Welcome to the Desert of Transition!: Post-Socialism, the European Union, and a New Left in the Balkans

• Published in: Monthly review (New York. 1949) Vol. 63; no. 10; pp. 38 - 48
• Main Authors: Horvat, Srećko, Štiks, Igor
• Format: Journal Article Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Monthly Review Press 01-03-2012
• Subjects: Albania; American Indians; Balkan States; Corruption; Democracy; European Union; Left Wing Politics; Macedonia; Neoliberalism; Nostalgia; Politics; Privatization; Revolutions; Rhetoric; Serbia; Weapons
• ISSN: 0027-0520; 0027-0520
• DOI: 10.14452/MR-063-10-2012-03_4

The world's attention has been on the political transformations in the Middle East, the wave of protests from Tel Aviv to Madrid to Wall Street, and the ongoing Greek crisis. But in the shadow of this unrest, the post-socialist Balkans have been boiling. Protests displaying for the most part social demands broke out throughout 2011 in Romania, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia and, most notably, Croatia. At the start of the Croatian protests, Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko described the protestors as "Indijanci," meaning native American "Indians." He intended to belittle the protestors and their demands by describing them as a colorful carnival of political irrelevant actors. Not only did this turn against the Minister himself -- the protestors appropriated the intended slur and turned it into a satirical weapon against the government, so much so that later many talked about the "Indian revolution" -- but it also revealed the essence of the Eastern European, and especially Balkan, predicament today. Adapted from the source document.