Marxist scholar discusses Yugoslavian experiment
By Charlene Bell
Of the Emerald
Yugoslavia is a country standing
precariously at the political crossroads, a
political and social guinea pig in the Eastern
Bloc, according to Yugoslavian scholar
Zagorka Golubovic.
It is a country carrying out an ongoing ex
periment in socialism, she says.
Speaking to students at a campus lecture
Tuesday, Golubovic, said the world must
examine this experiment through critical
eyes and not fall back on a modern tenden
cy to categorize so-called ' socialist” coun
tries into a clear-cut, geophysical and
political mold.
Attempts to categorize Yugoslavia into a
convenient mold are doomed to fail
because of the uniqueness of the "Yugosla
vian experiment,” Golubovic said.
Golubovic's talk was titled "Socialism in
Global Perspective: The Case of
Yugoslavia," and was sponsored by the Rus
sian and East European Studies Center, the
Womens' Studies Center, and the EMU
Cultural Forum.
A noted international scholar in
sociology, and cultural anthropology,
Golubovic is considered an expert in
studies of Marxism and the political
systems and societies of East Europe.
Not limiting her studies to scholarly
research, she also has been an active par
ticipant of the Marxist group Praxis Interna
tional. While teaching at the summer
school of philosophy in Korcula in 1968,
Golubovic was dismissed for political
reasons and now works at the Institute for
Social Sciences at the University of
Belgrade.
According to Golubovic, Yugoslavs, like
the independent-minded Poles, are not
satisfied to live with the modified brand of
Socialism that Moscow so willingly offers.
In 1948, Yugoslavia, which had been liv
ing under Soviet socialism since the end of
World War II, finally broke with Moscow
and left the Soviet Bloc. The break enabled
Yugoslavs to look at the market system as a
means of making production more
efficient.
But the Yugoslavs found it hard to come
to terms with bureaucratic logic, Golubovic
said, and the policies of a centralized
government left over from previous Soviet
influence.
With this in mind, Yugoslavs in the early
1950s organized a unique and authentic
liberation movement in the form of
workers' councils which fought for worker
self-management in the face of government
control.
As the movement gathered momentum
and support, the workers made strides in
breaking the grip of centralized govern
ment control, an unwelcome result of post
war socialism borrowed from the Soviets.
As a result, Yugoslavian workers gained
control of the organization and results of
production, control and distribution of 30
percent of earned income as well as regula
tion of personal income, and the right to
control hiring on the job.
Yet unlike their Polish counterparts,
Yugoslavian workers are not enjoying the
benefits of self-management or a grass
roots, worker-organized campaign headed
by a Lech Walesea figure. This may be the
reason that the fruits of their victory in 1952
are today somewhat bitter, Golubovic said.
All changes in Yugoslavian working con
ditions were brought about at the hands of
the government and the Communist party.
As a result, an ironic "Catch-22" has
prevented this "socialism at the shop level"
from actually joining together the
economic and political needs of the
workers, she said.
"Any attempt to solve all problems from
the top will produce completely unrealistic
planning, as still is the case with the Soviet
Union," Golubovic said.
"One cannot take full advantage of par
Zagorka Golubovic
ticipation in economic planning if not
allowed to decide vital, that is political
issues," she said.
Golubovic said that one must equally take
into account the failures as well as
achievements of the Yugoslavian experi
ment as well as rely on the teaching of
Marxian socialism, because this gives an op
portunity to critically approach the ques
tion of socialism in Yugoslavia.
Watt must decide for himself;
Reagan won't ask him to resign
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Reagan says he’ll let James Watt
decide for himself whether he
should quit as interior secretary.
Reagan, asked in an interview
with the New York Post if he
thought Watt could still function
as a member of the president's
Cabinet, said, "I think that's a
decision that he himself will have
to make — whether he feels he
has made it questionable as to
whether he can be effective or
not."
Discussing Watt's characteriza
tion of several appointees as "a
black, .. .a woman, two Jews and
a cripple," Reagan commented in
the Monday interview:
"I think in atl fairness we have to
recognize that, yes, it was a very
improper thing to say. But it cer
tainly was not said in the sense of
any bitterness or bigotry or
prejudice.
"If I thought he was bigoted or
prejudiced, he wouldn't be part of
our administration."
While Watt has gained some
breathing room on Capitol Hill in
the battle to keep his job, the
criticism over his latest controver
sial remark and his environmental
policies shows no sign of abating.
Watt came under renewed fire
today from two congressional
critics of his coal leasing program.
Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark.( and
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.,
told the Commission on Federal
Coal Leasing that Watt was ignor
ing the current over-supply of coal
and glutted market to press for
ward with coal sales that have cost
taxpayers $100 million.
"The public and Congress can
only assume that the department
is more interested in protecting
the interests of the coal industry
than the interests of taxpayers,"
Bumpers said.
For his part, Watt continued to
remain out of the public eye.
New deans appointed
to Arts and Sciences
Two new associate deans have been appointed in the College of
Arts and Sciences at the University, Dean Robert Berdahl
announced.
Don Van Houten, sociology professor, was appointed associate
dean for academic personnel. John Orbell, political science pro
fessor, was named associate dean for undergraduate studies.
Van Houten, who replaces geology professor Dan Weill, has
been a member of the faculty since 1968. He served as head of the
sociology department from 1975-78 and has been a member of the
Deans Advisory Committee and the Faculty Personnel
Committee.
He received his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in
Ohio in 1958 and his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh
in 1967.
Orbell, who replaces English professor Joseph Hynes, has been
a member of faculty since 1967 and chaired the political science
department from 1976-79. He has been director of the Institute for
Social Science Research and has served on various University
committees.
Orbell received his bachelor's degree from the Univeristy of
Auckland in New Zealand in 1957 and his doctorate from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1965.
Weill is accepting a two-year appointment as manager of basic
energy research in geosciences for the U.S. Department of Energy
after serving one year as associate dean. Hynes, who has been
associate dean for three years, will be on sabbatical during this
school year.
SrtClAi.
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