Food, not bombs! (FNB) collectives with their nonviolent actions strive to point out to unjust distribution and unnecessary waist of food, as well to the relation between the ongoing militarization and ever growing social dividing of the society.

We want to point out that it’s unacceptable to spend resources on additional militarization when the level of poverty and unemployment in society are reaching their peaks. On one side there is more production than it’s needed for satisfying the needs of the society, while on the other there a big number of people who barely meet their basic needs. Vast quantities of food are rotting, are thrown away or destroyed because of market policy and various speculations. FNB actions are nonviolent, through the actions on the streets as well as through the food we prepare, which is vegetarian so we don’t use violence over nature and the beings that populate it. FNB functions as a non-hierarchical group of individuals where all the decisions are made by consensus. The work is public and transparent. Thee food we give is a practical, not a symbolic act. We collect food which because it was jammed, or had a different shape, or was near the date of expiration was thrown away. Certain quantity of thee food and the equipment is collected form donations from individuals as well as from benefit concerts. We prepare the collected food the same day and we give it away for free at public places to everyone that needs it.

The first FNB www.foodnotbombs.net was formed in 1980 in USA, in the town of Cambridge in Massachusetts by antinuclear activists. Today there are more than 200 autonomous organizations in the world which express themselves against militarism and poverty through serving free vegetarian food to people who need it without any restrictions or selections. The first known actions of FNB collectives in this region are connected with the collective “Obrana istine” from Zagreb/Mursko Sredisce in the mid 1990’s. Around the same time a collective in Ljubljana starts to work as part of the Antifascist action. In Skopje in 2001 a group gathered around the collectives GAMA and AMAN forms FNB collective which works as part of the action they were supporting. As a result of the positive experiences during their visit to France, a group in Mostar gathered around the collective “Skart Art” starts FNB actions. The first known FNB collective whose activity was not mainly brought down to support of events was formed in Zagreb at the beginning of 2002, a collective formed as part of Stop NATO! The Zagreb collective www.hranaaneoruzje.net succeeded for a year and a half to continuously organize actions on Saturdays in front of the main train station, after what the collective was periodically active to support some events. These days the collective in Zagreb is reanimated and starts the campaign NO NATO!. Because on the Stop NATO! Events there were people involved from other towns also, soon there was activation and periodical working of collectives in Rijeka, Zadar, Sibenik, Slavonski Brod, Koprivnica, Split, Cakovec i Prijedor/Banja Luka. Around the same time the group gathered around the Subwar and SPK collective and Women in Black, start a collective in Belgrade. FNB actions are periodically organized by the group gathered around Antifascist action from Novi Sad. The wave of antiwar protest against the war in Iraq results in rise of FNB collectives, so with the increased activity of the above mentioned collectives there is a forming of FNB collective in Sarajevo from the people gathered around the “Campaign for conscientious objection”. FNB collectives were formed from the existing anarchist collectives in the region, and after the antiwar protests against the war in Iraq there is a rise of FNB collectives as a result of the antiwar actions of the so called peace movement. Its interesting to point out the regional activity of the FNB gang which was apparent almost in every big event in the region: No Border Camps, Stop NATO, Anarchafeminist festivals, etc. A FNB collective was formed as part of the Peace Caravan in 2005 and 2006 with individuals from most of the collectives in the region. As far as I know at this moment in the region there are active collectives in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Rijeka, Skopje, Ljubljana and Belgrade.

Darko Ljubic