Alternative calendars and memory work in Serbia: Anti-war activism after Milošević

Abstract

This article analyzes the continuation of anti-war groups and activists in Serbia who were in opposition to wars in the 1990s and, in the decade after October 2000, are still in struggle. Activism often analyzed as part of the “Dealing with the Past Projects” is here analyzed in the context of social memory studies contributing to the understanding of current memory work and memory activism in Serbia. Drawing on Eviatar Zerubavel’s analysis of calendars as sites of social organization of national memory, this text looks at the emergence of alternative calendars as formed and created by anti-war and human rights activists. By analyzing the emerging alternative civic calendar in Serbia, I discuss memory activism as related to the commemoration of the Siege of Sarajevo and the Omarska concentration camp. I then extend my analysis on what I see as the most apparent and significant day on the emerging civic alternative calendar: 10 July annual commemoration of the victims of Srebrenica taking place for the last two decades at the heart of Belgrade’s city center, Republic Square.

Peace formation from below: The “mirëdita, dobar dan!” festival as an alternative to everyday nationalism

“…Localising forms of normalised relations reflects a process that builds a foundation for exchange in order to challenge such trends directly. The creation of platforms for regional cooperation, such as memory activism (Fridman, ), the establishment of facts as demanded by the coalition for RECOM, the Regional Commission Tasked with Establishing the Facts about All Victims of War Crimes and Other Serious Human Rights Violations Committed on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia (RECOM website), and peacebuilding as analysed here, allow the establishment of platforms for peace formation. At the root of these platforms is the insistence on going beyond the ethnicisation of victims (Fridman & Ristić, forthcoming) towards shared spaces and joint activism tackling past injustices and current inequalities, not limited to ethnic or national grievances.…”

“…Localising forms of normalised relations reflects a process that builds a foundation for exchange in order to challenge such trends directly. The creation of platforms for regional cooperation, such as memory activism (Fridman, 2015a), the establishment of facts as demanded by the coalition for RECOM, the Regional Commission Tasked with…”

“…I provide empirical evidence of a locally initiated platform—the mirëdita, dobar dan! festival—that I analyse as a potential infrastructure for peace formation, in a society still divided over the memories and legacies of the wars of the 1990s (Fridman, ). The text concludes by pointing to the contribution of the study of bottom‐up peace as creating alternative platforms for peace formation and to the ways in which it confronts top‐down and everyday nationalism in post‐conflict societies.…”

Peace and Justice through a Feminist Lens: Gender Justice and the Women’s Court for the Former Yugoslavia

“…experiences of suffering and resistance (Kovačević, Perković, and Zajović 2011, 18). The Sarajevo Court featured a number of these alternative commemorative practices which aim to open up space for public debate on the wartime past (Fridman 2014), and to create a sense of unity, collective identity and solidarity among participants (Bilić 2012). The event opened with a street performance, entitled Women Together for a Just Peace.…”

Revisitingthe social organisation of national memory: A look at the calendars of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia

“…Within memory studies at large, Eviatar Zerubavel’s (2003, 2004b) chapter ‘Calendars and History: A Comparative Study of the Social Organization of National Memory’ as well as his later book Time Maps have intuitive appeal. Indeed, many papers that deal with calendrical matters, including entries that appeared in Memory Studies (David, 2014; Fridman, 2015), often reference these two titles. Despite that, scholars tend not to touch upon or merely refer to his methodological tools, even though they could help us to better navigate ‘a sociomental topography of the past’ (Zerubavel, 2004b: 1; e.g.…”