On Solidarity: Why It Is Important to Reflect on the Student Protests of the 1930s

The radio drama On Solidarity: Why It Is Important to Reflect on the Student Protests of the 1930s is the result of research conducted in Belgrade and Zagreb during 2011 and 2012, as well as a previously organized public discussion and exhibition in Belgrade. Its central aim is to bring to light a largely forgotten chapter in the history of revolutionary student struggles in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and to emphasize the connections among students—their struggles, communication, and forms of solidarity—which often extended beyond the boundaries of the student movement itself. The audio-visual installation draws on various archival materials collected in Belgrade and Zagreb (statements and leaflets produced by students in the 1930s, media reports from plenums and protests, police records, newspaper articles, photographs, etc.) that document the repression faced by student movements in their struggle.

Student protests and blockades based on the principles of the plenum—a directly democratic student assembly—such as those held at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 2011 or at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb in 2009, have become increasingly common at universities in Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Rijeka, Novi Sad, and other cities across the region. Their key aims concern the securing of publicly funded education accessible to all, the defense of university autonomy, and the strengthening of student self-organization.

Although this fact remains little known to the broader public, student struggles grounded in the principles of direct democracy were a widespread form of organization within the progressive—indeed revolutionary—student movements at the University of Belgrade and the University of Zagreb between the two World Wars, particularly during the 1930s. The capitalist order of the period, the economic crisis, and the general rise of fascism are just some of the parallels that can be observed between the social, political, and economic conditions students faced then and those confronting students today. The historical importance of these earlier struggles is further reflected in archival data showing that approximately half of all students at the University of Belgrade were involved in progressive student movements.