Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia
Encyclopedia
The Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia or SSRNJ , formerly the People's Front (Narodni Front or NOF in Serbo-Croatian, Ljudska fronta or LF in Slovene), was the largest and most influential mass organization in SFR Yugoslavia from August 1945 through 1990. In 1990 its membership was thirteen million, including most of the adult population of the country. The political purpose of this national organization, sponsored by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
(SKJ), was to involve as many people as possible in activities on the party agenda, without the restrictions and negative connotations of direct party control. The SSRNJ also was chartered as a national arbitration forum for competing, cross-regional interests. Although party officials were forbidden to hold simultaneous office in SSRNJ, the top echelon of the latter was dominated by established party members. The importance of SSRNJ to the party leadership increased as the party's direct control over social and state institutions decreased. It was useful in mobilizing otherwise apathetic citizens during the Croatian crisis
of 1971 and the Kosovo
crisis of 1987.
The Constitution
stipulated a wide variety of social and political functions for SSRNJ, including nomination of candidates for delegate at the commune level, suggesting solutions to national and local social issues to assembly delegates, and overseeing elections and public policy implementation. Both individuals and interest groups held membership. The structure of SSRNJ was very similar to that of the party, including a hierarchy that extended from national to commune level. SSRNJ organizations in the republics and provinces were simplified versions of the national structure.
The national organization was run by a conference of delegates chosen by the regional SSRNJ leadership. The conference presidium included members from the party, the armed forces, trade unions, Socialist Youth League, and other national organizations. Like the SKJ Central Committee, the SSRNJ conference established departments to formulate policy recommendations in areas such as economics, education, and sociopolitical relations. Coordinating committees were also active in interregional consultation on policy and mass political action.
In SR Slovenia, the Socialist Alliance became an umbrella organization for a number of nonparty organizations with political interests, beginning in 1988. On a lesser scale, similar changes occurred in other republics. This development rekindled the idea that SSRNJ might be divorced from SKJ domination and reconstituted as a second political party at the national level. Pending such an event, SSRNJ was regarded throughout the 1980s as a puppet of the party elite, particularly by virtue of its exclusive control over the nomination of assembly delegates at the commune level.
One of the Presidents of the Federal Conference was Veljko Milatović
.
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia , before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na...
(SKJ), was to involve as many people as possible in activities on the party agenda, without the restrictions and negative connotations of direct party control. The SSRNJ also was chartered as a national arbitration forum for competing, cross-regional interests. Although party officials were forbidden to hold simultaneous office in SSRNJ, the top echelon of the latter was dominated by established party members. The importance of SSRNJ to the party leadership increased as the party's direct control over social and state institutions decreased. It was useful in mobilizing otherwise apathetic citizens during the Croatian crisis
Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia as well as democratic and economic reforms.-History:...
of 1971 and the Kosovo
Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo
Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo was one of the two socialist autonomous areas of the Socialist Republic of Serbia incorporated into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1974 until 1990...
crisis of 1987.
The Constitution
Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the supreme law of S.F.R. Yugoslavia and its predecessor, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia .-Federal constitutions:...
stipulated a wide variety of social and political functions for SSRNJ, including nomination of candidates for delegate at the commune level, suggesting solutions to national and local social issues to assembly delegates, and overseeing elections and public policy implementation. Both individuals and interest groups held membership. The structure of SSRNJ was very similar to that of the party, including a hierarchy that extended from national to commune level. SSRNJ organizations in the republics and provinces were simplified versions of the national structure.
The national organization was run by a conference of delegates chosen by the regional SSRNJ leadership. The conference presidium included members from the party, the armed forces, trade unions, Socialist Youth League, and other national organizations. Like the SKJ Central Committee, the SSRNJ conference established departments to formulate policy recommendations in areas such as economics, education, and sociopolitical relations. Coordinating committees were also active in interregional consultation on policy and mass political action.
In SR Slovenia, the Socialist Alliance became an umbrella organization for a number of nonparty organizations with political interests, beginning in 1988. On a lesser scale, similar changes occurred in other republics. This development rekindled the idea that SSRNJ might be divorced from SKJ domination and reconstituted as a second political party at the national level. Pending such an event, SSRNJ was regarded throughout the 1980s as a puppet of the party elite, particularly by virtue of its exclusive control over the nomination of assembly delegates at the commune level.
One of the Presidents of the Federal Conference was Veljko Milatović
Veljko Milatovic
Veljko Milatović was a Montenegrin Communist partisan, politician, statesman serving once as the Speaker and the other time as President.He was born in 1921 in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Veljko Milatović (Serbo-Croat Cyrillic: Вељко Милатовић) (born 5 December 1921 in Nikšić,...
.