Academician Mihajlo Marković passed away

On 7 February 2010, in Belgrade, Academician Mihajlo Marković, Professor of the University in Belgrade, Serbian scientist and an internationally renown philosopher, passed away in his 87th year. He has been closely cooperating with other philosophers of the independent leftist provenience from other former Yugoslav Republics. He was one of the founders of the dissident Korčula Summer School, and an editor of the “Praxis” Magazine.

He authored several textbooks of philosophy, books, and memoirs. He published several hundred articles and analyses in national and foreign magazines and publications.

In addition to his professorship and tenure of a Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University in Belgrade, he used to hold lectures at the universities in the USA, Germany, Belgium, Russia, France, and many other countries.

He used to work together with many eminent philosophers and scientists, including with Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudowski, and many more.

Mihajlo Marković was a persistent champion of the socialist thought and idea. He was a founder and among the first Deputy Presidents of the Socialist Party of Serbia. He was the author of the Program of the Socialist Party of Serbia.

He was a sharp critic of deformations in the government and political parties, and of conformism within the intellectual elite.

He was among the founders of an association of intellectuals called the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals (in 2000), Member of its Steering Board, and President of the Program Council of the Belgrade Forum.

He was the author of papers published in more than 30 books comprising groups of authors from the Belgrade Forum, such as “National and State Priorities”, “Intellectuals and the Social reality”, “The Left in Serbia and the World”, “The Constitution of Serbia”, “Kosovo and Metohija – What Next”, and many more.

Mihajlo Marković was among the first to join the National Liberation Anti-Fascist War of 1941-1945 and holder of several wartime and peace decorations and medals. He has been publicly opposing the attempts of rewriting the history of the Anti-Fascist struggle and the history of the World War II.

He advocated the concept of human rights that embrace social, economic, political and civil rights, including the right to free education and free medical treatment.

He held NATO, USA and the West responsible for encouraging Albanian separatism and KLA terrorism in Kosovo and Metohija. He maintained that attempts at revising the Dayton-Paris Peace Agreement are aimed to deprive Republica Srpska of its constitutional rights, if not, abolish it all together, as the onlu guarantor for survival of Serbs as nation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mihajlo Markovic was a signatory of the Initiative, supported by 200 intellectuals, on holding referendum on the issue of Serbia’s membership in NATO.