Tens of thousands have come to Belgrade from all over Serbia, and the crowd are shouting ‘pumpaj’ (‘Пумпај’), pronounced ‘poom-pie’. Tomorrow may be the Serbian revolution, or not. There may be blood, but hopefully not. But I don’t want to prognosticate, I want to talk about the word ‘пумпај’ (remember: ‘pumpaj’).
Darko Lazić, playing live and in-the-crowd, covered in sweat, money from the crowd slapped on his forehead (and held up by the sweat), shouted ‘pump it up!’ (‘пумпај’). The video became a meme. People showed hype, commenting ‘пумпај’, on /r/Serbia. When Clinton became ill, they commented ‘пумпај’, hoping for his death.
Serbian protests in the past had been an amorphous blob of feelings. One began with a simple demand:
People with convictions for sodomy should have their criminal record removed.
Serbia has no sodomy laws right now, but many still have a criminal record from when it did, which means they struggle to find work because they have a criminal record. If the message had remained simple and focussed on the single issue of removing criminal records, nobody could have objected. Unfortunately, the Netherlands embassy funded parade, which became a ‘pride parade’, which had EU, and Netherlands flags, alongside LGBTQIA+, and Palestine. The message people heard was ‘West/ Europe/ Gay’, and the Serbian regime lapped it up, reporting on foreign influence, corrupting the youth, and funding instability in Serbia.
The regime’s media messages hit, because they were almost true. The protesters gained nothing.
Back to ‘пумпај’. The current protest, concerning the 15 dead in Novi Sad, has never faltered in their focus. We all know the regime has many problems, but they don’t protest against ‘corruption’, or ‘the regime’, they protest with four direct points - and the four are basically just ‘release the records concerning those responsible for the deaths’. The regime have brought up a thousand distractions; ‘they are Croatian instigators’, ‘they want to make you gay’, and the students don’t argue, and don’t engage. Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vučić, has attempted to engage with them, and the student body’s formal (and united) response has been ‘not your jurisdiction’. Block.and.move.on.
Back on Reddit, many initially expressed cynicism towards the movement. ‘It’s pointless’, ‘they can’t win’, ‘they’re probably paid by some foreign embassy’. And one Redditor responded to every single one with one word - ‘пумпај’. No argument, just hype. ‘We won’t win’, you say? ‘Pump it up, let’s go!’ Every single comment. ‘Пумпај’.
It caught on. During the Serbian competitions to see who would enter Eurovision, artists could not speak against the regime, or they would be removed from the competition. So instead of speaking, they inflated balloons. With a pump.
Now they’re on the streets, up the road. I can still hear the horns and whistles. Tractors are arriving, to block military vehicles. The Times newspaper as begun a live-stream of the crowd, and the crowd are shouting ‘пумпај’.