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CHAPTER 13
Protesting for Production: The Dita Factory
Occupation and the Struggle for Justice
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Damir Arsenijević, Jasmina Husanović
and Vanessa Vasić-Janeković
INTRODUCTION: AMNƜSTIA AS DISOBEDIENCE
In October 2012, the workers of the Dita detergent factory in Tuzla,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, erected barricades in front of their factory
to prevent the asset stripping and closure of the production plant, as
demanded by the ongoing privatization of Dita. Their move was new
and unprecedented: all the other factories surrounding Dita, once com-
prising a huge industrial complex, had already been stripped of assets and
closed down. Dita stood amidst a bare landscape of a few scattered rem-
nants of factories. The Dita workers, hardened and exhausted by years
of industrial action, were determined to prevent the dissolution of the
factory, which they referred to as “home.” Their industrial actions con-
cerned the pursuit of justice in the context of violent privatization that
was leading them towards destitution: their claims had included seeking
to prosecute those involved in the corrupt privatization of their factory,
and pursuing their claim for 44 unpaid monthly salaries and other remu-
nerations that were owed to them. Their unshakable demand insistently
poses the question: to whom does the factory belong?
© The Author(s) 2017
D. Jelača et al. (eds.), The Cultural Life of Capitalism in Yugoslavia,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47482-3_13
arsenijevicd@gmail.com