Udo

Introduction to 1968
The why of the events happening in 1968 has been debated over the past years. Several individual building blocks came together that year. One is that Europe had to do with an unusual surge in births after WW2, creating a large age demographic that were teenagers by the time 1960 came knocking. Second was the new awareness that for the parents the happiness of their children was important to others. Also the lowering of the threshold for a higher (public) education (Universities became accesable for much larger group) played a part. Technical innovations also were of influence. TV formed a window to the World previous generations did not have. TV also brought events like the Vietnam War and public events like the Civil Rights March to the living room. Cheap recordplayers offered the opportunity for musical artists to reach out to an enormous audience. Add that to growing unemployment and economical difficulties and you’ll have the ingredients for revolution

What was it all about in Yugoslavia

The alliance of Yugoslavia was actually a collection of countries that were pulled together by a string in the person of President Tito. In the undercurrent nationalistic sentiments smoldered. Tito tackled this problem by setting up de SFR of Yugoslavia as a dual regime. On the one hand he established an integral self-management system with assembly councils and localized institutions. With the Communist Alliance (CA) on top of course. Next to that he guaranteed freedom of individuals and personal work ‘to a limit and on conditions prescribed by the law’. This seems like a good idea, especially compared to the countries locked in the Eastern Bloc if all political institutions work according to this system. The Udba, the political police, had different ideas though. The followed a hard line molded after Moscow example. Chief of police and vice-president Aleksander Rankovic had certain ideas that did not match other party members. A trap was set around Rankovic that slammed shut in June 66. He was accused of using Udba methods to tap on Tito himself. Although never completely proven he forced Rankovic to resign thus coursing for a socialist democracy. This opened the door for a stream of free thinking starting at the faculty of philosophy at the University in Belgrado.

They gathered under the name Praxis named after the Zagreb based journal with the same name. The group thought Yugoslavia wandered too much from the original Marxist ideas and believed that philosophy was ‘the merciless critique of everything existing’. By 1966 a protest movements like in other European countries started to emerge. But different to the other countries it was Tito himself who started with protesting. On December 23 of 1966 he organized an anti-war demonstration against the US interference in Vietnam. In 1967 he played an important part in the Nonaligned Countries Movement condemning Isreali occupation of Arab land and in 1968 he refused to help in the occupation of Prague, even offering Dubcek sanctuary. In short, Tito was not afraid to be very outspoken on the international field. Being it on the right or left side. But back to december 66 when the Vietnam protest turned into a riot led by Vladimir Mijanovic when the philosophy students were stopped in an attempt to storm the USA embassy. The protest was struck down but things kept smoldering and in March 1968 the student members of the CA met at the Studentski Grad. The agenda had a fierce anti-everything vibe. Against the Greek junta, Polish oppression of students, the assassination attempt on Dutschke in Germany, you name it. Sentiments for some real action grew and on June 2 a large group of students illegally wanted to see the play ‘Friendship caravan’ that was organized at the Workers University across campus. Being refused they tried to break in by force which started a riot lasting for two days. Students were shouting ‘Students – Workers’ and ‘Down with the socialist bourgeoisie’. On June 4 the movement swept over to other faculties (including staff and professors now joining in) and they commenced on a 7 day strike. The common goal was focused against the ‘red bourgeoisie’ or “Peugeoisie” (since all party members drove around in Peugeot’s). They demanded complete equality in socialism and renamed the University after Karl Marx. The protest also spread to other cities of Yugoslavia – Ljubljana, Zagreb and Sarajevo. On June 9 Tito appeared in the CA with a surprising reaction to the protest. Remarking that the ‘volcanic explosion of unrest should blow the party leaders from their comfortable chairs’ he then said the students had a point and he invited them to work together on a solution. It looked like an open invitation to meet all the demands, something student protesters in other European countries only dreamed about. For reasons unknown the praxis group refused this seemingly open hand for socialist reform. This left Tito no other choice then to repress the protest in a more violent manor arresting key players in the weeks to come. By the end of the year things were quiet again but one has to wonder if with another response the wheels of time would have spun in a different direction.

The impact in music

The SFR Yugoslavia already had a thriving beat scene mostly inspired by popular British bands. Bands such as Džentlmeni, Roboti and Siluete played (translated) covers of known English bands. Although we regard Yugoslavia in this timeframe as one country it actually already was not. With the dual political system set up by Tito the subject of language came back on the agenda. In 1967 an event called the Croatian Spring passed, a group of influential Croatian poets and linguists published a Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language. Thus trying to ensure a multilingual federation. After 1968 the patriotic goals of that document morphed into a generic Croatian movement for more rights for Croatia which received grassroots support, especially amongst many Zagreb student organizations which actively started to voice their support for the cause. The 1968 movement did cause for a more localized style of pop and rockmusic (whether in Serb, Croat or other language). One of the first to move into a more personal sound was popular act Indexi who gradually moved into progrock territory. Allegedly the band was the first to record a song lasting over 10 minutes called "Negdje na kraju u zatisju". By then Kornelije Kovač already left the band to form another legendary band, Korni Grupa.

Contrary to other countries under the influence of Russia Yugoslavia always had a more open ear to American culture. It was no surprise that also the hippie-culture found a foothold here starting with the performance of ‘Hair’, the first time staged in a communist state. By then the Croatian based Grupa 220 was already busy with their own blend of flower power music. To emphasize this they regarded flowers as tickets for their concerts. In 1967 the band composer Drago Mlinarec turned more social aware with writing the music for the movie "Protest" by Fadil Hadzic with ‘Grad’ as the leading song. The movie tells about indecency, corruption, desires, lust, sins and criticized socialism as a society in which individuals are being crushed.  A year later he would also write the soundtrack for the Hadzic movie "Tri sata ljubavi". The band themselves  released the their "Naši dani" album also in the latest protest mindset inspired by rockmusic coming to them from abroad.

But these bands were not to be seen on the stage of the pop music festivals existing across SFR Yugoslavia including the Split Festival, Opatija Festival, Beogradsko proleće in Belgrade, Skopje Fest, and Zagrebfest. Acoustic artists were more than welcome there but progrock and psychedelic music were something else. At Zagrebfest, in 1967 Ivica Percl, former guitarist of popular beatgroup Roboti, took the stage. His ‘Hulligani’(Hooligans) written by poet Zvonimir Golob shook the audience present. It did not change the fact that Percl then started building a career in protest songs after the example of his idol Bob Dylan. A year later he returns to the festival to win with ‘Stari Pjer', a song about old Pierre, a survivor of WW2 and left alone by the system and socialist society. It would become one of his most popular songs. The B-side of the EP featured a direct protest against the system in Yugoslavia. 'Poštovani profesore' was an open letter starting with the lines: "Dear teachers, principals,
These distinguished citizen who live in the city, the old politicians of the past days,
and you all want to solve the 'problem of hooligans. Remember the little generation of our work, the brave Colonel with a pickaxe in his hand.. Have you ever asked yourself what young people do in their spare time?". A very acurate and emotional interpretation of the sentiments of the young protest movement.

What happened next?

In 2008 a gathering was organized in the Rectorate. Dragoljub Micunovic has reminded that those protests were the clash of two systems of value – one that was honest and humane, and another where lies and injustice were dominant. He stressed that in spite of criticism, that protest was of great significance, as it opened the right of rebellion for the following generations. The question is of the duality in the Yugoslav system did not depend too much on the autocratical talents of Tito. Maybe it worked on a economical level but socially the multiethnic society would stay a fragile basis. An example is the Croatian Spring of 1970–1971, when students in Zagreb organized demonstrations for greater civil liberties and greater Croatian autonomy. The regime stifled the public protest and incarcerated the leaders, but many key Croatian representatives in the Party silently supported this cause, so a new Constitution was ratified in 1974 that gave more rights to the individual republics in Yugoslavia and provinces in Serbia. After Tito's death on 4 May 1980, ethnic tensions grew in Yugoslavia. We all know what it would eventually accumulate to.

Musically the business was booming in the seventies. Music sung in local dialect became very popular and the Yugoslav rock scene could compete with other central European countries. Each Yugoslav district also had its own record company (see our article on state labels). As one of the few countries under soviet dominance SFR Yugoslavia participated in the ESC and was represented by a variety of artists from five of the eight Yugoslav federal units. They tried to do that as democratic as possible. Although it seemed that music combined the cultures somewhat in 1990 the ethnic differences even sipped through. For more info on the pop/rock history of Yugoslavia and beyond check the country section.

The essay 'Students movements of 1968 - Unfinished revolution' by Milan Petrović (written for the Serbian University of Niš) gave very valuable background for this article.