Bulgaria: Report on today's protest in solidarity with Kouneva by "Anarcho-resistance"

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 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 campaigh: we are planning on doing discussions and film screenings on the issue.

In solidarity,
anarcho-resistance, Sofia

Pictures:
http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/34845

Short video from a news agency:
http://www.ekipnews.com/?v=8034