Stipe Šuvar
Encyclopedia
Stipe Šuvar was a leading Croatia
n and Yugoslav
politician
and sociologist. He entered top politics in 1972 being co-opted to the Central Committee (CC) of the League of Communists of Croatia
(LCC). Two years later he became Croatian minister of education and performed a controversial educational reform in Croatia. From 1982 to 1986 he was a member of the CC LCC Presidium, in 1986 he was elected to the Presidium of the CC of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
(LCY) and became a chaiman of the body in June 1988. In May 1989 Croatian Parliament
elected Šuvar the Croatian member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia but dismissed him in August 1990 when, after the first multi-party elections in Croatia, it was already controlled by Croatian Democratic Union
(HDZ) of Franjo Tudjman. After the collapse of socialism
and of Yugoslavia
, Šuvar remained politically active in Croatia, founded the magazine Hrvatska ljevica in 1994 and the Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
(SRP) in 1997. Šuvar resigned as the party's president in 2004, shortly before his death.
n village of Zagvozd
. At the age of 19, he joined the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
. He studied at the Law Faculty in Zagreb
, where he received a sociology doctorate in 1965. From 1960 through till the 1980s he taught sociology at the University of Zagreb
and at other universities in Yugoslavia and published a number of books on both sociological and political topics.
From 1963 to 1972 he was a chief editor of the Zagreb monthly Naše teme. In 1969, Šuvar in a polemic with Matica Hrvatska
official Šime Đodan denied the claims by Maspok
ideologists that Croatia
was being exploited by other Yugoslav republics. During time Šuvar was also active in several other periodicals, lastly in LCY-run “Socijalizam” (Socialism] in the 1980s.
In 1972, after the Maspok had been defeated and the leadership led by Mika Tripalo purged from the top of the LCC, Šuvar was co-opted to the CC LCC. Two years later he became Croatian secretary (minister) for culture and education and stayed at that position until 1982.
. In June 1988, when the Presidium was about to choose a new chairman between Šuvar and Račan, Šuvar won out. At the vote he was backed up, among others, by the Serb members of the Presidium including Slobodan Milošević
. However, only one month later controversies between Šuvar and Milošević emerged because of Šuvar's opposition to the anti-bureaucratic revolution
organized by the Serbian leader. In October 1988, when a dispute between Šuvar and Milošević at one Presidium session went public, a campaign for Šuvar's dismissal took place in Serbia.
In the first days of October 1988 rallies in Novi Sad
supported by Milošević forced out the Vojvodinian
leadership, while Montenegrin
establishment, with the support of the LCY Presidium and of the federal Presidency, resisted rallies in Titograd. On the 17th October, in the heated political atmosphere, the LCY Central Committee met up at its 17th plenary session in Belgrade to discuss general political situation in Yugoslavia. Yugoslav media expected the session to be crucial for country’s future and also more than 200 foreign journalists were about to attend the plenum. In his address to the plenum, Šuvar called for economical and political reforms within the frameworks of socialism and for combating nationalism in the entire country. He expressed the conviction that nationalism wouldn’t succeed neither in destroying Yugoslavia nor in turning it into a centralized country. Most of the Yugoslav communist officials’ addresses were in mutual accordance about the need of reforms and of unity and the plenum was therefore seen as successful by most Yugoslav media. However, mutual attacks of the republics’ leaders started again after the session and the political situation kept getting worse.
In January 1989, after the Montenegrin leadership was brought down during new rallies in Titograd and a few days before the 20th session of the LCY Central Committee was to take place, a conference of the Vojvodinian communists
attacked Šuvar and asked the LCY Presidium to dismiss him, what was supported by the Serb leadership and followed by a new inflammatory campaign in Serbian media and Party organizations against Šuvar. The Yugoslav Federal Presidency
, afraid of the overthrow of the LCY leadership in the same way as it had happened with local party leaderships in Vojvodina and Montenegro, put the country's police forces on a state of alert and warned the Serbian leadership of a state of emergency being possibly declared if more demonstrations took place in Belgrade
during the session. The session itself went in a normal way but didn't bring any positive results. Before the session Šuvar had promised that he would call the things their right names meaning, supposedly, directly condemn Milošević's policy, but at the end he withdrew a sharper version of his report and presented a less explicit one.
At the same time, Šuvar was continuously opposing separatist tendencies in his own Croatia and in Slovenia. He frequently warned against the rise of Croat nationalism which, in his view, was at that time most visible in discussions about language policy. Šuvar also opposed demads of Slovenes for a broader authonomy of their republic and criticized public attacks on the Yugoslav People's Army
in Slovene media. In June 1988 at LCY Presidium session discussing the case of Janez Janša
Šuvar said:
According to Šuvar himself, in June 1988 the three Slovenian members of the Presidium voted for Račan to become Presidium chairman.
elected Šuvar the Croat representative to the Presidency of the Federation, the collective head of state of Yugoslavia. The new Presidency was constituted in the Yugoslav Assembly on May 15 and two days later Šuvar resigned from the party Presidium as well as from the Central Committee. In April 1990 multi-party parliamentary elections took place in Croatia, in which Franjo Tudjman's HDZ won with an independence programme. Tudjman asked Šuvar to resign but he refused; on the 24th August 1990 Croatian Parliament dismissed Šuvar from the Yugoslav Presidency, choosing Stipe Mesić of HDZ in his place. On that occasion in the Parliament, Šuvar held his last speech while holding a political office. He warned against hostilities and possible ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia and in Croatia, called for a new agreement on Yugoslavia and for respecting rights of Serbs within Croatia. He expressed the hope for a new rise of the left in its struggle for socialism and ironically congratulated HDZ for completing the Serb-driven anti-bureaucratic revolution by eliminating him from politics. The speech was twice interrupted by an uproar of the HDZ deputies and followed by sharply critical replies of several of them while nobody of Šuvar’s own LCC spoke up.
as not being sufficiently leftist, he returned to the political scene creating the Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
. Šuvar succeeded in bringing some respectable personalities around the party, but the party itself never got more than 1% of the votes in Croatian parliamentary elections. He was its chairman until 2004, when, shortly before his death, he resigned.
After 1990 Šuvar continued publishing, for example Hrvatski karusel ("The Croatian merry-go-round") in 2003. He gave a number of interviews to the media, in which he reflected on both his role in politics of former Yugoslavia and events after the country's break-up. Šuvar, unlike many of his former communist fellows, didn't abandon socialist ideals and stayed staunchly critical towards all kinds of nationalism, including the one of his own nation. At the same time he stated his regret on some of the more radical policies he supported during SFRJ, and argued in favour of democratic socialism
.
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
n and Yugoslav
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and sociologist. He entered top politics in 1972 being co-opted to the Central Committee (CC) of the League of Communists of Croatia
League of Communists of Croatia
League of Communists of Croatia was the Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia . Until 1952, it was known as Communist Party of Croatia .- History :...
(LCC). Two years later he became Croatian minister of education and performed a controversial educational reform in Croatia. From 1982 to 1986 he was a member of the CC LCC Presidium, in 1986 he was elected to the Presidium of the CC of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
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...
(LCY) and became a chaiman of the body in June 1988. In May 1989 Croatian Parliament
Parliament of Croatia
The Parliament of Croatia or the Sabor is the unicameral representative body of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia and legislature of the country. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, represents the people and is vested with the legislative power...
elected Šuvar the Croatian member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia but dismissed him in August 1990 when, after the first multi-party elections in Croatia, it was already controlled by Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...
(HDZ) of Franjo Tudjman. After the collapse of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Šuvar remained politically active in Croatia, founded the magazine Hrvatska ljevica in 1994 and the Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
Socialist Labour Party of Croatia is a far left Croatian political party with no parliamentary representation. It is often considered to be the leftmost of all registered parties in Croatian politics.-Ideology:...
(SRP) in 1997. Šuvar resigned as the party's president in 2004, shortly before his death.
Academic work and early political career
Šuvar was born in 1936 in the DalmatiaDalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
n village of Zagvozd
Zagvozd
Zagvozd is a municipality in Croatia in the Split-Dalmatia County. It has a population of 1,642 , 99% which are Croats.Zagvozd celebrates its municipal day on July 16 to coincide with the local celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.-History:From 1941 to 1945, Zagvozd was part of the...
. At the age of 19, he joined the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
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...
. He studied at the Law Faculty in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, where he received a sociology doctorate in 1965. From 1960 through till the 1980s he taught sociology at the University of Zagreb
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...
and at other universities in Yugoslavia and published a number of books on both sociological and political topics.
From 1963 to 1972 he was a chief editor of the Zagreb monthly Naše teme. In 1969, Šuvar in a polemic with Matica Hrvatska
Matica hrvatska
Matica hrvatska is one of the oldest Croatian cultural institutions, dating back to 1842. The name is somewhat idiosyncratic, best translated as "The Croatian Centre" . It is the largest publisher of Croatian language books...
official Šime Đodan denied the claims by Maspok
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:...
ideologists that Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
was being exploited by other Yugoslav republics. During time Šuvar was also active in several other periodicals, lastly in LCY-run “Socijalizam” (Socialism] in the 1980s.
In 1972, after the Maspok had been defeated and the leadership led by Mika Tripalo purged from the top of the LCC, Šuvar was co-opted to the CC LCC. Two years later he became Croatian secretary (minister) for culture and education and stayed at that position until 1982.
The "White Book"
From 1982 to 1986 Šuvar was a member of the Presidium of the League of Communists of Croatia, since 1983 he was responsible for the ideological section of the CC. Holding this office, in 1984 Šuvar organized a discussion about the ideological struggle on the cultural front. Participants of the meeting were given a material containing quotations from texts of 186 (mostly Serbian and Slovene) authors, which had been published in the Yugoslav media between 1982 and 1984. The quoted works were labeled in the material as unacceptable, antisocialist and more or less openly nationalist. The document, nicknamed then the "White Book" (B(ij)ela knjiga) and "Flower of Evil" (Cv(ij)eće zla), was roughly condemned especially by the Serbian intelligentsia as a Stalinist attack on freedom of thought.Member and chairman of the CC LCY Presidium
In 1986 Šuvar was elected to the LCY Presidium as a representative of the Croatian Party branch along with Ivica RačanIvica Racan
Ivica Račan was a Croatian career politician, leader of the League of Communists of Croatia and later Social Democratic Party from 1989 to 2007...
. In June 1988, when the Presidium was about to choose a new chairman between Šuvar and Račan, Šuvar won out. At the vote he was backed up, among others, by the Serb members of the Presidium including Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
. However, only one month later controversies between Šuvar and Milošević emerged because of Šuvar's opposition to the anti-bureaucratic revolution
Anti-bureaucratic revolution
Anti-bureaucratic revolution as a term, refers to a series of mass protests against governments of Yugoslavian republics and autonomous provinces during 1988 and 1989, which led to resignations of leaderships of Kosovo, Vojvodina and Montenegro, and the capture of power by politicians close to...
organized by the Serbian leader. In October 1988, when a dispute between Šuvar and Milošević at one Presidium session went public, a campaign for Šuvar's dismissal took place in Serbia.
In the first days of October 1988 rallies in Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
supported by Milošević forced out the Vojvodinian
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
leadership, while Montenegrin
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
establishment, with the support of the LCY Presidium and of the federal Presidency, resisted rallies in Titograd. On the 17th October, in the heated political atmosphere, the LCY Central Committee met up at its 17th plenary session in Belgrade to discuss general political situation in Yugoslavia. Yugoslav media expected the session to be crucial for country’s future and also more than 200 foreign journalists were about to attend the plenum. In his address to the plenum, Šuvar called for economical and political reforms within the frameworks of socialism and for combating nationalism in the entire country. He expressed the conviction that nationalism wouldn’t succeed neither in destroying Yugoslavia nor in turning it into a centralized country. Most of the Yugoslav communist officials’ addresses were in mutual accordance about the need of reforms and of unity and the plenum was therefore seen as successful by most Yugoslav media. However, mutual attacks of the republics’ leaders started again after the session and the political situation kept getting worse.
In January 1989, after the Montenegrin leadership was brought down during new rallies in Titograd and a few days before the 20th session of the LCY Central Committee was to take place, a conference of the Vojvodinian communists
League of Communists of Vojvodina
The League of Communists of Vojvodina was the Vojvodina branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.- Leaders :*Secretaries of the Central Committee of the League of Communists...
attacked Šuvar and asked the LCY Presidium to dismiss him, what was supported by the Serb leadership and followed by a new inflammatory campaign in Serbian media and Party organizations against Šuvar. The Yugoslav Federal Presidency
Presidency of the SFRY
Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a collective head of state of the Yugoslav federation. It was established in 1970 according to constitutional amendments and reorganized in 1974 by the new constitution. In the period from 1970 to 1974, the Presidency had 23 members -...
, afraid of the overthrow of the LCY leadership in the same way as it had happened with local party leaderships in Vojvodina and Montenegro, put the country's police forces on a state of alert and warned the Serbian leadership of a state of emergency being possibly declared if more demonstrations took place in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
during the session. The session itself went in a normal way but didn't bring any positive results. Before the session Šuvar had promised that he would call the things their right names meaning, supposedly, directly condemn Milošević's policy, but at the end he withdrew a sharper version of his report and presented a less explicit one.
At the same time, Šuvar was continuously opposing separatist tendencies in his own Croatia and in Slovenia. He frequently warned against the rise of Croat nationalism which, in his view, was at that time most visible in discussions about language policy. Šuvar also opposed demads of Slovenes for a broader authonomy of their republic and criticized public attacks on the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
in Slovene media. In June 1988 at LCY Presidium session discussing the case of Janez Janša
JBTZ-trial
The JBTZ trial, also known as the Ljubljana trial or the Trial against the Four was a political trial held in a military court in Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia in 1988...
Šuvar said:
- "Socialist forces in Slovenia are in defense in the face of a mass movement. This movement in Slovenia includes not only elitist petty-bourgeois circles but also the youth. They regard the Army an occupier and Yugoslavia a burden and an exploiter. A phobia of the people from the country's South prevails there. Petty-bourgeois arrogance has assumed a racist dimension."
According to Šuvar himself, in June 1988 the three Slovenian members of the Presidium voted for Račan to become Presidium chairman.
Member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia
In Spring 1989 the Croatian ParliamentParliament of Croatia
The Parliament of Croatia or the Sabor is the unicameral representative body of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia and legislature of the country. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, represents the people and is vested with the legislative power...
elected Šuvar the Croat representative to the Presidency of the Federation, the collective head of state of Yugoslavia. The new Presidency was constituted in the Yugoslav Assembly on May 15 and two days later Šuvar resigned from the party Presidium as well as from the Central Committee. In April 1990 multi-party parliamentary elections took place in Croatia, in which Franjo Tudjman's HDZ won with an independence programme. Tudjman asked Šuvar to resign but he refused; on the 24th August 1990 Croatian Parliament dismissed Šuvar from the Yugoslav Presidency, choosing Stipe Mesić of HDZ in his place. On that occasion in the Parliament, Šuvar held his last speech while holding a political office. He warned against hostilities and possible ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia and in Croatia, called for a new agreement on Yugoslavia and for respecting rights of Serbs within Croatia. He expressed the hope for a new rise of the left in its struggle for socialism and ironically congratulated HDZ for completing the Serb-driven anti-bureaucratic revolution by eliminating him from politics. The speech was twice interrupted by an uproar of the HDZ deputies and followed by sharply critical replies of several of them while nobody of Šuvar’s own LCC spoke up.
Late years
After he had left a political scene, Šuvar returned to Zagreb University as a professor of sociology. In 1994 he founded the magazine Hrvatska ljevica (The Croatian Left) and in 1997, regarding Račan's Social Democratic PartySocial Democratic Party of Croatia
Social Democratic Party of Croatia , commonly referred to in Croatia as simply Social Democratic Party , is the largest centre-left political party in Croatia...
as not being sufficiently leftist, he returned to the political scene creating the Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
Socialist Labour Party of Croatia is a far left Croatian political party with no parliamentary representation. It is often considered to be the leftmost of all registered parties in Croatian politics.-Ideology:...
. Šuvar succeeded in bringing some respectable personalities around the party, but the party itself never got more than 1% of the votes in Croatian parliamentary elections. He was its chairman until 2004, when, shortly before his death, he resigned.
After 1990 Šuvar continued publishing, for example Hrvatski karusel ("The Croatian merry-go-round") in 2003. He gave a number of interviews to the media, in which he reflected on both his role in politics of former Yugoslavia and events after the country's break-up. Šuvar, unlike many of his former communist fellows, didn't abandon socialist ideals and stayed staunchly critical towards all kinds of nationalism, including the one of his own nation. At the same time he stated his regret on some of the more radical policies he supported during SFRJ, and argued in favour of democratic socialism
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
.
See also
- League of Communists of YugoslaviaLeague of Communists of YugoslaviaLeague 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...
- Novi PlamenNovi PlamenNovi Plamen is a left-wing magazine for political, social and cultural issues primarily aimed at intellectual audiences on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and the related diaspora. It is a leading publication of its kind in the region, published by the Demokratska misao publishing company...
- Socialist Labour Party of CroatiaSocialist Labour Party of CroatiaSocialist Labour Party of Croatia is a far left Croatian political party with no parliamentary representation. It is often considered to be the leftmost of all registered parties in Croatian politics.-Ideology:...