Catastrophic economic situation, the high
unemployment rate, the insatiable public expenditure, the endemic
corruption in public services – especially in the judiciary –
large-scale clericalization of the society, the organized crime and
its hookup with security services, the public opinion created by
tabloids, the governmental policy that boils down to demagoguery and
petty politics, unsolved constitutional issues, the country’s
unstable international position, mass apathy and citizens
disinterested in social problems – these are the outcomes of the
rule by an incapable political class and its criminal ideology of
Ravna Gora.
The laws on equal rights of tchetniks and
partisans (2006) and rehabilitation of the Tchetnik Movement (2008)
were passed. This legislation absolves tchetniks’ crimes,
rehabilitates fascism and proclaims fascist collaborators
anti-fascists. Last but not least, it relativizes fascism and
anti-fascism. With this legislation Serbia’s political class not
only mocks at the victims of fascism but also at common sense,
historical truth and justice. This legislation – along with certain
officials’ arguments that Yugoslavia would have been better off had
it remained in alliance with fascists in 1941 – acts like a tonic to
the right-wing extremism and neo-fascism’s aggressiveness at the
public scene. Many either registered or unregistered neo-Nazi,
neo-fascist and extreme rightist movements and groups are in action
in today’s Serbia: they bring chaos to the streets, glorify war
crimes, assault and kill people from minority groups and human
rights defenders.
Anti-fascism is the value of civilization
surpassing all ideologies and policies whatsoever. Anti-fascism is a
moral attitude toward fascism as a criminal ideology one should not
compromise with.
It’s high time that all anti-fascist and
democratic forces in Serbia stand up and say ‘NO’ to fascism.
Fascist crimes can be neither forgotten nor forgiven: statutory
limitations are not applicable to war crimes. Denials of the
Holocaust and the genocide committed in the territory of
ex-Yugoslavia are crimes. Proclaiming persons who have committed
mass crimes against women, children and the old anti-fascists or
“heroes” of the Serbian people and staging ceremonial welcomes to
war criminals convicted by ICTY are shameless provocations by
Serbia’s fascism that should be punished for inciting war crimes.
With this Anti-fascist Manifesto we call for a
joint action against fascism. To make this action efficient we call
for a thorough review of the social background in which fascism has
made a comeback and annulment of the shameless legislation that
legalized the Tchetnik and the neo-Tchetnik genocidal movements.
This legislation is the bedrock and the hotbed of Serbia’s fascism:
any action against it will be in vain as long as it is in force and
as long as schools indoctrinate generations of children that WWII
collaborators were actually anti-fascists.
We present this Manifesto to citizens of Serbia to
mark the 59th anniversary of liberation of Belgrade from fascism on
October 20, 1944.
ALLIANCE OF ANTI-FASCISTS OF SERBIA
WOMEN IN BLACK
HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN SERBIA
Belgrade, October 17, 2013 |