It is somehow odd, when you have once been to countries where people do what they can to avoid dirt, to note that for Swedes, partying is very closely related to dirt. The dirtier the better. It is interesting how a Bulgarian who likes cleanliness is perfectly able to keep a place in order, even if he or she is drunk, whereas a Swede loses this ability after the first beer. Once the party is on, normal values do not apply.
Hold on, you say - not only Swedes live in Sweden. It is a little premature, almost racist to blame this mess on the mentality of the Swedes. True enough - almost a third of the inhabitants of this corner of Sweden would not call themselves Swedes, but if you go to celebrate 30th of April, that is not the impression you'll get. You will rather come to believe the myth that all Swedish peopel are tall and blonde, for the people who ravage in the streets are predominantly blond and tall. All well educated with good manners - le charme discret de la bourgeoisie.
It is the class/ethnic dimension is what makes it worth blogging about the fact that the lawn today, two days later is clean. Who do you think cleaned it? Tall, blonde Swedes? Not so. I saw a few women of Asian descent, who surely didn't take part in the celebrations, and have personally met the slighlty disabled guy who takes care of this specific lawn. He is Swedish, but lacks in education and manners. After all, who minds cleaning up after themselves if there is an under-paied sucker from a different social group who does it for you?
And what is wrong with that? After all, it takes all sorts of people to make the world, and isn't it a decent job also to clean streets and markets. Undoubltly so, but I think most Swedish people visiting Bulgaria reacts strongly on the fact that everyone cleaining the streets is a roma citizen, and Bulgaria has a pretty bad reputation about discrimination. It looks like one kind of poeople cleans up after another kind of people, and we feel that it is scandalous. It is.
But what is different in Sweden? Nothing but the language of the street cleaners. And the fact We not only litter the streets, but indulge in polluting them, perversly enjoying the fact that it is someone else's mess to clean up.
Sofia: 08.03.09 Protest in solidarity with Kouneva
This morning there was a small action in solidarity with Kouneva - the woman migrant syndicalist, who had been brutally attacked by her
bosses with sulfur acid, because of her syndicalist activism. About 50
people gathered in front of Sofia University around 11.00 am. We
stayed there for about an hour carrying banners and chanting slogans.
At 12:00 we marched to the greek embassy. We stayed in front of the
embassy for about one more hour, where everyone had the chance to
share their feelings and thoughs on an open mic. 50 people is not that
few for the bulgarian context. In this highly conservative, individualistic and patriarchical society, any progressive event like
that is actually very promising. The bulgarian neo-fascists published attack threats on internet against the protest, but in the end they did not attempt any open provocation.
The action was organized by the leftist student group
"Priziv"(Call-out for Education). www.priziv.org
The slogans and the signs on the banners included ones such as
(roughly translated):
"Solidarity with Kostadina"
"Solidarity with the working women in their struggle"
"Solidarity amongst the people is our weapon against authority"
"Down with patriarchy"
"No to violence against women"
"Every day is 8th of March"
"8th of March is not a holiday, but a day for struggle"
"Emancipation, not exploitation"
The particular focus of the demo was to express solidarity with
Kouneva, but, as it is clear from the slogans, the aim was also to
solidarize with the worker's movement in Greece and the rest of the world, as well as to make a statement against the oppression of women and migrants in the world. Another main aim of the action is to make a step towards the de-commodification of 8th of March. In Bulgaria during state socialism the day was de-politicized and converted to a celebration of the liberation of women, assuming that it had already happened somehow and
somewhere in the past. That is not to completely dismiss certain level
of progress that had been achieved, as women were allowed within the
public sphere and were given certain rights compared to the previous regime. Nevertheless this was no way near to any real emancipation, as patriarchal relations continued to be normative.
Since 1989 (the fall of state socialism) capitalist society has
completely commodified the 8th of March as the already depoliticized
empty symbol of women's emancipation did not pose any constraint whatsoever to capitalist appropriation of the day as a formal occasion for giving women presents for the sole reason of capital accumulation.
The loss of meaning of 8th of March is the natural result of the
"emancipation" being given by the elites and not fought for by grassroots society. Therefore, we cannot rely on the authority to give us rights because when that happen, those rights are not stable and prone to self-destruction.
This action was part of a whole campaign: discussions and film screenings on the issue are being planned as well.
Pictures:
http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/34845
Short video from a news agency:
http://www.ekipnews.com/?v=8034