Serbia's student-led, leaderless collective movement is a wonderful revolution that outdoes the 1990s generation's individualist protests
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/barbi-markovic. "Serbia has banished the monsters from Belgrade – it was, and still is, a truly wonderful revolution | Barbi Marković | The Guardian." November 6, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author argues that Serbia's student-led movement has beaten a corrupt government through collective, leaderless organising and smart use of social media. She says this is a better model than the individualist protests of her own 1990s generation, and she urges people like her to rethink and get involved. She admits some issues, like facing up to the wartime past, have been put off for now.
Conclusion
The Serbian student-led movement (the Student List) is a truly wonderful revolution that has defeated the corrupt Vučić regime, and it shows the author's 1990s protest generation how it should have been done, so that generation should rethink its individualism and engage with the world.
Premises
- The student movement mobilised the Serbian population en masse over two years and swept aside an illiberal, seemingly invincible regime, including its criminal networks, paid rally-goers and the astroturfed pro-government 'Ćaciland' camp.
- The movement is built on collective, flat structures (plenaries, a megaplenary, no dominant leaders, limited media exposure for any single face) that resist personality cults and co-optation.
- The 1990s protest generation was defined by individualism, fragmentation and subcultural divides (cosmopolitan vs nationalist, urban vs rural), and it dispersed into individual fates rather than building lasting collective change.
- The students are faster, better informed and better at using their media (Instagram 'Insta-decrees' versus government-dependent TV), allowing them to build a large following and euphoria despite a captured media landscape.
- The movement has so far been peaceful, and its collective ethos overcomes the old dichotomies by welcoming anyone who wants to build a better society.
- Unresolved issues, such as accountability for the 1990s wars, can be addressed later in a proper parliament and a different atmosphere.
Assumptions
- The electoral victory of the Student List marks a genuine, lasting defeat of the regime and its networks rather than a temporary setback.
- Collective, leaderless organisation was a major cause of the movement's success, not incidental to it.
- The 1990s generation's failures stem from its individualism and divisions rather than from different historical circumstances (war, repression, technology).
- Deferring reckoning with 1990s war responsibility is an acceptable trade-off and will actually be addressed later.
- The movement's nationalist and mob-like tendencies are marginal and manageable.
- The author's impressions from a Vienna queue conversation and a Halloween evening are representative of the movement and her generation.