Building a better future requires not only mourning tragedy, remembering the past, and condemning atrocities, but also celebrating and having fun. That we retain hope and joy is often more frightening to those who seek to oppress us as we retain the humanity that they seek to destroy. Just as there are times for sadness and anger, there is time for joy and celebration even in times of suffering.
To highlight this point, every single time in Polish history as organizers worked towards Polish liberation these movements were not limited to armed struggle, political organizing, political education, but also theater, sport, and celebration. Those who oppress the persecuted now just as then seek to destroy hope, seek to limit our imagination to horror, seek to destroy communities, and seek to breed an environment of cynicism.
Celebration not only reminds movements of their success that is so often forgotten as movements hyperfocus on the work of political activism, but it also allows for community building and rest. A limited view that includes only the issues that still need to be fixed, and the massive problems of the current system leads directly to hopelessness and cynicism. Movements can only survive at their darkest moments when all seems to be lost with fun and celebration.
There’s a trend in rhetoric in leftist spaces that seems to argue in times of great suffering, tragedy, and struggle that there is no space for fun or celebration. Of course, not all spaces, times, events, or protests can be fun, but to banish fun and celebration entirely during times of suffering and struggle is mistaken.
Fun isn’t inherently anti-capitalist, but it can be. However, more importantly, fun and celebration are a necessary component of both movement-building and personal activism.
The newly formed coalition includes: Budoucnost (Alliance for the Future, Czech Republic), Demos (Democracy and Solidarity Party, Romania), KARTU (Together, Lithuania), Razem (Left Together, Poland) Szikra Mozgalom (Spark Movement, Hungary), Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement, Ukraine)
CEEGLA believes that the capitalist system underlies economic, social, and climate crises and emphasizes the importance of public services for equality and solidarity. It rejects the notion of the Eastern and Central Europe region as merely a testing ground for capitalism and stresses the need for a democratic, social, and sustainable Europe.
It emphasizes worker rights, including fair pay, job security, and support for trade unions, and calls for fiscal policies prioritizing social agendas over neoliberal austerity measures. It promotes environmental conservation, social justice inclusive societies, and technological empowerment for individuals rather than corporations, alongside calls for robust civil society democratic governance at local and EU levels including workplace democracy and global solidarity.
The Alliance hopes not only to be this voice but also through this collaboration address some of the issues unique to the region. In CEEGLA’s principle statement, the vision outlined advocates for a democratic and sustainable economy with equitable wealth distribution, free from corporate influence and authoritarianism.
In part the Alliance stems from dissatisfaction with the lack of an Eastern and Central European perspective in discussions of both the European and International Left. The region has a complex history that for a wide variety of reasons, including propaganda, mythology, or right-wing talking points, obscures the real-existing movements on the Left working towards a more just world and democratic society.
The Central-Eastern European Green Left Alliance (CEEGLA) is an alliance of Green and Left Parties and Organizations in Central and Eastern Europe. The alliance was announced at the beginning of 2024 and hopes to build a regional network linking the Central and Eastern European Left.
#CEEGLA #EasternEurope
