Yugoslavia's Sunny Side: A History of Tourism in Socialism (1950s–1980s)

Youth Labor Action (Omladinska radna akcija, ORA) as Ideological Holiday-Making

Youth Labor Action (Omladinska radna akcija, ORA) as Ideological Holiday-Making Dragan Popović Introduction Youth labor brigades became a key tool in the development of Yugoslav communist ideology. The first “youth labor action” (Omladinska radna akcija, ORA) was organized during the Second World War in 1942,1 and the last in Banja Luka in 1990. Between 1942 and 1990, more than two million young Yugoslavs participated in these events. In general, ORA involved mass-scale voluntary labor on the part of young people with the goal of implementing projects for the common good. On an ideological level, the Yugoslav communist party used ORA as an instrument to construct a youth that would create, support, and live the principle of “brotherhood and unity” as part of a reconciliation program in Yugoslavia after the Second World War. Several infrastructural milestones were accomplished with the assistance of ORA, such as the Brčko–Banovići and Šamac–Sarajevo railways,2 the new urban district of New Belgrade,3 the “Brotherhood 1 ORA Sanica. 2 The Brčko–Banovići railway connects northern and central Bosnia, while the Šamac–Sarajevo railway connects western Bosnia with the Bosnian capital. The Brčko–Banovići railway project began in spring 1946 and was completed for the most part by autumn of the same year. 62,268 young Yugoslavs were involved in implementing this railway project, which was 90 km long. The Šamac–Sarajevo railway project was launched in the spring and completed in the autumn of 1947. This time 211,371 young Yugoslavs worked on the 242 km long project. Mihailović (1985, pp. 203, 204). 3 New Belgrade is an area of Belgrade located on the west bank of the Sava River. Intended as an example of socialist Yugoslavia’s vision and progress, its construction began in spring 1948. and Unity” motorway, and the “Ivo Lola Ribar” enterprise.4 During the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, several ORA were organized to maintain these infrastructural projects. While early ORA had called for hard physical work, later projects became increasingly recreational in nature, and participants saw them as an opportunity to travel and spend time with their peers away from home. The leisure aspect of ORA became a central component of youth experience and an object of consideration by the planners of these voluntary labor activities, who sought to attract young people while upholding core Yugoslav communist principles. The ideological significance of voluntary work can be explained by an elaboration on the construction of the “Brotherhood and Unity” motorway and why it was crucial to include Yugoslav youth in this process. On the one hand, the project had an economic purpose. In fact, the motorway became one of the major traffic arteries for domestic and foreign tourists. However, it was not confined to economics, since the route was planned to pass through almost all Yugoslav republics and their capitals. The political symbolism of linking the different Yugoslav peoples was unmistakable. Furthermore, the hidden agenda of the party nomenclature was to reinforce relations between Croats and Serbs, represented by the Croatian capital of Zagreb, and Belgrade, the Serbian and federal capital, as a step towards healing wounds in the aftermath of the atrocities committed during the Second World War. In effect, the Zagreb–Belgrade axis embodied the common future of socialist Yugoslavia or its dissolution. From the beginning, ORA brigades were involved in its construction, the first day of which—1 April 1948—was proclaimed ORA Celebration Day. This emphasized the importance of the project and the prescience of the Yugoslav Communist Party to assign this missionary task to the brigades as an expression of its vision of youth. 280 Dragan Popović 4 The “Ivo Lola Ribar” enterprise in Belgrade was one of the largest industrial complexes in socialist Yugoslavia, and the most important. Many ORA brigadiers later found employment here. The project began in spring 1947. By the time it was completed at the beginning of 1948, 15,566 young Yugoslavs had worked on its construction. Mihailović (1985, pp. 205). Youth Labor Action 281 By organizing ORA, the Party endeavored to achieve multiple goals. Bringing youth together in ORA brigades5 was a means of imbuing brigadiers with a collective spirit, with the desire to create the functional “new man” who would constructively participate in the Yugoslav communist vision of “brotherhood and unity.” More precisely, the organization of youth brigades was seen as a method of equalizing...