In Belgrade, Oil Jumped from 15 to 51 Dinars

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <LABOR-L at YorkU.CA>
>
>IN BELGRADE, OIL JUMPED FROM 15 TO 51 DINARS
>
>"Democracy" will not fill all pockets
>
>In Belgrade, the price of one liter of oil had jumped from 15 to 51 dinars,
>price of bread from 6 to 14 and of sugar from 6 to 45. "Democratic prices",
>mock the consumers, already disappointed. In Kragujevac, trade unionists of
>Zastava are beaten and persecuted. At the same time, the Western financial
>press celebrates "good business in sight." And finally, one US senator
>already threatens Kostunica that NATO will expand to Slovenia. What are the
>connections between these four facts?
>
>Michel Collon
>
>
>
>Our Western media do not speak about Yugoslavia anymore. Still, important
>things are happening there. And revealing...
>
>Before, the government gave subsidizes for the production of basic food
>products. So farmers and merchants still had enough gain, but consumers
>could buy in spite of embargo. Nobody was dying of hunger.
>
>But the DOS opposition had announced, in its "G 17 plus" program, that "the
>new government will immediately suspend all the subsidies, with no regret
>or hesitation, because it will be difficult to apply this measure later".
>Indeed, it didn't take them long at all!
>
>Los Angeles Times of Oct. 15 writes: "When Kostunica supporters forced out
>most managers in state-owned shops and factories and put their own people
>in charge, that system of controls collapsed and prices immediately shot
>up. New directors are moving quickly to make their plants more profitable."
>Problem: consumers are dissatisfied and elections are in two months. So,
>director of G 17, Mladjan Dinkic, is accusing... the Serbian government,
>still run by SPS socialists, of "wanting to create chaos." But this
>argument can&#8217;t hold water: the new government is not functioning
>precisely because of the chaos created by DOS, its street-violence and the
>"crisis committees" which forcibly took over the control of all institutions.
>
>We will be able to export to Yugoslavia
>
>Therefore we see already that the "prosperity" announced in election
>promises will not fill all pockets. But whose will it fill? This is
>answered in the Italian financial supplement of International Herald
>Tribune of Oct. 10 (Italy is Yugoslav economic partner No. 2):
>
>"Perspectives seem good and Italian export goods - shoes, textile, food
>products will be the first to profit from the occasion. But privatization
>in Yugoslavia might also attract the interest of foreign investors. Lot of
>public sectors - including energy and airports - can get licenses soon and
>their re-structuring might open space for new foreign capital.
>
>What does it mean to "open space"? On the spot, at the moment of putsch, a
>friend of mine, Radmila, warned me: "Actually, our electricity worked
>really well. Foreign companies would want to put its hands on it. But to
>invest, they would demand substantial profits, which means huge rate
>increases. People do not understand that this G17 program will ruin them!"
>
>About the export of Italian shoes...Having forgotten my moccasin's back
>home, I had to buy a new pair in Belgrade: 1,100 dinars. One third the cost
>of the Italian shoes I usually buy. Maybe somewhat less fashionable, but
>comfortable and well built.
>
>What will happen under the new regime? With their financial power, western
>multinationals will take the control over Yugoslav factories, closing a big
>part of them, and Western products will flood over the local market. Europe
>would be able to get rid of its food-stocks, at unbeatable prices, because
>of European Union subsidies (so there! in this case, it's good to
>subsidize, isn't it?). "Mad cows" and other genetically altered
>food-products can feed the Serbs then, they're too numerous anyway, right?
>But West will throw in some aid, they say..."Aid"? Germany wants absolutely
>to re-open the Danube, so it will provide funds. Gifts? No, loans. To keep
>Yugoslavia "cooperative" while extorting payments like numerous other
>countries forced by spiral of debts to always grant greater concessions. In
>short, Yugoslavia will pay for the bombing damages! Scandalous.
>
>And what will this cleaned Danube serve for? First of all, to flood the
>country with German merchandise, which will eliminate local products from
>the market.
>
>In short, instead of promised prosperity, one New York Times editorial
>(Oct. 15) predicts that "at worst Yugoslavia's economy could follow
>Russia's path, to corruption and decline".
>
>Why are syndicate activists beaten?
>
>In Kragujevac, car factory Zastava trade unionists have been kidnapped and
>beaten by ex-opposition gangs. People responsible for truck department were
>forced to resign. The progressive Italian daily Il Manifesto (which rather
>supported Kostunica) was appalled:
>
>"Union members have been as independent from Milosevic as from the
>opposition. They relayed humanitarian operations of Italian unions. But
>opposition union activists (trained in Rumania by U.S. experts) are
>pressuring the workers, threatening them with massive layoffs. 'We fought
>for the workers, without engaging in politics. This is our crime!' one of
>them concluded.
>
>All those facts are linked together. To push through this IMF policy - high
>prices, shutdowns, layoffs and gifts to multinationals, all possibility of
>union or leftist resistance - must be eliminated. In Belgrade, one office
>of the New Communist Party was burned down by rightist militia.
>
>And if all this is not enough, listen to the threats of American senator
>Joe Biden: " If Mr. Kostunica thinks he will be able to continue with an
>aggressive nationalist Serbian politics, only under milder appearance, then
>we'll have to talk him out of it. In this case, we should concentrate our
>ex-Yugoslavia politics on preparing a more democratic and more prosperous
>Slovenia, for the next NATO enlargement."
>
>NATO, again? So there, and they kept telling us that Milosevic was the only
>problem over there! And what if the problem was the resistance of Serbian
>people in general, to economic imperialism and military interventions of
>the West? Kostunica - or some other soon - being put in charge to bring
>those people up to date.
>
>In Yugoslavia the game is far from being over. A lot will depend on the
>capacity of workers to resist. Some leftist alternative is indispensable,
>and resistance is being prepared. We'll return to this question.
>
>******
>Michel Collon is an author of two books on the Balkan crisis and a resolute
>anti-war and anti-NATO activist