The peoples of the Balkans have a long tradition of communal life in
villages and in towns. People with different languages, religions or
cultures have been able to live together peacefully in communities for
thousands of years. These communities of a middle size (a few hundred
persons) have been using communal land and sharing its produce on an
egalitarian basis. There were no national or other borders, travelling
was easy and hospitality generous. The inner organisation of these
communities used to be non-hierarchical, non-patriarchal,
non-monotheistic, with no private ownership of land or other resources.
This latent Danubian civilisation has been a permanent provocation to
feudal patriarchs, nation-builders, capitalists, political cliques and
mafias of all kinds. Only this threat can explain the outburst of
violence in recent times.
a map of this area from: Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade, 248
Between ca. 7000 and 3500 B.C. a multiethnic civilisation developed in an
area between the Dnieper, Crete, Sicily and the Alps. Agriculture as well
as crafts like pottery guaranteed a rich way of life. Excavations at
Vinca (near Belgrade), Butmir, Petresti, Cucuteni or Knossos revealed
large urban settlements without fortifications - proofs of a peaceful
civilisation.
It is exactly because of the relative liveliness of these communal
traditions, that the Balkans are now the last battle-field of Europe.
These traditions must be smashed and replaced by the laws of private
ownership, the establishment of the ever-egoistic homo economicus of
global capitalism. The Balkans are an area of backwardness from the
perspective of neoliberal system that permeates all sectors of life. This
is happening at the time in history, when the so-called western
civilisation is in a deep crisis. While the disappointed youths in the
banlieues and suburbs of the western metropolis, the peasants in Mexico,
Brazil and India, the workers in maquilas and underground factories are
rebelling against an unbearable system, the attention should be diverted
to teaching the barbarians on the Balkans a lesson in western democracy
and modern economy.
Whereas in the West more and more people are looking for new forms of
self-sufficiency, communal organisation in cities, new ways of life
beyond capitalism, a certain type of "modernism" is still presented as a
perspective to the peoples of the Balkans. Ethnic origins, religions,
historic incidents, are used to divide and to weaken the people to make
them ready to accept the capitalist gospel.
But the real alternative lies elsewhere, not just on the Balkans but
everywhere on the planet.
Neither the Roman nor the Byzantine nor the Turkish empires were
expressions of the original matriarchal cultures of the Balkans. The
battles among patriarchal systems were never battles in the interest of
the majority of the people, particularly the women who had to bear the
consequences. Ethnic pseudo-identities were created to divert from the
real questions of life: food, children, fun. Monotheistic religions of
all kinds were adopted to justify the oppression of women, of free
thought, of cultural diversity. The state-capitalist metamorphosis of
this patriarchal domination, sometimes called socialism or communism, was never able to decieve all those who still knew about the real
alternatives. Global capitalism is offering no solutions, but just more
divisions, more sufferings.
The history of the Balkans is in no way different from that of all other
peoples on the planet. The Balkans have just been chosen to test the new
world order, to force people to choose between equally evil alternatives.
Compared to Milosevic, the EU might seem the lesser evil, but it also
means acceptance of capitalist exploitation, of deteriorating levels of
working conditions, of complete domination of everyday life by the global
companies. Europe means misery for most people, even at nominally higher monetary income levels. The euro and the dollar cannot save us. Some people on the Balkans might entertain the illusion that it could be
possible to defend some access to the land, to one's own house, to
certain cultural standards while joining the global economy. But the old
ways are finished. The Balkan wars are patriarchy's last stand. The
patriarchs cannot defend the land, the real cultural wealth, a fulfilling
way of life. A new force can only arise within a more radical global
movement that attacks the very foundations of capitalism: patriarchal
statehood, private ownership, cultural hegemonism.
We all are proud to be Serbs, Mayans, Yankees, Dutch, Basks, French,
Swiss, Croats, Greeks, Albanians, Sioux, Mongols, Bulgarians or
Portuguese. We are dadaists, ravers, cigar-aficionados, vegetarians,
gourmets, Corbusier-freaks, nudists, Mozart-fans, dmurps (downward mobile urban proletarians), neo-hippies, fashion-victims. But above all we are children of mothers and we will not allow that our ethnic or other
identities are used to turn us into enemies. We can have fun together, or
at least have fun watching each other having fun.
Let's build new autonomous communities in the cities and in the country!
Let's pool our land and our resources to create largely self-sufficient
villages and neighborhoods!
Let's abolish the old sexual division of work: men and women shall
equally share the work in agriculture and child care!
Let's replace the oppressive patriarchal family by open and intentional
communities where the young can create their own lives!
Let's establish self-government of these communities on the basis of
equal rights for men and women, for the old and the young!
Let's exchange food for services and industrial goods on our own terms
between the cities and the surrounding agricultural areas!
Let's organise necessary industrial production, medical services, means
of transports through the cooperation and under the control of alliances
of basic communities!
Let's create networks of cooperation and fair exchange between
communities all over the Balkans, all over Europe and the planet!
P.M.
Midnight Notes collective: midnotes@aol.com
web person: chris@midnightnotes.org
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