http://www.sps.org.yu/eng/index-n.htm

The Fifth Extraordinary Congress
25 november 2000


The Fifth Extraordinary Congress


Address of Mr. Slobodan Milosevic,
Chairman of the Socialist Party of
Serbia to the Fifth Extraordinary
Congress of the Party

Belgrade, 25 November 2000


Comrades,

In the elements for the discussion of SPS members, in the
preparation for this Congress, dramatic and highly
unfavorable circumstances, internal and external, were
pointed out marking the conditions in which the 2000
elections were held. At the same time, anyone in this hall is
fully aware what kind of violence and lawlessness prevailed
after the 5 October coup – setting on fire the Federal
Parliament and the national TV. The background of these
events and the continuation of the occupation of Yugoslavia,
which started several years ago, as was revealed in
Rambouillet and during the last year’s war, will be something
that both the contemporaries and the generations to come
will discuss.

War against this country, is now a money war. We have
large-scale corruption at works here. A lot of money is in
circulation and great privileges are granted to those who
should accept all that is against this country – loss of
independence, separation of Montenegro, Kosovo and
Vojvodina, humiliation and annihilation of the Serb people,
handing the national heroes to the new Gestapo
headquartered in The Hague. Thanks to that money, the
media are in the hands of foreign intelligence services.

But the war against our country is also waged through
intimidation. The SPS headquarters in Belgrade were burnt
down, its leadership is threatened, they are being
eavesdropped, blackmailed and falsely accused.

The biggest force in the defense of the State and national
interests is the SPS and that is why is it now targeted for
major attacks. Its ruin or at least destabilization is a priority
task of the enemies of our State.

That task is being carried out in a perfidious manner, from
the inside, seeking to pit as many people as possible against
each other. But through direct and brutal pressures – sacking
and humiliating people, the party officials are often
pressured into leaving the party.

At the same time, there is an absurd – all those that defended
the country and were in the country during the war, are now
labeled as enemies, while those who fled, supported the
bombing campaign and cooperated with the aggressors, are
now playing the part of patriots and saviors of the country.
Thieves are saying that honest people are thieves.

These difficult times require that all those who may take
responsibility do so. That is why the SPS has to reinforce its
unity and reaffirm itself as a major factor in the defense of
the State and national interests.

Therefore, the SPS has nothing more important to do than
close its ranks in defending this program, in defending the
interests of citizens and the people. This is a task that this
Congress has to perform.

At the Fourth Congress, we concluded that the country was
threatened. Our primary task concerned the unity and the
need to mobilize "all patriotic parties and people". I also
emphasize "in this time this is a priority task for this
country". It was also assessed then that:

"Now the country is defending itself from the evil that is
hovering above and we should have the left and the right join
forces, believers and atheists, highly educated and those
who are not, the old and the young, those that did not get
along and spoke to each other, those who think that they
have forever and for better parted their ways. They all have
one thing in common – the love of their country. And they feel
an obligation to defend it from becoming a colony where
foreign armies will march in, whose economy will be in the
function of development of other countries’ development,
whose culture will be done away with, whose past will be
wiped out and whose leaders will be bribed or blackmailed
swindlers that every nation has even when the going is good,
particularly so when the going gets tough".

The idea of the Government of national unity was
successfully realized for entire seven years.

The tragic fault of the entire patriotic block which is the main
cause for the current crisis was its inability to preserve the
unity.

The lack of unity within the patriotic block, which
successfully cooperated in the Government of the national
unity for years, was brought about only partially due to
narrow-mindedness of our party leadership, to a lesser
extent and to a more extent due to immoderate demands of
the Radical Party. In any case, the weakness of the patriotic
block expressed through its inability to preserve the unity,
was the main cause. And then the pressures exerted on the
party only to look for its negative traits, even when there are
none, and it surely has less of those than all the others.

Speaking of narrow-mindedness, as our weakness that came
to the fore before the elections, I would like to say that this is
the weakness that we did not manage to get rid of either in
the preparations for this extraordinary Congress. Due to that
weakness, our list for the party leadership does not include
young people, farmers or women to the extent it is necessary
in the SPS, despite our statutory norms.



Comrades,

Only nine months ago, we held the regular Fourth Congress
of our party. We advanced a concept of further development
of our society on the whole, as well as in certain fields,
particularly in the economy. Our party prepared well for a
Congress conceived in such way, because we wanted to
confront the party and the widest public with responses that
related to the perspectives of the society, which almost for a
decade faced huge outside pressures and coped with many
internal difficulties and the consequences of such pressures.
And then, only a few months before the Congress, the war
NATO fought against Yugoslavia, mostly in the territory of
Serbia, ended.

In view of all of that, the Socialist Party of Serbia took as its
task at the Congress to confront all citizens, the entire
people, with the responses related to freedom,
independence, economic development, social stability,
international cooperation, situation in the region, our future,
and partially the future in general.

Now, the same as then, I consider that the Congress was an
invaluable contribution to the future of our country, and
above all that it provided the answers that concerned other
countries and peoples with which we enter the 21st century.
These are not merely my assessments or the assessments of
our party at the Fourth Congress of the Socialist Party of
Serbia. Similar or identical assessments were made by many
prominent international politicians and guests who attended
the Congress and there were, as you know, the
representatives from more than 100 parties from all over the
world. Positive assessments of the Congress could be found
in many international media, months later.

We have been, for many reasons, convinced that despite the
difficulties that continued, primarily in the form of outside
pressures, we are entering a period of renewal, reforms and
development, hopeful that we shall find a common language
with the international community, primarily with those
democratic, progressive and human factors in the
international community and start to shake off the pressure,
blackmail and threats which for a decade have made our life
difficult and tied our hands in terms of development,
prosperity above all.

Immediately after the war, with great enthusiasm and great
achievements we entered a period of the reconstruction of
the country, rebuilding all that was destroyed in the war and
we almost completed the reconstruction before the elections
took place in September. Our public responded well to the
reconstruction and its achievements, the international public
followed it and where it commented it, the comments were
very positive. How else could one comment a quick,
successful and self-reliant reconstruction of the country
ravaged by the war, without outside assistance and war
reparations.

At the federal elections held in September, the Socialist
Party of Serbia and its coalition partners – Yugoslav Left
(JUL) and Socialist Peoples Party of Montenegro (SNP), could
have won majority in Parliament. But, without its coalition
partners, it could not win the majority in Parliament and it did
not enter the Federal Government. It was the will of the SNP
of Montenegro. In doing so, at the level of the Federal State,
the Socialist Party of Serbia found itself in the role of
opposition party. Among other things, we are having this
Congress in order to prepare for the role of an opposition
party in the Federal State and to assess the situation in the
Federal State where we are opposition. But also to
consolidate our party on the eve of the elections in Serbia.

The party that has for ten years been a ruling one, cannot
possibly overnight, be it alone or with other parties, at the
level of the Federal State or at the republican level, quickly
and easily switch from the ruling to the opposition party.

Many parties in the world, particularly in Europe following a
long or longer periods of rule had to adapt to the role of
opposition. In this period, they usually lose members, but
sometimes their old members returned after a while, there
were tensions in the leadership which manifested through
seeking justified or often unjustified responsibility, the
changed or only considered that they had to change
something, anything – program, name, leadership, structure
of organization, approach to media, symbols ... believing that
these changes would heal the wounds that the party suffered
assuming the role of the opposition.

The countries with longer multi-party traditions have gained
all these experiences long ago. They have not been followed
attentively in our party, although I think that they have not
been followed in other parties and our society on the whole,
because since the Second World War until 1990, we lived in a
different, one-party system. Now we need to learn about the
experience of other parties in the world which faced a similar
situation and take advantage of them to the extent they are
good for us.

By all accounts, in such circumstances, the major tasks of
any party

include establishing its identity, preserving its current
identity but changing it somewhat or much, but insistence on
the party’s identity is its major task. I think that in this
respect, our party should maintain the concept of the
development of society it embraced at its Fourth Congress in
February, and to be an opposition from the point of view of
that concept, to all that is taking place in the Yugoslav
society now, to the extent it is contrary to our perception of
the interests of the Yugoslav society.

As at the previous Congress, we shall continue to advocate
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a common State of two
equal republics – Serbia and Montenegro. We shall therefore
be against the so-called "community" of Serbia and
Montenegro, as a state solution for these two republics.

As at the previous Congress, we shall advocate our positions
on Kosovo, firmly believing that they are principled, genuine
and just.

Of all the wounds we suffered, Kosovo is the most serious.

The former Yugoslavia started to die in Kosovo. Perhaps, in
the beginning of 1980s, maybe 1970s or even 1960s, but
surely in Kosovo.

Its independence and secession, fuelling of hatred between
the Serb and Albanian people, ill-intentioned attempts at
domination of one over the other, outside financial support,
outside Yugoslavia, to trigger mutual conflicts – this is how
the former Yugoslavia entered a tragic crisis.

But the same Kosovo story is the greatest wound of the
present-day Yugoslavia. Outside factors did all they can so
that the wound may never heal. These efforts resulted in fear
that all living in Kosovo had to endure for years – Serbs and
Albanians alike, in poverty engulfing all in Kosovo – Serbs
and Albanians, in bombing that was killing all in Kosovo –
Serbs and Albanians, in evil hovering over the heads of all
children – Serb and Albanian.

One part of the international community blamed the Serbs
and the authorities in Serbia for the alleged genocide against
the Albanians. However, it is thanks to them, to that part of
the international community, that genocide was committed
against the Serbs. They have left Kosovo for most part. They
are walking, as greatest European destitute, along the
periphery of the territory where until recently their houses
used to be and still are, the territory that used to be their
native land and their centuries' old homeland. Those that
remained, became the greatest martyrs and the greatest
heroes of this century, and at this moment perhaps the
greatest martyrs and greatest heroes in the entire world. In
any case, the greatest patriots of all.

For more than a decade, the authorities in Serbia invested
outstanding efforts to prove to the world, angry and
unbelieving, that Kosovo is a part of Serbia. For themselves,
it does not even have to be neither holy or the most
important part. But we, the Serbs, have every right to see it
like that if that is the case. It is up to us and no one else. The
French have the Notre Dame and the Arch of Triumph, the
Russians have the Kremlin and the Battle of Borodin, the
Americans have their Empire State building, the Greeks have
Acropolis and the Serbs have Gracanica, Gazimestan and the
Patriarchate of Pec.

That is why the violence against Kosovo is violence against
Serbia. Violence against the Serbs from Kosovo is violence
against all Serbs. All the Serbs know that - even those that
have been paid to forget. They know it when they return
home, when they are by themselves and no one is watching.

But the Albanians in Kosovo, even those that currently enjoy
the support of some powers which resulted in the Serbs
being expelled from Kosovo, not even them are living a happy
life. Even those that are filled with hatred and violence
cannot possibly choose to live with that hatred and violence.
Particularly when that choice was not a result of their own
will and emotions but for foreign interests. These interests
use Albanians as an instrument to break-up yet another
country and occupy yet another territory.

SPS is advocating a free Kosovo in free Serbia, a free Serbia
in free Yugoslavia, free Yugoslavia in free Balkans, where all
Balkan countries and their people should live in peace. SPS
is advocating freedom for each country and all people in the
world.

If such political platform is undemocratic and inhuman, than
the membership of this party seeks that a text of democratic
and human platform be read.



Comrades,

I dwelled on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija since I felt that
the dramatic situation in Kosovo required that.

Now, let me continue to explain the SPS platform and the
policies that it should lead on the basis of this platform in the
current circumstances.

Therefore, as at the previous Congress will shall advocate
the independence of Yugoslavia since that was a historical
principle in line with which the people of Serbia and
Montenegro functioned throughout their entire history. We
shall also advocate the sovereignty of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia, not questioning the need to cooperate in all
fields (economic, cultural, scientific, technological, political)
with the entire world, with all countries, with all people on
the basis of equality. The preservation of the sovereignty of
one country and its cooperation with other countries are
really possible only if among those countries there exist the
relations of equality and basic mutual trust. That is why the
Socialist Party of Serbia will be against those political,
economic, national, cultural, technological and other
concessions that the authorities of the FRY will make under
the pretext of cooperation with the world, to the detriment of
independence and sovereignty of the country.

When those concessions are made (which is already the
case), they are impossible to see immediately, i.e. it is not
possible to see that these are concessions, and that
interests of the State and its citizens are at stake. Facing the
consequences of these concessions is something that
comes later, often when it is difficult to remove the
consequences.

The Socialist Party of Serbia has been warning to that for an
entire decade. The composition of the Federal Government
has prevented the SPS from protecting the State and its
citizens from the position of power from dangers posed to
their livelihood, in the wake of these concessions. But as an
opposition party in Yugoslavia it will do all it can so that the
broad public, the entire people be warned on the dangers to
its survival, particularly for sound and successful
development of society in case this practice of limiting the
sovereignty and questioning the independence of the
country be continued.

As was the case at the previous Congress, the Socialist Party
of Serbia will advocate economic development in line with
the principles of market economy and diversity of ownership
relations which combined will provide for a better standard of
the society and citizens. We do not have a problem with
private ownership. But we do have a problem with all those
forms of ownership that are manifested as depletion of
national and individual assets, as give-away of the State and
material and moral degradation of citizens that acquired their
property for a long time and legally. At this moment, this
process of (alleged) ownership transformation threatens to
turn into something that the Socialist Party of Serbia feared
might happen and what it warned might happen - selling of
the State and social property at give-away prices to foreign
and domestic buyers, foreign investments of dubious
character without a possibility to control and assess to what
extent are those investments in the national interest or
perhaps contrary to it.

Hence the first consequences of the policies pursued in this
field by a new Government such as huge price increases,
particularly of basic staples, food, shortage of electricity
(which we had even in the most difficult period of the
sanctions and the war when during night the were bombs
dropped on electricity supply systems, but tomorrow, we had
enough power supply in the entire territory of the Republic as
well as during the entire time after the war until the moment
when these affairs fell into the hands of new authorities),
increases in the price of electricity, increases in the price of
medicines making them unavailable to a great number of
sick people, great and sudden unemployment. In short, the
fall of living standards.

In that respect, unemployment is not only a consequence of
wrongful economic policies, but it also has a political
dimension. A large number of people was sacked exclusively
on political grounds. In the 21st century in Europe it should
be inadmissible that the authorities professionally degrade
people of different political views. Sacking people with
different political views is a practice linked to the darkest
experiences of terror against people in the 20th century.

However, speaking of violence, it is not manifested only
through sacking and professional and human degradation at
workplace, but it is manifested as violent physical removal of
people from executive positions to which they were
appointed by Governments, assemblies, or where they were
elected by managing boards; the property of people of
different political views is seized as well as that of parties
and lastly, this also included physical violence towards
people who hold different political views.

At first glance it may look unnecessary, but it is essentially
necessary to emphasize that the Socialist Party throughout
all these ten long and difficult years fraught with all the evils
in this world, hovering above our small country and small
people, managed to preserve not only the country, and
ensure a relatively decent life for its citizens, but also
managed to ensure the functioning of all institutions on
which the State relies, guaranteeing citizens personal and
property security. Today, the functioning of these institutions
is threatened. They are in the hands of the forces that do not
recognize the Constitution, laws and often not even
elementary moral norms. Hundreds of directors, university
deans, rectors, directors of hospitals, presidents of managing
boards are thrown out from their offices and sacked from
their positions to which they were appointed by assemblies
and governments, under the threat of various groups or
sufficiently angry people in the face of which legally elected
or legally appointed people had to give way - to take a sick
leave, without being sick, early retirement, or to take a
holiday they do not need or even become really sick... Most
of these people are prominent experts, honorable citizens,
often with long professional and life experience.

Committed to the democratic functioning of the State and
democratic society, the Socialist Party of Serbia not only
expresses it deep concern for the fate of its beliefs, but
expresses its most profound concern for the respect of
fundamental human and civil rights in conditions when such
rights are not protected by the competent institutions, but
unidentified force will do all it can to suspend those
institutions.

As at the Fourth Congress, the Socialist Party of Serbia
remains committed to a multi-party system and free
expression of different political views. Moreover, the SPS has
initiated the introduction of a multi-party system in Serbia. In
that sense, SPS shall oppose the practice that at the current
moment threatens to start its unusual, awkward life - to ban
and discriminate against the political parties that are
opposition just for being opposition. In all its documents,
particularly from the Fourth Congress, SPS

emphasized the need for a free, true and responsible
management of the media. The Socialist Party of Serbia
waged a long-term war with the media financed from abroad,
whose task was to misinform the citizens of Serbia and
Yugoslavia, to demoralize them, to discredit them and falsely
accuse all for whom they assess are not sufficiently loyal to
the interests outside Yugoslavia to limit the country's
sovereignty. Consistently committed to such position until
the present day, the Socialist Party of Serbia has to express
its deepest concern with the fate of the society in which the
media exclude different opinions and advocate only one
opinion. Even if that one and only opinion were an expression
of an absolute domination of a political party in the
Assembly, the media which care about the principles of truth,
freedom and responsibility, should not deprive their public of
different opinions, even if they belonged to small parties,
non-parliamentary parties or even individual political and
intellectual views of the realities and future developments.

So, when I said that one of the most important tasks of our
party at the present time was to establish its identity, I
thought, let me repeat, that SPS should remain committed to
all those values its has been committed to since its very
inception, throughout this turbulent decade - freedom,
independence, economic prosperity, free cultural
development, constant improvement of standards,
integration with the rest of the world, cooperation on an
equal footing with all nations and peoples. SPS should also
remain committed to the vision of the development of society
advanced at the Fourth Congress. In addition, it should add
to its identity an obligation of critical evaluation of the
reality, in an analytical, principled, public and argumented
manner, the reality that is contrary to, today even absolutely
contrary to the commitments of SPS and the documents from
the party's Fourth Congress.

The second task of the SPS in the present circumstances is
not only the preservation of the party network, but expansion
of its structure and of course, an accurate evaluation of its
membership. After the announcement of election results, as
well as after setting up majority in the Assembly contrary to
pre-election campaign promises, after setting up the Federal
Government with one leftist party and one coalition of 18
political groupings of different political affiliations, the
membership of the Socialist Party of Serbia reacted painfully,
and there was even some commotion, justified confusion,
disappointment ... This is all a normal reaction from political
and human aspect. I think that the initial thrust of such
reactions is over and that the membership in all local and
municipal organizations for most part gathered around their
program and their obligations under the program, preparing
themselves for the republican elections scheduled a year
ahead causing justified surprise of its membership and
probably justified discontent of the membership. Of course,
now that the elections were called, the SPS has to prepare
for them. In conditions of the media blockade this will be
difficult. However, even if there were no elections, our party
has a second great and important obligation - to consolidate
the membership and activate and expand the network with a
view to presenting the reality as it is and for the umpteenth
time in a new and old and any way, say where the reality is
leading the society and the citizens. If it is not to be
changed.

As for its membership, some its members are
leaving the party, in the first place from
the
leadership ranks. We should not of course,
mourn them. It is now obvious that they
joined
the party because it was in power and that they stayed there
while it was in power. For the first time when it is not, they
are leaving. If only they were to do so quietly, as profiteering
cowards... However, they are leaving it with a lot of noise,
demonstrating that their departure from the party in whose
leadership they were is also a departure from the policies to
which they paid lip service until a month ago and it is still
ringing in the ears of those who listened them on dozens of
TV and radio stations. But not only words. They advocated
the policies with which they now part with in deeds as well,
before the very eyes of all SPS members and all citizens,
because they did not take place three decades ago but three
months ago. In turbulently parting ways with our party they
are just buying a ticket for a new midst where they expect
some profit, first of all material, then in terms of status and
privileges and perhaps protection of assets they illegally and
unlawfully seized.

The current analysis of political situation in the country will
not be faced with a difficult task if they should seek to
identify the radical changes that the political elite in this
country has gone through in this country. A decade ago, it
was not the easiest job to find documents indicating who
was a member of the Crown Council from 1992 and
euphorically wrote on socialist self-management as a
necessary outcome in 1976. Such research efforts should
now be very easy to undertake. In the course of one autumn
alone, the same persons spoke volumes of the resistance to
NATO aggression, while only a few days after the coup they
supported European social-democracy whose governments,
as is well-known, took part in NATO aggression. Not to
mention those fierce national freedom-fighters of the Serbian
people from early 1990s who now renounce their
participation in that struggle, claiming that this national story
is overtaken and now they see themselves as citizens of
Europe.

Difficult times exist, among other things, so that a man may
prove his worth - whether in difficult times he will remain with
those with whom he was when the going was good or will
they now join others so that they may again have a good and
prosperous time. In politics, the same as in life, there are
people who are ready to always move to places where it is
nice and sunny, particularly where the authorities are. But in
life, the same as in politics, there are others who see that
and should speak about that, not on account of those who
move towards the authorities but for the authorities
themselves. Because all authorities wishing well to its
people, have to beware of the candidates who want to be
peoples representatives, who present themselves as
candidates for any authorities, those who are essentially
interested only in representing themselves.

I am appealing the delegates of this Congress, to all
members of SPS, to all those that can hear or read my words:
the interest of our country is to be free, independent,
developed and integrated with the rest of the world. The
interest of our citizens is to live in peace and freedom, not
fearing for their life and property, so that all of them can work
and live well and better from their work, to respect their
history and have a better future.

The Socialist Party of Serbia has a task - to protect,
represent and realize such interests of the country and its
people.

It is therefore not important how big it will be but what it will
look like. The greatest party is the best party.

The Socialist Party of Serbia used to be that for ten years,
may it continue to be like that in the future.


Copyright © 1997-2000SPS

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