Anarchism in Estonia
From Infoshop OpenWiki
Report on anarchism in Estonia by Sauree
Some months ago we opened a website (www.punamust.org ) with name PunaMust (in english: Red'n'Black) the aim of the webpage was to unite anarchists and create anarchist movement in Estonia. It's all in a beginning stage, but we are making slowly someprogress. There are about 20 people around the Estonia (mostly Tartu and Tallinn) who are actively participating in that movement right now and there are about 100 people who are taking part of discussions in our web-forum.
About some actions: In 8th of April we took part of the demonstration against police violence in Tallinn. There was about 150 people - mostly young punks. in 1st of. May we handed out anti-consumerist leaflets in front of big malls in Tallinn and Tartu. in 4th May we were guests in TV3 talk-show "Kahvel" (one of the most popular TV talk-shows in Estonia), we talked about anarchism and our organization. On 15th of May we had a joint-action with "Green" bicycle club Prussakov to protest against abusing the public space by the private security company Falck who is using one of the most important town square's in a Tallinn as a parking lot. We occupied a parking lot - legally - we bought parking tickets and "parked" our bikes and flowerpots to the parking spaces for one day. It got quite a lot positive media attention. Afterwards we left without paying for the parking tickets but as I know no charges were indict. This Monday (29. may) we organized in a Tartu a free movie night about "anti-globalization movement". We had a chance to use one of the big auditoriums of the University of Tartu.
Also there was a "Anarchist philosophy" class in University of Tartu in the spring semester (by the guest lecturer dr Paul McLaughlin), some people from our movement participated on that.
In the beginning of July there will be a bike caravan against G8 crossing the Estonia and we try to organize a campsites for them and to organize a Infoday about G8 and "anti-globalization movement" in Tartu in that time.
Most of the Estonians don't want to hear anything about "socialism". but this is changing slowly. and we also want to do our best to change that. There have been no real anarchist or (antiauthoritarian) socialist tradition in Estonia so we have to start from scratch. It's a lot of work - due to negative stereotypes about "socialism" and anything "leftist". But we are still positive and believe that we can change things - we know it all takes time and a lot of energy, but I believe that we have a real and functioning anarchist network in about 2-3 years or so in Estonia.
In our movement in PunaMust is the "collectivist" or "socialist" wing in majority. We still recognize the importance of individual freedom and are not willing to sacrifice it in the name of "collective" or "socialism". Real socialism must respect individual freedom.
Originally posted on A-Infos here
