ZAGREB INFORMATION POTLATCH
September 94                        #1
This is the first issue of a newsletter I plan on putting out/helping
co-ordinate semi regularily with the intent of acting as sort of a catalyst and
informational outlet for anarchists and anti-authoritarian activists in
Ex-Yugoslavia. After repeatedly trying to get something or other together with
other local anarchists , specifically people I'd met at or through ZAPO (Zagreb
Anarcho Pacifist Organization) here in Zagreb nothing has come together so far.
At a ZAPO meeting last night , fueled with caffeine induced optimism I put
forward a number of ideas : a poster project ; a project to translate English
and German language pamphlets into Croatian and create somet other literature of
our own relating to the war and an anarchist stance to it; breaking open a
squat. There was not much in terms of enthusiasm , but some people seemed
willing to do it. A start? I also put forward the proposal to do this
newsletter. Nobody thought too much of the idea. Fuck it, I'm doing it myself.

Since I'm relatively new to Zagreb, and have hardly made it to other areas of
Ex-Yugoslavia since I've been back at all and know relatively little about
what's going elswhere, this issue will focus on Zagreb. Hopefully others will
get involved in this and help give it a broader scope. If you have anything to
contribute in terms of information, distribution, typing etc. definitely get in
touch! I would love to see this become more of a collective project!

I would like to see this become somewhat of a solid source of information that
doesn't regularily get out to the anarchist (or anywhere for that matter) press
and as a means for other groups / individuals to get some feel for the situation
here. The mainstream press seems to concentrate on UN "peace agreements" and
reruns of political chess games. Hopefully this will provide some better
information on what's happening on a lower level as it develops. Admittedly this
is a little weak as far as news goes , but it's a start.

What you can contribute
                Information ! Send information on what 's happening. Both in
terms of what you're doing and what's happening : flyers, demos, police
violence, refugee aid, atrocities, solidarity actions , zines, benefit shows,
anything! Send it all !
                Help with printing! If you have access to a photocopier or cheap
printing opportunity get in touch.
                Help with translating into Croatian , or Croatian into English
                Distribution. I can send originals to be reproduced/reprinted or
a number of copies for cost of postage and printing. This is also available via
email. Drop me a line to get on the list. If you do a BBS or anything of the
sort, post it!
NEWS
News is desparetly needed from elsewhere, especially from Bosnia!! Please get in
touch !

ATTACK ON THE FREE PRESS * FERAL TRIBUNE DECLARED PORNOGRAPHY * Apparently the
HDZs cultural censors consider free expression , at least when it challenges
ruling party idiots and atrocities, obscene and ultimately pornographic.
Croatia's minister of culture recently declared the Feral Tribune, probably
Zagreb's most out of line satirical paper a pornographic publication thus
raising it's taxes to the absurd levels which the state subjects "pornography"
to. Although just another potshot from a government scared shitless of any real
criticism and opposition, this just about put the paper out of commission.
The Feral Tribune , a self declared anarchist paper and far from porn,
regularily took potshots at prominent politicians, exposing their scams and
schemes , corruption, embarassing past events and generally making the HDZ's
(the ruling party) attempts at strangulating the free press quite a headache.
There had been a couple other attempts at doing away with the Feral Tribune,
including an attempt at drafting the main editor to the front , but they kept
coming back to haunt Tudjman's regime with more sarcastic jabs at his
dictatorship. So in what appears as a desperate attempt at fucking with them any
way they could, Vesne Girardi-Jurkic , the HDZs minister of "culture" labeled
the paper as pornographic. A peculiar thing about this is that nude pictures of
women, usually typical for what passes normally as pornography  are common in
mainstream Croatian newspapers which normally tow the party line and don't have
problems dealing with the harrasment that Feral Tribune has had to put up with.
Croatian media could use a strong challenge to their regularily mysoginist and
often violent anti-woman movies , articles and regular soft porn features in
mainstream papers . But this attack has obvious interests elsewhere, namely in
preserving a system which refuses to tolerate criticism and challenge. Jurkic
recently in statements to the Croatian newspaper Globus quite openly extended
the threat to other members of the press , making it clear that other papers
would share in this pseudo censorship if they began to regularily criticize and
mock state institutions as Feral Truibune has. Although according to mainstream
press sources the Feral Tribune had reportedly called it quits , a new issue is
already at the Kiosks with a new higher cover price to absorb the tax blow and
on the back cover , a graphic spoof on National Geographic ... National
Pornographic. After all , one has to live up to one's tax bracket somehow.

SERBIAN STRIKES * It's nice to hear about some other striikes besides air
strikes in the former Yugoslavia. On the 28th of July , the Guardian newspaper
carried an article saying that a general strike had been called in Serbia for
the following week (ie. the 2nd to 6th of August) . Apparently "Union leaders
said they were being pressed by a disaffected rank and file." At the same time,
farmers in Vojvodina were blocking roads with their tractors in protest at low
grain prices offered by the government. We haven't been able to find out if the
strikes actually took place , but it seems unlikely that journalists would
exaggerate the level of class struggle in a country  as vilified as Serbia -
discontent would imply that maybe there were some "good Serbs" who didn't
deserve to be bombed! We would appreciate any information our readers can
provide. - from CONTRA FLOW

AID AND SOLIDARITY FROM ABROAD
INTERNATIONAL WORKERS AID , an anarchist trade union is organizing relief
convoys to Tuzla , a city directly in the middle of the conflict. IWA groups
from across Europe have raised enough money and material aid to buy a slew of
trucks and fill several warehouses with food and aid . From what I can gather
about what's going on , there have been 5 convoys to Tuzla so far. Direct work
with people in Tuzla includes:
"* concrete aid for the non-nationalist paper "Vrelo" (9000 DM and 3 tons of
paper)
* material and photos for a campaign book about IWA and Tuzla
* concrete aid for radio Tuzla (9000 DM)
* talked with political parties and Serbian and Croatian communities
* started a concrete project with Tuzla University and a tour (5 Tuzla students
and one docent)
* concrete aid for the national theater in Tuzla
*concrete aid for Radio Chameleon
* together with students, organized a video about Tuzla  with professionals from
TV Tuzla, this video is now to be edited in the Netherlands
* concrete aid for the Portrait Gallery (project by Aldegonde, 15,000DM. but
here the Belgian campaign has yet to decide how much of this money is for the
Gallery and how much is for the IWA bread campaign).
* a lot off solidarity messages and concrete aid for Tuzla's Women's Association
(still in Split: shoes and clothes for children, starting funds for a campaign
in mammography - apparatus - none in whole Bosnia at the moment)
* visit to different schools and teachers trade union
* a tour with a Tuzla traditional music group in summer in Gent (Belgium)
* talks with civic forum in Tuzla who are trying to get a newspaper and
TV-broadcast off the ground
* contact with a political youth organization (BOS) and with more cultural and
free time youth organizations."
                                                        - from IWA's Split
report
#11
The project needs money to survive. "The convoy office needs 6000DM until the
next convoy starts. There are debts for about 3000DM . People here are lending
personal money ... For instance: this fax we could only send out because Hendrik
loaned us money !!! So without this money , forget about the convoys, forget
about everything ..." (1DM is worth about 65 cents)
They also are looking for drivers for the trucks. There is a policy of 3 drivers
per two trucks and 5 drivers for three. The convoys go directly through war
zones, and deal with obstacles like partially destroyed and bad roads , crossing
bodies of water without bridges and security checks. There is also danger of
highway bandits and ambushes. So the policy is more of a security measure from
the way I understand it. The international convoy needs at least one more person
for their international office, preferably with a drivers license.
        "Mick ( the much abused ,but deeply loved convoy leader): "Cough up you
fuckers!."
Contact IWA directly concerning what you have to offer or what is needed in
detail!
International Workers Aid - Logistics , Phone and Fax +385 58 (0) 615 889 * Put
Mlinice BB, 58300 Makarska * Mail : IWA c/o HACO -DIOKOM , Put Brodarice 6 ,
58000 , Split Croatia
All information here was either directly quoted or paraphrased from IWA's Split
report or from IWA representatives Alessandra and Marco from Italy who met with
ZAPO in Zagreb this June.

Neither East Nor West NYC- 339 Lafayette St. , New York, NY 10012- focusing
among other things on building links between east and west. They've done a lot
of help for the Zitzer Spiritual Republic in Vojvodina (NENW-NYC is their US
embassy) and raised some cash for ZAPO recently. Their column On Gogol Boulevard
appears in Anarchy magazine and oasionally elsewhere. A NENW network is being
formed slowly. NENW-NYC and the syndies at Worker's Solidarity Alliance have put
out "a call to reclaim Mayday - Protest the IMF and World Bank on MAY FIRST
1995" ... "The IMF  and World Bank are this year arrogantly celebrating their
fiftieth birthday. We want to ruin the party."- for a copy of the proposal write
NENW-NYC or NENW-Pnin c/o ARK-ZAPO.

KOCHISE / TOXIC GRAFITY ( damn can't find their address) are selling pins and
postcards donated to them by people from Crass to benefit ZAPO. Aside from being
unusually friendly people, they put out INTERVENTION which is a four page thingy
about ZAPO and their own organization (I think) in french.

USEFUL ADDRESSES
WAR RESISTORS LEAGUE (WRL 339 Lafayette St., NY NY 10012 usa)
CENTER FOR ANTI-WAR ACTIVITIES ( Ul hasana Kikica br 8, 71000 Sarajevo)
CENTER FOR ANTI-WAR ACTION ( Karljia Petra 46, 11000 Beograd, Serbia ; tex/fax
011-38-11-635-813)
FORUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS OF MACEDONIA (c/o Meto Jovanovski, St. P. Zografski 51,
91000 Skopije)
ILL IN THE HEAD(c/o Berislav Sabolic , Mozdenec 1, 42220 Novi Marof tel:
042/611-912 (over the weekend) or 041/438-927 (during the week , ask for
Berislav) punk music and zine distro / tape label carrying bands and zines from
across Ex-Yugo and elsewhere in the world.
CONTRA FLOW (c/o 56a Infoshop, 56 Crampton St., London SE17 UK) - nerws - A part
of the European Counter Network.
COUNTER INFORMATION ( Pigeonhole CI, c/o 11 Forth St., Edinburgh EH1, Scotland)
- news
ARM THE SPIRIT (PO Box 6326 Stn A, Toronto, ONT M5W 1PZ , Canada) - armed
resistance news

PUBLICATIONS
This is hella incomplete, so there's no claim to covering all of what's out
there. I'm just listing what I've collected in the last couple months. Like I
mentioned earlier, send things in so this is more complete!! An e next to the
zine name means it's in English language , otherwise it's all in Croatian.
ARKZIN (ARK, Tkalciceva 38, 41000 Zagreb , Croatia) Probably where it's at as
far as a more together consistent effort at providing a strong, informative
alternative in news and writing. This comes out weekly (biweekly) and is
available at most news stands around Zagreb. The only really accessible
specifically anti war paper in Croatia I know of. They have an English language
summary of their first issue. FECAL FORCESe (c/o Boris Milakovic, Kapavac 30,
55300 Pozega , Croatia) Issue 2 has a number of band interviews (Anarcrust and
Flagrants D'eli among others) , and some articles including one on ZAPO, the
anti racist Mayday skins, killing capitalism, Pula and anarchy. A comp tape
called "War is the Reality we Live In" is available from the same address for $7
in Europe. KRUH I RUAEE (Women's Infoteka , Berislaviceva 14, 41000 Zagreb,
Croatia tel:+385 41/276 188, fax:+385 41/422 926) a thick , impressive feminist
magazine published by the women's Infoshop here in Zagreb. Articles include From
Respect To Rape, FeMail, Feminism and Democracy, Women's Politics as State
Politics, Women's Peace Workshop Rijeka and more. Also have an English summary
available. MAKE A CHANGE ( Sinipia Druzeta, Jakova Volcica  6 , 51400 Pazin,
Croatia tel: 0531/ 22 167) contains reviews , ads and interviews with Schleim
Keim, Abzae Normalan , Agothocles, Polska Malca , Nula , Concrete Sox etc.
Sheets with the text in English are available. DIALOGUE e ( Dialogue , Groen van
Prinstererstraat 90, 1051 EP Amsterdam tel: +31-20-681 48 85 , fax: +31-20-684
76 35 , email: mizamir@antenna.nl) half in english , half in Croatian , this
well produces magazine contains articles on Amsterdam's children refugee
theatre, dimensions of fear, Displaced Childhood, About Creativity and
Destructivity,  Kid's Made Conscious ...WARHEAD #11(Goran Ivanovic, S. Radica
32, 55300 Pozega , Croatia  tel:385 (0) 55/79-619), also from Pozega :Nula,
Antitude, Autonomex, ZAPO, Anti War Action, Austrian punk contacts etc. GLANS
PENISSIS (Vedran Meniga , Vladimira Ruzdjaka 8, 41000 Zagreb, Croatia) has stuff
on Abaez Normalan, Antitude, squatting, Apatridi, Enklava, veganism, ZAPO,
W.O.R.M., anarchism ... the issue I have is a split issue with a lyric / info
booklet that came with the band Nula's tape. COMUNITAS (ARK-ZAPO, Tkalciceva 38,
41000 Zagreb , Croatia tel: 385 41/422-495 fax: 385 41 / 335-230) is ZAPO's
publication. The latest issue is olver a year old and work on a new one doesn't
look like it's going anywhere at the moment. This issue has info on ZAPO's
activities, anarchism in Peru, the group P{angea, an interview with Howard Clark
of War Resistors International, cop violence, legalization of light drugs, Eat
shit zine, anarcho syndicalism and a couple reviews. SHAVED WOMEN (Andrea
Tomassevic, Nova Skojevska 65, 11090 N. Beograd, "SR Jugoslavia") Peace punk
zine focusing on Crass , Chumbawamba and the sort. ZIPS AND CHAINS e (Dario
Adamic, C.P. 15319, 00142 Roma Laurentino, Italy) isn't really from here exactly
but the editor is Croatian and there's a pretty good piece here on zines in
Yugoslavia that I found interesting. Also MDC, DOA, Bad religion, the
Instigators, punk photographers and reviews. PAPERMOUTH e ( Tomz Trplan, Juzna
6, 69000 Murska Sobota , Slovenija) is an interesting, good looking zine with
articles on pacifism, fruitarianism,  dissing spiritual know it alls. Pretty
personal in parts and sort of treading on different ground than normal.


ZAGINFLATCH / Dave Onion  c/o ARK-ZAPO  , Tkalciceva 38, 41000 Zagreb , Croatia
...... email:  72500.2176@compuserve.com


