AG: Let me begin by asking about the last round of privatization in Serbia. What used to be called in the state-socialist system of former Yugoslavia, "socially owned property," is being enclosed and privatized. How advanced is this process of "privatization through bankruptcy" at the moment? And at the risk of sounding legalistic, how legal is this process of accumulation by dispossession?

Check out the Hour Magazine article on the launch of the Global Balkans Network in Montreal.

The IMF recently concluded a one-week mission to Serbia, during which it extended the second-tranche of a EUR 4.3-billion loan package to Serbia. However, it gave the government until late October to reign in public sector spending as a condition for disbursing the third-tranche of the agreement (worth EUR 1.4-billion) by the end of the year.

The tough negotiations come at a time when the incumbent government of Serbia is facing a 4% contraction in its economy and a determined workers movement that refuses to bear the burden of economic restructuring after years of corruption that has bound together key Serbian business and political interests in the squandering of public funds. 2009 is also the self-imposed deadline set by the government for completing the sell-off of all ’socially owned’ (i.e. formerly self-managed) companies in Serbia.

Global Balkans interviewed by Sonali Kolhatkar, Uprising Radio (KPFK, Los Angeles)

An interview with Tariq Ali conducted by Global Balkans in the fall of 2007 that sets the context for the most recent developments in the politics of neoliberal transition and the new protectorate states in the post-Yugoslav Balkans, as well as examining the legacy of the Yugoslav wars on western military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the shifting alignments of the western and antiwar left.

Global Balkans: It is rather fortuitous that today is the 5th of October 2007, 7 years since the so-called October 5th revolution in Serbia when Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown. The post-intervention period since October 5th is known as the "tranzicija" or "transition" in Serbia. What we are witnessing now is an accelerated privatization program, mass unemployment, massive impoverishment following upon ten years of war, the highest number of refugees and internally displaced people in Europe, and a lot of promises of a better future through privatization and so on. I wanted to ask you what your perspective on transition in such post-intervention contexts is. How do you see this?

Tariq Ali: Well, I mean the first question which arises is: transition from what to what or from what to where? And for me the big tragedy of Yugoslavia is that it was split up.

Internally Displaced People in Serbia:
People and Families that don’t Exist
Cacak, Serbia   September 2007

Conditions in refugee camps are extremely poor, and are only getting worse. The World Food Program has been withdrawn.1 The Red Cross no longer provides donations to refugees and the displaced. As the economic situations worsens generally, aid to refugees decreases. In the meantime, people remain trapped in refugee camps with no way out. Six or seven people sleep in one room, a space that must also function as a storage, cooking and living area. Children spend winters in tents and transport containers.