Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I came very recently to Occupy. I came from the very center
of a protest in Slovenia, so in continuing that spirit, I looked at Occupy.
When I was at home, I was reading some very interesting literature about
alternative societies and alternative economies, and I found this Austrian
artist by the name of Oiber Ressler. He’s devoting his work and filming documentaries
about exploring experimental social forms, and he has
made exhibitions all over the world already. I found his book, and this book
consisted of several interviews with contemporary thinkers, and I took this
book as a place point from which to just consider alternatives. When I came
here, I was looking for Occupy, and I couldn’t find much that really captured
me, so I contacted Oiber, and I asked him, “I’m here, and I would like to do
something about it." He proposed that I contact Strike Debt. He was very
happy about it, so now we are going to do some kind of collaboration on that
since I’m also a video artist, and I’d like to merge into documentary.
I heard about Occupy when it was in the park. I think this was
a movement that was welcome all around the world. When the global protest went on on October 15th, we also had a protest in Slovenia.
People were following it because these protests in Slovenia are also a part of a global problem. We don’t just protest against our particular government, although that
is a part of it. We protest against very common issues that Occupy does. Democracy is supposed to be a form of government where people
have a voice, and actually we don’t feel that we have a voice. There are those that control the government, and others feel like they are excluded. We only go to vote every four years,
and that’s the whole democratic influence that we have on what’s happening in
our state. We are fighting for more participatory politics, in which you have a
voice much more than every four years, where you don’t have someone to
represent you, necessarily, where you have more than two choices, either left or
right.
There was an Occupy in Slovenia. I was active. It was just
protesting. It was just going in the streets. It was interesting because I didn’t
know as many people that I thought I would, and I got to talk to people that
were very different from me, that came from completely different social groups. It was really interesting to talk with those people on the streets. There
was a common issue right from the very beginning. I’m really happy that it came
out now because now it actually shows what the system does itself is actually
violent, and that shows with these protests. If you make a set of rules,
and you try and impose them on everybody, that’s a violent act in itself.
There were things that were a little bit more specific in
Slovenia that happened. There was actually a very brutal privatization of
public goods. When we came out of socialism, all our property was common, and
these common goods were privatized from 1991 on, when we became independent. It
was a long process. It happened slowly. People who had the power, which are
politicians, they got most of this private property. It now belongs to them.
This has been going on for years, and I feel that people should have gone out
onto the streets earlier because now most of our public goods are already gone.
Slovenia is such a different nation. We have a very different history, and we
are very small, so we still have this opportunity to act as a small community.
People mostly know each other. It’s hard for us to transform so drastically
from being social or common to being individual. I don’t think we can actually
bear in the long term this influence as a nation. In every single branch, the
tendency goes in that direction of not supporting the people.
The protests are fun. The beautiful thing about it is the
artists are the loudest, and this creativity is just spreading around. There
are all of these fantastic musicians with a sense of humor. Artists are
actually one of the main forces in the protests. Our writer’s association is
very old and amazing. They also organize meetings and write enormously fantastic
articles. It has become also a dispute now between the state and the artists,
just because of that. Recently, there was one pop singer who accused all of the artists that they are just sucking on the governmental breasts. He claimed he got to his wealth on his own. One musician wrote him such a fantastic letter back saying that his success was because he was lucky enough to be born white and male with influential parents. That’s how he came to accumulate his wealth. He didn’t earn it himself. These people who are usually white and male, they have made certain rules that were tailored toward them, so now they can claim that everyone who doesn’t fit into these rules, that it’s just their own fault that they didn’t make it.
At the beginning, protests started in my town. It was over a small issue, but it was just a drop over the edge. A couple of times, at the beginning, the protests were a little bit brutal, both the protesters and police. I was above the protests with a camera. When I saw some people there, I could completely support their brutality, and this brutality didn’t expand beyond just throwing rocks through the glass, but these are people who really have been through generations and generations of humiliation. They have nothing to lose anymore. They had to express the rage. Soon after people started to call for peaceful protests because if the protests are violent, the government can say, “These are just violent people on the streets,” and people don't take these protests seriously. The police were just starting to strike before the protests, so there were a lot of initiatives from the police not to be brutal because they were also fighting the state.
I think it’s very important because of injustice that has been around forever. If you try to imagine alternative ways, I’m wondering in the long term what they are going to look like. For example, communism in its idea, it was very radical, and it was very inventive. Actually, it derived also from social struggles Native Americans used to have. It took them as an example. What happened is that it was a complete failure. It actually turned into totalitarianism. How is this going to look in the long term? I now fight for the same cause as you, but I’m just trying to put it in a bigger perspective as well. At the moment, some things really urgently need to change, and if not about social structures than at least about environmental issues. We have this threat that’s very common to the global community. Once we destroy the environment, no possible signs or tools or technology is going to help us rebuild that. At least for that reason, it’s completely urgent.
At the beginning, protests started in my town. It was over a small issue, but it was just a drop over the edge. A couple of times, at the beginning, the protests were a little bit brutal, both the protesters and police. I was above the protests with a camera. When I saw some people there, I could completely support their brutality, and this brutality didn’t expand beyond just throwing rocks through the glass, but these are people who really have been through generations and generations of humiliation. They have nothing to lose anymore. They had to express the rage. Soon after people started to call for peaceful protests because if the protests are violent, the government can say, “These are just violent people on the streets,” and people don't take these protests seriously. The police were just starting to strike before the protests, so there were a lot of initiatives from the police not to be brutal because they were also fighting the state.
I think it’s very important because of injustice that has been around forever. If you try to imagine alternative ways, I’m wondering in the long term what they are going to look like. For example, communism in its idea, it was very radical, and it was very inventive. Actually, it derived also from social struggles Native Americans used to have. It took them as an example. What happened is that it was a complete failure. It actually turned into totalitarianism. How is this going to look in the long term? I now fight for the same cause as you, but I’m just trying to put it in a bigger perspective as well. At the moment, some things really urgently need to change, and if not about social structures than at least about environmental issues. We have this threat that’s very common to the global community. Once we destroy the environment, no possible signs or tools or technology is going to help us rebuild that. At least for that reason, it’s completely urgent.
What I would like is that everybody would participate in
social decisions much more than they do. That’s one of the main things, and
also animals and the environment should also be taken into account. Whatever
statistic that is put out, we have completely neglected and damaged the energy that has been taken from nature. Being rational beings, we should take
responsibility to really think about all living beings. I actually don’t think
that where we should get is a certain point or goal. I think this is a process.
Once you set-up a set of rules, you are again at the point where we are at the
moment. I think we should experiment and then come up with something, see if it
works and then apply it or don’t apply it.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/