On 21 November 2012, the first uprising took place in Maribor, and it shocked the Slovenian public because of the sudden explosion of anger in a city otherwise called ‘the city of ghosts’. This name reflects the city’s high unemployment rate, poverty, and abandoned public places. However, the motive for the uprising were actually the radar traps that Mayor Kangler set up in the streets and because of which he was finally ousted from his post. His ousting was followed by a debate about the future of Maribor between various civil initiatives that arose during the demonstrations. The article tries to describe the events in Maribor before and during the riots, as well as the activities held by civil initiatives. It then interweaves this description with the reflection on the theories of the Zapatistas and piqueteros as two ‘scholarly cases’ of the new social movements. In addition, the article looks at the similarities and especially at the differences between the Zapatistas and piqueteros and the movement in Maribor as it seeks to find out whether ‘the risen Maribor’ surpassed the division between the movements from periphery and from the center, which is introduced in the text. It turns out that—despite the changes that global economic crisis brought to the world order—our passive bodies from the neoliberal center are still unable to create social realities that would allow us to live beyond the neoliberal practices.
