He is among those who have been sacked by the Serbian regime, which found their output insufficiently committed. "Our aim was to give courage to the peoples of Yugoslavia, to protect We pointed out the lies in the information given out. We wanted to form a union that would be independent of all the regimes throughout Yugoslavia, not only in Serbia." Even in Kosovo? "Me, I wanted that too, but I have to say that this was not true of all the journalists here." As for Croatia and Slove-
"we have not found journalists sharing our decision."
However in Slovenia - and unlike in
Croatia — the union scene is beginning to stir. The reason is that the danger of war has receded with the retreat of the federal army. "The proclamation of independence (June 25, 1991) was made in the context of an economic crisis affecting the stability of the new leading teams of the ruling liberal coalition, DEMOS", Rastko Mocnar told me. He is the leader of the Social Democratic League of Slovenia, a small, extra-parliamentary organization whose idea is to bring together the intelligentsia management" orientated managers and
He considers that the divergences had been provisionally stifled by "the logic of the state of war" and the accompanying censorship. "The witch-hunt in the media and the economy took the place of a programme. But now the problems are comback to the independent unions are the transmission belts of liberal government policy." At the same time he has a positive assessment of the changes underway in the former official unions, re-baptized as "free unions", to which two thirds of workers are affiliated. But despite this potential, in reality their actions have so far only involved small numbers.
Labour Party formed in Slovenia
"Despite the fact that everything was 'worker' we had forgotten what a workstruggle is", says Milos Pavlica, a leader of the Labour Party which has just been formed, essentially on the basis of some 10,000 members of the former official unions. "The unions cannot go into parliament, but workers are not represented there, and this is why we have formed a party." Rajko Lesjak, the general secretary of the Free Unions of Slovenia, is also a member of the Labour Party. However, in his union offices, he speaks as a
He explains the recent changes: "We dissolved the old unions at a congress a year ago. We established new organizational and programmatic bases. Formerly, every worker was automatically a union member. Now you join voluntarily. We have got 450,000 members, that is 60% of the active population. replaced the former territorial organization with a branch structure. Finally, we are independent of any party. Only clearly expressed convergences over tives can give rise to collaboration."
In the past year there have been over 1 lost through strikes. However of most immediate concern are the draft laws on property coming before parliament. On September 10, on the eve of a parliamentary debate, the
Free Unions called a demonstration: "We asked for the vote to be delayed until a vast debate could take place; as it is fundamental decisions were being taken just after the holidays and after a summer spent in a state of war. Our view is that such decisions should be made by refe-
The draft law, which led to the break-
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