Don't Mourn, Balkanize!: Essays after Yugoslavia

by Andrej Grubačić, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (Introduction)

Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! is the first book written from the radical left perspective on the topic of Yugoslav space after the dismantling of the country. In this collection of essays, commentaries, and interviews, written between 2002 and 2010, Andrej Grubačić speaks about the politics of balkanization—about the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, neoliberal structural adjustment, humanitarian intervention, supervised independence of Kosovo, occupation of Bosnia, and other episodes of Power which he situates in the long historical context of colonialism, conquest, and intervention. But he also tells the story of the balkanization of politics, of the Balkans seen from below. A space of bogumils—those medieval heretics who fought against Crusades and churches—and a place of anti-Ottoman resistance; a home to hajduks and klefti, pirates and rebels; a refuge of feminists and socialists, of antifascists and partisans; of new social movements of occupied and recovered factories; a place of dreamers of all sorts struggling both against provincial “peninsularity” as well as against occupations, foreign interventions and that process which is now, in a strange inversion of history, often described by that fashionable term, “balkanization.” For Grubačić, political activist and radical sociologist, Yugoslavia was never just a country—it was an idea. Like the Balkans itself, it was a project of inter-ethnic co-existence, a trans-ethnic and pluricultural space of many diverse worlds. Political ideas of inter-ethnic cooperation and mutual aid as we had known them in Yugoslavia were destroyed by the beginning of the 1990s—disappeared in the combined madness of ethno-nationalist hysteria and humanitarian imperialism. This remarkable collection chronicles political experiences of the author who is himself a Yugoslav, a man without a country; but also, as an anarchist, a man without a state. This book is an important reading for those on the Left who are struggling to understand the intertwined legacy of inter-ethnic conflict and inter-ethnic solidarity in contemporary, post-Yugoslav history.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Christopher Rex · Rating 3 out of 5]

One can certainly add this to the "Not For Everyone" shelf (maybe I need such a shelf). The Balkans is a fascinating - and vastly misunderstood - part of the world. If you only have a rudimentary understanding of the Balkans, this probably isn't the best place to start. If you have only a "mainstream" understanding of the Balkans - either from the mainstream press, TV blabbermouths or gov't mouthpieces - then this book will probably open your eyes quite a bit. But, in the end, it is best appreciated by people who have read (and followed) events in the Balkans extensively. This, in its own right, is the "best" part of the book, but also part of its failing.

Because the Balkans is so misunderstood - and constantly viewed through the lens of so-called "Great Powers" - it's hard to think of the place as anything BUT a history of bloodbaths and violence. Mr. Grubacic unravels this common fallacy and presents a case for Balkan Federation quite impressively. The reality is, as Grubacic points out, because so much of the Balkan "destiny" has been shaped by "Outside Powers" (both in reality and in intellectual history/current events study), much of the region finds itself trapped between slavery to the "Western Model" or slavery to "Extreme Nationalism." Grubacic points out, quite effectively, that this simplistic view is often projected (and imposed) upon the Balkans. And, the "future" of the region lies with neither - it lies in an autonomous development of Balkan identity from the grassroots which allows for more local control and decision-making within a Federalized Region (he calls this "Participatory Economics - parecon").

Well, to put it bluntly, how "parecon" would work OTHER than in a theoretical sense is pretty darn confusing. One of the books great shortcomings is that I didn't feel I walked away understanding how it would work in a "real world" context. It sounds great on paper, but can it work? I'm not fully convinced after reading Grubacic's account. One could visit the website www.parecon.org and have a much better time understanding the book and where Grubacic comes from.

The author is no lover of the West, nor is he a nationalist-extremist. The West bombed Serbia into rubble and orchestrated the breakup of Yugoslavia - he hates this. It now dangles the carrot of "inclusion" to the former Yugoslav states in the form of EU Membership and access to "World Systems" as a reward; anybody who opposes this system (or the bombing) is thus labeled as Pro-Milosovich "nationalist-extremists" - he hates this too.

Anybody who has a desire to see if there is an "alternative" to the current love-affair with Neoliberal Economics would likely be interested in "parecon," though I'm not sure this book is the place to start w/ that. If one would like to have a more well-rounded discussion on the Balkans and do away w/ the idiotic "Western vs. Nationalist" version of Balkan People, would be advised to read the book.

Beyond all of that, as Grubacic points out....who is the West to claim that the Balkan Peoples are bloodthirsty, nationalist, murdering thugs? Was it they who colonized the whole world (and thus murdered, enslaved, tortured and destroyed millions upon millions? Is it they who are engaged in all sorts of foreign wars and setting up military bases all over the world? It is time that the West take a good look in the mirror and stop w/ the nonsensical labels they slap on others (especially the Balkans). This is a good starting place to understanding that a better future is possible in that region.

The book is interesting, thought-provoking and a great addition to "Balkan Scholarship." But, as stated, it's not for everyone.

[Una · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful collection of essays with a radical anarchist lens on the Balkans - probably definitely good to have a baseline understanding of the various conflicts, arrangements and rearrangements of the Balkans/Yugoslavia in recent history before diving into this book.

As a child of first generation Yugoslav refugees I struggled for a long time to learn about region on my own terms. This book paints kind of a magical picture - of a Balkans that has been "a place of anti-Ottoman resistance; a home to haidouks and kephts, pirates and rebels; a refuge of feminists and socialists, of anti-fascists and partisans, of new social movements, of occupied factories".

I share many of the author's views - a frustration with the imperial, colonialist agenda of the West (whose meddling ultimately led to the breakup of Yugoslavia); subsequent blame laid on the Balkan people themselves (seen in the eyes of European and American powers as barbaric, self destructive, harbouring nationalist tendencies, hopeless without intervention and peacekeeping efforts, destined to fail).

Grubačić breaks down the idea that if you're not pro-West in the Balkans (accepting of "progress" and the push for neoliberalism, EU membership and so on), then you are backwards, nationalist, unwilling to be civilized. This bolsters the common belief that the Balkans must be saved from themselves by higher, euro-centric powers, lest they do not follow in the footsteps of the West.

In the second part of the book, Balkanization from Below, Grubačić offers an alternative vision: a stateless Balkans based on transethnic mutual aid and solidarity. In his final essay, he states that his optimism is cautious - acknowledging that while Balkan history been deeply shaped by the meddling of outside hands, the region has undoubtedly experienced bloody inter-ethnic conflicts caused only by themselves. He ends this essay by encouraging readers to remember the past, but move on from it.

A few of the essays in this book also share accounts of worker-run factories that have fought against the wave of privatization in Yugoslavia, in attempts to continue being self-managed - this was an interesting bit of history to read about.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. While its explanation of participatory economics left something to be desired (in terms of imagining its real-world applications), it's overall an argument about the Balkans that I could get behind.

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a chance to read this right before my partner and I visited Croatia. After reading Tim Judah's book on Kosovo this was a definite breath of fresh air. In the book, Grubačić has collected his essays, interviews, analyses, and commentaries from the period just after Judah's book ends. Where as Judah looks at events leading up to the eventual NATO overthrow of Milosević in the late 1990s, Grubačić begins just after (with plenty of radical commentary about the war in the '90s) to the period of "transition" up to 2010. I didn't like Judah's book, but I do appreciate that it gave me some chronology in the events of the former Yugoslavia.

Right up front, Grubačić identifies himself as an anarchist and a Yugoslavian--not a subject from one of the new states created during and after "transition," but apart of something bigger and federated. In part 1 of the book he talks about the use of the terms "the Balkans" and "to Balkanize" from above. This means the use of those terms as pejoratives. To "Balkanize" is to be--in the most racist sense--backwards, uncivilized, needing guidance, and lacking the ability to control your own country. These essays are critical of the "international community" and Europe and the West's agenda to break the Balkans up and turn them into mini support states for the neoliberal, colonialist, capitalist agenda. (After all, they're still the Balkans--we can't give them full access!)

In this section, I'm not sure if it is the proof-reader or Grubačić's own development of using the English language, but there are words missing and some of the phrasing seems off. Aside from this, his analysis is crystal and his critiques of Western imperialism and those who would be bought off at the expense of everyone else are sharp.

In section 2, he reverses the pejorative: Balkanization is the ideal of a socialist, stateless, federated Balkans based on mutual aid, solidarity, self-determination, and self-organization. These essays are just as important as the first group and just as clear.

Over-all I liked this book much more than Judah's. It was far less intensively historical and much more idealistic and contemporary from the perspective of a Yugoslavian in the best anarchist traditions.

[Aleksandra Petrović · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essays in this book do not only focus on the Balkans, they also focus on the actual effects of U.S. Capitalism. I highly recommend this book. The author, Andrej Grubacic is a phenomenal writer.

[KT · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collection of commentaries and conversations following the author's self-described tradition of Balkan socialist propaganda

The book is split into two parts, the first is on Balkanization from Above - an Euro-colonial invention referring to the violent incorporation of the Balkans into the capitalist world-economy and the modern imposition of neoliberal colonialism, which rests on the deep rooted cultural derision of the Balkan people

The second collection of essays is on Balkanization from Below - interethnic mutual aid and solidarity resulting from self-activity, which has been severed through Euro-colonial intervention

However despite the promising themes of Balkanization from Above/Below, both collections of writings were ultimately disappointing, frequently consisting of disjointed ramblings without any substance

[Frank Keizer · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a political vision for the Balkan this book is thoroughly utopian, which I don't mean disparagingly but descriptive: it fosters the political imagination. The weakness of Grubacic project of 'balkanization from below' - a vision of a loosely federated Balkan community contrasted to both authoritarian socialism, ethnonationalism and autocratic neoliberalism, turning the ferocious, feral image of the Balkan on its head to showcase the Balkan's contributions to a worldly, internationalist cosmopolitan culture - is that it is unavailable to the currents of politics, in the region and the world at lage which run in the direction of sovereignty. Utopia, in this postpolitical age, has found refuge in culture and has left society to neoliberal bureaucrats. How anarchism can intervene on this terrain is unclear: Grubacic skirts around the perennial question that anarchism poses, that as a movement it cannot survive on its own and never has. The political and social movements that he does showcase are not explicitly anarchist, however they are - as is to be expected from the years 2000 - 2010, during which this book was written - horizontal and cooperative and that direction is promising still. The book contains an interesting but theoretically and historically sketchy application of the coloniality/modernity framework (Quijano, Mignolo, Dussel) to the Balkans, which would have merited further elaboration. Still, I enjoyed this book. The best parts are delightfully weird and original.

[Sonja · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was disappointing manly because there was no mention of the terrible oppression of women who are under an extreme patriarchy there and who were severely victimized (and raped) during the war. The author does not see women as a force even among workers, which they are. During this war, women activists and intellectuals arose, demonstrated, and joined with the international movement of Women in Black.
Most of this book is focused on male politicians who have only ruined the people of The former Yugoslavia. The most useful parts of the book have to do with the plight of the Roma people and the situation of Kosovo Albanians.

[Wendy Yap · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt the writing was pretty biased, for eg. describing US actions as "imperial" without substantiating why/how he says this. I am open to the idea that the Americans were evil, but there needs to be a lot more proof than there was in this book. This read like some kind of propaganda material. I gave up after 90 pages.

[Amit · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays worth reading for a perspective on the breakup of Yugoslavia that is normally not available in the Western media. These essays ask the question - what the breakup of Yugoslavia inevitable or was it caused by the West?

[Derek Munyon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is not what I was expecting. I had been misled somewhere along the line into thinking this would be an anarchist rumination of balkanization and there was some of what to do with the Balkans, but what it mostly is, is a collection of essays and interviews about the recent, post-Soviet history of the Balkan states and the violence there. Interesting, but not what I thought it would be. It's like the last book I read that was co-authored by Grubačić, which was "Wobblies and Zapatistas," which I believed would be about those groups, but was instead mainly about the organizing efforts of his co-author. Overall, my disappointment primarily spawns from me misunderstanding the book I was getting.

[Sara G]

To be reread in a few months so my thoughts can settle.