radnaAkcija

(Translation, Yugoslavia)

Nearly impossible to translate, because both "active action" and "work[ing] action" make very little sense. It's about voluntary labor, community service in a way. Usually prefixed with "youth", because that's who took part in them most of the time.

In the years after the war, many big ones were organized, to rebuild the country. The most famous were the construction of two major railroad tracks, Brčko-Banovići and Šamac-Sarajevo (my dad was there), and then the highway Belgrade-Zagreb. Also a few larger dams to get electricity produced.

The wikipedia says

The actions were used to build public infrastructure such as roads, railways, and public buildings, as well as industrial infrastructure. The youth work actions were organized on local, republic, and federal levels by the Young Communist League of Yugoslavia, and participants were organized into youth work brigades, generally named after their town or a local national hero. Important projects built by youth work brigades include the Brčko-Banovići railway, the Šamac-Sarajevo railway, parts of New Belgrade, and parts of the Highway of Brotherhood and Unity, which stretches from northern Slovenia to southern Macedonia.

As the country was rebuilt and its economy stabilized, youth work actions went out of fashion. However, they were revived in the late 1970s, in an effort to voluntary organize youth in political and cultural activities, as the work actions proved to play a large role in the socialization of those involved.

Then there were local ones - like planting the šećerana park (my mom was there).


Mentions: 11-XI-1958., 05-II-1971., 23-III-1973., 01-IV-1973., Work action in Naftagas, 16-IV-1973., 26-III-1974., Baptism by booze, 06-V-1974., 17-IV-1976., New forest, 01-VIII-2005., 04-VIII-2005., 06-II-2012., 28-V-2018., 03-III-2021., Kantina, šećerana, in serbian