European House, corner of Knez Mihailova and Zmaj Jovina

FRIDAY, October 24, from 5:15 PM to 7 PM

Our previous experiences have shown that emancipatory struggles cannot be waged in isolation—they require broader alliances. The recent panel discussion, "What Is Pride For, Anymore?", opened space for critical reflection on the meaning of past Prides in Serbia and initiated a process of repoliticizing the LGBT+ movement. That event also strengthened solidarity between students and LGBT+ activists, which directly influenced the course of this year’s Pride, giving it a clearer protest character and a stronger sense of social responsibility.

We now wish to take a step further and organize a panel titled “Interweaving Struggles – Workers’, Students’ and LGBT+ Solidarity in Serbia.” Our goal is to map out shared points of resistance and develop a new culture of solidarity in which class issues, labor rights, and LGBT+ equality are recognized as part of a unified struggle for social justice. Through discussion, we also want to address the question of how capitalism reproduces and deepens existing inequalities.

Workers’ insecurity, student precarity, and the marginalization of the LGBT+ community are not separate problems, but parts of the same system of exploitation and social control. This is why we believe that a critique of capitalism is the necessary foundation of any emancipatory politics—without understanding its mechanisms, we cannot explain why certain groups are systematically disenfranchised, nor how to resist such conditions. We expect the panel to open space for exchanging experiences and building longer-term networks of collaboration.

Special emphasis will be placed on questions of working conditions, workplace discrimination, and the position of young people within the education system and the labor market, as well as on the need for the LGBT+ movement to engage more actively with these issues. This does not mean abandoning the specific struggles of the LGBT+ community but rather situating them within a broader framework that includes all affected social groups.

At a time when conservative and authoritarian discourses are gaining ground, and capitalism is ever more brutally deepening social divisions, we believe it is especially important to build alliances that go beyond the boundaries of identity politics and open space for broader social coalitions. The “Interweaving Struggles” panel will be a step in that direction—contributing to the strengthening of progressive voices in the public sphere and the creation of new alliances among diverse social movements in Serbia.

Panel participants:

Nataša Kovačev, United Branch Trade Unions “Independence”

Student of the Faculty of Philosophy

Iris, representative of the Queer Choir Belgrade

Moderators: Dušica Popović and Dušan Maljković

The panel is organized by the Center for Queer Studies with the support of the Olof Palme International Center and the European House in Belgrade.