‘You’re fighting for likes’
On the one hand, there are artists who stand up and don’t mince their words. “The unlockable buckle restraining the west is fear of nuclear war, and Vladimir Putin, elevated into a deranged and unpredictable adversary, has played us well,” wrote British author Ian McEwan in an article published in The Guardian.
In a piece featured in Liberation, Bernard-Henri Levy, Sean Penn, Sting and Salman Rushdie express their abhorrence at the violence being committed against civilians in Ukraine and their admiration for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and they present 10 points and proposals for what they believe the next steps to be.
On the other hand, there is our version of all this here in Greece. That of unionists, culture workers, federations, representatives of the Greek underground scene, people of the arts – from whom we have not heard a peep. Or even worse, to eliminate accusations of silence, these outspoken people – people who have put their names to open letters on every issue (even in defense of jailed terrorist Dimitris Koufontinas) – are either waging a war of the self-evident (“humanism and pacifism are values above any ideological prefix”) or continue to try promoting an utterly trite revolutionary credo: “We condemn all forms of imperialism,” “art must unite and not divide” and other such profound pro-neutrality positions. There is no mention of Russian President Vladimir Putin, however. He has disappeared down the drain of “imperialism.”
They are not alone in these… stoic quandaries. They have unexpected, and hated allies, in the Greek neo-Nazis, who are in prison, and the tardy admirers of Putin’s “political grandeur” who speak in the Greek Parliament. They belong to a party that has far-right leanings and also have super-human abilities (including laying their hands on letters by Jesus).
It is no coincidence that the angry diatribe of a former eastern European woman became viral. It was written by Poland’s Zosia Brom who has lived in London for many years and is editor-in-chief of the anarchist “Freedom News” and was published on the site. Among others, she writes:
“Antifascism is protecting people from individuals with structural power. Right now that is Putin […] leave this war with people that actually know what they’re fighting for. You’re fighting for likes – it’s humiliating – to the left in general, and to future generations who will be left demoralized, rather than inspired to fight for a world sans dictators […] Look in the mirror, destroy the imperialist exceptionalist cop inside your head. Good luck.”
