Caravan to Thessaloniki 2003

A short upadate on travel and actions Cro/serb border , belgrade anti-IOM action Kragujevac

05.Jun.03 - The bordercrossing from Croatia to serbia happened without big problems. The first step we did in Novi Sad There we made a critical mass afterwards we did a performance and had a very large party at our camp, we built up at the university park. Before we had a meeting with anarchist people in the art/club, which was very interesting. Often we noticed that the people have the fear thast we will forget them after passing teir region. May be they had bad experiences in the past. We hope that there will be rise a network of anarchist people between western and eastern europe Now we stay in Belgrade, today we did two actions, one at the IOM office (see pictures), were we held some speeches about the lies of this organisation, which in the truth deport migrants thereby people sprayed on the entrance sign of the office "capita! lism is kannibalism, IOM = office of modern slavery" the police wasnt there afterthat we gathered in center of belgrade, did our performance and squatted a parc, to put a viewmark on the situation of Roma people, who always were put away from parts of the city.You get more information by an interview The Police noticed it, but didnt do anything. The day before on critical mess in Novi Sad the police controlled the passports of two people. In belgrade are some buildings, which made the bombardement visible, like the defenceministery of serbia In discussions with the people it seems to be that a lot are frustrated. They hoped for better circumstances after a lot of wars in the past and the dictatorship of Milosevic. May be subculture is not as supressed as in former times, but the desolate economy let the frustrati! on increase.

26.may.03 Today we reached Kragujewac, the biggest metropole in Serbia between Belgrade and Nisch. Before three days after our actions in belgrade the caravan splits into two groups because someone liked, to deep their contacts esp. to romapeople, we get during the actions before. They ride into the suburbs of belgrade where they live. The other part of the caravan goes ahead to Mladenovic, where an informationevbening was prepared. in the discussion the people asked - totally in diference to Novi Sad - for our poersonaly stuff and reminded, that capitalistic structure is impossible to change, because it dues to the born agressive potential of humans. Very strange people. The next day we started propaganda in the town, hanging around in the park, spread out our flyers give some speeches. Mladenovic was also a place for resting, repairing tractor and visiting nightlife of the city. Therefore we are mostly unable to lesave Mladenevic early in the next da! y. We only did 25 km and arrived in Sm Palanka. There was nothing prepared, but during our trip in mladenovac we get contact to local people, and in the night with rain, we planned a demonstration the next day to make pressure for a selfdeterminated youthclub the local saupportergroup "alternative Palenka" applied for. So we started today early in the morning wwith an open breakfast in the central park and after 12 o clock we went to the cityhall and highschool to give speeches and flyers to the people there. It seems to be an succesful step in this local struggle against abolishing sozial structures. Even the mayor cames out and had to say bla bla bla(he promised, that the council works on the problem) to the press and an agreement to the the issues we demanded. The behaviour of the state and the press especially seems to us very strange \ The police comes sometimes and act not agressive, they want to escort us along our way It seems to us more, that we are state guests tha! n unwished people. Of course we dislike it too, but it is strange. Strange is too, that newspapers often write about our issues, like our viewpoint, what we expect , when Serbia enters EU, and why we expect exploitation of the inhabitants. Onetime a big newspsaper wrote one flyer of us without changing sentences. In croatia, there is a rumor, that after the clashes in Zagreb, there has been a discussion in the newspapers about our goals. What TV shows, we didnt know. Today we arrived in Kragujevac, the town with the famous left wing scene in serbia. Today we had a disciussion with people from workers party and from workers which are involved in the big strike from 15000 people against privitisation of the most importand weapon and car factory.