We came together on a playing field beside a derelict Olympic size open air swimming pool built by the local miners. We are in the small mining town of Breza, about half an hour’s drive from the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. The swimming pool, its construction by miners after WW2, and its present decay is a vivid symbol that hangs over our meeting. On the railings of the pool hangs a large banner painted by young people the night before welcoming everyone to this ‘Zbor – for workers, land and water’. A Zbor has its origins in village open air collective meetings way back. But this form of assembly became part of the post WW2 new society of Yugoslavia.
There are about 80 people at this Zbor – miners’ union representatives from Bosnia, (including the region controlled by Serb nationalists), from Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia. There is a woman from the shop workers’ union and a president of an independent trade union in Croatia. Then there are people from communities across ex-Yugoslavia who in one way or another are trying to protect their environment from degradation by extractive industries. There are young people from Serbia who have been on the streets almost non-stop for nearly a year following the collapse of a newly Chinese built railway station which killed many people. They are fighting to get rid of the corrupt politicians who oversaw this disaster. Then there are people from Germany, Belgium and Denmark, mostly involved in environmental campaigns. Finally, there are two ex-miners from the UK sent by the Durham Miners Association that has had long solidarity contacts with the miners in Bosnia. The mix of men to women is roughly fifty-fifty. The ages are from young students to pensioners. And me, one of the organisers of solidarity food convoys from the UK to the Bosnian miners during the 92-95 war.
The Zbor lasted three days. I can’t give you a full summary of what everyone said, there was just too much and us foreigners had to listen to a translator which means you miss quite a bit, so I am only going to give you a selection of remarks to give you an idea of the proceedings. But first I must give a small picture of the region today for those readers who are not familiar with the situation. Without this the significance of the Zbor will be lost.
During WW2 the whole region was occupied by the Nazis who ruled with collaborators from the local bourgeoisie. There was resistance from different groups but it was the Partisans, working class and peasant fighters who managed to inflict the heaviest losses on the occupiers. The mining town of Tuzla in northern Bosnia and its surrounding region were liberated from the Nazi’s in 1943 – the first free territory in Nazi occupied Europe. The Partisans were heavily influenced and led by the Communist Party and this popular anti-fascist force defined the character of post-war Yugoslavia. This society was very different from the rest of Eastern Europe. Socialism here came about through this liberation movement, not on the bayonets of the Red Army, as in Poland or Hungary etc. The post war history of Yugoslavia was in part a product of two conflicting tendencies. On the one hand the influence of the workers who tried to put their stamp on the society they had created and on the other hand a political elite that was heavily influenced by Stalinist Russia with a top-down idea of ‘socialism’. These two tendencies led to significant factors. Firstly, all the industries were owned by the people employed in them, not state property as in the rest of the USSR. So in theory there was workers’ control. But in practice the top-down politics of the Communist Party rendered this control meaningless. Shortly after WW2 the government of Tito – the Partisan leader – had declared Yugoslavia to be a one-party state, something that was opposed by many militant socialist workers. Hundreds of these people were jailed for demanding workers’ democracy.
The Yugoslavia created by the Partisans was a federation of Republics – Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina and Macedonia, all with their own parliaments. Later two Autonomous regions were created with similar status to the republics. In the post war period, the tension between the society the workers tried to create and the one presided over by top-down politicians manifested itself in questions of nationality, ethnicity and religion. In many urban areas the populations became more and more ethnically mixed as people sought work in new industries and moved to different Republics, worked together and intermarried. Large numbers of people came to regard themselves simply as Yugoslavs rather than Serb or Croat and religion became less important.
But at the level of the political elite nationalist tendencies never went away. Following Tito’s death in 1985 there was a severe economic crisis, mirroring the growing collapse of economies all across the USSR. As the conditions for the workers in Yugoslavia rapidly deteriorated the political elites began to play the nationalist card to deflect criticism of themselves. Unpaid wages, bankrupt industries, massive workers’ protests – the country was in crisis. In the midst of this the Serbian elite, who formed the major part of the Yugoslav army high command, set about trying to turn the Yugoslavia Federation into a Greater Serbia. The political elites of the other Republics opposed this by raising their own nationalist flags. Workers, who in many cases had been trying to breathe life into their workers’ control over the factories in order to solve the economic problems, were silenced by war. The break-up of Yugoslavia, which was widely presented simply as an orgy of ethnic violence had at its centre the question of who controls the property, the factories, the land and resources. And this was the main question at our Zbor.
The 1995 Dayton agreement, overseen by the US and the EU, ended the fighting in Bosnia but set up a form of government that gave control to the nationalists and ethnic cleansers. The country is now rated as one of the most corrupt in the world. As the local politicians enrich themselves in any way they can the EU oversees the international plunder of Bosnia’s resources.
The Breza Zbor
The sessions were mostly facilitated by young women. One of them, ta daughter of a local miner, another the daughter of a steel worker from a nearby town, another a student from Serbia. They conducted the meeting with such skill that everyone was able to speak freely and ask questions – a very democratic process without any kind of quarrels.
The President of the Breza Municipality welcomed us all and explained the so-called ‘Green Transition’ was affecting everyone in Bosnia. Their mine was threatened with closure because of ‘Green Transition’ but there was complete lack of workers’ consultation and complete secrecy about finances. The two ex-miners from the UK spoke about their experiences. One of them outlined the battle between the UK miners and the Thatcher government leading to their defeat in the year-long strike of 1984. The other miner spoke of the results of this defeat, the destruction of the miners’ communities and the impact this had on the rest of the trade union movement and on society for years afterwards.
One of the main organisers of the Zbor then outlined the main aims of the Zbor – to oppose any unjust transition. During the war the government had nationalised all industry in order to privatise it. So the workers had been robbed of their own property. The new owners of industry had simply looted them of anything of value and virtually destroyed anything the war had not already destroyed. Now under the guise of ‘green transition’ a new colonial plunder is taking place and some of the people involved in this new round of theft are the same people aiming to steal land in Gaza.
The miners’ president from Zenica said all the state-owned mines were now earmarked for closure. “But this was decided by people who hold power, not the miners or the public. The mines supply cheap electricity to the people. If there is to be a transition it has to be in accordance with the needs of the miners and the public.”
Another miner: “We are a poor country. There is no money to finance a transition in which workers are retrained and re-employed. We do need a less polluting power source but we have a 250 year supply of coal. A green transition is possible but not the way the EU and our politicians are trying to impose it.”
A man from a community on Mount Ozren in the Republika Srpska (the part of Bosnia under Serb nationalist control) said they had become aware of foreign prospectors surveying their land, starting to make roads and bringing in drilling equipment. “They gave bullshit answers when asked what they were doing. Then the locals were asked if they wanted to sell their land, used for agricultural purposes. It turns out there is a plan to create a cobalt and nickel mine. So the locals held a Zbor. For four years they fought the Australian mining company and thanks to the unity of the community they prevented the development of the mine.”
The President of the Metal Miners of Republika Srpska said that the company he worked for employed five and a half thousand workers before the war. “Now there are only 500. When they were privatised the new owner simply looted the company and vanished. A new investor came, made promises of better conditions etc. – all bullshit and the Government closed its eyes to everything as they were getting a share of the loot. I respect the eco actions but closing mines is stopping people getting work. So we need to have this discussion.”
Miner from Montenegro: “We are marked for closure but this will cause economic crisis. The population will have to pay higher electricity bills for power coming from Italy. Privatisation led to massive factory closures and now they say our mine must shut. They promise compensation but we know we will be left with nothing.”
The President of the miners’ union from Serbia outlined the large expansion of metal mining by Chinese companies in Serbia. “They do not respect the rights of workers and they are destroying the environment. It’s the same all across Yugoslavia. We worry about our future and the environment. Collective ownership has been destroyed. There is a growing emigration of people due to the loss of jobs. The Government are the crooks. They propose a ‘green transition’ but without any input from the miners. Private finance is opening new open cast mines – lithium in particular – but people don’t have any say in any of this. The conditions of work are now terrible.”
President of the Slovenian miners: “We can only mitigate damage to the environment if miners are involved in developing plans. The EU is pushing to shut all our mines by 2043. Deloitte were paid by our government to produce a plan and they said close everything by 2038. Our government then said close everything by 2033. There is no ‘just’ transition if you take away jobs from the miners and take away their pride. I’m glad to have this discussion with the environmentalists.”
The President of the Kreka miners (in Tuzla – the biggest remaining mine): “Our mines were opened in 1880 and their purpose was clear to everyone. Now no-one has an idea why they are closing. Before the war we had 100,000 miners in Bosnia now there is only 5,000. From the experiences we are hearing here we have to work out what to do. There will be no financial support for miners. The Government knows they are selling the people out. Without energy independence we are screwed. There are inefficient and polluting power plants but why are our academics so useless. There are vast reserves of coal that could be exploited without pollution but our academics are silent and just agree with whatever the government says. The Government says it has a new plan but I am the President of the miners in the biggest mine and I know nothing about this plan.”
A woman from an agricultural community says her livelihood has been taken away by a foreign mining company. “I support the miners and their fight for jobs. The green transition is just the language of foreign investors and a corrupt government. Three times the government has changed the mineral mining laws to make it easier for foreign capital to exploit our resources. Local communities have no say and see the loss of their land and the destruction of the environment. We have to fight to take control of our own resources. They are only interested in extracting profit.”
A Portuguese environmentalist spoke about a rural communities fight against a lithium mine which threatened to destroy their sustainable agricultural economy. “So in the name of Green Transition, which says lithium is needed, local life will be destroyed. Political leaders divide us and we are only spectators in this devastation. Corruption is their biggest asset. We have to organise ourselves. But for four years the local community has successfully fought off the mining company.”
A Bosnian worker: “The war made so many refugees now for the sake of foreign profit there is a new wave of refugees. We are all united by common problems and it is the same companies that are causing them.”
Breza miners president: “We don’t employ enough workers to run the mine properly. We have outdated equipment. We receive a low price for our coal from the electricity generators. They – the government – have ruined the mine. For four years we have listened to them saying the mine must close. We’ve gone from 1290 miners to 700. We’ve had no new equipment since 2014. The government has stopped paying our social security contributions so will we get pensions? Lots of our men are old and cannot be retrained. But we are the most organised union and we will keep fighting.”
A Serbian speaker reported on the Rio Tinto Zinc lithium mine that has caused huge environmental damage. “One of the main uses of lithium is for military purposes so under the name of green transition the environment is being destroyed in order to produce weapons for further destruction. They say lithium is critical – it’s not. Air and water are critical and these megalomaniac projects are destroying both.”
A woman from the Bosnian shop workers union: “This green transition affects us all and we will work with the miners union. In the name of green transition we lose jobs to self service checkouts. This ‘transition’ is just the new form of privatisation in which they devalue whatever we have and destroy workers’ rights. This is why I am here. We are a lost cause if we fight alone.”
A man describes how “Chinese investors have got hold of 2,500 hectares of land where he lives “to generate ’sustainable energy’ and this is held up as example of green energy but the solar panels cannot be re-cycled at the end of their life. There are also wind farms that pollute the local water supply because 200ltrs of carcinogenic liquid leaks from the turbines everyday. Everything is done by unaccountable private corporations.”
A woman described how a proposed hydroelectric power plant near her village was presented as ‘green energy’. “But the people knew from other people’s experience that it would only bring damage to the community. So local women blocked a bridge needed for access. They were attacked by special police forces. Many women got prison sentences. All we were doing was protecting our drinking water supply. Who gave the orders for the police attack? Despite the attacks the women blocked the bridge for 500 days and eventually the scheme was scrapped. We can stop their plans.”
Another man told how a year ago 19 people had been killed in his village. “There were heavy floods but the deaths were caused by an avalanche from an illegal rock crushing plant above the village. People had protested about the plant but every level of government had turned a blind eye. This was a governmental crime.”
A Serbian speaker talked about the factory ‘Slobodan’ (Freedom). “It produces grenades sold to the Israelis. We have multi-national colonialism and government support this. People close to government get licences for ‘green transition’. China is extracting more and more and local government take bribes to facilitate this.”
The President of the Breza mine said that the derelict swimming pool by the side of our meeting place symbolised the whole situation. He used to swim in this pool built by his grandfather and other miners. “The destruction of industry and the mines left it and many other workers’ facilities in ruins. We want to rebuild it. Now our mines are among the most dangerous in Europe. We have floods and rock falls, inhumane conditions of work. Our wives live in constant fear. We are under the control of the electrical generating corporation that pays a price for coal below the production cost. The miners are blamed by the government for all the problems but all the decisions have been made by tycoons. We don’t even have health insurance. We have a government that organises criminal enterprises run by a criminal mafia, that has no respect for any laws.”
A miner: “We need to fight against our common enemy – capitalism.”
A woman complains about the absence of scientists and academics at the meeting. (This point is repeated by many other speakers.) “The ‘experts’ are all bought by the looters. They do not speak out about the colonial plunder instead they collaborate with the robbers.”
President of Kreka miners: “I’ve learnt a lot from this meeting. God save us from the EU. We see even in rich countries how hard it is for workers to find a way to transition without it affecting them badly. I want to cooperate with people from the west. We need a form of transition that doesn’t harm us. None of us can have any confidence in our institutions anymore.”
A woman from Slovenia says transition is inevitable. “Miners will have to find other work but all changes have to be made by local communities not by foreign investors.”
President of Slovenian miners: “Our government tried to break up our union. They set up their own one but we resisted and 80% of miners are still in our union but the government refuses to listen to us. They said the mines must shut by 2030 then they changed the law to close the pit straight away. We had meetings with our comrades in Bosnia and many came to support our demonstrations in Lubijana. We need to get our arguments into the media. Older people still watch TV not youtube. We must win over the young people too. All this is going to affect them the most.”
An older man who has been campaigning against environmental destruction said: “We can win battles if we win public support. We have stopped them building any more hydro dams in Bosnia.”
The Croation union president spoke of his union’s militancy in winning many strikes. “Workers in a military tank repair facility occupied the plant and threatened to drive the tanks to the ministry of defence. Got a quick settlement. Our government and media always say we need a social dialogue about everything. No – we need a social rebellion. But we need to join International organisations. We have so little resources we need help. We can work with NGOs, they have many young educated people, but they are always dependent for money on the people in power and that determines their agenda. We don’t want top-down organisations. We have to build our own strength. People looked to the Social Democrats but we have members working in their offices and we know they are full of the same bullshit as the other politicians. We have to learn how and when to fight. We brought a factory to a halt just by pulling 9 crane drivers out on strike. We have to hit them strategically.”
Miners’ president from Montenegro: “We do not produce enough food or energy in our own country. We are transitioning into slavery. Miners must care about the environment but we are living in a period of ecological destruction. Our mines are scheduled to close by 2041 but the end is probably coming sooner. It will be a disaster. There is no plan for this transition. If we were in charge, we could clean up the environment and retrain the workers.”
A Bosnian environmentalist told how “even though the state coal mines are all marked for closure, licenses are being issued for new private mines in areas that were protected like national parks. This protection has vanished. All our corporations have been sold to foreign investors. They are rushing to plunder our underground resources. But for society the resources above ground – air, water, nature, these are far more valuable both to us and future generations. We are losing resources quicker than in Africa and we get less compensation than anywhere in the world.”
A man says we have the problem of political nepotism. “We have an excess of people incapable of doing their jobs. This nepotism is known by everyone but we cannot stop it.”
A miner’s son from Tuzla says we ‘need a new union. “Today we are not workers; we are donkeys.”
A lawyer says: “We need to work in the legal framework.” But she is immediately rebutted by many speakers: “We can’t expect anything from legal institutions here or abroad or from foreign embassies and their associates – they are all on the side of the plunderers.”
These translated quotes are just a small extract from two long days of discussion but I hope they give you a feel for the atmosphere. And, as always, there were many useful one to one discussions during the great meals brought to our Zbor by a local restaurant. I am really excited to learn from the Kreka miner that he hopes to organise a commemoration of the Husina Miners Rebellion of 1920, a pivotal moment in the development of the Yugoslav workers’ movement and something I wrote a pamphlet about 30 years ago.
After the second day session ended, the head of a Breza mine shift, responsible for many miners, took us on a walk through the town to the pit where we went in to look at the pithead equipment. We also visited an archeological site to see the remains of an Illyrian Basilica from the tenth century. In the evening we had an open-air concert by the town orchestra, mostly young people. The leader of the orchestra told us that its history was entwined with the history of the miners and of the rights of people of all ethnicities to live together.
On the third day, discussion focusses on what unites everyone and a call to go out from the meeting. (See the attachments)
Two years ago, I read an online article by a Bosnian woman urging the environmental movement in the country to support a miners’ strike. A seemingly contradictory thing since the miners are producing highly polluting coal. Her argument was simple – the miners are the only remaining organised workforce in the country following the mass destruction of industry via privatisation and looting. If the environmental movement is to succeed it has to win society to its side and the miners are the only remnant of an organised working class. I wrote to her and stayed in contact. This Zbor was very much an outcome of her perspectives. But on my way to Bosnia, I had some misgivings. I come from a trade union/socialist background but in recent years I have attended Extinction Rebellion demonstrations and talked with young environmental activists from different campaigns in the UK. And to be honest I usually felt we were talking a different language, no sense of class, a belief that bigger and bigger actions could force the powers that be to change their evil ways and little understanding of the position of workers in industries like coal or oil. Indeed at the Breza Zbor, a German woman told how she and others had protested outside a new German opencast mine for two years without any support from the workers within – two opposing factions.
So I was worried how would the Zbor go? How would the miners and the environmentalist interact and above all would the miners’ voices be heard? I had memories of events in the Bosnian mining town of Tuzla in 2014 when huge demonstrations rocked the town. Young professional people set up a ‘plenum’ supposedly to let the demonstrators have a say in the running of the town. But the plenum sessions mostly concentrated on matters of laws, representation, institutions etc. Outside the meetings workers could be heard saying their problems of unemployment and poverty were not being discussed. The plenums changed nothing. Would this Zbor allow the workers’ voices to be heard?
I think you can judge from the extracts I have given that they certainly were. The miners stamped their mark on the meeting from the word go and throughout the meeting you could sense everyone listening and thinking about everything that was said. I think several factors made this possible. Above all the common enemy is so easily recognised. Foreign capital is funding a colonial robbery and this is being encouraged and facilitated by every level of government and the EU who really oversee Bosnian administration. So the rural worker whose land is stolen by a Chinese mining company and the coal miner facing unemployment know they face the same antagonist – capital. Secondly the environmental campaigners across Yugoslavia are mostly people from the local communities affected by new projects. They have the same sense of community as the miners and they are all workers. Thirdly, and harder to explain to someone not familiar with Yugoslavia, the country’s social and political past comes out in a new way. The old political elite of Tito’s Yugoslavia are dead or converted into the new gangsters. This leaves the old social traditions to rise again in a new, unfettered way. Everything that was progressive about the partisans and the character they gave to the newly formed ’socialist’ Federation finds a new life, a new outlet. In a short space of time people have witnessed the government theft of their property (through nationalisation) and then the plunder of the social wealth (through privatisation). People are facing a ruinous, alien production system, that only yesterday belonged to them. Now they want to reassert their control over their workplaces and their lives in general and every political party and the EU is standing in their way.
It’s difficult to summarise this meeting. I’m sure Artificial Intelligence could come up with a pithy ten-point resume. But what AI could not do is capture the excitement, the morale uplift that I think most people felt. I went three nights with little sleep my head was buzzing so much with trying to understand the real significance of what was taking place. I got to know Bosnia in the midst of a hideous war where ethnic cleansing and nationalism seemed overwhelming. But here were workers from across all the divides – national, ethnic and religious – sitting down together to discuss common problems. I spoke to many of the young people there and I think all of them declared themselves as Yugoslavs, wanting to restore the unity of the people that the partisan struggle had created. Now of course this was a small meeting but its significance is enormous. When we organised our solidarity convoys of food for the Tuzla miners during the war, we were not simply trying to feed starving people. We wanted to restore the idea of workers’ solidarity and internationalism. But at that time, with the break-up of Yugoslavia and exhausted by war, few people on the ground were in a place to share this perspective. But at the Breza Zbor this is what everyone was talking about.
Finally, a last thought. I think the depth of the exchange of ideas was helped by the total absence of evangelists from ‘left’ political groups with their own agendas (join our party, buy our paper, agree with our ‘line’ on things) and while giving endless sermons about workers’ unity) would spend most of their time quarrelling with each other, drowning out the voice of the workers. Sorry comrades, but that’s what you do.
For more information or to contact the Zbor organisers: Instagram zbor_2025 or email: zbor@systemli.org.
