There is no doubt that foreign direct investments (FDIs) constitute a central pillar of the Serbian government’s development strategy. In fact, all previous governments over the last couple of decades have heavily relied on FDIs as their sole source of econom- ic development. Yet simultaneously, through pushing the process of deindustrialization that accompanied the disintegration of the socialist Yugoslavia in this direction, all former governments have systematically contributed to the destruction of the country’s devel- opment potential. Every aspect of the Yugoslav industrial heritage was forcibly eradicated and purged of the ‘sins’ of socialist forms of ownership. This process greatly accelerated from the year 2000 on- wards, when the vast, dysfunctional industries undertook rapid con- versions in ownership (privatizations) followed by massive layo s. The largest chunk of FDIs actually resulted from these conversions. This process of systematic and intentional deindustrialization had catastrophic e ects on the real sector of the economy and at the same time led to substantial class restructuring in Serbian society. As a result of this, many people were le without jobs and largely without their factories. Previously important industrial centers became ghost towns. The urgent task of reindustrialization was le to the ‘philanthropic missions’ of foreign investors. And yet, their primary goal is to extract maximum pro ts, with li le direct interest in development, and especially not in the development of foreign national economies. Serbia’s rapid entry into a neoliberal capitalist system of global economic and political interdependence has there- fore been crucially marked by foreign investments.
Authors: Igor Štiks/Krunoslav StojakovićOn the morning of 15 April 2009, students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Filozofski fakultet) in Zagreb interrupted classes to declare a blockade (blokada) of the premises. What began as just another student strike against the rampant commercialisation of higher education would become the day the Left was born—or rather re-born—in the post-socialist Balkans.
Maja Solar (urednica)
Anamarija Šiša/Antonija Todić