Mass Movements and Nationalism in Serbia and Yugoslavia in 1988: The Case of Vojvodina

The year of 1988 is often regarded as a period of mass political actions in the politics of Socialist Serbia and Yugoslavia. From summer to autumn of that year, a series of meetings and demonstrations erupted and spread from one place to another with mutual connections. These events first took place in Vojvodina, followed by Serbia including Kosovo and Montenegro. As a whole, they are frequently called the “antibureaucratic revolution,” and it is generally said that they created large popular support for the Serbian party leadership headed by Slobodan Milo?evi? and led the escalation of nationalism in the political stages and discourse in Serbia in particular and in Yugoslavia in general. This article explores the relationship of such mass movements with nationalism, particularly focusing on the development of meetings in the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia from July to October 1988. It attempts to gauge the extent to which nationalism, or national/nationalist values and factors, shaped various aspects of these mass movements in Vojvodina, taking two steps for this purpose: the first is to grasp national(ist) factors in the overall structure of meetings, and the second is to analyze the ways in which nationalism was being articulated, understood, and discussed in the process of meetings, addressing their individual scenes and issues. On July 9, 1988, a protest meeting was organized in Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, by a voluntary committee of Serbian and Montenegrin activists from Kosovo, with a view toward making the strained situation of Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo widely known beyond the region. It was the first meeting that triggered a chain of meetings throughout the province in the following three months. A detailed study of these events demonstrates that overall 33 meetings took place in 28 municipalities in Vojvodina during that period, in which around 2.3 million people participated. Similar mass movements expanded to other cities and towns in Serbia and Montenegro. In Novi Sad, the largest meeting took place between October 5 and 6, which eventually resulted in the resignation of the party leadership of the province. It was the first time in Socialist Yugoslavia that a party leadership surrendered to the pressure of mass movements. Such a series of meetings in Vojvodina was not separate events, but was connected with and composed of multiple factors. In the initial phase, the meetings were planned to appeal to solidarity with Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo, which demonstrates an instrumental role of national values and factors. Yet, as the meetings subsequently expanded more and more around the province, those involved (organizers and participants) diversified, with the increase in non-national factors leading to the pluralization and radicalization of their purposes and demands. Therefore, it could be observed that nationalism and national factors were not central, let alone dominant, in the various aspects composing the series of meetings in Vojvodina. Instead, what underpinned and strengthened the logic and context of large-scale mobilization and the unity of meetings was the frame of anti-bureaucratic struggle. It does not mean that national factors did not matter, but suggests that they constituted an indispensable but partial element in the movements. Looking closely at individual scenes and issues in the meetings with variety and plurality enables us to reveal that their organizers and participants always tried either to avoid their own possible nationalistic and anti-regime tendencies very carefully or to emphasize the multi-ethnic nature of their meetings. Yet, in some cases, the behaviors of specific individuals and groups among the participants, however marginal they were, did become an object of dispute and criticism, as they were considered as an explicit expression of nationalism and nationalistic inclinations. Within the federal party leadership, meanwhile, serious discrepancy and even confrontation in opinions emerged among republic/province party leaderships concerning a series of meetings in Vojvodina as well as the question of nationalism. The controversy revolved around the interpretation of the meetings and the characterization of their agenda. In the situation where the masses (narod) suddenly appeared in the politics and society of Serbia and Yugoslavia in the form of frequent meetings, some (mainly in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also Slovenia) condemned them and their structure on the (Serbian) national foundation for the danger of nationalism. Others (basically in Serbia and also Montenegro) supported their legitimate actions predicated on the people, not a particular nation, claiming their multi-national nature incorporating other nations and ethnic groups in Vojvodina alongside Serbs and Montenegrins. This critical gap remained serious and unbridgeable. To sum up, this article sheds light on two aspects concerning the place of nationalism amid the expanding meetings in Vojvodina. The first aspect indicates disagreements among relevant actors and groups of meetings over the understanding of nationalism, which made nationalism itself an object of debate. The second aspect is the very circumstances of the meetings under which a great number of people were being mobilized and united on a large scale around Vojvodina and Serbia. The mass dynamics was an important result of a chain of meetings in Vojvodina, whether it was interpreted as nationalist, an escalation of nationalism, or the people’s non-nationalist movement