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[ texts ]Students Uprising in Serbia: photographs by Ivan Put and Verso article
April, 18 2025
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Since November of last year, Serbia has erupted in sustained protest in response to government corruption and shrinking education budgets. Two months into student-organized university occupations, the Serbian government resigned. The students continue to occupy in rejection of decades of privatization, austerity measures and overall government inefficacy. The following statement is by Kosta Jakic, a Belgian pianist and medical student of Yugoslavian origin, and Ivan Put, a Belgian photographer. In cooperation with the collective PhD in One Night, they entered the student occupations (plenums) in the Faculty of Organizational Sciences and the Faculty of Biology at the University of Belgrade to discuss their political demands and successful techniques of self organizing. Following the statement are expressions of support by Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière where they touch on the similarities between the current Serbian plenums and the May ’68 uprising.
"Our students are self-educating wonderfully"
Milica D., a 19 year-old student in the Faculty of Organisational Sciences, proudly displays a cake. On the cake, there is the characteristic red, bloodied hand and the date marking the beginning of the blockades and the takeover of the faculty. It is the fourth month of this blockade, which emerged in response to the first occupation at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. For four months now, protests have multiplied throughout Serbian universities as a result of the Novi Sad tragedy, which brought to stark reality rampant state corruption.
On November 1, 2024, the canopy of the Novi Sad train station collapsed, killing fifteen people and gravely injuring two more [editor's note: one more person, an eighteen year-old man, has perished as a result of their injuries since this statement was written]. The station had just been renovated four months earlier, and yet the government falsely claimed that no renovations had taken place. After the tragedy, they removed all documents related to the station’s construction from the internet. No one was held accountable for the disaster. No one was arrested.
The first protests, led by students of Academy of Dramatic Arts in New Belgrade, took the form of a silent tribute to the victims. They demanded transparency and an investigation into those responsible for the tragedy. On November 22, students were brutally attacked during a silent commemoration. This sanctioned violence and repression sparked the current wave of student occupation.
“If we no longer feel safe on the streets, then we withdraw and take over the universities,” says Teodora J. “The police are not allowed to enter the faculties unless they have permission from the dean. Here, using the right to autonomy of the university,[2] we are safe.”Full article at Verso Books blog
