The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation

Today is April 27th. And like all the years after the Second World War, we celebrate the founding of The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation on this day.
The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation (Slovene: Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda), or simply Liberation Front (Osvobodilna fronta, OF), originally called the Anti-Imperialist Front (Protiimperialistična fronta, PIF), was a Slovene anti-fascist political party. The Anti-Imperialist Front had ideological ties to the Soviet Union (which was at the time in a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany) in its fight against the imperialistic tendencies of the United States and the United Kingdom (the western powers), and it was led by the Communist Party of Slovenia. In May 1941, weeks into the German occupation of Yugoslavia, in the first wartime issue of the illegal newspaper Slovenski poročevalec (Slovenian Reporter), members of the organization criticized the German regime and described Germans as imperialists. They started raising money for a liberation fund via the second issue of the newspaper published on 8 June 1941. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the Anti-Imperialist Front was formally renamed and became the main anti-fascist Slovene civil resistance and political organization under the guidance and control of the Slovene communists. It was active in the Slovene Lands during World War II. Its military arm was the Slovene Partisans. The organisation was established in the Province of Ljubljana on 26 April 1941 in the house of the literary critic Josip Vidmar. Its leaders were Boris Kidrič and Edvard Kardelj.
After independence, some people raised their heads and we renamed this day the Day of Resistance against the Occupier…
Way back in 1971, when we were still a socialist society, on April 24, the then Prime Minister of France, Chaban-Delmas, visited Ljubljana. Of course, we students protested, both in support of French students and workers, and in protest against the French colonial policy at the time. To this day, I still remember how I ran from the Kazina building towards the University. Behind me a policeman with a baton. Run for the Olympic record.
Anyone who is interested can read more about this events at https://www.rtvslo.si/1968/dokumentacija-casa/lazne-novice-tudi-leta-1968/448231 and https://www.locutio.si/index. php?no=123&article=3975
Three days after these events, a flyer appeared and went around Ljubljana. Around 2,000 copies are said to have been reproduced. According to some information, the police confiscated about half of the circulation, while the rest had already become public. And what was written on it?

COMRADES !
On Saturday, the police used physical violence to prevent the demonstration of approx. 50 Ljubljana students during the visit of the French Prime Minister. The students wanted to express their solidarity with French workers and students and to condemn the French colonial policy (CHAD, HAITI…). (Delo 26. IV. wants to discredit the demonstrators by lying that they are “demonstrators against Ch.- Delmas “fascist”…). They tore up and confiscated the students’ banners (PROLETARS OF ALL COUNTRIES – UNITE ! DOWN WITH THE BOURGIES ! LONG LIVE THE PARIS COMMUNE ! VIVE LE MAI 68) and arrested them during the Prime Minister’s parade.
On Saturday, a militiaman – a worker – had to earn his living by tearing up a banner on Revolution Square: PROLETERS OF ALL COUNTRIES – UNITE!
This is the humiliation of the working man, this is the limitation of personal freedom. Isn’t this reminiscent of the period before the fourth (Brion) plenum?
This society that flaunts the word “socialist” is also a class society. While the red bourgeois build themselves luxurious villas with swimming pools and weekends in Tyrol and Switzerland, 16,000 university-educated Slovenians had to find a job abroad: this is the only way they can buy apartments and do the work they studied for. While our rich people are spending millions on sailings in the Mediterranean and vacations on the Cote d’Azur, a million workers earn less than 80,000 din.
While “our bourgeoisie” (before capitalist Italy) builds color television with social funds, working people have to build hospitals, schools and kindergartens with donations and contributions. We do not allow the immigration of Yugoslav workers from the south to be turned into a “Yugoslav black issue”. Comrades!: Our society is a class society. That’s why our anthem should not be primarily Hey Slavs”, “Our beautiful homeland”, not “Forward the flag of glory”, but the International: “Stand up! Ye galley-slaves of want.”!

ACTION COMMITTEE AT THE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF SŠ

And on the back side:

TAKE PART IN THE CENTRAL CELEBRATION OF THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LF OF THE SLOVENIAN NATION ON TUESDAY, April 27 at 11:00 a.m. in TIVOLI HALL.

LF IS STILL ALIVE!

INTERNATIONALE

Stand up! Ye wretched ones who labor,
Stand up! Ye galley-slaves of want.
Man’s reason thunders from its crater,
‘Tis th’ eruption naught can daunt.
Of the past let us cleanse the tables,
Mass enslaved, fling back the call,
Old Earth is changing her foundations,
We have been nothing, now be all.

(Chorus)

‘Tis the last call to battle!
Close the ranks, each in place,
The staunch old International
Shall be the Human race.

Stormy days of my student years! Liberation Front is still alive!