Slavoj Žižek: A Case Study in Opportunism

I don’t pretend to understand Dr. Žižek’s “Lacanian” “post-Maoist” philosophy or critiques of popular culture or whatever it is that he does. All I know is that he pretends he’s some kind of adherent to some form of Marxism Leninism and “Maoism” and people seem to have an impression of him as a genuinely progressive academic. When it counted, however, Žižek was an unabashed leader of counterrevolution in his homeland of Slovenia. Žižek in fact fought to destroy the system he claims he now supports, or at the very least that people he now admires (Lenin, Mao) fought so hard to build. Žižek during the era of socialism was one of the prominent members of the “dissident” circles advocating for its destruction. In the late 1980s he joined the secessionist anti-socialist movement developing in Slovenia, and become an active member of the Liberal Democratic Party (who came to power once Slovenia seceded from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). He was not just a passive participant in this movement, since he was the candidate for the position of President of Slovenia for the LDP in 1990.

People like to taunt socialists about the supposed “misnomers” characterizing a lot of the formal names of the regimes of socialist countries (for instance, there is always a chortle about the name ‘Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’). However, the name “Liberal Democratic Party” of Slovenia is a joke. For one, these cold blooded killers murdered members of the multi-ethnic JNA (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – Yugoslav National Army) in cold blood, simply for being stationed in their own country. There is video footage of Slovenian nationalists gunning down JNA soldiers waving white flags. The “liberal democrats” then proceded to steal the bank accounts of non-Slovenes who had bank deposits in the banks of Ljubljana. Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia), was the banking center of Yugoslavia. The Ljubljana banks avoided paying back money to their non-Slovene depositers by simply changing the name of the bank, and saying the new bank should not be held responsible for the previous accounts. The LDP quickly went to work dismantling the socially owned economy in their new ‘republic’, undoing what had been built for generations. This included workers’ self-management, directing authority back into the hands of the capitalists.

This is the movement with which Dr. Žižek became an integral part, and even led. Of course, Žižek had also been a member of the Communist Party of Slovenia at times. He seems to have done whatever it took to ensure that he himself would be of influence and power. He claims he left the Party because of the trial of four people by the JNA in the late 1980s. The Slovene Communists had nothing to do with that trial and in fact implemented the “punishment” in the mildest manner possible. The fact is Žižek was writing anti-Communist diatribes for decades.

Since socialism has been dismantled in many parts of the world, parroting the line of his new masters is no longer new or novel. He must do something different in order to get attention. So he tries to meld his Lacanian gibberish with some kind of revolutionary politics. The question is: where was Slavoj Žižek when it counted? He was on the side of counterrevolution. An old wine in a new bottle is a still an old wine.

Italy and the ruthless attacks on the Romani people

The Romani people are among the most oppressed on the face of the planet. There can be no question about this. Many people continue to use racist epithets against the Roma and not know it, even in the United States. The word “gypped” is a epithet referencing being “ripped off”. The fact that it escapes people’s attention when almost every other kind of epithet is treated as a scandal, it is a sad reflection of consciousness about the oppression of the Romani. In some countries the oppression of the Roma goes behind the acceptance of epithets, like for example Italy. According to a recent poll, 68% of the Italian public want all Romani expelled (regardless of whether they hold Italian passports) and 75% want unauthorized Romani camps demolished. The reactionary Berlusconi government which is in league with outright Fascists like the Northern League Party, has implemented a law which  requires the fingerprinting of all Romani people (including children). The law was implemented in order to make it easier to identify child beggars and have them promptly removed from their families, as well as expel “illegal residents”.

This reactionary law along with other recent incidents like the torching of a Romani camp by an Italian mob near Naples: http://www.france24.com/en/20080514-gypsy-encampments-torched-near-naples-agency.   indicates that the Romani people are increasingly under attack.  When they’re not under attack, their deaths are treated like non-events. For example there is the case of the Italian vacationers sitting by idly as they clearly see two dead Roma children right near them. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/21/italy.drowning/index.html Italy is supposed to a member of the European Union, the so-called “vanguard” of human rights, that likes to tell the rest of the world how bad their human rights’ situation is. But these kinds of policies towards Roma people are not new or unique to Italy. Many other EU states have similar despicable policies towards the Roma, and there is little outcry. The Czech Republic and Hungary (new EU members) have for years forcibly sterilized Roma women. Roma children are routinely segregated and placed in “special schools’ for the mentally disabled, regardless of whether they actually have a disability or not. The unemployment figures for Roma people in all European countries are staggering, averaging between 70-90%. Roma people are routinely denied access to healthcare, and basic living infrastructure like clean water facilities. The inequality in education (and forced segregation into schools for the less gifted) precludes the Romani from getting access to the training needed for gainful employment.

It is true that Roma people were also mistreated under socialism in many countries. But Roma people were uniformly treated better, particularly in socialist Romania and Yugoslavia, than currently.  It is no coincidence that Romani people lined up to fight alongside the Yugoslav government against neo-fascist separatists and terrorists. The plight of the Roma underscores the failed promise of ‘social democracy’ and the European model of so-called “democratic socialism”. Only by destroying the economic system which operates under the principle of “divide and rule”, and fans ethnic hatreds in order to bolster its crumbling edifice, will the Roma be free.

Kronstadt: The Anarchist Icon

“Remember the Kronstadt” is a taunt familiar to many a Marxist when interacting with people of various anarchist sects. Of course, the anarchists of Kronstadt have nothing in common with the present-day variations of individualist anarchists and other people engaged in lifestyle politics. Anarchism was a very different – almost respectable – beast in the early 1900s. But anarchists of the present-day enjoy invoking the name of Kronstadt to justify their sectarian prejudices, redbaiting and other behavior. So what does “Kronstadt” mean? What happened at Kronstadt that we should remember it?

Kronstadt was the site of an important naval base outside of Petrograd (then Leningrad, now Petersburg). It was key to the defense of the most important city in Russia. In 1921, the newly established Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)was still in the midst of a civil war and war of independence against a number of imperialist countries trying to kill it in its infancy. Among the factions fighting the Bolsheviks during this time were the Anarchist Makhnoites (Black Army). So the anarchists were already waging a struggle for counterrevolution prior to the Kronstadt incident.

More to the point, the RSFSR at this time was under the condition of ‘war communism’, which involved among other things the strict rationing of food and supplies in order to ensure there was not famine under conditions when the normal economy was in absolute disarray. The sailors of Kronstadt (or I should say, some of the sailors of Kronstadt since support for the rebellion was no where near unanimous) were unhappy with the conditions of war communism because a good number of people made their living off of speculation, illegal trade, and criminal activity. They also were doing better off than the rest of Russia, and did not want to give other communities and soviets loans of food and supplies. The anarchist uprising, far from being a “popular” uprising against the ‘tyrannical” Bolsheviks, had little popular support. Even some of the sailors of the Kronstadt turned against the putschists. The workers of the town of Kronstadt liberated the city before the Red Army ever got there. It is also a lie that these sailors were loyal Bolsheviks who had become disillusioned with the RSFSR. The truth of the matter is Kronstadt had always been populated mostly by anarchists and SR (Socialist Revolutionary [anti-Bolsheviks]. There were very few if any Bolsheviks and even fewer Mensheviks.

The leaders of this putsch were not remotely sympathetically to socialism, social democracy or anything else. S.H. Dmitriev  Stephen Petrichenko, and General Koslovsky, two former members of the White Army and one who had tried to join the Whites.  Koslovsky and 8000 of his bandits ended up fleeing to Finland to join his fellow counterrevolutionary brethren after the uprising was defeated. Petrichenko made  no secret of his links to the White Army. There is documentary evidence, now available in the Columbia University archives, that details the coordinated plans of the Kronstadt rebels with foreign imperialists and vestiges of the defeated White Armies. Indeed, Lenin himself said the plot of Kronstadt was hatched from within Paris, with Paris printing newspapers describing the rebellion weeks before it occurred. Members of the White Emigre communities in Paris and elsewhere mobilized themselves to volunteer to fight on behalf of the Kronstadt mutineers. Documents have been found detailing the money transfers which took place between Whites in Finland and the Kronstadt rebels and their White Generals (who did far more than serve as mere ‘technical support’ to the mutineers)

The most active putschists among the Kronstadt sailors were not only not progressive, they were outright reactionary.  Even scholars sympathetic to the mutineers admit that anti-Semitism (“the Jews murdered Russia”) was rife among the mutineers.

Then finally, there’s the matter of the number of people killed in this tragic uprising. Anarchists raise a good hue and cry over the number of sailors reportedly slaughtered by the Bolsheviks. The real fact is the number pales in comparison to the number of Red soldiers who died trying to suppress their irresponsible, counterrevolutionary conspiracy. At least 10,000 Red soldiers were killed, injured, or missing  trying to retake the “Kronstadt fortress” as compared to 600 putschists.

So when I hear “remember the Kronstadt”, I remember the 10,000 brave Red Army soldiers who crossed the ice to battle and destroy a White Guard counterrevolution and gave their lives so that socialism could survive. I remember the petulant actions of criminal elements bent on sabotaging a new society before it could establish itself. I remember the anti-Semitic reactionary drivel that was spewed forth by the mutineers.

We need to remember the Kronstadt, and learn the lessons well.