ACOUSTIC CANNONS DO NOT STOP YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERBIA
by ANDREA BELLAVITE
The institutions of the European Union are divided, there are those who support the need for rearmament, those who support defense, without however explaining the practical difference between one concept and another. The war in Ukraine has taken a sharp turn with the interventionism of the American president. Bombs are back in Gaza and humanitarian convoys are hindered, while the voice of violence prevails in the West Bank as well. The tariff war unleashed by Trump sows panic in the Old Continent and elsewhere.
The parties are divided, even internally, those who believe that European defence is right are accused of warmongering at the service of armed lobbies, those who think in the opposite way of irresponsible pro-Putin pacifism. Peace movements are struggling to get back into action. Their demands are well argued, but the participation attracts many veterans of nonviolent struggles, dated at least since the times of Vietnam.
But is there anything that induces hope in such delicate times?
Yes, there are young people in Serbia who have been demonstrating for months against the regime imposed by President Vučič. Very little is said about it, especially in Italy and this fact alone is a measure of an incisiveness that arouses fears of emulation. They are university and high school students who took to the streets in the aftermath of one of the most absurd tragedies to hit the nation, the collapse of the newly built shelter of the Novi Sad station. The disaster, which occurred on November 1, 2024, killed 15 people and injured dozens. The embarrassed government explanations did not convince the young people who from that day on have even renounced the right to study, in order to be able to shout their indignation to the world. They considered the event a real murder, carried out by politicians who accepted the logic of corruption and incompetence. They were joined by workers and peasants, the protest spread. It has led to the resignation of two ministers and is putting the president in great difficulty. Further developments are expected, in Belgrade, Novi Sad and elsewhere we see the most impressive demonstrations since Serbia’s independence. The government is not sitting on its hands and new cruel forms of dissuasion are being experimented, even the use of acoustic cannons to create disorientation, severe discomfort, heat waves, headaches and interfering, among other things, with the functioning of pacemakers installed in heart patients.
And there are also the demonstrators in Greece who are waking up a sleepy Athens. They too refer to a catastrophe, the train accident that led to the death of as many as 57 people in 2023. They too did not want to buy the official versions and by occupying the vital nerve centers of the Greek capital they are putting the government in a strong crisis. Also in this case the protagonists are the young people, full of enthusiasm and enthusiasm.
It is right to remember these modern freedom fighters. It is true, they can be prey to party appetites or become cannon fodder in the pay of other powerful people who try to take advantage of them. It is necessary to protect their creativity, supporting them in transforming discontent into genuinely political proposals and projects. But it is also necessary to learn from their desire to live and to be protagonists of the change of a consumerist, classist, corrupt society that they want to change in the depths.