21/02/2023
𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗦
𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗸𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘃𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗶ć (Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade) and 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗰𝘇 (Research Fellow, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade), on the intellectual legacy of the Praxis group and the ’68 Belgrade Student protests. What political and ideological position did these leading Serbian intellectuals-dissidents occupy in the years and decades following the protest?
Losoncz, Mark; Pavlović, Aleksandar (2019), “Belgrade 1968 Protests and the Post-Evental Fidelity: Intellectual and Political Legacy of the 1968 Student Protests in Serbia”, 𝑷𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒚 30 (1): 149–164. doi: 10.2298/FID1901149P.
https://journal.instifdt.bg.ac.rs/index.php/fid/article/view/731
𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟴 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗯𝗶𝗮
Even though Belgrade student protests emerged and ended abruptly after only seven days in June of 1968, they came as a cumulative point of a decade-long accumulated social dissatisfaction and antagonisms, as well as of philosophical investigations of the unorthodox Marxists of the Praxis school (Praksisovci). It surprised the Yugoslav authorities as the first massive rebellion after WWII to explicitly criticize rising social inequality, bureaucratization and unemployment and demand free speech and abolishment of privileges. This article focuses on the intellectual destiny and legacy of the eight professors from the Faculty of Philosophy close to the Praxis school, who were identified as the protests’ instigators and subsequently expelled from the University of Belgrade due to their “ethico-political unsuitability”. Under both international and domestic pressure, they were later reemployed in a separate research unit named the Centre for Philosophy and Social Theory, where they kept their critical edge and argued for political pluralism. From the late 1980s onwards, they and their colleagues became politically active and at times occupied the highest positions in Serbia – Dragoljub Mićunović as one of the founders of the modern Democratic Party and the Speaker of the Parliament, former Serbian President and Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and former Prime Minister late Zoran Đinđić. Still, while some members became strong anti-nationalists and anti-war activists, other embraced Serbian nationalism, therefore pivoting the intellectual split into the so called First and Second Serbia that marked Serbian society during the 1990s and remained influential to this day.
𝗜𝗭 𝗡𝗔Š𝗘𝗚 𝗔𝗥𝗛𝗜𝗩𝗔
𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗸𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘃𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗶ć i 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗟𝗼š𝗼𝗻𝗰 o intelektualnom nasleđu Praksisovaca i studentskih protesta '68 u Beogradu. Kako su se politički i ideološki pozicionirali ovi vodeći srpski intelektualci-disidenti u godinama i decenijama nakon protesta?
𝗕𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘀𝗸𝗶 š𝗲𝘇𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝘁𝗼𝘀𝗺𝗮š𝗶 𝗶 𝗻𝗮𝗸𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗻𝗮 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗴𝗮đ𝗮𝗷𝘂: 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗸𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗻𝗼 𝗶 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶č𝗸𝗼 𝗻𝗮𝘀𝗹𝗲đ𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮 𝗶𝘇 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟴. 𝗴𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘂 𝗦𝗿𝗯𝗶𝗷𝗶
Iako su beogradski studentski protesti izbili i završili se u junu 1968. godine posle svega nedelju dana, oni predstavljaju zbirnu tačku nagomilanog decenijskog društvenog nezadovoljstva i protivrečnosti, kao i filozofskih istraživanja neortodoksnih marksista iz Praksis škole (Praksisovci). Protesti su iznenadili jugoslovenske vlasti kao prva masovna pobuna nakon Drugog svetskog rata koja je eksplicitno kritikovala rastuću društvenu nejednakost, birokratizaciju i nezaposlenost, i zahtevala slobodu govora i ukidanje privilegija. Ovaj članak fokusira se na sudbinu osmoro profesora sa Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu bliskih Praksis idejama, koje je režim identifikovao kao podstrekače protesta i kasnije ih proterao sa fakulteta zbog njihove „moralno-političke nepodobnosti“. Nakon međunarodnih i unutrašnjih pritisaka, oni su kasnije ponovo zaposleni u zasebnoj istraživačkoj jedinici nazvanoj Centar za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju, gde su zadržali svoju kritičku oštricu i zagovarali politički pluralizam. Od kraja osamdesetih godina prošlog veka, oni i njihove kolege iz Centra postaju politički aktivni, nalaze se među osnivačima i kasnije liderima Demokratske Stranke i povremeno zauzimaju najviše položaje u Srbiji – Dragoljub Mićunović kao predsedavajući Narodne skupštine, bivši srpski predsednik i premijer Vojislav Koštunica i nekadašnji premijer Zoran Đinđić. Međutim, dok su neki članovi osmorke i Centra postali čvrsti antinacionalisti i antiratni aktivisti, drugi su prigrlili srpski nacionalizam, tako predvodeći intelektualni razdor na Prvu i Drugi Srbiju koji je obeležio srpsko društvo devedesetih godina prošlog veka, i ostao uticajan do danas.
Philosophy and Society is a peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal established in 1987 by members of the Belgrade Praxis Group.
