Yugoslavia’s Political Class and Popular Unrest in the Summer of 1988

Abstract

The mid-1980s witnessed the rise of popular protest in socialist Yugoslavia, and not only among Kosovo Serbs. Following a relative quiescence of the working class after Tito’s death, the rate of strikes increased sharply between 1985 and 1987, participation in the protests grew and workers’ demands turned more radical. The May 1988 austerity measures of the Federal Executive Council (federal government) triggered a series of strikes throughout the country, as well as a number of highly visible protest marches and demonstrations of industrial workers in the capital and regional centres. Simultaneously, Kosovo Serb activists launched another protest campaign, this time with more radical demands and protest strategies. After the unexpected success of their July protest in Novi Sad, the administrative centre of Vojvodina, protest organizers and their allies outside Kosovo launched a series of large protests in this autonomous province of Serbia and in Montenegro in July and August. The summer protests of industrial workers, Kosovo Serbs and their allies amplified a long-standing conflict in the higher echelons of the partystate, triggered rifts between higher- and lower-ranking officials, as well as an important shift in state-society relations. These consequences in turn set the stage for the spread of mobilization in September and October, that is, for the antibureaucratic revolution.