As I keep repeating, pick your patch on the planet and you'll find the people, in angry protest at the way the system functions, and those pampered privileged individuals who manage the whole rotten affair. It is only right that information on these protests, uprisings, insurrections, rebellions should be widely known, perhaps encouraging others to take their righteous anger onto the streets and join the resistance to what is a foul, brutal, exploitative system that spawns destitution and wars. This report is from Croatia.
Beating Our Heads Against the Wall – It Was Worth It (2020) is a short documentary film, that depicts a period of anarchist activities in Croatia (2008-2020), with a focus on the regions of Kvarner (Quarnaro/Carnaro) and Istria, but also on a larger scale across Croatia, and other countries such as Slovenia, Italy, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. This document illustrates years of organisation, struggle, and lengthy legal proceedings.
The photographs and graphics used in this film are from the period between 2008 and 2020. These visuals depict the student occupation of the university, street protests, workers' strikes, and visual propaganda used for various purposes. On the audio track (an interview from 2016), Radio Borba (Eng. Radio Struggle) interviews Eugen Babić after his conviction in a criminal procedure from 2014 onwards. Also included are audio clips of a protest in 2013, after which the police attacked the protesters. In this act of repression, 15 policemen were involved in the apprehension of Eugen Babić, in which others also suffered consequences, including a policeman. The focus of the radio interview is on those events.
Network of Anarchists takes the credit for the film, commemorating the 4th anniversary of the verdict in Rijeka (2016). The film is meant for those who do not know what happened, those that want to remind themselves of the events, and those that think it’s all over.
October 25th, 2020
Publication Committee of the Network of Anarchists (Croatia)
