YUGOSLAV WORKERS IN TRANSITION: "BOROVO" 1989

• Published in: Politička misao 2015-01, Vol.52 (2), p.7-34
• Main Authors: Cvek, Sven, Ivcic, Snjezana, Racic, Jasna
• Format: Article
• Language: hrv ; eng
• Subjects: Labour force; Social conflicts; Transitions; Workers; Yugoslavia
• ISSN: 0032-3241

Clanak je dio istrazivanja o kontinuitetu drustvenih sukoba u Hrvatskoj 1987-1991., koje se provodi u suradnji Centra za mirovne studije i Baze za radnicku inicijativu i demokratizaciju iz Zagreba. Pocetni je fokus istrazivanja strajk koji se u ljeto 1988. odigrao u Jugoslavenskom kombinatu gume i obuce "Borovo" iz Vukovara. Borovski je strajk bio dio vala nemira koji su potresali SFRJ u trenutku duboke ekonomske krize i sveobuhvatne drustvene reforme. Cilj je istrazivanja na mikrorazini drustvenopovijesne analize opisati transformaciju sukoba ciji je karakter krajem osamdesetih bio prvenstveno klasni u sukob s pocetka devedesetih, tada bitno odreen etno-nacionalnom logikom. U ovom c lanku bavimo se situacijom u kombinatu "Borovo" u periodu izmeu strajka 1988. i prvih demokratskih izbora 1990. Naime, u tom se razdoblju pocinju javljati prve ozbiljnije podjele meu radnicima "Borova". Clanak analizira uzroke i dinamiku fragmentiranja borovskoga radnistva u 1989. godini uzimajuci u obzir dva sredisnja momenta: 1) strukturne promjene u tom periodu, koje ukljucuju ukidanje samoupravljanja i posljedicno eliminiranje mogucnosti politicke artikulacije radnickih interesa; 2) materijalne i ideoloske uvjete za podjele meu radnicima "Borova", koje u tom trenutku nemaju etnicki/nacionalni predznak, vec se stvaraju oko problema raspodjele sve oskudnijih materijalnih resursa./The article is based on the research project Continuity of Social Conflict in Croatia 1987-1991, organized by the Center for Peace Studies and the Organization for Workers' Initiative and Democratization, Zagreb. Our point of departure is the strike that took place in one of the biggest industrial systems in socialist Yugoslavia, "Borovo" from Vukovar, in 1988. The strike was part of the wave of labor unrest of the late 1980s, a time of economic and political crisis in a country undergoing dramatic social transformation. Our main goal is to delineate, on a micro level of socio-historical analysis, the transformation of the unrest of the late 1980s, in our view basically of a class character, into the violent conflicts of the 1990s, now rearticulated in ethno-national terms. In this article, we look at the situation in "Borovo" in the period following the 1988 strike, when first divisions between workers start taking place. We relate the fragmentation of the "Borovo" labor force in this period to: 1) the structural reforms, including the dismantling of self-management and the consequent elimination o