Deindustrijalizacija i radnički otpor - Pokret za slobodu

pitals, schools, in the state administration, the police, the army – aswell as those working for military industries and in the banking andinsurance sectors, etc).In fact, it was under Milosević’s privatization law that the populistconcept of ‘socially acceptable’ privatization first emerged – i.e. the ideathat all adult citizens of Serbia had rights to their share of whatever was‘socially owned’ in the state. Of course, hiding behind the mask of socialjustice was a plan to execute the exact opposite of what Marković’searlier approach to privatization had intended. That is to say, the newmodel of privatization sought to deprive workers of effective decisionmakingauthority. Simply put, if 30% of the capital now belongs to thestate and 35% to ‘external’ shareholders, then this means that only 35%of the votes at the Shareholders’ Assembly would actually represent theinterests of the workers in the company.Additionally, in order to prevent communication between the ‘internal’and ‘external’ shareholders, the government ensured that the‘external’ shareholders were from cities far removed from the enterprisein question and its workers. Needless to say, this whole processwas unfolding in a context of successive wars, economic sanctions, dictatorship,etc. In such an environment there was very little educationamong workers about what the hell was going on, which rights werebeing lost and which ones were being ‘gained.’When the new ruling coalition won the 2000 elections - ending‘communist’ rule and establishing ‘democracy’ - felt no political obligationwhatsoever to consider workers as inheritors of socially ownedproperty and rights. A new neoliberal privatization law was insteadadopted in 2001. The state thus began confiscating all socially ownedproperty. Privatization was made mandatory and a strict timeline wasset for the completion of this process - a timeline that incidentally expiresthis year.The new 2001 law stipulates that 70% of the company can now besold to private investors, and that only after selling the majority share,workers can receive the remaining 30% or 15% (depending on thecase). These shares are actually free, which is actually a suitable pricefor something that isn't worth anything. The sole owners of the 70%majority in the enterprise can now have absolute control over management,which gives them the power to not even disclose profits to theremaining shareholders or to consult them about the direction that thecompany is taking.319