Sic challenge to the new repressive tum Yugalan boresucracy has erupted with bian by Belgrade University students to dolke if ten of their lecturers are dismisbesest few days things may well come to d. since on Tuesday a meeting of the ay's membly ordered their expulsion the philosophy faculty where they teach. The write dechicn was part of a six-point lopted unanimously hy nearly 800 ed merting of the philosophy of last month, Defending O SaVE AN LaKEn a crHia! pesc and politicai developi- the students also attacked persident of the Yugoslay ats (YLC) at the University ration" about the philossccsed Belgrade press and of "Talely and maliciously" informing about the situation. "THE LETTER' This development is just the latest in a series of confrontations which go back to the publication in September 1971 of what is now known a 'The Letter'-a directive by Tito and the Exe cutive Committer of the YLC which outlined a new tur in economic policy and, more explicitly, in the entire political and cultural life of the country. Its basic premise was the re-introduction of the Party as the sole arbiter. and it marked the end of an era dominated by the relatively unfettered growth of market forees, the rise of new provincial centres of economic and political power, a sharp increase in social differentiation, the growth of nationalism, and the emergence of left and right oppositions to the ruling buresucracy. The second hall of the 1960s had been a period of unprecedented cultural and political ferment; the publication of "The Leiter" cicarly put an end to this process.
The publication of "The Letter' also coincided with the introduction of a policy which aimed to solve the acute economic crisis at the expense of the working class. Not only was a 10% wage cut imposed, but a high rate of inflation has furtber worsened a position which was already considerably depressed as a result of high unemployment and emigration abroad.
The mini-Cultural Revolution that is now sweeping the country- the propaganda emphasising the "mass line" and the "class question", and declaring that 'there is nothing more left than the YLC'-represents a closing of the ranks against any possibility of an articulated working class response to this situation. Simuarly, the definite shift towards Moscow in the last period represents not only disilustonment with the mability of the West-and particularly the Common Market-to deliver the goods now that a recession is on the agenda, but also a form of insurance policy against possible ntetmal unpest.
ATTACKS ON 'NEW LEFT' La ol Tha Lettes LE LETT BRECER On LOC DER fr at a mecting of the Pratsidiom of the YLC. One of the accusations gainst the Serbian Party leaders ousled in January 1972 was that they wete too soft on this new left, whose two main centres are the philosophy faculty of Belgrade University with its journal Filosofie, and the Zagreb philosophical journal Proxis.
In the last few years both these journals have published a number of articles dealing crilically with the cconomic and political situation in Yugoslavia today. They have also FREE CADLET VEGOSLAL MARXISES IMSROIC _London picket in defence of studants jeiled in 1972 prolested rigourously against the growing repression. As a result, they bave repeatedly been banned, and a massive attack has heen orchestrated against them both within the YLC and in the press.
These attacks have increased in intensity over the past lew months, provoking a considerable response among students in Zagreb as well as in Belgrade, Recently, after a particularly violent attack on /'razir by the Central Committee of the Croatian party, which accused the editorial board of being a tendency inside the YLC opposed to the development of socialism in Yugoslavia, the students of the philosophy faculty at Zagreb Linberuty beld an extraontinary general meeting declaring suport for their lecturers (who are on the journal's editorial board), They also declared their solidarity with the lecturezs at the philosophy faculty in Belgrade.
The official Student Union at Zagreb immeiiately responded to this development by dissolving the student leadership of the faculty, and attacking their 'anarchism and lettism" Given that the attack on Zagreb students and lecturers is taking place at a tirne when university boards are being cleansod of traditional forms of student participation, the solidarity between students and lectureis is likely to be strengthened, However, it is Filosofie and the students and staff of the philosophy faculty of Belgrade University that have for some time now been seen as the most painful thom in the side of the new hard-liners. There are a numher of reasons for this. Firstly, because Belgrade was the centre of the most politically advanced and extensive student revolt, with the philosophy students playing a lading role. Secondly because the faculty has produced some of the most serious critics of the Yugoslav bureacracy Indeed, in 1972 three students were brought to trial charged with Trotskyism, and given prison sentences. Thirdly, because the faculty has distinguished itself by a serious effort to understand precisely the connection between the "Yugostav road to socialism" and the past debates inside the international working-class movemients Last December, following high-level pressure - including from Tito himself-the leadershi of the University party branch called for th dismissal of the ten lecturers on the grounds that their political positions muke them untit to teach. (In fact, universities chroughout the country are now being forced to adopt a code of 'political and moral suitability" in the clection of staff, a practice introduced in Czechoslovakis after the Soviet invasion). But the intelJectuals under attack have be come something of a rallying point for their conrageous stand against buresucratic pressure. The burcaucracy is clearly frightened by the prospect of massive student mobilisations in support of the ten lecturers, and has so far held back from direct intervention. It has contented itself on the one hand with an increasingly slanderous propaganda campaign, and on the other with pressure on the philosophy faculty itself to do the dirty work through normal channels".
1974 will be a year of regional party congresses throughout the country linked to the preparation of the YLC National Congress-only the sixth since the War. There is little doubt that the Congress will rubber-stamp the orientation of "The Letter. This will certainly result in renewed pressure on lefl wing oppositional foroes, Solidarity with the Yugoslay Marxists under attack is now more urgent than ever. In particular, if the ten Belgrade lecturers are in fact dismissed, revolutionary Marxists must ensure that there is a response internationally, as there certainly will be in Yugoslavis itselt, JANET SUTTLE