Here is a very good point I never thought of before. I was told by my colleague there that a right wing Italian newspaper recently complained:
“Why do people not celebrate the fall of communism in 1989?”
A very good question, though the answer may not suit them. The various events around the so called ‘fall of communism’ in Eastern Europe are 30 years ago this year. But there are no large scale parties or celebrations about that at all… even though people still celebrate things like Thanksgiving and Guy Fawkes day from much further back in time.
Some of the key events happened exactly at this time: in June 1989 Solidarity claimed victory in Polish parliamentary elections, and in July Gorbachev announced that each country in the Soviet zone ‘could take its own path to socialism’. Earlier in the spring the Hungarian Communists renounced it’s ‘leading role’ and proposed a multi-party political system. In November 1989 the Berlin Wall was opened and the Czechoslovakian Communist government resigned.
Out of all of that and more only the fall of the Berlin wall is widely remembered. Even then it seems mostly because its a simple symbol of change that everyone can easily visualise. And because it symbolises the uniting of a country, rather than the fall of communism.
I suggest that the fact that there are no such celebrations perhaps indicates that people know there is something false and empty about it. This centers around two aspects: a suspicion or knowledge that it was not really ‘communism’ that ended, but something else; and that the dream of freedom and a better system was not fulfilled by the neo-liberal free market system that came in.
I noticed a conservative posting about this subject. They note:
“So while the BBC is happy to celebrate many significant 30th anniversaries, along with some frivolous ones, I’m not expecting too much about Europe escaping from Communist tyranny. Neither am I expecting recognition to be shown to those many people, famous and unknown, who showed resolution and strength, took enormous risks or made great sacrifices, for the freedom of Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, we should remember them.”
We can dismiss the silly ‘left wing media bias’ point. This is a cliche that right wingers often trot out and it takes very little research and thought to see that it is false. The mainstream media is massively dominated by a few giant capitalist corporations. That is a factual point.
Actually, though, I agree that such people should be remembered. Since they fought in very difficult circumstances against a bad system. But we can not call it ‘Communist tyranny’. Any reasonable historical analysis of how those societies operated shows quite clearly that they fell far short of various criteria necessary to think of them as fully working communism. They simply fail the test. Yes they CALLED themselves ‘communist’, but so what? You can call yourself a doctor, walk around in a white suit, you could even believe it in your deluded state…but if you failed the medical exams then there is something suspect about you. You don’t really have the right to call yourselves a doctor, and I certainly wouldn’t want you operating on me.
Very few on the left support those eras now. Even those that do see various positive aspects in the Stalinist or Maoist eras hesitate from saying confidently: ‘Yes, that was fully working communism’. At best they say things like: ‘Those systems were not as evil and twisted as we are led to believe, they did have some admirable aspects and achievements…despite the very negative aspects and falling far short of a good communist society.’
Either way, what fell 30 years ago can be more clearly called ‘corrupt state socialism’ or ‘state dictatorship’. However it does not suit the capitalists powers to call it that, then or now. They wished for it to be seen as the final defeat of communism, so that their capitalist system can be seen to be the only way. But, much to their annoyance, the idea that there IS an alternative refuses to go away. Over the last 10 years or so we have seen a very considerable increase in interest in alternative ways of organising society. The recent wave of school age rebels trying to save the environment has a strongly anti-capitalist aspect to it.