Abba Brunovna Ertcseová, Olomouc, Czechia
To be of the Communist Czech Left, born after 1989, is to live with a seemingly permanent sour taste in your mouth.
From the cradle, you are told that what was here 35 years ago was a system they called ‘Communism’. You are told that it failed. And that life has become better since then. Then, as you grow, listen, read and speak, you will learn to call it ‘Socialism’. You will learn and -know- that life hasn’t become better. Perhaps even take the position that it has become -worse-. Red banners and bold transparents you will raise, demanding, screaming, begging, crying for the Past, Present and Future the generations of the past denied you. Stole away from you. Life will become worse.
And you will look again into the past for a better world.
Inevitably, four numbers will pound themselves into your skull. 1968. Again and again, you will return to the question of that year. Perhaps, you will give in. Accept that Communism failed. Become a Social Democrat, a Neoliberal, a Fascist or Populist. Life will become -easier-. But it will not get -better-. On the other hand, you might reaffirm everything you believe. See a point in time and proclaim with all the air in your lungs: “This is where we could have fixed it!”. You will keep waving the Red banners. Life will become worse. Again and again, you will return to the vision of 1968. Dreaming of Dubček, Svoboda, Husák, Gottwald and all the other names your older Comrades taught you. Luxemburgová and Liebknecht. Marx and Lenin. The Communes of 1871 and 1794. And perhaps, somewhere in this cycle, you will ask yourself a question.
“Does it matter?”
Czechoslovak Socialism failed. Of course it did. Do you not stand amidst the ruins? Time will never reverse. Jaurès will not be revived. The SPDeutschlands will not unfuck itself, nor will the KSČM for that matter. The Past is everpresent. It will never leave your memory. Yet the Future of Communism is unbuilt. Our turn is Past. It is Capital’s turn now. And after Capital is Past, Our Turn will come again! The sourness will leave your mouth. Life -will- become better.
Because we will make it so.
PARTISAN! 