The following interview with Sveta, a Belarusian anarchist activist who
participated in the organization of women's marches in 2020, is an attempt todraw attention again to various aspects of the protest movement and to remind inthis difficult time that women played an extremely important role in the uprisingagainst the Lukashenko regime. The interview was published on the occasion ofInternational Women's Day on the website of the anarchist group Pramen. ---- Canyou tell us something about yourself? What were you doing before August 2020? Howdid you get involved in the anarchist movement and why did you choose theanarchist one out of all the political camps?It's very simple, my teenage subcultures brought me to anarchism. In high school,my friends and I met local punks, there were a lot of anarchists andanti-fascists in their community. And so it went on. First, I studied the historyof the skinhead movement, all those values about respecting the people aroundyou, not judging people by the color of their skin and the color of their waist,helping those who are weaker than you. In 2010, I went to Minsk to study and waslooking for a similar group. I had the feeling that in Minsk it was not like inmy city, where everyone was part of one group. In Minsk, everyone was in theirown community: anarchists, punks, hardcore, antifa - and then, when needed, atconcerts or rallies, they all met and united into one whole. So it happened thatI immediately joined the anarchists, which I liked. They were all idealists, theybelieved in a better world and did many things, not just talked about them. So,until 2020, I studied, worked, was active in feminism and anarchism, I managed todo some time at work, and in the summer of 2020 I decided that I needed a breakfrom the hustle and bustle.So in the summer of 2020 you decided you needed a break from activism, and thewomen's march resulted? Did you participate in protests before the women's march?Yes, I decided not to go anywhere, because I have already experienced it: a fewpeople come out, they close us all for 24 hours, and in five days everyoneforgets about it, except for human rights defenders. I didn't go anywhere on theninth of August, but from the tenth of August I was actively involved ineverything I could.I don't know if I believed that we would succeed in overthrowing the dictatorthis time. I wanted to get involved in helping and protesting, I knew I wouldnever forgive myself if I didn't get involved. Actually, I didn't even thinkabout not joining when things started to take on such proportions. It wasn't thatI didn't want to go out, because I knew we were going to jail for twenty-fourhours, which I had experienced before and it scared me. It's just that at thatstage of my life I somehow had no moral strength at all, you could say that Iburned out.What was your reaction to the state violence in the first days of the protests?How did the idea to organize the women's march come about and how was the formatof the event born?All I remember from the reactions was anger and pain, that no one deserves to betreated like this.First, a group of not only female activists (they were not anarchist activists)decided to film "Komarovka" as a response to the violence, through a Telegramchat. Because the state patriarchy of the time could not beat women so openly.Okrestina was definitely hell for any gender. But "he" wouldn't allow himself topublicly beat women with flowers in white dresses like that. The female"Komarovka" sparked a wave of women's actions across the country. To be sure, theTelegram chat about "Mosquito" was deleted the day after the event, or maybe evenearlier. But then there was a wave of chats about women's events. There were afew big ones, three or four, and a lot of local, small ones, up to 100 women. Atthe time it just seemed like a good anarcho approach, everything was very horizontal.Then, on August 13, I decided to create a telegram channel GIRLS POWER BELARUS,parallel to the chats I was conducting. Because my anarcho experience told methat we should do it all a little safer, despite the feeling of "we'll win in amoment" and "what are we doing that makes it so dangerous?".So I helped promote some local women's chat events and ran a channel thatfeatured news of women's protests. I always really wanted to create somethinglike this, because I already had experience with channels on Telegram and I likedthis platform for such projects.At some point, after a few days, I thought I had to find the women who made theKomarovka chat and the whole organization. I wrote on the channel that I waslooking for them. We got together and they told me they had an idea for marches.I suggested to them that it would be nice if we made an announcement on thechannel and that I could help them with PR.And so the marches began. As I recall, they were an alternative to thetraditional Sunday marches. After Komarovka, I wanted to show that women's voicesdo not go silent. For me, Komarovka meant that we marched for those who suffereda lot in Okrestina, mostly men. I heard that many married their husbands,brothers, friends, partners. And there were also women who marched on their own.The first march was historic, very different women came out: feminists,activists, non-feminists and non-activists, and all of them were united by theidea of showing themselves, their voice, their message. It was great, womensupporting women regardless of their views.We had a very horizontal organization within the marches: we consulted, wecriticized openly and honestly, we implemented ideas, we all had our roles and atthe same time other women took on these roles if help was needed. I remember thistime fondly, even though we were not very close with all the members of theorganizing team.We had no leadership. It is a nightmare for the regime when there is no leadership...Self-organization played an extremely important role throughout the protestmovement. How decentralization was approached within the movement. Already inAugust 2020, many people were looking for a new "leader" of the protest. Was thesame thing happening within the group organizing women's marches?No, nothing like that happened at all: women did not look for a leader or aleader when organizing themselves. I don't even remember it in chats that I hadnothing to do with as an organizer. It happened that someone said, for example,that she liked such and such a person as a politician. But it had absolutely noeffect on the organization and communication in the group.Values prevailed: the voice of women, the fight against violence, proportionality.The mood changed a lot during the protests. From "we won" to "we have to be moreradical". Some tried to chalk up the setbacks to peaceful women's protests,saying they set an example of what would later become Sunday's marches. Has thisbeen discussed in your group? How did people perceive criticism and how did theydeal with it?The talk that peaceful women's marches prevented the radical liberation ofBelarus came much later than the marches, I think in 2022. At that time, we wereno longer organizing anything, and no such criticism appeared at the time of themarches.Personally, I think that if it weren't for Komarovka, maybe there wouldn't be anymarches and other events at all: neither radical nor moderate. And then,chronologically, there were the Sunday marches and only then the Saturday women'smarches. I am also pained that the dictatorship was not overthrown in 2020, I ampained by life in exile, many cases of torture and political prisoners. Butthat's no reason to blame someone for protesting badly. Doing analysis anddrawing conclusions that could help for the future, yes.But in general I am used to the woman always being to blame: both because shetook part in the marches, and in the opposite case, because she did not take partin them; it is guilty for existing.At first, repression against women's marches was relatively minor. Over time, itturned into mass detention. What was the reaction to the repression within theorganizing group and the wider women's community?We knew this would happen. We just didn't know how soon. In one of the marches,the women broke the chains of the police officers and went wherever they wanted,without listening to their instructions, and no one touched them. From one of themarches, we obtained a series of photographs of women walking very nicely andsmiling to the antons. It was certainly inspiring.To be honest, I don't remember the reaction to the repression at all. Sadness,melancholy, anger - some such mixture of feelings. Maybe I don't remember becauseI managed to leave the country the moment they came for me, and that wassomething I never expected in my naivety. Political emigration from the countryto avoid prison was the last thing on my mind and one of the first things Iencountered. Marfa Rabková was imprisoned.I left and fell into severe melancholy, dropped out of all chat rooms for awhile, came to see my friends in another country and lay on their couch for aweek with tears streaming down my face. It wasn't crying. And I read the news howevery day more and more are taken away as criminals for 24 hours. I remember thatendless pain, even now when I say it, tears come to my eyes. I went throughpersonal hell and simply forgot what was being said around.Did any organizational structures survive after that time? And how do youevaluate the work of the women's movement as a whole during this period? Whatworked and what didn't?There are no organizational structures left as they existed.They are not even needed. On the other hand, the GPB Telegram channel has becomea media project that has been running since August 13 until today. He led severalcampaigns to help women and produced many reports and statements with feministcriticism.I think we worked together very well during this period and did a lot of work ina short period of time.What would I change? I would probably do things on an even bigger scale. But Ispeak from the perspective of the experience I have now.About the good and also the bad: we didn't have and don't have a public face, aspokeswoman who could comment more and show the political and feminist or justwomen's interest and meaningfulness of the events. So everyone interpreted themeaning as they wanted.How do you assess the role of women during protests in general? What would yousay to those who keep trying to attack women's marches because they're supposedlytoo peaceful and stuff?Women's protests in Belarus have definitely gone down in history. In my opinion,the women's protests were able to prolong the protests in the streets. As I said,women couldn't be beaten or arrested so publicly at first, and while it was beingdecided what to do with the women's marches and how to suppress them, women tookto the streets. Women had the right to express themselves as they wished, whetherpeacefully or aggressively. They did it in different ways, no one dictated therules of the game to them. I remembered a quote from one of my colleagues:"Organizing women's marches is the solidarity of Belarusian women, it isresistance from below, which is not directed and controlled either by some womenor by the Belarusian authorities."The women's marches have been able to unite women, diverse women, all those whounderstand that patriarchy is not an abstract concept, but a reality that weexperience. Women made up a large part of the mass rallies and protests, andtheir voices and thoughts were heard by all, all had to be heard.The women's marches showed me personally that we have a lot of women who sharefeminist values but don't call themselves feminists yet, and that's also animportant start for change.The last question will not be easy. Why do you think the regime failed to beoverthrown in 2020?I keep sorting through different answers in my head and can't settle on onespecific thing. Maybe because the whole country rebelled for the first time andlacked experience. Perhaps because many people who were against the regime didnot take to the streets. Maybe because we have a lot of fucking cops in thecountry. Either way, it's not over yet.Source:https://pramen.io/ru/2023/03/intervyu-s-belaruskoj-anarhistkoj-uchastvovavshej-v-organizatsii-zhenskih-marshej/In December 2020, the Anarchist Federation Publishing House published thepaperback State o revoluci (Czech about events in Belarus) , which is composed ofthe texts of our friend Max Šcur. The lyrics were created in June to September2020 in immediate response to developments in Belarus and are marked by theemotional impact of the events there. Highly recommended. Can be ordered atRolleta39 .https://www.afed.cz/text/7899/vzpominka-na-pochody-zen_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten