I’m Doing all that’s Needed.’ Activists in Local Communities in Yugoslavia during the 1970s and 1980s

Uvođenje mjesnih zajednica kao samoupravnih jedinica unutar općine bilo je oblik jačanja društvenoga samoupravljanja i socijalističke izravne demokracije u Jugoslaviji te, prema marksističkoj teoriji, dio procesa odumiranja države. Začetke donosi Ustav iz 1963., no tek Ustavom iz 1974. mjesne su zajednice postale obavezan oblik samoupravnoga organiziranja građana. Zamišljene kao svojevrsne proširene obitelji, umnogome su ovisile o inicijativi odozdo i djelovanju aktivista. Rad donosi teorijske pretpostavke i praktične aspekte aktivističkoga djelovanja u mjesnim zajednicama u raznim dijelovima Jugoslavije, a na temelju analize uspostavljaju se karakteristični tipovi aktivista koji su određeni generacijskim, klasnim i interesnim odnosima. Podaci se ponajviše crpe iz onodobne literature, specijaliziranoga lista Mjesna zajednica i arhivskoga gradiva.After the experience with people’s committees, small municipalities, and residential communities, socialist Yugoslavia began introducing local communities as self-governing units and communities of citizens within the new, larger municipalities. They were a way of strengthening social self-management and socialist direct democracy and, according to Marxist theory, envisioned as part of the withering away of the state, and therefore part of the process of de-bureaucratisation and humanisation of social relations. The foundations of the new socio-political organisation were set down by the 1963 Constitution, but it was only the 1974 Constitution that established local communities as one of the core parts of the socio-political system and a compulsory form of citizens’ self-government organisation. Envisioned as something akin to extended families, they were greatly dependent on initiatives from below, on the energy, enthusiasm, and free time of interested citizens. Therefore, this paper attempts to answer the following questions: how was the concept of local communities envisioned; did citizens’ interest reach the expected level, and who were the activists among them; what prompted their enthusiasm, and how did they understand their activities? Based on our analysis, we establish the characteristic types of activists determined by generational, class, and interest relations. In defining the theoretical and practical aspects of social self-government in local communities, the paper refers to the Programme of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, constitutional and legal provisions, and the theoretical tenets of the actors of that period. Our approach also considers the then and current papers from the field of administrative sciences. The everyday and practical activities in local communities are analysed based on the writings published in Mjesna zajednica (Local Community), the specialised monthly of the Conference for the Development of Local Communities, which acted as part of the Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Yugoslavia, as well as archival data from the fond of the Republican Conference of the Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Croatia.