Some arrive dressed as pioneers or dust down their old partisan uniforms. Some wave large Yugoslav or communist flags in the air, others proudly exhibit t-shirts with a picture of Tito. Often they break into song: old comrades hug and chant “Druze Tito mi ti se kunemo” (Comrade Tito, we swear to you), or sing along with anti-fascist tunes performed on the main stage. However, Kumrovec’s aficionados are a special breed, and the event, closely linked to Tito’s persona and ideology, doesn’t appeal to a large audience.

The activist choirs, though, want to move away from the ideological dimension of the partisan songs. Horkestar, a choir from Serbia who have been performing for 16 years now, grew out of the artist collective Skart, whose initial repertoire was mainly composed of revolutionary workers’ songs. Today, they still perform some of the songs but not on ideological grounds, Ružica Vrhovac from Horkestar emphasises.

“The thing we all have in common is that we love music, and believe that music and activism can make this world a better place, or at least point out some issues. I believe that engaged songs are becoming a trend because of the general situation in society… It shows that crisis is present in more and more segments of our reality and there’s a general need for change. Maybe people can’t always say what bothers them, maybe they don’t always want to speak about what is blatantly wrong and hasn’t been changing, economic crises, wrong values and so on…Maybe it’s a problem to say it out loud and clear for an individual, but it is not a problem to sing about it for a group of people,” explains Vrhovac.

As one of the key elements that have fostered this renewed interest in revolutionary songs, Hofman singles out the devastating consequences of introducing neoliberalism in post-Yugoslav societies — particularly in the sense of diminishing social rights — and the current global crisis of neoliberalism. “The political elites in these countries have been trying hard to get rid of their socialist past and get into ‘capitalist society’. But such capitalist utopia has failed them, the capitalist dream has crumbled. This led to a new perspective, a new way of seeing their socialist past.”

‘We believe that music and activism can make this world a better place’

Thus, partisan and revolutionary songs have grown into a metaphor. Praksa, a choir from Pula, a town in western Croatia, is well known for its anti-capitalist songs. Edna Jurcan, the founder of the choir, had the idea of forming a choir following a strike by workers at Arena Trikotaza, a garment manufacturer. For the occasion, she decided to sing Sebben che siamo donne, an Italian song from the 19th century, a symbol of the revolt of agricultural workers against their bosses. The choir’s repertoire includes international revolutionary evergreens such as the socialist anthem The Internationale, the Italian civil war-era partisan song Bella Ciao, or No Pasaran!, a Spanish civil war song, but also of partisan songs from all parts of the former Yugoslavia.

“We all have our say in choosing the songs. I am the one who suggests them to the rest of the choir, and then we discuss it. The songs have to be universal, they should be open for different sorts of interpretation at any moment, any occasion we decide to sing them. I am against any songs glorifying Tito and the Party, any kind of ideology,” insists Jurcan.

The attitude of other choirs from the former Yugoslavia is similar. They all avow not wanting to play the card of Yugonostalgia, that sentimental concept whose definition remains vague but encapsulates the feeling of longing for a country that isn’t there any more and memories from that time. Their activism focuses on the present, on current issues. And, in the context of rampant nationalism in almost all former Yugoslav states, the echoes or motives from the partisan songs constitute a powerful tool in political activism. Even more so when sung by the choirs. For Ana Hofman, this collective mobilisation is particularly important when discussing the “re-actualisation” of partisan revolutionary songs within and beyond the post-Yugoslav space.

“The choirs are a form of acting together in a world that emphasises individualism. They are mini-laboratories of self-organisation. Joint bodies, joint voices… produce a stronger vibration that strongly mobilises the audience,” Hofman says. “It produces that specific feeling that sends shivers up your spine because you feel that you are a part of something that moves you. Both singers and the audience often evoke the energy of these songs, the same energy that gets people to cry or to feel a catharsis through a vibration, especially in the moments of joint singing between the choir and the audience.”