In less than five months since the overthrow of Milosevic, the membership has tripled. Nezavisnost, which now has over 600,000 certified members, is the largest union confederation in the country by far. It is a powerful force which no government can long choose to ignore or marginalize. It is also a dynamic organization in a society weighted down by corruption and stagnation, a situation which brings with it both opportunity and danger. For post-Milosevic Serbia remains frozen in a putative "transition" which fails to advance.

The country has a new government and parliament, and a tentative lifeline to Western donors, but no discernible plan for purging itself of the criminality and authoritarianism nurtured by a decade of war and ideological madness. The economy is at ground zero, the number of pensioners exceeds those in paid employment, and the cynicism which inevitably accompanies the growth of the black market has created an enormous reservoir of potential shock troops for political manipulation which could be turned against Nezavisnost. Democracy must bring with it tangible gains, or it is liable to evaporate before it takes root.

Just as Western governments once regarded Milosevic as a privileged "interlocutor" and "a guarantor of peace and stability", so do they now rush to bestow democratic credentials on the Kostunica government. The IUF delegation, however, saw a different Serbia, thanks to our colleagues in Nezavisnost. We met enterprise directors who boasted of their willingness to serve any government, including the previous one. We saw privatization in action at the Hotel Novi Sad, where the manager was "privatizing" the hotel as a joint venture with the local police chief - and sending in the cops to regularly intimidate Nezavisnost organizers. We heard many instances of workers having their pay docked, or being transferred to a lower paid position, or being threatened and even assaulted after joining Nezavisnost. We learned of a labour minister in the government of "democratic" Serbia, chosen from the nomenklatura of the Milosevic union, who was attempting to launch a new, pro-government confederation. We heard of repeated refusals on the part of the new government to meet with Nezavisnost - the most representative union in the country - to discuss reform of the labour code. We heard numerous reports of enterprise directors looting their enterprises. And, at a mass meeting in Serbia's Voivodina - the country's traditional breadbasket - we heard from agricultural workers paid a monthly wage of twelve German marks (the minimum necessary for a family of four is over 2,000).
We also saw workers, many of them, in breweries, processing plants, hotels and elsewhere, who were no longer afraid to speak out against authority and injustice, and were determined to stand together to defend their rights. This is the real legacy of the October upheaval, and the one which must be defended and preserved.
Kostunica is not Milosevic, and the new government cannot be blamed for the economic catastrophe it inherited. But in the enterprises which continue to function it is business as usual for the managers and apparatchiks who still rule by decree and even violence. For democracy to take root in Serbia, a strong trade union movement is indispensable in the workplace and in society. Nezavisnost needs the full and active support of the international labour movement, for while it has ample experience in opposing war and authoritarianism, it has virtually no experience with collective bargaining, which was impossible under the former system and remains impossible today. It will also need strong support to effectively watch over foreign investment and the privatization process if the widespread looting of the country's remaining assets is to be halted and reversed.