---------- From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: 1 year later, Serbs unhappy with capitalism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- AFP. 5 October 2001. First anniversary of Milosevic's ouster marred by economic woes. BELGRADE - A year after the popular uprising that ousted Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, the reformers who succeeded him face rising anger among impoverished workers impatient with the lack of improvement in their daily lives. A convoy of more than 100 trucks and buses took the road from the central Serbian town of Cacak on Friday -- the same they had taken last October to Belgrade for a mass protest against Milosevic -- to mark the first anniversary of the ouster. "This day should not be forgotten," Milun Kuzmanovic, one of the organisers, told radio B92, but warned that the authorities "are being closely watched." "This day marks the date when one regime has fallen, but it is also a warning to the new authorities," Kuzmanovic said, leading the convoy headed by a dredge which had been parked in front of the federal parliament last year as the first sign of the unprecedented popular uprising. The past 12 months without Milosevic have been marked by limited effects on economic growth. The government risks running into serious economic and social problems despite winning international financial [read: capitalist] support, including pledges of 1.27 billion dollars for 2001-04 at a donor conference in Brussels in June. But the international reconstruction aid came at a price. The reformist authorities had to impose tough new economic laws and taxes -- non-existent during Milosevic's time [N.B.] -- prompting an increase in prices and financial hardship for the population. Salaries are among the lowest in Europe at an average of 80 euros (73 dollars) a month while the cost of living has increased by more than 50 percent. Recent strikes at Telekom Serbia and labour tensions at Kragujevac, 120 kilometres (70 miles) from Belgrade, where privatisation of the Zastava auto factory has brought 8,000 job losses, herald worse to come, analysts believe. Last week, thousands of miners in the biggest coal mine in Serbia, Kolubara, launched a strike demanding salary increases. They were soon joined by hundreds of others from several mines, forcing the government to bow to their demands. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic dismissed the "ultimatums" set by miners. "The time chosen for the strike shows that it is a political and not a social one," Djindjic said. Independent analyst Vladimir Goati admitted that "the economic situation in the country might be worse than last year, but there are more freedoms." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spXC Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
