ABSTRACT

The dissolution of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in 1991 has been a turning point for its citizens in many ways. Some of them were crucial: they had been living together peacefully for 45 years but they were now faced with war; they were forced to understand that the Yugoslav People’s Army that was well established and admired was now a force against the Slovenian nation itself, and that the ‘workers’ friendly socialist political system’ no longer existed. In the former system all people claimed to be ‘workers’ despite growing social inequalities, therefore they all benefited from the same system of ensuring workers’ interests. This was based upon one big socialist syndicate which was organised throughout the state and which had representatives at all levels of local and governmental decision-making. The syndicate was organised into smaller sections according to different branches and it followed the hierarchy of the political system. On a general level, it was a unitarist syndicate, formed according to the interests of the political elite, and the top leaders of the syndicate were part of that same elite. The end of socialism and the rise of a pluralistic society with many political parties has changed the syndicate structure. Different syndicates emerged which were organised not only according to industrial or public branches, but also according to the prevailing ideology of their membership. Therefore, some syndicates were more prone to follow the left oriented parties and some were affiliated to the right of the political spectrum.