14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
The League of Communists of Yugoslavia convened the highest forum for its 14th Extraordinary Congress on 20–23 January 1990 before it adjourned. It later reconvened for one day on 26 May. This was the last convened LCY Congress and was composed of 1,655 delegates. The congress was chaired by the Macedonian Milan Pančevski, the president of the Presidency of the Central Committee, on 20–23 January and by the Serb Petar Škundrić when it reconvened on 26 May 1990. It reconvened without the delegates from Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia and verified a new provisional leadership, the Committee for the Preparation of the Democratic and Programmatic Renewal of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, tasked it with convening the 15th LCY Congress on or before 29 September 1990.
Background
Beginning in the 1970s, Yugoslavia began to experience a severe economic crisis. The federal state leadership, alongside the LCY Central Committee and its Presidency, failed to formulate a set of policies to get the state out of the crisis. This combined with increasing ethnic unrest, chiefly amongst Kosovo Albanians in the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo in the Socialist Republic of Serbia, and the crisis European communism was experiencing, formed the chief backdrop to the 14th Extraordinary Congress. Due to the increasing incapacity of federal state and central party authorities, the republican branches of the LCY began to formulate independent proposals to solve the crisis. The League of Communists of Serbia, headed by Slobodan Milošević as the president of the Presidency of the SKS Central Committee, reaffirmed their belief in the communist form of government by calling for centralising reforms that strengthened democratic centralism by amassing more powers in the central party organs. The League of Communists of Slovenia, headed by Milan Kučan as the president of the Presidency of the ZKS Central Committee, began moving in the opposite direction, seeking to institute liberal democracy by paving the way for multi-party elections and replacing democratic centralism with a confederalised party structure based on "democratic unity". Both sides harnessed nationalism in their respective republics to mobilise their supporters.Slovene nationalists began to call for Slovene independence increasingly, and in January 1987, they gained national attention with the publication of the "Contributions to the Slovene National Programme", a special issue of the oppositionist newspaper Nova revija. The paper was anti-communist and called for the abolition of the ZKS' monopoly on state power in favour of liberal democracy. The Presidency of the ZKS Central Committee at first declared the programme to be "anti-Yugoslav, undemocratic and contrary to self-management." However, the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Slovenia, headed by Jože Smole, reacted more hesitantly and did not call for sanctions against the authors. Considering the deteriorating political situation in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, the Yugoslav People's Army formulated a plan in May 1988 to arrest over 200 purportedly anti-Yugoslav and anti-communist Slovenian intellectuals. The YPA then initiated a trial against the dissidents Janez Janša, Ivan Borštner, David Tasić and Franci Zavrl, known as the JBTZ trial, that mobilised even more Slovenes for national independence. Seeing where the wind was blowing, the ZKS Central Committee decided on 17 January 1989 to back liberal democracy and abolish its monopoly on state power. The ZKS Central Committee argued that political pluralism would safeguard socialism since it would produce a more open political system that was in accordance with international norms and modern civilisational values. The disagreement between the SKS and the ZKS came out into the open at the 21st Session of the Central Committee of the 13th LCY Congress, held on 17 February 1989, where Kučan openly advocated liberal democracy, stating, "Yugoslavia will become a democrat society or it will no longer exist. There can be no democracy without political pluralism."
Congressional Preparations
The regular congress of the LCY should have been held in 1990, although the extraordinary congress was suggested earlier at the 18th session of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia when this proposal was rejected. Then, at the 20th session, the delegation of Vojvodina again proposed the holding of an extraordinary congress, which was again rejected, while the same proposal at the 22nd session was not accepted. Calling this congress 'extraordinary' was especially opposed by the Slovenian delegation. On the issues to be addressed, especially those concerning the future organization of Yugoslavia, the congress was indeed remarkable.Preliminary conferences and congresses of the constitutive branches
Per party rules, a constitutive branch of the LCY had the right to convene an extraordinary congress. The League of Communists of Vojvodina did this at their 19th Provincial Conference, held on 19–21 January 1989. Not surprisingly, the SKV called for a unified LCY based on democratic centralism and the maintenance of the communist system. To prepare for the congress, the remaining LCY constitutive branches also convened their highest forums to elect delegates to the 14th Congress and members to the LCY Central Committee, LCY Supervisory Commission and LCY Commission on Statutory Questions as well as discussing policies to be taken up at the upcoming congress. On the day the SKV's provincial conference ended, the League of Communists of Kosovo convened its 15th Provincial Conference, and called for upholding democratic centralism, opposition to confederalism and removing any threats to the LCY and the federal state. The 10th Extraordinary Congress of the League of Communists of Montenegro, held on 26–28 April 1989, supported the policies of the SKS. It supported pluralism within the permits established by the communist state system.These pro-SKS congresses and conferences were followed by the 9th Conference of the League of Communists in the Yugoslav People's Army, held on 23–24 November 1989, which advocated for a unified LCY and Yugoslavia based on socialist principles. It voted to uphold democratic centralism and the LCY as a uniform organisation and opposed those calling for the de-ideologisation and de-politicisation of the Yugoslav People's Army, arguing that it was the army of socialism. One day later, the League of Communists of Macedonia convened its 10th Congress, held on 25–27 November 1989, and called for upholding a federal Yugoslavia. The SKM retained a neutral stance on the issue of a multi-party system. The League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at their 10th Congress convened on 7–9 December 1989, tried like the SKM to take a centrist position, but reaffirmed democratic centralism, opposed the confederalisation of the LCY and the de-politicisation of the JNA. However, the SKBiH did not make clear its opposition to a multi-party system, instead leaving that issue to the 14th Congress.
The 11th Congress of the League of Communists of Croatia, held from 11 to 13 December 1989, was evenly divided between reformists and traditional communists. It also tried to formulate a compromise that would work for both the ZKS and the SKS. It voted to approve the Presidency of the SKH Central Committee's proposal for instituting liberal democratic elections in Croatia. It opposed the SKS call for instituting a voting system based on one member, one vote. It also supported replacing democratic centralism with democratic unity, a new concept that was loosely defined. However, despite these decisions, traditional communists managed to stop any amendments to the SKH's statute, and the 11th Congress ended up reaffirming democratic centralism, the exclusion of religious members into the party and maintained atheism. In contrast, the 11th Congress of the SKS, held on 15–17 December 1989, while supporting political reforms within the traditional boundaries of the communist system, opposed any liberal democratic reforms. It reaffirmed its commitment to a federal Yugoslavia, stating, "no republic can have the right to be in the federation to the extent that it suits it". It called for upholding democratic centralism and instituting a voting system based on one member, one vote.
The ZKS held its 11th Congress on 22–23 December 1989. It adopted a platform entitled "Democratic Reform Today" that called for reforms that guaranteed human rights throughout Yugoslavia, liberal democratic multi-party elections, the establishment of a "Yugoslav Democratic Forum" in which all political parties could participate, the abolishment of the LCY's monopoly on state power, the elimination of social property, the establishment of liberal democratic parliaments with two internal chambers, local self-government for republics and autonomous provinces, the restoration of constitutional order in SAP Kosovo, the abolition of the criminal offence of counter-revolutionary crimes in the Yugoslav Criminal Code, and transforming the LCY's political program of communism and renouncing the organisational principle of democratic centralism and the system of one member, one vote.
Despite the policy differences of the LCY constitutive branches, opinion polls conducted amongst the LCY membership saw a clear dividing line that was not necessarily apparent from congress and conference resolutions. For example, 70,1 per cent of LCY members supported retaining democratic centralism, but 73 per cent of SKZ members opposed it. In the other branches, the numbers were as follows: 81 per cent in favour amongst SKS members, 78 per cent in the SKCG, 77 per cent in the SKV, 76 per cent in the SKBiH, 68 per cent in the SKM, 66 per cent in the SKK and 64 per cent in the SKH. Despite this, 45 per cent of SKH members supported ZKS' proposals of political and economic reforms and, in contrast, only 4-6 per cent supported the proposals emanating from the SKS, despite 25 per cent of SKH members being of Serbian ethnicity. A system based on one member, one vote was supported by members in the SKS, SKCG, SKV, SKM and SKBiH. In the SKH and SKK, a small majority opted for consensual decision-making. As such, it was becoming increasingly apparent that the LCY was not only splitting up along republican and provincial lines, but from within in some of the constitute branches of the LCY.