blockade

(Translation, Yugoslavia)

This is where I collect the best, IMO, products of students' and others' minds, as written on slogans and wearables (badges, t-shirts etc) during protests and blockades of november of 2024 and on. As this is an ongoing collection as I write this (27-VI-2025.), translating it while stuff is still inserted anywhere in the text would be cumbersome. Let's leave that for when it's over.

Also, I'm expecting that translating most of it won't be even possible, or would incur a loss of meaning, because of cultural references. Generally, the nature of the situation which gave birth to all this is such that it requires hours of explanation. You have to live this to understand. Having lived here for a number of years may help, partially. For real experience, only first hand works.

I'll return to this as I find inspiration and time. Eventually, the article should be about thrice longer than the original, them cultural references require explanation.

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Okay, it's late september now and the production of this merry creativity and imagination has dwindled, the regime bared its teeth, and the term ćaci doesn't mean the illiterate party infantry anymore, it's now the criminals and former bouncers who got hired by either the obscure rent-a-cop companies as 'security', or are incorporated into police, or are just informal groups but the cops have to obey them. They regularly wear headgear covering the whole face, with slits for eyes and mouth, have big biceps and upper body, use rebar, baseball bats, tear gas etc. So this is not fun anymore, and I'm bored enough to start translating this. Be it long as it may.

First, one detail before you dive in: ćaci. You need to read the quote in 27-I-2025. article to understand why misspelling ђаци as ћаци mattered so much. The Jova Jovanović Zmaj gimnazija in Novi Sad is among the top five in the country, they have about half of the teaching staff from the university, and that's the place they picked to write on the fence... and were unmasked as illiterate bums, which they always were.

Another word to know is „raspisati“. „Pisati“ means to write, and raz- (equalized to the next consonant) as a prefix means away, in all directions, over the whole. Thus staviti - to put, rastaviti - to disassemble; korak - step, raskorak - splay, opposite from lockstep; nositi - to carry, raznositi - to distribute (by courier or postal service) etc. Raspisati is mostly an administrative word, and applies to several cases - sale of a new batch of state bonds, a referendum, elections, call for applications to enroll into educational institutions, into public procurement and a few other things. In the context here, „raspiši izbore“ - it's „make elections, you“.

Here goes.

For one, badges are back in fashion. On one side, you can buy them from students (but then there are sideshow stands, with just as imaginative content, which may be homemade), and on the other they seem to be made in short batches and then serve as a proof of blockade staž, sometimes they mean that the wearer was there when that was made, often walked city to city to earn them. The orderlies aka security (those same students in charge of that) sometimes pin dozens on their bright green vests. Those famous from day one were „laki štrajk“ (easy strike, rhymes with 'lucky strike', in its colors too), „FCK SNS“ (which was first launched as a website with just those characters over 80% of the page, then as a QR code printed on t-shirts, when pointed to with a cell phone's camera, yields the same onscreen; shirts were seen on a basketball match in the audience), „pumpaj!“ (pump it up) in tens of versions.

Downtown here, 25th of january: „classes can be redone, life not“ (when lost); „hard is the walnut“ (that's Njegoš's verse, „hard walnut is a strange fruit, didn't break it but crumbled the teeth“, „Njegoš looking for Ćaci“, „crime not tragedy“. By the court[house], 28th: „We are the kids from neighborhood you can't see from your armchair“ (armchair in politics mostly means a functionary's seat, only sometimes a salon revolutionary).

Novi, 1st february: „opens mouth once, lies thrice“

The winter series of unknown places and times: „Soil beneath us is not solid. Neither are the institutions.“, „I think this is a coca collapse“, „fear changed sides“ (this one was repeated so many times in many articles since, that it's became almost a proverb); „mi smo rulja, ti si hulja“ (we're crowd, you're thug - when AV called the protesters so), „hulja se ljulja jer je bulja“ (the thug is precarious because [he] is asshole), „nothing will be named after him, not even his diseases“, „in this country a thief can fall only from lumbago“, „count on ns“ (a famous song by Balašević, „Računajte na nas“ - on us - but NS is the license tag on cars from Novi).

From Avala to Bagljaš, 9th february: „you aren't overlying, but you'll lie“ (nadležan - lying above, i.e. authorized; ležati - to lie off the prison term; this is after Vučić addressed the students, offering some semblance of dialog under his terms, and got the collective response that he's not authorized - as president of the state, his job is limited to walk the red carpet, give medals and 'represent the unity of the country', yeah right, and, yeah, dismiss the parliament and write-away ('raspisati') the elections), „when I grow up I'll be a student“ (paraphrasing a title of domestic movie), „don't want to buy, want to learn“ (as most of the top echelon of SNS have fake diplomas, including plagiarized PhDs, perhaps not even honestly paid), „as far as measure goes, you got none“, „say no to sandwich“ (paraphrasing the anti-drug campaign and the fact that all the mass gatherings of SNS are paid, coerced or blackmailed folks, who may get some cash and a sandwich, and always have dozens of buses organized), „GAME OVER“, „crouching tiger, hidden cobra“ („kobre“ are the unit of military police unit in charge of his personal protection; he did say „I could send the cobras to disperse them in five-six seconds“, to which the students replied „throw us the cobras to play with“, which eventually happened), „where authority dies, freedom is born“, „and this empire will also fall“, „who's afraid of the big bad vučko... tra la la“ ('vučić' also means 'wolfling'), „freedom smells like tulips“ (tulip is a lala, and Lala is a denizen of Banat).

Zrenjanin, 14th february: „ćaci to school, đaci to blockades“

Čurda, 16th february: „old age won't ask these kids where did their young age go“; „you disgusted both god and people“.

Niš, 1st of march: „we don't change cases, but will change system“ (written with 'cases' in nominative instead of accusative case, and the 'will change' in their shorthand grammar, in proper Niš dialect)

Elemir, 2nd of march: „stretching the bench to Elemir“ - carried by guests from Melenci (there's a century old joke about them stretching the plank when the bench was short; having warmed themselves by the effort, they took off their shepherds' thick fur vests and now the bench wasn't short anymore, i.e. it worked)

Seeinkg the walkers off to Bečej, 5th of march: „if you mean to win, you must not lose“, what with Grumf, see 05-III-2025.; „heroes of the mothern age“ (façade of the gimnazija).

On the fence around Ćacilend, 14th of march: „feeding the ćacis prohibited“, „beware, ćaci bites“

Novi Pazar, 12th april: „Varaon“. Um... Faraon is how we spell pharaoh, and „vara on“ is „he cheats“. The f, v and hv often replace each other in local versions of some words.

Writing on the wall: „he's got only the scum left“.

Zrenjanin, 22nd of june: „kiss the rulja in the bulja“ (kiss the crowd's ass), „Zaječarci against zajećaci“ (people of Zaječar), „all the lasses would love the orderlies“ (in the song title it was sailors), „nacija protiv ćacija“ (nation vs ćacis), „režim na režim“ (with a picture of a fierce dog, „I growl at the regime“), „štrajkača“ (šajkača is the traditional headgear of serbian peasants, mostly military style), „Pompaj“ (with Popeye and a pump), „in vain dicking it out, you're not nadležan“ (with Bugs Bunny in a tuxedo), „throw us the cobras to play with“, „the police maintains the peace... of the regime“.

Belgrade, 28th of june: „he's no more ON, he's OFF“ ('on' means 'he', on a lady's hat). Next day, in Zemun, „Munze wants konza“. The syllable flipping slang (last one becomes first, others just push forward) is most firmly entrenched in Zemun, and „Munze konza“ is practically its flag, „Zemun is the law“ (zakon). Too bad this kind of language equilibristic is impossible in english, so the poor Brits had to invent the rhyming slang, which is completely lost to anyone born two blocks away. Even in Sarajevo, there was a band „Vozdra“ - from zdravo, (healthy), the regular greeting. In english that would be „Llohe“.

Zemun, 3rd july, a grafitto on a dumpster: „Vucko has a micropenis“ (spelt in haircut latinic, not as Vučko). Beglrade: „there's no world, nor a planet, where peaceful kid is beaten“ (paraphrase of children's song by Ršumović „...where a child can't reach“).

Niš, 4th july: „don't torture the police, raspiši izbore“, „we for justice - you for sandwich“ (as mostly the ćaci get a sandwich and 20€, later up to 100€, for a day when they get stuffed into buses and taken somewhere to pretend to be locals spontaneously gathered to support Vučić)

Novi Sad, 5th july, on a sun umbrella over a deck chair in the middle of an intersection: „vacation at a blockade - healthy, benefitial, affordable“

Novi Sad, 12 july, when AV came by to see the construction of a bridge (not in town, though, 5km out), „the villain always return to the crime scene“.

Užice, 13th july, „the only place where you'll dig“ with a photo of education minister picking his nose. „Your hands are bloody and your asses shitty“.

Hundred badges on an orderlie's vest, „you've run out of tune - FMU“ (faculty of musical arts), „BIA and I“, „there's no mother born ćaci“ (originally it was 'no hero', from traditional epic poetry, in decameter of course), „we don't break“ (does not mean „we can't be broken“, this is strictly „we're not smashing things“), „From Banat from inat“ (inat is a thing in our mentality, it's the stubborn spite which endures even when counterproductive), „diaspora pumps“, „you radiate badly“, „nobody's tired“ (the running slogan of all the walks from city to city, of bicycle marathon), „Mile, got a heart or aint got“ (Mile is the name roughly equivalent to Joe Q Sixpack), „Salzburg with the students“, „Novi against this now“ (sad means plant[ation], but also means now, so „Novi slobodan university Sad“ means „free university of Novi“ but also „new free university now“, intentionally ambiguous), „from Šumadija mine [folks]“ (paraphrase of „from Chicago mine, you know well which ones“ - the četniks), „we're pumping to Brussels“ (in memory of the bicycling marathon), „Stojan, are you pumping“, „Beware the wedge of Šabac!“ (legendary prank from XIX century, when the cart wheels fell off, the wedges affixing the hubs to axles being loosened), „we are on the road, we're making the road - Topola with the students“ (lyrics from EKV's song), „March to Drina“ (the famous movie from 1966 or so, but also „marš“ as a „get lost“ command), „You shall not dig“ with face of Zoran Radmilović as Laki (from „Marathon family“ movie, though digging here is related to Rio Tinto and lithium, while in the movie it's about secretly recycling coffins), „I Bataja ima jaja“ (Batajnica also has eggs/balls), „only student saves Serb“ (the four C's, actually cyrillic S's, on the state coat of arms, supposedly means „only accord“; originally it was a Β, from greek „vasileus vasileion...“ - ruler of rulers rules the rulers), „ko bre da bre“ (bre is a common interjection, abbr. from brate - you brother - but it's not just „who bro yes bro“, it's also „cobras beavers“, because after „throw us some cobras to play with“ the students formed their own unit, the beavers, named from these very words; this time it was on a Heineken logo).

Valjevo, 24th july: „ecology or oncology“ (Valjevo is near the area where they found lithium ore).

Slogan on banknotes: „raspiši as you speak“ (from Vuk Karadžić's reform of language, mid XIX century, where the principle of phonetic alphabet was made simple with „write as you speak, read as it's written“).

Novi, 31st july: „Ivica into marica“ (Ivica Dačić is the minister of police, not interior affairs, and marica is the black mary, police van; „Ivica i Marica“ are the translated names of „Hansel and Gretel“); Valjevo: „Valjevci against nevaljavci“ (citizens of Valjevo against the ne-valja, no gooders, which would be nevaljalci, one character replaced to make it rhyme).

Sremska Mitrovica, 25th august: „fall arrives, my thug“ (hulja instead of Quince, which is both fruit and a female name, paraphrasing the title of Balašević's song). Somewhere else, „Too bad about Kričak, he'd be a better man if he was a pička [cunt]“ - (in accusative case it's „Krička“, so this rhymes). Marko Kričak is the notorious chief of the JZO police unit, allegedly specialized for protection detail, so they should be the guys around the prime minister, gov't building etc, but since august they turned out to be the dirty jobs unit - short of killing anyone, not yet, but for any kind of beating or mishandling, specially on the female students, AV can rely on them to deliver.

Zaječar, 10th september: „NEPALite za njim sveće...“ - „DO NOT LIGht candles after him, for when he leaves now, he will not return“ - with obvious reference to events in Nepal.

Belgrade, 17th september: „even if they pulled together all the loot they will not be able to buy us“.

27th october, Plandište: „Vršac against the complete idiot“ (refers to Vučić's mentioning of the first perpetrators of 'private investors for Belgrade On Water are above the law' as complete idiots for doing it at night instead of broad daylight)

5th november, by the tent of Dijana Hrka: „robbers of people into tar and feathers“, „one who will is stronger than those who must“, „why aren't you learning“, „may your offspring the kind you guard“.

6th november „hvala bogu / hvala majci / nit smo ćaci / niti policajci“ (thank god / thank mother / we're no ćaci / nor policemen).

12th november, Niš, dedicated to minister of education: „put a finger on [your] brow, not into [your] nose“

17th february 2026, Novi Sad: „how about, for a change, you arrest the criminals“, „us you can not buy, but you will have to pay“.

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Mentions: 27-I-2025., 05-III-2025., 12-IV-2025., 18-VI-2025., 27-VI-2025., 11-VII-2025., 04-VIII-2025., 01-XI-2025., Alan Ford, Čurda, gimnazija, KTV, Novi Sad, staž, in serbian

23-VI-2025 - 25-III-2026