Today I had a conversation with an American who moved to Slovakia about 15 years ago, and it really got me thinking. He talked about the great disappointments: We discussed the UK and United States, brexit, the rise of Trump and the need for the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM). People are asking, why in the world did we choose democracy if this is what it gets us?
Hungary was a Communist country where everything was collective and nothing was owned until 1989. Think about that, 1989 only 27 years of moving toward democracy, although the way they have democracy right now signals to me that they have an autocratic system with one party in control. Because they control 2/3 of the vote, they have the ability to change the Constitution at a whim.
The country itself has been under one empire or another since the 1400’s. The people in the country point out that they have been on the losing side of two World Wars and that they haven’t necessarily made the best decisions as a government.
I think they are continuing this losing streak as the Hungarian Prime Minister just endorsed Trump. So, here we are in a country who was sick to death of collectivism and now are sick to death of capitalism (smart enough to realize this in 27 years) and watching as power and money become concentrated in the hands of a few and the gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to grow.
I am beginning to understand that the context under which people work in Hungary is so completely different from our own. It just isn’t safe to be as outspoken with the current powers that be. However, there is a group that began predominantly as a training institute, they are really trying to figure out how they transition into organizing, build coalitions and change the dynamics of power. Their challenge will be inspiring a population that seems to have no sense of their power because of its history.
This group has made some amazing strides. They now have received funding and have 27 organizers throughout the country. We spent the last two days doing training’s and discussing things such as coalition building, fundraising, and what the necessary parts of building a new organization are. We broke them down into a five-legged stool that included:
- Grassroots organizing at local state and national level.
- Political Organizing – need to be political consequences…..
- Invest in Politicized communications
- Legal and legislative expertise
- Build unlikely allies.
Luckily the organizers from the US understand that we cannot be arrogant enough to tell them what to do. Instead, we ask what they need and then try to meet those needs. I can’t help but think that this group needs to build their own political party. It isn’t like they don’t have enough of them, they do, but perhaps it will help build a platform for their collective work. If nothing else, the world here has given me a new appreciation of the Working Families Party.
PS We went on one of those drinking and biking tours and the guide and I fell into conversation. Another doozy. He had traveled extensively to the states. I asked him how does he get to do this and he said his father is the CEO of a bank here and basically part of the emerging elite. I asked more and he said that although he thinks the system is very corrupt, it has obviously come with some benefits to him. No system is perfect. Although today we did talk a lot about the Finnish system and the equity they have been able to establish. We should be studying their system despite its faults, it does manage to take care of its people very well.