Mein.Tolk-Blog

02 Dezember 2005

Guerrilla Radio

Rock'n'Roll Radio and Serbia's Underground Resistance
Matthew Collin
Last Gasp, 2002
ISBN: 1560254041

Rock'n'Roll Radio and Serbia's Underground Resistance: Armed only with a stack of old punk records and a dream of freedom, one defiant Belgrade radio station waged a ten year war against Slobodan Miloševič's dictatorship - and won

For most Europeans, the war in Serbia was just a bit of news on TV. Very few of us are probably aware of the fact that the struggle for freedom actually lasted ten years - as they went by unnoticed by the west. What we might have noticed was 24 September 1999. That day, NATO started bombing Serbia in a last attempt to stop Miloševič from attacking Kosovo. But the countless demonstrations against Miloševič were not seen on TV. Nor was the struggle of Radio B92 or of the activist group Otpor ('Resistance'). This book tells the story of Radio B92. But also the story of people who stayed in their country to fight for it without weapons and those who left it because it did not leave them air to breath. How would I have decided if I had been in their position? I don't know and I am glad I never had to take this decision.

But B92 was also about fun, punk and not being conformist. But how can you be all that if people in your country rely on you for true information they don't get anywhere else. Tough question....

Amidst the serious programming were plenty of silly stunts [...]. But there was also a lot of hard-edged, bitterly dark humour. This was the period when Miloševič's mass rallies of nationalist Serbs all across Yugoslavia were reaching boiling point. A demonstration was organized in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia - a city noted for its lack of Serb inhabitants. A B92 presenter began randomly calling numbers in Ljubljana, introducing himself as "Voja, your old friend from the army", and asking whether he could come and stay at their house that Saturday and bring twelve Serb friends with him. The recipients of the call, naturally, were horrified at the prospect of a dozen redneck nationalists descending upon them - but their reactions exposed what the rest of Yugoslavia thought of Serbia's populist frenzy.

Matthew Collin is a journalist from Great Britain who mainly writes about popular culture, music, travel technology and the politics of social justice.

Available at Amazon in English.

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