"Stevanka." Excerpt from Trancizija (Transition),
a documentary film in progress about the postwar neoliberal transition
in Serbia.
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Global Balkans Urgent Action Fund Appeal for Jugoromedija Worker Stevanka Martinov February 2007 Dear Friends, As activists working to develop links and support concrete struggles in the former Yugoslav region, we at Global Balkans are writing to you as someone who has shown themselves to be aware of and concerned with the devastating impacts of the postwar, neoliberal transition in the region. We are sending you an appeal to consider supporting (in whatever capacity you can) our fundraising for an urgent action fund that we are currently establishing. Global Balkans is an emerging activist research, media and organizing network that works both locally and in solidarity with Balkan social movements to investigate, publicize and impact political, social and economic struggles in the former Yugoslav and wider Balkan region. We are working to build a transnational, anti-nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-authoritarian network operating through local, geographically determined collectives with a pan-Balkan and internationalist outlook (currently based in New York, Toronto, Montreal, and Milan). The urgent action fund we are in the process of establishing is one of several projects we are working on towards those ends. Some of you may have followed the struggle of the workers of Jugoremedija in Zrenjanin, Serbia, who after a 9 month factory occupation and a 2 and a half year strike are set to become the first factory amongst the “transition” countries in Eastern Europe undergoing neoliberal privatization to be recovered and regain majority control by its workers. If you would like to learn more about their courageous fight to overturn the illegitimate privatization of their factory, you can read more about it here: http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2006-07/16grubacic.cfm and here: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=11728. While the Jugoremedija workers are on the verge of regaining majority control of their factory (though they continue to fight ongoing political obstacles), one of the workers who has fought alongside them for the past 3 years is undergoing a serious health crisis in her family, in addition to the economic crisis and severe impoverishment she and much of the city of Zrenjanin have undergone. Stevanka Martinov has fought alongside her Jugoremedija co-workers every step of the way, throughout the factory occupation and ongoing strike, despite the fact she is a single mother of a son with a severe disability, and that she herself has also become disabled from years of lifting her son in and out of his wheelchair several times a day. Women like Stevanka are among the hardest hit casualties of Serbia’s neoliberal transition, as the toll of a 3 year strike by the sole breadwinner of this family is compounded by the serious degradation in social services and support available for people with disabilities. In fact, recent World Bank policy in the region has specifically targetted and enforced rollbacks on prior social protections for workers with disabilities. For instance, a recent memorandum of the World Bank, entitled the Republic of Montenegro Economic Memorandum - A Policy Agenda for Growth and Competitiveness" disapprovingly notes that despite the neoliberal turn of the 2003 Montenegrin Labour Law (which the World Bank helped draft), the Bank still sees deficiencies: “Dismissal of disabled workers is still costly. The 2003 Labor Law prohibited the dismissal of disabled employees, irrespective of whether there was work for them. In 2004 the Law was amended and now the labor contract with the disabled employee can be terminated on par with other individuals, This is a step in the right direction, but nevertheless these provisions, together with the restrictions on [the dismissal of] female workers with young or disabled children, make it harder for … job seekers and new entrants to find jobs.” Despite these brutal conditions, several of us have personally witnessed the amount of steadfast labour and care that Stevanka has unfailingly provided her son throughout these difficult years, even when she was refused the social assistance she is rightfully due by the town’s center for social assistance after having been identified (and insulted) as a striker. All the while, she has maintained an inspiring and unfailing spirit of resistance and contribution to the fight of the Jugoremedija workers. You can see excerpts of an interview conducted by one of the member’s of Global Balkans for an upcoming documentary on transition in Serbia here: http://globalkan.pomgrenade.org/stevanka.htm. Recently, we were contacted by an activist comrade of ours who works closely with the Jugoremedija workers with the following news. “Stevanka is asking for your help. She is in terrible situation, some months ago her son got ill from diabetes. We (the workers) helped her with the woods for winter, but she really needs much more help than we can provide.” They have asked that we consider establishing a small urgent action fund for situations like Stevanka’s, as there are so many in Serbia and the transition countries who are already severely impoverished, and one health or financial crisis away from devastating consequences. Zrenjanin itself is a town, once one of the main industrial centers of the former Yugoslavia, that has been reduced from approximately 50 working factories to 1 or 2 barely functioning ones. The average monthly salary in Serbia is 240 euros, with unemployment at around 30%. Concretely what is needed to help stabilize the health of Stevanka’s son is a target amount of around 500 euros to go to the following items: - two accumulators for her son's wheelchair, Therefore, we are making a grassroots fundraising call-out along the lines of a 10 X 50, 15 X 20 scheme. That is, if we can find 10 people who would consider donating $50, and another 15 to make a contribution of $20, we would be well on our way to our target amount of 500 euros. Of course, any amount that anyone can offer will be helpful and appreciated. And if you cannot help at the moment but would like to keep informed of this and other situations we are following, let us know at the e-mail below. Any amount we receive over the target amount will be allocated for similar front-line urgent situations such as Stevanka’s. Cheques can be made out to QPIRG-McGill (please write Global Balkans in the subject line of the cheque) and sent to Global Balkans, c/o the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill (QPIRG-McGill), 3647 Rue de l’Université, Montreal, QC Canada H3A 2B3. Please drop us an e-mail to let us know if you do send a donation by cheque. Paypal payments may be sent care of the Volatile Works collective (direct the payments to <donations [at] volatileworks.org> and write Global Balkans in the subject line). We are hoping to be able to send out our contribution as soon as possible, so please let us know if you intend on contributing but cannot do so right away. We should be clear that while the aim of Global Balkans is not to become a charity or other NGO-like structure, for both political reasons and a lack of resources, we see the purpose of this urgent action fund as part and parcel of our work in building links of direct coordination and solidarity with grassroots political movements for social and economic justice in the former Yugoslav and wider Balkan region. Thank you for your interest and for following our call-out this far. If you would like to be kept in touch and follow future news, developments, and Global Balkans projects, send us an e-mail letting us know you would like to be placed on the Global Balkan listserv, or subscribe at: https://pomgrenade.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/globalbalkans-pomgrenade.org. In solidarity, Tamara, Andrej, Kole, Irina, Dusko Global Balkans can be contacted at: globalbalkans [at] yahoo.ca. |