The sound of a police siren and a message from a megaphone: "Dear professors, we inform you that the blockade of the Faculty of Philosophy has begun." Thus began a wave of student blockades at the University of Novi Sad.
First-year communication studies student Olga Pantić was on shift in the faculty cafeteria at the time. She left work and joined her colleagues. The faculty has been her home ever since – she sleeps, eats and lives there.
"I've gotten so used to it that it's even nicer here than at home. Everything revolves around the blockade. It's like work. Especially on the eve of some big protests," Olga tells DW.
The students immediately put forward their demands, including the determination of political and criminal responsibility for the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station, under which 15 people died and two were seriously injured.
They also opened their doors to students from other faculties who came to inquire about how they could also join the blockade.
"We often gave them our amphitheater and classrooms for meetings and agreements on how they could join the blockade, how to organize their plenums, and some faculties actually held their first plenums at our faculty," recalls student Tatjana Rašić.
Thus, in just a few weeks, almost the entire university in Novi Sad was blocked.
Everything works like a Swiss watch.
Those who were often late for morning lectures and struggled to meet deadlines now function like a Swiss watch. All decisions are made through direct democracy, in plenary sessions, and tasks are implemented through teams.
Olga Pantić is a representative of her faculty on the university's security team. They secure protests, stop traffic, direct protest columns, and make sure everything goes smoothly.
"We have coordinators and delegates. Each coordinator has a walkie-talkie so we can communicate with each other, and they tell the delegates what to do, when to start, when to stop, and the delegates have megaphones and each of them has their own section that they deal with. For example, delegates for the sides, for the back or the front. And we are all in agreement. And we all listen to each other," Olga explains.
After numerous attacks on protesters, the riot police also got their own special unit – the Beavers. The unit's name is a play on words with the name of the state's special military unit called "Cobras".
"Beavers wear motorcycle protection and helmets, so that if a car hits them, they can fall without getting hurt. And they are the most physically fit students. They are the first to run in front of the car if necessary."
Each faculty also has its own special teams. Hygiene is handled by a team called the Sanitary Brigade at the Faculty of Philosophy, while the logistics team manages donations, and these days has its hands full transporting hundreds of sleeping mattresses to Kragujevac, where the next big protest will take place.
A special security team keeps track of who enters and leaves the faculty. Engineering students have created an app that helps them keep accurate records to avoid "uninvited" guests.
"These are the ones who caused problems, whether they insulted someone, or were caught engaging in espionage, passing on information from the plenum, or lying. We coordinate this at the university level, and anyone who is on a blacklist at one faculty cannot enter other faculties," says Olga.
Plenums as a trademark
They proudly point out that all decisions are made at plenums in which all students who wish to participate participate.
"And every decision that concerns the blockaded community is made on the spot by majority vote, and that is the only legitimate way our community makes decisions," student Nemanja Ćurčić explains to DW.
Sometimes hundreds of students participate in the plenum, and discussions can last for hours, because everyone has the right to speak.
"It is sometimes exhausting, but we students do not believe in representative democracy. In our community, it has proven to be bad, because when we give an individual the opportunity to represent us, it also leaves room for some form of corruption, personal opinion and everything else we see in our political life every day. Students do not want that. We have chosen this more difficult, but more correct and fair path," explains Nemanja.
What are the real goals of the movement?
World pop diva Madonna wrote on her Instagram profile that the biggest student protest since 1968 is taking place in Serbia. Some analysts agree with this. This movement has awakened the entire education system, lawyers, medical professionals, the IT sector and numerous citizens, led to the fall of the government and initiated protests in almost all municipalities in Serbia. But what are their real achievements?
"They are the political force that has the greatest legitimacy at this moment in our country. If they were to propose and participate in creating a political platform - whatever it looks like - that is the only platform that has a chance of success," says Ognjen Radonjić, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.
For now, however, students are showing great distrust towards all opposition actors - from activist groups, to non-governmental organizations, to political parties, but also towards the proposals coming from them, such as the formation of a transitional government that would ensure the work of institutions and provide fair conditions for the next elections.
"I don't think it's useful to impose anything on them at this point. I'm convinced that it will mature in them over time. We have to let them go. They are afraid of external influences and introduced elements and show some elements of introversion, but that's to be expected considering everything they've been through," adds Radonjić.
He reminds us that their structure is their biggest shield at the moment. "The government has been trying to insert its own elements from the beginning, but as long as they decide in the mass, those elements cannot come to the fore, they cannot outvote them. Another thing is, they have no leaders, so the government has no one to recruit and bribe or disavow in public," adds Radonjić.
But it is precisely at the plenums, they say, that they are already extensively discussing these topics, and investigating all the models that have been proposed in public.
"We are truly aware of our power in society at this moment. For this reason, we are truly watching every next step, every opinion we will go public with, every topic we put on the public airwaves," explains Tatjana Rašić.
But above all, they expect their demands to be met. Because without that, they say, there is no hope that anyone in Serbia can expect justice.
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