Nationalism, social movement theory and the grass roots movement of Kosovo Serbs, 1985-1988

Abstract

THE MID-1980s WITNESSED THE RISE OF GRASS ROOTS PROTEST IN KOSOVO, a peripheral region of socialist Yugoslavia. In contrast to the 1981 demonstrations, the interaction with the authorities unfolded largely without violence, and instead of Kosovo Albanians the protesters were now Kosovo Serbs.(1) The grass roots movement emerged in 1985 and rapidly spread among Serbs in Serbia's autonomous province with a Kosovo Albanian majority. In the summer of 1988 the movement triggered a wave of mobilisation across Serbia and Montenegro, which ended with Kosovo Albanian protests in late 1988 and early 1989. The movement has so far escaped the attention of scholars and journalists alike. For some, the movement was only an empty media fabrication of Slobodan Milosevic in his drive to power in 1987 and 1988. For others, the grass roots protest, though genuine, had little impact on political developments in Yugoslavia in the 1980s, which were dictated by communist and dissident elites(2). The argument offered in this article consists of two parts. In the historical part I provide evidence that the grass roots mobilisation of Kosovo Serbs pre-dated the rise to power of Milosevic and that, despite interaction, and sometimes co-operation, with the authorities the movement remained an autonomous political factor. I also show that the grass roots movement had a disproportionate impact on political developments in Yugoslavia in the late 1980s. Partly under the impact of the movement's activities, long-existing divisions within and among political elites, including factional struggle within Serbia's leadership and conflict among leaders of republics and autonomous provinces, turned into an open conflict. Moreover, the movement's action opened the socialist regime for other non-state actors, which resulted in mobilisation across Serbia and Montenegro. Finally, the movement left a legacy of protest politics that affected strategies of subsequent challenger groups in the region. In the theoretical part of the argument I show that the rise, development and outcomes of nationalist movements cannot be fully explained without insights from social movement theory. Although I acknowledge the important role of ethnic grievances and national identities, I employ the concepts of social movement theory to demonstrate the central place of political context and the dynamics of contention in understanding nationalist movements. I provide evidence that the Kosovo Serb movement emerged and developed largely in response to changes in political context and within a political environment that was, in comparison with other socialist party-states in Eastern Europe, the least unfavourable to challenger groups. I also show that the development and outcomes of the movement largely depended on its protest strategies and the movement's temporal location in a broader wave of mobilisation. Consequently, I argue that nationalist movements should be studied primarily as a species of social movements.