Dražen Crnomat - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Dražen Crnomat

Uploads

Papers by Dražen Crnomat

In February 2014 Bosnia and Herzegovina became a new focal point of protest in Europe, opening an... more In February 2014 Bosnia and Herzegovina became a new focal point of protest in Europe, opening anew the question of the future. It started with workers protesting in the north-eastern, proletarian and formerly socialist city of Tuzla; after clashes with the police culminated in protestors setting institutional buildings on fire it spread all over the country, involving many bigger and smaller cities. Protestors blocked the streets, reclaiming public space for a new politics focusing no longer on national but instead on socio-economic issues. They articulated their demands though plenums – people’s assemblies. One social network comment at the time said the demonstrations were not something out of order, but rather something that brings order.
Our aim in this text is to analyse the emergence of the February urban social movement against the background of its causes in the violent transformation from socialism to capitalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina as an ex-Yugoslav republic and the emergence of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state(less) colony on the periphery of Europe. Our approach is based on analytical reflections and contextualization of the February events and on observations in the field (or very close to it) during active involvement in the events that shaped our everyday life in the days of the uprising.