REVIVAL OR FUNERAL OF SOCIETY?

The re-appropriation processes could be one of the pivotal factors for self-managed transformation of the society.
It can also go in the completely wrong direction.

There are some notions being popularised through various spectrums of people, from sociologists to journalists, political-experts until anarchist activists saying that east European populations are extremely fed up with their governments and politics after what they achieved during the time of transition from one deadlock to another. I can only agree with this opinion and can give just another proof for that in form of results of recent referendums which took place in Spring'04 across EU-annexed populations. Well, some could say that the referendum was nothing but an exercise in direct democracy - I say, it could be the fact if there would be any true choice given. Instead of that we had the classical fait-accompli where the decision was made some years before and whatever people would vote for they vote against the logic and against themselves (YES was staying here for opening the doors for economic re-colonialisation of Eastern Europe; NO - for closing ourselves in the EU-domestic-prison surrounded by neo-liberal hunting politics of the rest). Anyway, in such an important moment of their lives, about 40-45% of eastern Europeans decided to do something what makes more sense to their lives as taking a part in the EU-accession-referendums and simply did not appear at the polls. In Hungary just 45% took part, Slovakia 52%, Czechia 53%, Poland 58%, Slovenia 60%, Lithuania 62%, Estonia 68% and Latvia 72%. Millions of people rightly realised that the referendum had nothing to do with their lives. This decreasing trust in existence of relation between voting and exercising the management over own lives, is in many cases even more visible during local governments elections.

And there is another opinion based, from one side on myths and historical facts, from the other side on simply observations of peoples' daily lives. This one, however not so widely represented as the first one (because not countable and not so visible), says that those societies have good traditions in overcoming the importunity of systems by introducing, maybe not necessarily dynamic and showy, but certainly handy and efficient forms of resistance. Simple measures made by simple people, measures which are ungovernable for the state and its allies.

Well, connecting these two notions with the third one which is the socio-economical situation in which people in the region have currently found themselves, one could actually take field-glasses in the hands, sit next to the window and look outside seeking uprising coming down the streets. And even if I personally consider all three notions as the true ones I would say: One could sit there for years and see nothing more than marching frustration. Maybe even not marching but loafing about.

Yes, there is huge disillusion among EE societies, at least within some of them, towards the world of politics but this is deeper and therefore rather more dangerous than positive, as some of us seem to take it into consideration. This reluctance to the politics has to be understood as a total-one: it concerns on the same scale governments and armies of politicians as the politics understand as the pursuit to protection of own rights, realisation of own desires, transformation of live-conditions, etc. The not-voting which we would like to see just as a clear rejection of mainstream politics and the system as a whole, is unfortunately as well a sign of complete stagnation which is easy to prove by showing how many of not-voting-people are joining (or creating) any alternatives to what they doubt. The same regards an aspect of overcoming the system. Some societies, let's take as an example people living in Poland, could amaze the universe with the knacks of how one can survive in the supposedly developed country having just the minimum of means. Using an amazing repertoire of widely spread unconventional solutions to individual and community problems is, although illegal, accepted by huge part of society. Unfortunately here appears again the same problem: all these acts which self-evidently hit against legitimacy of state and ruling economically-political dogmas are not propped with any critical social reflection. That is why in most cases all these re-appropriation processes, which I am drinking to, except of facilitation of people's daily existence are just a copy of through the capitalists powers (states and capital) promoted relations, here in its tragic version performed by people who are the most from them affected: reproduce of the misery accompanied by competition, corruption and attraction to consumption.

Yet, as it was said at the beginning, both of these notions (rejection of mainstream politics and reappropriation processes) could be a pivotal factors for self-transformation of the society. I believe that continuality and popularity of those behaviours should consequently lead to their normalisation which would be in fact already a significant aspect of transformation of the society. Now, I am very anxious if this transformation goes than in the direction we all would wish it to go. Normalisation of minor-corruption, trashy-consumption, and competition from below, normalisation of apathy, misery, hopelessness and “catching the shadows” is nothing but stabilising the status quo, or if you prefer, funeral of society. In other words, completely in the wrong direction.

In fact, these definitely existing but by many social movements (well, regarding to EE reality more adequate would be the term networks of socially active individuals) until now underestimated behaviours, make potential for radical changes. Possibility that the general challenge in understanding of their deeper importance can happen without any active theoretical-practical support of anarchist-libertarian thinking members of those societies, I see at the moment as hardly realistic. Not only because I am waiting in vain for this self-achieved-enlightenment for many years already but as well because there are some counter-factors which influenced peoples' behaviours, such as capitalist and statist most danger weapon of mass-destruction, which are media. They will never give up with feeding people with great confusion - competition - consumption values-triptych, so that they never realise how strongly they are actually threatening the stability of that system: at least much more than they think. So that they never take it into consideration that the straight consequence of their very natural reactions like "There is no sense to vote", "I don't trust anymore what politicians say", "I reject the mediation of a state and capitalists while using popular resources", "Fuck the taxes - what do I have from it?!", "I do it better my way" etc., is to start consciously changing the reality ….

So regarding to the anarchist-libertarian activities in EE, all attempts of approaching "not politically" or maybe rather "not reflectionary" acts and processes of re-appropriation within societies and taking this issue on the daily agenda seem to me being even more relevant than in western Europe. However crap it can sound, there seems to be an urgent need to help people to find a better sense of their knacky crimes not only in order to speed eradication of whole system but even just that they could find more satisfaction in what they do e.g. by discovering the magic power of the collective re-appropriation. The role of anarchists in such situations was pretty well described by one of the Balkan anarchists of young generation, with words: "A role of the activist intellectual could become teasing out the tacit logic underlying forms of radical practice, and than not only offering the analysis back to the movement, but using it, with others, to formulate new and very accessible visions".

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Veronika
October 2004