Presentation and discussion
“Unforgotten homelands” mean oblivion of irredentism, expansionist campaigns and their massacres, rape and patriarchal violence, ethnic cleansing and displacements, repression and racism against refugees/migrants, impoverishment and mutual slaughter of those “below” for the interests of states and capitalism.
100 years have passed since the end of a decade of war (1912-1922) that shaped today’s nationalistic perception of the Balkans. Until that period, new born nationalisms of the 19th century were developing in order to dominate in the Balkan region (and moreover to the north and the east) along with the ongoing deterioration of the ottoman empire.
The period including the Balkan Wars (1912-13), the 1st World War (1914-1918) and the greek-turkish war (1919-1922) marked a war decade where patriotisms, militarisms, state power, capitalistic interests, religious hatred and patriarchy materialized the modern notion of the nation-state Balkan area. While at the end of that period (1923), the state-forced displacement of millions of people marked in an official way the brutal process of balkan nationalization.
National narratives involve an imaginary construction in pursuit of an imaginary unity. But national unity cannot not stand outside of social/class/gender exclusions, going as far as ethnic slaughtering or cleansing. Having first indicated the stranger, the adversary, the enemy. Sovereignty steps on people’s memories to manipulate them, using them as tools to (re)produce nationalisms. Today’s balkan nationalistic identities have a common ground in order to prevail on social consciousness: oblivion.
We have every reason in the world to deconstruct the dominant narratives, putting forward an anarchist perspective on the events of a period full of mutual slaughter, violent displacement, repression, rape of those “below” for the interests and perpetuation of state-capital-patriarchy. We would like to have an antinational discussion, meeting various points of views from those opposed to balkan (and any other) patriotisms and nationalisms. We restore the past, with our eyes constantly on the present, with references and similarities to the current agenda of state power, nationalisms, wars, anti-migration policies, patriarchal oppression.
Seeking common struggles and solidarity against states, borders, capitalism and social divisions.
We are not fighting wars for any god or state!
Against war and peace of the rulers!
Against patriarchal, patriotic narratives!
Revolt everything and everywhere!
Presentation by:
- Parodos, anarchist self-organized space (Nikea, Piraeus)
- Karakaidones, anarcha-feminist group (Nikea, Piraeus)
- Initiative for total army objection (Athens)
BAB 2023 – Program: https://bab2023.espivblogs.net/program/
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source: https://bab2023.espivblogs.net/program/anti-authoritarian-perspectives-on-balkan-nationalisms/