Nenad Jovanovik, citizen activist from Kavadarci, in a conversation with CIVIL Media stressed that we need more civil society organizations at the local level that would act and fight for articulating and animating the numerous problems the citizens face. According to him, in terms of social justice, protection of workers’ rights and usurpation of the public space, the same rules of the “big picture” that apply at the national level also apply at the local level.
“Social justice does not exist in Macedonia! That translated means that a small group of people were getting rich, while 95% of the people were getting terribly poorer on various grounds. Social justice is not just justice to some resources, money, some material benefit, but rather it is also humaneness, rightness, labor representation…”, stated Jovanovik.
He thinks that the social situation in Macedonia is a result of the authoritarian populism that usurped the entire country and all the institutions and public goods for the personal benefit of a group of people.
As an example of the situation with the workers’ rights in Kavadarci, Jovanovik emphasized the foreign investment “Draexlmaier” and the attitude towards the workers, claiming that some even work for 9.400 denars, with problems at the workplace, without appropriate equipment…
Comparing the situation with the capital city and the usurpation of the public space with the project “Skopje 2014”, Jovanovik said: “In Kavadarci, realistically, there is no usurpation of the public space, things are the way they were ten years ago. My personal concern is that they cut down all the trees starting from the House of culture and down the entire street…”
Biljana Jordanovska
Camera: Dehran Muratov
Editing: Маја Ivanovska
The interview is part of the project Society Without Borders, which CIVIL – Center for Freedom is implementing with the support of the German Heinrich Bὅll Foundation. The goal of the project is to promote and educate the citizens of Macedonia about the “Citizen’s Charter” – a global document for promoting civil rights and active participation of citizens in decision-making processes.
