Awards

• Winner of The Michael Mitterauer Prize for Social, Cultural and Economic History in Vienna 2021

Overview

Workers' self-management was one of the unique features of communist Yugoslavia. Goran Musić has investigated the changing ways in which blue-collar workers perceived the recurring crises of the regime. Two self-managed metal enterprises, one in Serbia another in Slovenia, provide the frame of the analysis in the time span between 1945 and 1989. These two factories became famous for strikes in 1988 that evoked echoes in popular discourses in former Yugoslavia. Drawing on interviews, factory publications and other media, local archives, and secondary literature, Musić analyzes the two cases, going beyond the clichés of political manipulation from the top and workers' intrinsic attraction to nationalism. The author explains how, in the later phase of communist Yugoslavia, growing social inequalities among the workers and undemocratic practices inside the self-managed enterprises facilitated the spread of a nationalist and pro-market ideology on the shop floors. Yet rather than being a mass taken advantage of by populist leaders, the working class Musić presents is one with agency and voice, a force that played an important role in shaping the fate of the country. The book thus seeks to open a debate on the social processes leading up to the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

Full Product Details

Author:   Goran Music
Publisher:   Central European University Press
Imprint:   Central European University Press
ISBN:  

9789633863398

ISBN 10:   9633863392
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   30 April 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Figures and Tables Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction Unfulfilled Expectations Mighty Elites and Subservient Workers (Re)Discovering Labor Approaching Class and Nation in a Yugoslav Factory Sources and Chapter Overview Chapter 1. Two Roads to Self-managing Socialism Two Blue-Collar Communities Differing Origins “Factories to the Workers” Market Socialism Losing Factory Unity Chapter 2. Factory Structures and Everyday Life under Associated Labor Reviving Revolution through Normative Acts The More Things Change Claiming Tito The Factory as a Collective Chapter 3. Shades of Blue-collar Workers Proletariat in the Making Who Creates Value? Skill, Gender, and Place of Origin Veterans and the Youth Appendix 1 Chapter 4. The Dragging Crisis, 1979–1986 The Sudden Breakdown The Party at an Impasse TAM’s Pushback of Associated Labor IMR Tries to Catch Up Chapter 5. Breaking the Pact: Workers, Liberals, and Nationalists against the Status Quo Cutting out the Middlemen The Stolen Golden Apples The Diligent Ones Appendix 2 Chapter 6. Mobilizations at the Bottom—Realignments at the Top, 1986–1988 Reaching Beyond the Factory Gates A “Firm Hand” Inside Serbia Bypassing the Working Class in Slovenia Beggar Thy Neighbor Chapter 7. Workers in the Streets Two Outlets in Rakovica Deus Ex Machina Maribor’s Blue-Collar Wrath Post Festum Conclusion The Unsettled Working Class Liberal and Collectivist Self-Management In Search of Allies and Enemies Unanticipated Changes Bibliography Index

Reviews

Goran Music hat ein umfangreiches und beeindruckendes Werk vorgelegt, dass mit scharfen Analysen unter anderem die Konkurrenz zwischen Unternehmen sowie die daraus mangelnde Solidaritat unter Arbeiter:innen unterschiedlicher Betriebe herausarbeitet. Er zeigt auch, dass die Strukturen der Selbstverwaltung keine Organisationsformen fur den Ausdruck ihrer Unzufriedenheit boten; der Streik wurde jenseits dieser Gremien organisiert. Dabei beweist er auch immer Talent fur spannende Erzahlungen und die Auswahl anschaulicher Interviewzitate. Mirjam Baumert https://kritisch-lesen.de/rezension/unruhe-in-der-selbstverwaltung -- Mirjam Baumert, kritisch-lesen.de

Goran Music hat ein umfangreiches und beeindruckendes Werk vorgelegt, dass mit scharfen Analysen unter anderem die Konkurrenz zwischen Unternehmen sowie die daraus mangelnde Solidaritat unter Arbeiter:innen unterschiedlicher Betriebe herausarbeitet. Er zeigt auch, dass die Strukturen der Selbstverwaltung keine Organisationsformen fur den Ausdruck ihrer Unzufriedenheit boten; der Streik wurde jenseits dieser Gremien organisiert. Dabei beweist er auch immer Talent fur spannende Erzahlungen und die Auswahl anschaulicher Interviewzitate. Mirjam Baumert https://kritisch-lesen.de/rezension/unruhe-in-der-selbstverwaltung -- kritisch-lesen.de

Author Information

Goran Music is a research fellow at the Research Platform for the Study of Transformations and Eastern Europe, University of Vienna.

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