“YEAR OF RESOLVE” - YUGOSLAVIA 1968: student demonstrations and Tuzla’s reactions

The protests that affected the student population in 1968 around the world did not go beyond Yugoslavia. The first Belgrade, and then the students of other Yugoslav universities, launched demonstrations and highlighted the demands for more equitable relations in society. Student demonstrations in Yugoslavia that erupted in June 1968, were a series of public demonstrations and strikes and other protest actions that took place at universities in Yugoslavia, with special emphasis on demonstrations of students from the Belgrade University. The year 1968 is a symbol of revolution and historical change in society, and student revolutionary mood, mini-revolution, demonstrations, riots and dissatisfaction spread from the United States to Europe, and from Paris through Prague to Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Sarajevo. Student dissatisfaction was initiated by the inefficiency of the implementation of economic and social reform, and the decline in the standard of living not only of the broader strata of society, which had a negative impact on the student population. During the student mini-revolution, they were trying to gain for their ideals the working class, convincing them in equal interests and the only way to the desired goal, but without success. In this connection, this paper seeks to draw on the basis of the press (Oslobodjenje and Front Freedom) and letters and telegrams addressed to the Union of Students of the Belgrade University to demonstrate that the employees of the company and mine in the Tuzla region reacted to these student demonstrations in Belgrade, then the schools, college students and others. By holding a meeting of working collectives, choirs, then sending letters and telegrams, they condemned the actions of students, but also gave full support to Tito in building a self-managing socialist society.