Last respects to Tonči Kuzmanić (1956-2021)

From your somewhat distant position in Ljubljana, you saw more. Now that you're gone, we
wonder if some insights might not be possible at all when you’re so close to a problem that
you’re slowly becoming a part of it? You left your island for Ljubljana, connecting our worlds
across new borders, continuing to explain what is happening in our ravaged societies.
Too soon we were left without your analyzes and relentless critiques of extremism and
fascism, written in the Library of Revolutionary Theory and the Journal for the Critique of
Science. But even more than books, you left your mark with your lectures at The Workers
and Punks University, the Faculty of Social Sciences, the University of Primorska in Koper and
the Peace Academy in Sarajevo.

It seemed to us that you had inexhaustible energy while, as one of the founders of the Peace
Institute, you followed a simple maxim: "if you want peace, prepare for peace". From the
moment you started the institute in June 1991, just ten days before the first of the wars that
lasted until 2001 and the conflict in Macedonia, we often thought together about anti-war
movements.

Peacekeepers remember you as one of the pioneers of the initiative for the demilitarization
of Vis, and the neighbors from your Komiža will remember you for the stories you wrote and
entertained friends during summer gatherings. You have indebted us through media
research and debates in which we are now left without your unique view. The generations
you have supported and empowered to criticize everything that exists are grateful to you.

Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past