IAN PALACH FROM KUMANOVO

AIM Skopje, January 10, 1996

Official circles around the administration believe that satisfying socially justified but politically dubious demands of the citizens of Kumanovo, would threaten the social reform.

When some time between the New Year's day and Christmas certain Trajce Stojanov from Kavadarci set fire on himself in his vineyard, the public was of course appalled, but was nevertheless also somewhat relieved when it was informed that this horrible pouring of gasoline over oneself had nothing to do with the despair which induced a biggish group of Macedonians to make the same threats. However, the unfortunate Trajce Stojanov reminded that threats were not completely unfounded, especially since last autumn in Ohrid, another fiery suicide was registered caused by existential hopelessness.

Self-burning as the extreme radical, and according to the assessments of this group of people, the only efficient method of attracting the attention to one's own, but evidently to mass problems too, was chosen by thirteen workers of Macedonian insolvent enterprises, who are on a hunger strike since the first day of December last year, having practically stirred no reactions of the public, especially not there where it would have been needed the most - of the political and the economic establishment. At the moment this text is being written, for 40 long days before the eyes of the public and under professional control of health workers, total fast of a group of the people from Kumanovo has been going on. These people were once employed in a respectable shoe factory "Cik" whose soles protected our feet from Triglav to Gevgelija, but especially of people in distant markets of the socialist East. Maybe these thirteen desperate people never expected all their demands to be fulfilled, actually to get valid answers to questions such as where their past labour had vanished in the meantime or how their earlier investments into expansion of production transformed, or as modern economic science says, made a transition into someone else's property, but it is hard to believe that they could have imagined that their protest would pass with such appalling lack of interest of the official politics. That is probably what caused their frightening threat that they would try once again to show that they were capable of carrying through their intention.

Namely, all this time, the strikers have expected that someone from the Government or the state leadership would condescend to satisfy their curiosity and answer their numerous questions, but these expectations were obviously all in vain. Truly, completely in accordance with his competences, the Minister of social welfare affairs, Ilijaz Sabriu, visited the workers on strike, twice even, although his Ministry, to be completely honest, could cover only demands for immediate payment to the strikers. On the other hand, the opinion is that by satisfying the socially justified but politically dubious demands of the workers from Kumanovo, would be an unprecedented event which could lead the entire social reform of Macedonia astray. In other words, it could threaten the reform. That is why people from the state leadership are keeping away from Kumanovo on purpose.

It could be that this case would not have acquired even the public dimensions it did, of course, under the condition that the promised tragic outcome fails to occur or at least until it does, if Macedonian Archbishop of Ohrid, Mister Mihailo in person, had not intervened in favour of the strikers from Kumanovo in the presence of President Gligorov on the occasion of Christmas divine service. Not to mention the striking lack of tact concerning Mr Gligorov's health and solemnity of the occasion, Mister Mihail at least turned curiosity of the media in the right direction and indicated that the whole case could be interesting for those who would have much rather disregarded it completely.

But, apart from the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church and his priests, according to testimony of some official media, "diabolic" Atanas Lefterov has recently been seen with the strikers. He is the leader of the so-called Independent Trade Union and the leader of the unsuccessful "hunger strike" from the beginning of last year, which was, judging by all kinds of assessments, inspired from the headquarters of the extra-parliamentary opposition parties, primarily by the VMRO-DPMNE. Based on this, analysts inclined towards the authorities tend to draw a conclusion that the unfortunate citizens of Kumanovo "might not be having such a bad time after all" and that a political manipulation of the opposition parties can be recognized in their strike. Those who have managed to strain their inclinations to the level prescribed by professional norms suggest only that this is an expected partnership, but express dilemmas about the timing when this "coalition" would become apparent.

The latest data published in a serial of the customary New Year's political, economic and social statistics, at least at first sight appear to speak in favour of Lefterov and friends. Figures actually show that this year in Macedonia, social bottom was moved further down than anyone could have even presumed last year. The weekly "Puls" which has quite a cautious relation towards information with a negative prefix comments that data which rank Macedonia the first on the list of unemployement in Europe with its 28.6 per cent are "too cruel". About 216 thousand of the unemployed in relation to two million inhabitants, which is even worse, actually represents a very unpleasant increase of the number of those who are looking for a job by 16.2 per cent in relation to last year. The picture is even darker when one takes into account that among the 360 thousand of those who are employed (the unbelievable ratio 1.5:1 should be kept in mind), almost 150 thousand did not receive a salary last month, and about 100 thousand did not receive a salary in the last three months.

This, one may say, South-American unemployment rate would be a reason for concern of any country in the world except those where social tensions are controlled by highly repressive measures. In Macedonia, however, the situation is greatly relaxed because the mentioned figures, in fact, are not complete authentic. This enormous army is indeed applying for social welfare, but a great part of them has some income or another. For one thing, there are 80 thousand registered privately-owned enterprises, and if each one of them has at least a single unregistered employee, and unregistered labour is the foundation of economic philosophy here, then the shocking figure obtained from the public employment office would be cut by half. That is perhaps the cause of obvious self-confidence of Macedonian administration concerning the critical relation between hunger and fear whose disbalance makes each and every authority start making unpopular moves.

BUDO VUKOBRAD