Tito and His Comrades

382 The Presidential Years

on trial for the second time as the weakest link in the Yugoslav chain.^649 “In
Croatia, the population withdrew into a sort of internal exile,” wrote the West
German ambassador, “everywhere depression and lethargy reigns.”^650

The Fight against the Managers

From the start of the economic reform, Tito did not miss any occasion to warn
against the danger of bureaucrats and technocrats. In 1969, in a speech held in
Sarajevo, he reproached the managers for wanting a monopoly position in soci-
ety and for relegating “direct producers” (a term for self-managed workers) to
the role of employees.^651 Over the two years following the showdown with the
Croats, he further accentuated this point. Actually, it was less about ideology
and more about a power struggle, since Tito and his circle knew well that the
“managers” were superseding the party in the workers’ organizations, which had
in the past been manageable thanks to those party members who, although
small in number, were loyal. It was becoming increasingly difficult to implement
the party line within the administrative structures of independent enterprises
such as industries, banks, and business, where what mattered was education and
competence. The danger was described by Edvard Kardelj when he observed
that the LCY was at risk of “separating itself from its base, and becoming a
meaningless addition to the bureaucracy, dominated by managers.”^652
The two speeches with which Tito deposed the Croat liberals became oblig-
atory reading in all LCY organs. On such occasions, it was stressed that the
main deviation of the fallen leaders should be seen in their estrangement from
Marxism-Leninism, in the nullification of the guiding role of the party and the
working class, in the lack of a firm hand, and in a general ideological anarchy.^653
It was increasingly said that the idea of the party that guides, rather than the
party that controls, which had been popular during the last twenty years,
appeared to be ineffective. Tito had reached the conclusion that the party should
be firmly in control of the self-managing and decentralized society if it were
to survive, and therefore asked for more power for the central organs and more
discipline, declaring himself ready to implement all this with force when neces-
sary. To this end, a special “Action Program” was put forward, which would
assure the control of the workers over the investments, uproot corruption, and
free the party from all “foreign bodies.”^654
The Second Conference of the LCY was called to give the green light to this
offensive. It had an extraordinary character, the equivalent of a party congress.
It was convened in Belgrade between 25 and 27 January 1972 to make, as Tito
said, “a clean break.” The top of the party was recentralized and the Executive
Bureau was restructured and reduced from fifteen to eight members. The “great
leaders”—Kardelj, Vlahović, Todorović, and Crvenkovski—were removed, and