Protestors in Strivica, 1982
The 1980 Julianan Protests were the important protests against the communist regimen of Juliana. There were protests, strikes from 1980 until 1982 and then it was decided to have free elections after two years.
History of the protests[]
Change '80 poster
In 1976 Anton Berčič died and the reformer politician Peter Kaspar was the new Prime Minister. He was going to do liberalizations of the regime, the media and other things but in the USSR there was concerns because of the Brezhnev Doctrine, even in tiny Juliana, which was about defeinding strict communism. There was an 1976 Invasion of Juliana by Soviet paratroops and they put a traditional communist prime minister.
In Juliana most of the people weren't happy and in 1980 there was a strike in San Pietro and soon the Change '80 movement was created. There were more strikes in 1980 and in 1981 and the Communist Party changed the prime minister to be Anton Moline, who was less radical. In December 1981 there were 600 people protesting in Strivica but the government sent the military and NPI to arrest and stop it. But only more people were encouraged and in April 1982 2,800 people were protesting in Strivica. In June there was the biggest protest, 6,000 people in Strivica and 4,100 people in Pisona. The government decided to negotiate with Change '80 and other protest leaders.
In July 1982, the Communist party agreed to have elections in October. They thought that they could win and still people supported them but it was much less. The Civic Right and Christian Democratic Party got 82% of the votes and in October 21, 1982 the Civic Right was the leader of the first free democratic government of Juliana.