Open Letter of support for Citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina

We, the undersigned, express our full support for the legitimate demands and justified outrage of citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Their cry for a decent life, true democracy, solidarity that knows no borders—be them ethnic, national or religious, social equality and justice—resonates throughout the world. In a similar fashion to the citizens of Tahrir, Zuccotti Park, Taksim or Syntagma, the Bosnian protestors showed a courage to go beyond all institutional obstacles and all limitations that governments around the world impose on their citizens and reclaimed their streets and squares. The people of Bosnia-Herzegovina are standing against the system of exploitation, injustice and inequality that has been serving only and exclusively a tiny political, economic and financial elite.

One hundred years after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand when imperialist European leaders pushed their nations into a mutual destruction, Bosnia is sending a strong wake-up call to everyone. The world we live in is a world of divisions, expanding fascism, growing political and social apartheid, unrelenting capitalist destruction of both nature and common wealth of all. The citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina have been experiencing all of that on an everyday level over the past 20 years. After the nationalist war between 1992 and 1995, in which 100,000 people lost their lives, the institutional peace settlement restored the capitalist system, destroyed the working and middle classes, and entrenched not only ethnic but also social divisions that have been successfully exploited by political elites. They said ‘enough’ and we say ‘enough’ with them.

We voice our support for their legitimate efforts to create a just and equal society in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We call upon all progressive political and social forces to stand with the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina in this decisive struggle for a better future of us all.

Signatories

Tariq Ali, writer and social activist, UK

Gil Anidjar, scholar, University of Columbia, USA

Vladimir Arsenijevi?, writer, Serbia

Etienne Balibar, professor emeritus, University Paris Ouest, France

Franco Berardi Bifo, philosopher, Italy

Alida Bremer, writer, Germany

Wendy Brown, political theorist, UC BUSA

Boris Buden, Univeristy of Weimar, Germany

Noam Chomsky, linguist and social activist, MIT, USA

Goran Fejic, writer, France

Karl-Markus Gauss, writer, Austria

Costas Douzinas, philosopher, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Daša Drndi?, writer, Croatia

Michael Hardt, philosopher, Duke University, USA

David Harvey, geographer, CUNY, USA

Aleksandar Hemon, writer, USA

Sre?ko Horvat, philosopher, Croatia

Saša Ili?, writer, Serbia

Rada Ivekovic, philosopher, University St. Etienne, France

Mate Kapovi?, linguist, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Naomi Klein, author and social activist, USA

Maurizio Lazzarato, philosopher, France

Christian Marazzi, economist, Switzerland

Antonio Negri, philosopher, Italy/France

Andrej Nikolaidis, writer, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Montenegro

Nigel Osborne, professor emeritus, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Costas Lapavitsas, economist, SOAS, UK

Renata Salecl, philosopher, Slovenia

Elke Schmitter, writer, Germany

Ingo Schulze, writer, Germany

Igor Å tiks, University of Edinburgh, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Scotland/UK

Eric Toussaint, economist, CADTM, Belgium

Yanis Varoufakis, economist, University of Texas, USA

Jasmila Žbani?, film-director, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Slavoj Žižek, philosopher, Slovenia