Foto: “Dictatorship and OMON are pain and sorrow for Belarus”
Today people were calling for the biggest demonstration in history of Belarus. And you can say that this was working quite well. In Minsk 200.000 people went on the streets. In a lot of other cities people were protesting as well in huge numbers and even small villages joined the protests. People were demonstrating till the night. In Brest people were calling OMON officers murderer and were shouting anti KGB slogans. People went to the prison and demand the release of the prisoner. And somehow some prisoner were released this evening. In Minsk people also passed the KGB building and demanded release of prisoners. Anarchists were joining the protest, spreading leaflets about tactics and present five demands.
Our 5 requirements:
– Resignation of Lukashenka, parliament and all ministers
– Release and amnesty for all political prisoners
– Dissolution of riot police and all security forces responsible for violence on the streets of the country
– Direct democracy – The people should be included as much as possible in making important decisions
– Reinstatement of all those dismissed from work for participating in protests
Lukashenko called today as well for a demonstration. For that reason convoys with buses from different cities drove in the morning to Minsk. Apart from loyal people participating, workers from state enterprises were pressured to join, otherwise they would loose their job. Some of the buses seem half empty people reported. Lukashenko himself appeared sharp 2pm at the rally and gave a speech. Most important fact of the speech was that he is not leaving before he is dead.
While in Brest and Baranovitsh some people were released in Minsk people got detained again today. Several incidents were reported where people got arrested. Some brought in cars others in buses and it was not clear it was not clear where they were being taken.
For tomorrow people called to continue the general strike till all demands of the people are fulfilled, like Lukashenko should resign, people should be released from prisons and the murderer and perpetrators are to be held accountable for their actions.
The old #anarchist slogan “The power is made from black rubber” at the demonstration in #Minsk right now #Belarus. FOTO
I put what’s below up on my site for the entry of 9/8/20 ( https://dialectical-delinquents.com/contestavirus/august-2020/ ). Although it’s dated for 9th August I’ve only just put it up. It’s below the picture of people holding up 5 demands on large posters. I’d be interested in what you think about it.
This, from anarchists in Belarus, is indicative of a traditional leftist “realistic” populism – ie saying things you don’t necessarily agree with, suppressing your revolutionary desires, in order to appear “realistic” and “entice” people to yourself or your group ; though also involving an attempt to go beyond the standard separation between immediate demands and long-term goals, it doesn’t really overcome this separation:
“Our 5 requirements:
– Resignation of Lukashenko, parliament and all ministers
– Release and amnesty for all political prisoners
– Dissolution of riot police and all security forces responsible for violence on the streets of the country
– Direct democracy – The people should be included as much as possible in making important decisions
– Reinstatement of all those dismissed from work for participating in protests” (see below)
Of course, this seems pedantic, given that a more developed critique wouldn’t fit on such posters, but let’s look at these demands.
1.“Resignation of parliament” etc. This is vaguely realistic, and is what the bourgeois opposition is demanding – not, of course, as something permanent, but in order to have an election that is “free”. Not something anarchists should be getting involved in. A better demand would be “The suicide of Lukashenko, parliament and all ministers” – not of course, realistic, but indicative of a subversive spirit, and not one that the respectable pseudo-opposition would approve of.
2. “Release and amnesty for all political prisoners“. Why just the ones defined as political ? In a sense, all prisoners are political prisoners , and certainly those imprisoned for contravening the rich and powerful’s property laws. Why no banner demanding the destruction of all prisons?
3.“Dissolution of riot police and all security forces responsible for violence on the streets of the country”. A better banner would be “Dissolution of the police, as they are innately responsible for the defending the violence of capitalist expropriation of the poor”, though its length means it would either have had to have been on an advertising billboard-size poster or have only been read by those with a magnifying glass or telescope handy.
4. “Direct democracy – The people should be included as much as possible in making important decisions”. So many dubious things enshrined in this nice-sounding demand. Who are “The people” ? Does this include ruling class people? Cops? What does “should be included as much as possible” mean ? Who defines what is “as much as possible”? What are “important decisons” ? The whole of the commodity economy – which has been imposed by the bourgeoisie bit by bloody bit throughout the world over the last 200 years or more – was and continues to be the most important decison that the vast majority never were included in making but which has so colonised our lives that for people to directly and democratically oppose it would not involve any formal direct democracy outside of the areas where the forces of commodification have been forced to retreat. And even then there’s no attempt to consider what the form and content of the “direct democracy” being proposed here would be. “Democracy”, direct or indirect, is a loaded and highly questionable term and can lead to individuals submitting to the majority even if the majority believe the world is flat or whatever.
5. “Reinstatement of all those dismissed from work for participating in protests”. About the only one that is both realistic (should Lukashenko feel forced to leave after holding “genuine” bourgeois elections) and necessary, given that work means survival or at least a better level of survival than no work. Without Lukashenko being forced out, the practical question of struggling to realise such a demand would have to involve a considerable movement of solidarity, and almost certainly work-place occupations. A movement capable of realising such a U-turn by the state would be capable of going a lot further and so beginning to put the whole notion of the state and capital into question.