Serbia's youth modifying activism

SERBIA'S student protest movement has no leaders, and its decision-making process is slow and laborious, but activists swear by its founding principle: direct democracy via meetings on campus.

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When a newly renovated railway station roof collapsed last November in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people, first came the grieving, and then the anger.

Students took to the streets to denounce what they saw as the deeply rooted corruption that had made the disaster possible.

Then they organised themselves into a national movement - and a keystone of that movement was direct democracy.

It was these meetings, known as plenums, held behind closed doors on campus that decided whatever action they were going to take - from 16 minutes of silence in tribute to the dead, to marches or calls for strikes.

Any student can participate and vote in a plenum.

“Direct democracy allows us to stay united... to continue this movement for a fairer system,’ Maja, a 23-year-old student from the Novi Sad University’s science faculty, said.

“We have a core value: be leaderless,” she said.

At the first improvised plenum held in Novi Sad in December, four faculty amphitheatres were fully packed, recall those who attended.

The organisation was chaotic, lacking clear structure.

So the students set up a colour-coded file to filter out trouble-makers - those who repeatedly broke the rules or tried to disrupt the movement.