More than 20 years ago, on 29 April 2004, on the eve of Poland's entry into the European Union, Warsaw hosted its most celebrated alterglobalist protest – Anti-Chief 2004. Against the European economical Forum, neoliberal politicians and business representatives, movements and organisations for alternatives to capitalism and independent media have gathered. Indymedia – due to the fact that it was then called independent media, which allowed all eager individual to post information on the net – was created during alterglobalist protests in Seattle in 1999, erstwhile activists, tired and discouraged by biased reports of corporate media from anti-capitalist protests, decided to take care of their own image and open the anticipation of publishing for everyone. Polish Indymedia was created in 2003, in which I participated and which marked my reasoning about politics and media, strengthening egalitarian, bottom-up commitment.
On 1 May 2004, Poland entered the European Union. If present criticism of neoliberalism in fact, it coincides with pro-EU thinking, 20 years ago they were highly opposition positions, hence the majority of those who participated in the protests against the European economical Forum did not celebrate the enlargement of the EU, and those celebrating the extension of the alliance did not want to hear about the protests of alter globalists.
With any exceptions. For example, “Your Style” journalists have made large efforts to present to their readers the figures of women organizing the European economical Forum and those protesting against neoliberalism. That's how my mom and a number of her friends became alterglobalists. I'm certain it was the best material on these protests in commercial media.
On May 1, the labour Day was traditionally celebrated – the anniversary of labour protests in Haymarket Square, Chicago in 1886. These protests afraid the abolition of a 12-hour working day and the introduction of an eight-hour 1 that officially abolished the Polish parliament in 2013. Today, working time extends to the full of our lives, due to the fact that even if we are not engaged in professional activities, we produce content on social media, buy or plan shopping, participate in fitnes, recreational activities or regeneration activities, each of which has been carefully capitalized by global corporations.
Since 2004, in Poland we have been mentioning the entry of our country into the European Union, the club of the richest countries of the world, and originally the postwar alliance of trade in steel and coal, which has evolved to the rank of guardian of democracy and present is seen primarily as a defender of human rights. During the years of protracted duckism, this was how the EU was seen, despite its deadly anti-immigration policy in the Mediterranean and then besides on the Polish-Belarusian border. Unfortunately, this must be said openly – the tragedy of refugees in the Białowieża Forest is not simply the work of the erstwhile government, it is willingly continued by the current government, with the warm support of the EU.
Such open criticism of neoliberal governments and institutions no longer passes through the throat of even people with extremist social movements, including those who support refugees in their search for a better life. This is, of course, a question of strategy that I am not going to torpedo now – I realize very well that erstwhile we save lives we push another issues aside, and I am absolutely not curious in blocking this noble action. I am curious in what has happened to the key feature of the public debate. Freedom of speech – and where its most dangerous restrictions lie today.
Until recently, they were calmly located where we wanted to call modern conservative fundamentalism fascism, but (male generally) specialists in this area urged us to rember and calm down and separate modern and conventional forms of extremist right. present no 1 hesitates to call the governments of Orban, Putin, Trump, Bolsanaro or Kaczyński fascism, but we are all afraid to admit that the European Union, parties or liberal governments or democracies Westerns break human rights, all day and systematically.
Alterglobalists did not hold back the abuse of global capital and neoliberal transnational institutions. They besides put strong demands on social control over these bandit moments of agendas. present we don't even dare to remind this young man of the end, due to the fact that only a 20-year-old part of history. In a text on the politics of Adrienne's location, Rich wrote that "the calming layer of snow covered the extremist past of the United States." Let's not hesitate to clear the snow so that our freedom does not chain the ice.
Mere bibliography of alterglobalism:
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruch_alterglobalistic
Sigmund Bauman, Globalisation, Warsaw, PIW, 2000.
Elisabeth Dunn, Privatizing Poland: about bobofruts, large business and occupation restructuring, Warsaw, Political Criticism, 2008.
David Harvey, Neoliberalism. Disaster History, Warsaw, KiP, 2005.
Martin Kaltwasser, Ewa Majewska, Jakub Szreder(red), Futurism of industrial cities Kraków, Ha!Art Corporation, 2007.
Naomi Klein, Shock Doctrine. JModern capitalism uses natural disasters and social crises, Warsaw, Muse, 2009.
Tadeusz Kowalik, Poland Transformation, Warsaw, Muse, 2009.
Ewa Majewska, Jan Sowa (red), Enslaved head II. Neoliberalism and its critics Kraków, Ha!Art Corporation, 2007.
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Ms Ewa Majewska – feminist cultural theorist, prof. of SWPS University and manager of the task “Public Against Will. Production of the entity in the Hiacint stock archives.’ She taught at the UDK in Berlin, University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University; she conducted projects at the University of California in Berkeley, IWM in Vienna and ICI Berlin. She is the author of 7 books, including: Feminist Antifascism (Verso, 2021), Folk and Feminist Contrapublicities (2018), A tram called designation (2017), Art as a appearance? (2013), and Feminism as a social doctrine (2009), as well as a number of articles and essays published in magazines and collective volumes, including: "e-flux", "Signs", "Third Text" and "Journal of Utopian Studies". In 2023, she received the Emmy Goldman Award for equality-oriented research.
