
Translated by Tika Jankovich and Jared Israel
Will the ranks of 800,000 already jobless Serbian
workers be swelled by thousands laid off following
planned changes in the Privatization Law?
Belgrade is being watched carefully by international
business. They want auctions where they can buy
companies at bargain prices and they want legal
guarantees protecting investments. Meanwhile, the
Serbian Parliament will decide whether to halt a wave
of privatizations by workers. And the workers are
threatening a General Strike
A Proclamation to the People
"In short, the state is selling. Foreigners are buying.
Workers and citizens are loosing. We workers are
not for sale. Let's stop the plunder!"
Thus writes the Association of Serbian Unions. Urging the
Serbian people to protest changes in the Privatization Law
announced by the Serbian Government, the unions have called
a General Strike starting February 14 at 8:00 AM.
The Core of the Conflict
The current Privatization Law was passed during the
Miloshevich administration, a coalition of the Yugoslav Left,
the Socialist Party and the Radical Party. If a company was
privatized, the first priority in obtaining shares would go to
the workers who invested their labor for many years.
Anticipating the present regime's intention to sell companies
which are supposedly in bad financial shape to foreign
bidders, workers and managers have speeded-up
privatization under this law. They are trying to preempt the
process before a government sell-out to foreign interests can
take place.
Thus a race is underway, with the workers privatizing state
and public property, and the government trying to halt it.
This reporter spoke to several people on the street about the
proposed sell-off. Here are the words of Vladimir
Matvejevic, an engineer and one of 800,000 men and women
in Serbia who are unemployed and looking for work:
"Before our eyes we have the examples of
Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and other economies in
"transition" where the largest industrial enterprises
have been handed over to foreign corporations. As
a consequence, thousands of workers were fired, in
obedience to rules imposed by the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
"One should bare in mind that for decades our
Yugoslav model of social-economy differed from
those in Eastern Europe. They had central state
economic control. We built a system where
businesses under workers' self-management existed
side by side with others that were privately owned.
In the self-managed sector, the companies were run
by elected representatives. Workers shared the
profits."
Workers Ask: Why Give Up Our
Shares?
So, nobody is against privatization per se. The conflict is
over how to do it. The workers demand to be the majority
shareholders. The present regime insists that the major
shareholders be investors, whose money, they say, can revive
production, introduce more economical operating structures
based on up-to-date technology and maximize savings in
production.
While this battle escalates, Belgrade is being watched closely
by foreign investors and businessmen. Last week a delegation
from the European Union visited Belgrade. Also, there was a
two-day meeting of the Business Council of the Stability Pact
for Southeastern Europe with representatives from sixty
companies in Europe, Asia and the U.S.
This "Investors Mission" met with 150 leading Yugoslav
industrial managers. Mr. Bodo Hombah, special coordinator
for the Stability Pact, and Manfred Nusbaumer,
Vice-President of the Business Council, held a press
conference where they demanded that: "the Belgrade
Government provide suitable conditions for business, along
with a law that it will guarantee the safety of foreign
investments."
"Please, no more help," says Mrs. Brezovacki
"They are offering to help us from abroad? Please!"
says Mrs. Goritsa Brezovachki, who works at a
garment factory . "First they impose sanctions. Then
they instigate civil war, stop production, bomb our
factories. Now finally after devastating our country
and putting us in a desperate position, they swarm
in with their bags of gold to buy our businesses
cheap and make us a colony. No more help!" (1)
The above opinion is not shared by Mrs. Mirosinka Dinkich,
a member of the G-17 group of economists. (2) Says Mrs.
Dinkich:
"It is better to be a well paid employee in a foreign
owned company, than a poor shareholder in a
company that makes no profits."
But workers counter this, asking, "Who says we will have any
job at all if these foreign interests get a hold of our
companies?" And Mrs. Dinkic admits that in the first year of
the regime's proposed economic reforms approximately
300,000 more workers would be left jobless. Out of these,
some 50,000 could find jobs in reconstructed companies and
another 50,000 in new companies. What about the remaining
200,000 desperate, hungry people? She recommends spending
around $400 million. But this is only to help them during the
first year. What about later on? And in any case, where would
this money come from? The government has no answer.
"Stop stealing the Electrical Power Assets"
Today (Monday, February 12) the Government will submit its
proposal for changing the old Law on Privatization to
Parliament. Meanwhile, workers are angry and getting
angrier.
Mr. Radomir Smiljanic, President of the Council of the
Serbian Association of Unions, says that:
"This Government 'writes the lunch bill for the
waiter,' avoiding consultations with the workers.
As proposed by the Government, workers are
entitled to 10% of the free shares. Other private
parties may obtain 15%. But 60% of the shares are
earmarked for bidders in public auctions to be run
by the state. The money thus obtained is to be used
by the state to meet its obligations, including
providing pensions."
Many workers feel this amounts to blackmail. If you want
your pensions, the argument goes, you have to give up your
right to shares in companies where you labored with the
understanding that you were the shareholders.
Mr. Aleksandar Vlahovic, the Minister of Privatization,
argues that, "it is essential that 'strategic partners', those with
a fresh money supply, enter the company."
To secure this plan, the new law would immediately halt the
current wave of worker-oriented privatizations.
While the conflict between the regime and the workers
intensifies, workers in major Serbian companies are sending
out urgent messages about the "organized plunder" of national
economic assets. "Stop the stealing of Serbian Electrical
Power Assets", alerts the paper of the Serbian Electrical
Power Industry. The employees say there's been a rapid
erosion of asset-value by management. Last Fall management
declared the assets to be worth more than $20 billion. Now
the figure is down to $4.2 billion.
Social Upheaval?
Last year, around 870 facilities out of a total of 7,000 were
privatized under the old Privatization Law. But this year, in
the past three months alone, 630 state and public companies
have gotten new, private owners.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry for Economical
International Relations, Mr. Boran Karadjola, says "Whether
we like it or not, globalization is an unstoppable process,
which has to enter Yugoslavia, if it wants to be a part of the
world." He has recently signed a document bringing
Yugoslavia into the WTO as an observer.
Similarly, the head of the new Serbian Government, Mr.
Zoran Djindjic, told a meeting with the Serbian managers of
major companies three days ago that, "We want strong foreign
capitalists to come in, not shaky ones."
Clearly the government won't willingly back down. It intends
to open the door to foreign capital although it is fully aware
that foreign bidders will collude to keep the selling price
low. (3)
The ongoing conflict between the government and workers is
entering a period of great uncertainty. Social upheavals and
the further destabilization of the otherwise poor Serbian
economy are quite possible. Interviews I conducted with a
dozen employees of the largest companies point in this
direction. For example, a woman who works at Yugoslav
Airlines, told Emperor's Clothes:
"I have been working here 25 years and have
acquired certain rights to the property of my
company. Why should I agree now to be hired by a
new owner who would buy our airplanes, buildings
and technical equipment dirt cheap? If it happened,
I would feel deceived and ripped off."
And other workers ask, after they buy our property dirt cheap,
what prevents them from taking the assets and closing us
down?
Such sentiments - that the country’s economic assets are being
ripped off, that the country is becoming dependent on foreign
powers which, during a protracted agony of economic
transformation that they would impose on Serbia, would care
only for their own interests - these sentiments of rebellion are
the driving force behind the planned General Strike by the
worker unions.
***
Further reading -
1) Two very good background pieces on the so-called civil
wars in Yugoslavia are: 'German and U.S. Involvement in
the Balkans' by T.W. Carr, at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/carr/carr.html and
Diana Johnstone's classic study, 'Seeing Yugoslavia
Through a Dark Glass' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/1yugo.htm
2) 'The International Monetary Fund And The Yugoslav
Elections' by Michel Chossudovsky and Jared Israel. This
article has been reprinted around the world. It documents
the connection between the G-17 economists, the present
Serbian regime, and the nation-destroying International
Monetary Fund and World Bank. It can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/1.htm
3) We came across a most revealing U.S. Commerce
Department Document, see Grand Theft: Montenegro...
at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/commerce.htm
Please Support the Journalists' Fund
Emperor's Clothes is trying to assist a few families of
Yugoslav journalists. These journalists are among the
many journalists who have literally been thrown out of
work when thugs took over all TV and radio stations and
newspapers during and after the Oct. 5th coup. These
attacks are part of the terror in 'democratic' Serbia. We
are providing some financial help; we need to provide
more.
It's really a privilege to be able to help these brave men
and women who are trying to report 'the other side' within
Yugoslavia and, through Emperor's Clothes and other
media, to the outside world.
Meanwhile, our own operating costs have increased. (For
instance, monthly fees for the superb news media search
engine Lexis have more than doubled.)
If you can make a contribution either to our general
expenses or specifically to help the Journalists' Fund,
please do. Any amount will help. To use our secure server,
please go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/howyour.htm#donate.
(If you use the secure server and wish your contribution to
go to the Journalists' Fund, please send us a note at
emperors1000@...
Or you can mail a check to Emperor's Clothes, P.O. Box
610-321, Newton, MA 02461-0321.
Or call 617 916-1705 from 9-5, Eastern U.S. time and ask
for Bob. Thanks very much!
And please join our email list so we can keep you
informed.
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista".
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.ecircle.it/an_ecircle/articles?ecircleid%c2%91979
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB:
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
eCircle ti offre una nuova opportunita:
la tua agenda sul web - per te e per i tuoi amici
Organizza on line i tuoi appuntamenti .
E' facile, veloce e gratuito!
Da oggi su
http://www.ecircle.it/ad1145927/www.ecircle.it
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/zorich/strike.htm
For a printer-friendly version of this article, please click here.
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
As Serbian workers threaten nationwide General
Strike -
The Issue is, Who Gets the Shares?
By Milos Zorich - Special to Emperor's Clothes
Belgrade, 2-12-2001
Translated by Tika Jankovich and Jared Israel
Will the ranks of 800,000 already jobless Serbian
workers be swelled by thousands laid off following
planned changes in the Privatization Law?
Belgrade is being watched carefully by international
business. They want auctions where they can buy
companies at bargain prices and they want legal
guarantees protecting investments. Meanwhile, the
Serbian Parliament will decide whether to halt a wave
of privatizations by workers. And the workers are
threatening a General Strike
A Proclamation to the People
"In short, the state is selling. Foreigners are buying.
Workers and citizens are loosing. We workers are
not for sale. Let's stop the plunder!"
Thus writes the Association of Serbian Unions. Urging the
Serbian people to protest changes in the Privatization Law
announced by the Serbian Government, the unions have called
a General Strike starting February 14 at 8:00 AM.
The Core of the Conflict
The current Privatization Law was passed during the
Miloshevich administration, a coalition of the Yugoslav Left,
the Socialist Party and the Radical Party. If a company was
privatized, the first priority in obtaining shares would go to
the workers who invested their labor for many years.
Anticipating the present regime's intention to sell companies
which are supposedly in bad financial shape to foreign
bidders, workers and managers have speeded-up
privatization under this law. They are trying to preempt the
process before a government sell-out to foreign interests can
take place.
Thus a race is underway, with the workers privatizing state
and public property, and the government trying to halt it.
This reporter spoke to several people on the street about the
proposed sell-off. Here are the words of Vladimir
Matvejevic, an engineer and one of 800,000 men and women
in Serbia who are unemployed and looking for work:
"Before our eyes we have the examples of
Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and other economies in
"transition" where the largest industrial enterprises
have been handed over to foreign corporations. As
a consequence, thousands of workers were fired, in
obedience to rules imposed by the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
"One should bare in mind that for decades our
Yugoslav model of social-economy differed from
those in Eastern Europe. They had central state
economic control. We built a system where
businesses under workers' self-management existed
side by side with others that were privately owned.
In the self-managed sector, the companies were run
by elected representatives. Workers shared the
profits."
Workers Ask: Why Give Up Our
Shares?
So, nobody is against privatization per se. The conflict is
over how to do it. The workers demand to be the majority
shareholders. The present regime insists that the major
shareholders be investors, whose money, they say, can revive
production, introduce more economical operating structures
based on up-to-date technology and maximize savings in
production.
While this battle escalates, Belgrade is being watched closely
by foreign investors and businessmen. Last week a delegation
from the European Union visited Belgrade. Also, there was a
two-day meeting of the Business Council of the Stability Pact
for Southeastern Europe with representatives from sixty
companies in Europe, Asia and the U.S.
This "Investors Mission" met with 150 leading Yugoslav
industrial managers. Mr. Bodo Hombah, special coordinator
for the Stability Pact, and Manfred Nusbaumer,
Vice-President of the Business Council, held a press
conference where they demanded that: "the Belgrade
Government provide suitable conditions for business, along
with a law that it will guarantee the safety of foreign
investments."
"Please, no more help," says Mrs. Brezovacki
"They are offering to help us from abroad? Please!"
says Mrs. Goritsa Brezovachki, who works at a
garment factory . "First they impose sanctions. Then
they instigate civil war, stop production, bomb our
factories. Now finally after devastating our country
and putting us in a desperate position, they swarm
in with their bags of gold to buy our businesses
cheap and make us a colony. No more help!" (1)
The above opinion is not shared by Mrs. Mirosinka Dinkich,
a member of the G-17 group of economists. (2) Says Mrs.
Dinkich:
"It is better to be a well paid employee in a foreign
owned company, than a poor shareholder in a
company that makes no profits."
But workers counter this, asking, "Who says we will have any
job at all if these foreign interests get a hold of our
companies?" And Mrs. Dinkic admits that in the first year of
the regime's proposed economic reforms approximately
300,000 more workers would be left jobless. Out of these,
some 50,000 could find jobs in reconstructed companies and
another 50,000 in new companies. What about the remaining
200,000 desperate, hungry people? She recommends spending
around $400 million. But this is only to help them during the
first year. What about later on? And in any case, where would
this money come from? The government has no answer.
"Stop stealing the Electrical Power Assets"
Today (Monday, February 12) the Government will submit its
proposal for changing the old Law on Privatization to
Parliament. Meanwhile, workers are angry and getting
angrier.
Mr. Radomir Smiljanic, President of the Council of the
Serbian Association of Unions, says that:
"This Government 'writes the lunch bill for the
waiter,' avoiding consultations with the workers.
As proposed by the Government, workers are
entitled to 10% of the free shares. Other private
parties may obtain 15%. But 60% of the shares are
earmarked for bidders in public auctions to be run
by the state. The money thus obtained is to be used
by the state to meet its obligations, including
providing pensions."
Many workers feel this amounts to blackmail. If you want
your pensions, the argument goes, you have to give up your
right to shares in companies where you labored with the
understanding that you were the shareholders.
Mr. Aleksandar Vlahovic, the Minister of Privatization,
argues that, "it is essential that 'strategic partners', those with
a fresh money supply, enter the company."
To secure this plan, the new law would immediately halt the
current wave of worker-oriented privatizations.
While the conflict between the regime and the workers
intensifies, workers in major Serbian companies are sending
out urgent messages about the "organized plunder" of national
economic assets. "Stop the stealing of Serbian Electrical
Power Assets", alerts the paper of the Serbian Electrical
Power Industry. The employees say there's been a rapid
erosion of asset-value by management. Last Fall management
declared the assets to be worth more than $20 billion. Now
the figure is down to $4.2 billion.
Social Upheaval?
Last year, around 870 facilities out of a total of 7,000 were
privatized under the old Privatization Law. But this year, in
the past three months alone, 630 state and public companies
have gotten new, private owners.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry for Economical
International Relations, Mr. Boran Karadjola, says "Whether
we like it or not, globalization is an unstoppable process,
which has to enter Yugoslavia, if it wants to be a part of the
world." He has recently signed a document bringing
Yugoslavia into the WTO as an observer.
Similarly, the head of the new Serbian Government, Mr.
Zoran Djindjic, told a meeting with the Serbian managers of
major companies three days ago that, "We want strong foreign
capitalists to come in, not shaky ones."
Clearly the government won't willingly back down. It intends
to open the door to foreign capital although it is fully aware
that foreign bidders will collude to keep the selling price
low. (3)
The ongoing conflict between the government and workers is
entering a period of great uncertainty. Social upheavals and
the further destabilization of the otherwise poor Serbian
economy are quite possible. Interviews I conducted with a
dozen employees of the largest companies point in this
direction. For example, a woman who works at Yugoslav
Airlines, told Emperor's Clothes:
"I have been working here 25 years and have
acquired certain rights to the property of my
company. Why should I agree now to be hired by a
new owner who would buy our airplanes, buildings
and technical equipment dirt cheap? If it happened,
I would feel deceived and ripped off."
And other workers ask, after they buy our property dirt cheap,
what prevents them from taking the assets and closing us
down?
Such sentiments - that the country’s economic assets are being
ripped off, that the country is becoming dependent on foreign
powers which, during a protracted agony of economic
transformation that they would impose on Serbia, would care
only for their own interests - these sentiments of rebellion are
the driving force behind the planned General Strike by the
worker unions.
***
Further reading -
1) Two very good background pieces on the so-called civil
wars in Yugoslavia are: 'German and U.S. Involvement in
the Balkans' by T.W. Carr, at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/carr/carr.html and
Diana Johnstone's classic study, 'Seeing Yugoslavia
Through a Dark Glass' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/1yugo.htm
2) 'The International Monetary Fund And The Yugoslav
Elections' by Michel Chossudovsky and Jared Israel. This
article has been reprinted around the world. It documents
the connection between the G-17 economists, the present
Serbian regime, and the nation-destroying International
Monetary Fund and World Bank. It can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/1.htm
3) We came across a most revealing U.S. Commerce
Department Document, see Grand Theft: Montenegro...
at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/commerce.htm
Please Support the Journalists' Fund
Emperor's Clothes is trying to assist a few families of
Yugoslav journalists. These journalists are among the
many journalists who have literally been thrown out of
work when thugs took over all TV and radio stations and
newspapers during and after the Oct. 5th coup. These
attacks are part of the terror in 'democratic' Serbia. We
are providing some financial help; we need to provide
more.
It's really a privilege to be able to help these brave men
and women who are trying to report 'the other side' within
Yugoslavia and, through Emperor's Clothes and other
media, to the outside world.
Meanwhile, our own operating costs have increased. (For
instance, monthly fees for the superb news media search
engine Lexis have more than doubled.)
If you can make a contribution either to our general
expenses or specifically to help the Journalists' Fund,
please do. Any amount will help. To use our secure server,
please go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/howyour.htm#donate.
(If you use the secure server and wish your contribution to
go to the Journalists' Fund, please send us a note at
emperors1000@...
Or you can mail a check to Emperor's Clothes, P.O. Box
610-321, Newton, MA 02461-0321.
Or call 617 916-1705 from 9-5, Eastern U.S. time and ask
for Bob. Thanks very much!
And please join our email list so we can keep you
informed.
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista".
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.ecircle.it/an_ecircle/articles?ecircleid%c2%91979
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB:
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
eCircle ti offre una nuova opportunita:
la tua agenda sul web - per te e per i tuoi amici
Organizza on line i tuoi appuntamenti .
E' facile, veloce e gratuito!
Da oggi su
http://www.ecircle.it/ad1145927/www.ecircle.it