Tag Archives: Lorraine Perlman

Tri godine u Jugoslaviji

Posted on by

Lorraine Perlman

Fredy Perlman, Velimir Morača i nepoznata prijateljica, Beograd, 1964. ili 1965.

Topla dobrodošlica koju smo dobili od brojnih Jugoslovena septembra 1963, doprinela je da naše preseljenje u Beograd bude konačno. U roku od nekoliko dana smo pronašli sobu u kući vozača autobusa i njegove porodice na periferiji Zemuna, velikog predgrađa koje se nastavlja na Beograd sa druge strane reke Save. Fredi se privremeno zaposlio kao spiker u medijskoj kući koja se bavila produkcijom dokumentarnih filmova o turističkim atrakcijama u Jugoslaviji. Snimao je glas za tekstove koji su opisivali predele predstavljene u filmovima: parkove i posleratne skulpture, manastire i priobalna sela. Za samo nekoliko radnih sati, primio je platu jednaku trostrukoj američkoj plati i taj je novac rešio naše tadašnje finansijske probleme.

Upisali smo se u institut za jezike i svako jutro provodili pohađajući časove i slušajući trake srpsko-hrvatskog jezika. Naše kolege bile su poreklom iz centralne Afrike, zapadne Evrope i SSSR-a. Bila je to druželjubiva grupa i ponekad bismo se sastajali mimo časova. Jedan od dvojice sovjetskih kolega bio je željan sastanaka sa ciljem diskutovanja, ali bilo je jasno da drugi nije odobravao takve van-nastavne kontakte. Bili smo šokirani Viktorovom sumnjičavom rezervisanošću i možda nismo dovoljno cenili hrabrost sa kojom nam je Dimitri sam dolazio u posete.

Jugoslovenska inovacija radničkog samoupravljanja bila je visoko cenjena na Zapadu i želeli smo da se upoznamo sa njenim principima i načinom funkcionisanja. U Zemunu se nalazilo nekoliko fabrika i nije bilo teško pronaći informisane ljude koji bi nam dali odgovore na neka pitanja. Brzo smo saznali da jugosloveni nisu delili zapadnjački entuzijazam po pitanju radničkog samoupravljanja, smatrajući ga markentiškim trikom koji je služio da se zamaskiraju konvencionalni odnosi radnik – rukovodstvo. Iznenadili smo se kada smo saznali da su štrajkovi česti. Iako se o njima nikada nije izveštavalo u štampi, pojava tih autentičnih radničkih aktivnosti bila je opšte poznata. Sindikati su oruđe vlasti (“šefa”) i iz tog razloga se svaki štrajk u Jugoslaviji odvijao izvan institucionalnog okvira.

Continue reading →

Three Years in Yugoslavia

Posted on by

Lorraine Perlman

Fredy Perlman, Velimir Morača and an unknown friend, Belgrade, 1964. or 1965.

The warm welcome we received from numerous Yugoslavs in September 1963 made our move to Belgrade definitive. Within a few days we had found a room in the home of a bus driver and family on the outskirts of Zemun, a large suburb and extension of Belgrade on the other side of the Sava River. Fredy was hired for a temporary job as “speaker” by a media enterprise which made documentary films about tourist attractions in Yugoslavia. Fredy recorded the texts describing the sites depicted in the films: parks featuring post-war sculpture, monasteries, or coastal villages. For a few hours’ work, he received the equivalent of U.S. wages and this money solved our immediate financial problems.

We enrolled at a language institute and spent every morning attending classes and listening to tapes of Serbo-Croatian. Our fellow students were from central Africa, Western Europe and the U.S.S.R. It was a friendly group and sometimes we got together outside of class. One of the two Soviet students was eager to meet for discussions but it was clear that the other disapproved of this extracurricular contact. We were shocked by Viktor’s suspicious reserve and perhaps did not sufficiently appreciate Dimitri’s courage in coming to visit us on his own.

The Yugoslav innovation of worker self-management was highly regarded in the West and we wanted to get acquainted with its principles and operation. Zemun had a number of factories and we had no trouble finding informed people to answer our questions. We quickly learned that Yugoslavs did not share the Western enthusiasm for worker self-management, considering it largely a public relations gimmick to camouflage conventional worker-vs.-management relations. We were surprised to learn that strikes were frequent. Although never reported in the press, the occurrence of this authentic worker-managed activity was common knowledge. Unions are an arm of the government (the “boss”) so any strike in Yugoslavia necessarily occurs outside an institutional framework.

Continue reading →