How to help yourself and others in times of repression
Especially for the rubric “Belarus. Prospects”Vika Biran wrote a commentary on what activism should be like now. You can discuss her opinion and share hers in the corresponding post on the telegram channel “DW Belarus”.
For eight years of my life, I proudly held the title of LGBT and queer activist. Together with like-minded and like-minded people of the time, I created the largest website in Belarus for the queer MAKEOUT community, organized festivals, gave interviews, endless networking, made public statements and generated ideas … The title of an activist gave me strength and opened the door to the world of the same charming, if constantly jaded, romantics who are passionate about their work and want to make the world a better place.
Today, I don’t give a shit about the world, I don’t consider myself an activist and I don’t promise to help certain social groups, whether they are “LGBT” or “Belarusians” or “women”. Today, after obligatory work and study, I try to find the strength to help the social group “my friends”, several of whom are in prison, some more in a refugee camp, and some more looking for a job, an apartment, a residence, a desire to live – all at once or separately.
Helping friends is not activism. Helping friends is a moral duty, concern and that same feminist sisterhood, which, of course, can be theorized in academic categories, but today it is much more useful, perhaps, to practice.
Privileges are important to note
The question “in which direction to practice care” is not worth it. First, of course. Surely the growing psychotherapy culture and sometimes overly liberal “self-care practices” have already knocked on your door, but if not, here’s a reminder just in case. For a quality life, among other things, you need physical activity that will help you get out of your head, where after reading the news you often get stuck and drive five times in a circle, disturbing thoughts about who you already sought and who else will come.
Trite, but true: healthy food is very important, for which you need to find products, choose recipes, cook everything – and then eat calmly and calmly, preferably in the company of a girlfriend. By the way, it is very important not to forget about friends and girlfriends, since communication with them helps to move from the “useful” category to the “pleasant” category, and these are completely different dimensions.
Romantic relationships, they say, also require a serious investment of resources – and then, mind you, healthy intimacy, or sex, or just the opportunity to laze around with a loaded series for the weekend. You can also include creative realization here, but this, of course, is already a luxury.
It’s an impressive list, isn’t it? She is in shock. But that’s only because I am writing from a situation, rare these days, where I am Belarusian – and I have documents, house, job, knowledge of languages and I don’t expect a rocket to fall in my room or security forces to knock on the door. All of this is a great privilege, and if I’ve learned anything useful from activism it’s that privileges are important to realize, privileges are important to be appreciated, privileges are important to be shared and, ideally, not to be ashamed of.
And when all this inner work has been done, when we can say that we are stable, ready to help not out of guilt or a deep crisis, comes into play – caring for others. Caring today is the new activism.
Being close without promises to move mountains
To send a package from Germany to a human rights activist in a pre-trial detention center in Minsk, who, like thousands of other political prisoners, ended up there for completely far-fetched reasons, it is not necessary to be an activist. Something else is needed – for example, understanding that a person with a vegan diet and strong beliefs simply has nothing to eat there, and food supplies must be constantly replenished from the outside. It is also important to “defeat” the German mail site. You dutifully press “copy” and “paste” and believe that one day you will win, not the system, and the package will be processed, delivered, and that same vegan woman in the pretrial detention center will be able to eat something delicious. Whether it was bad luck, the dictator’s revenge, or something that cannot be explained in any way, she is now behind bars. She is not you. Her range of possibilities is much wider than hers. Use the!
To get accommodation for two young mothers from Belarus for the first time in Germany (while they are thinking about how to live), you also don’t need to be an activist or even have several free rooms at your disposal. It is enough to be, for example, the same mother who has an idea of life with a child and suitcases in a new big city with no plans for the future, and also a sofa that she is ready to share for a while.
Share not because later you can write a post about it and collect a bunch of likes, get a grant for the defense of lesbian rights or go to an activist conference, but simply out of the goodness of your heart. Feminine goodness, fraternity, solidarity.
War, repression, forced migration activated the need for care. Huge numbers of people are in tragic circumstances and struggle every day to survive and maintain their own dignity. The list of problems is endless, many of them are structural, systemic and will take years to resolve.
In the meantime, we look forward to these years – we can try to be there for each other without promises to move mountains, free all political prisoners, eliminate discrimination, stop the war, but at least not throw cans in the trash or occasionally write letters to those they can still receive.
Vika Biran, studies cultural studies in Frankfurt an der Oder, runs journalistic projects at the n-ost media NGO, supports LGBT and feminist movements.
The commentary expresses the author’s personal opinion. It may not agree with the opinion of the editors and of Deutsche Welle as a whole.
Source: DW
Anna White is a journalist at 247 News Reel, where she writes on world news and current events. She is known for her insightful analysis and compelling storytelling. Anna’s articles have been widely read and shared, earning her a reputation as a talented and respected journalist. She delivers in-depth and accurate understanding of the world’s most pressing issues.