Irish revolutionary republican socialist party, Saoradh, published its report on the trip of two of its members to Belarus as part of the Anti-Imperialist Caravan to collect facts about the life of the Belarusian people. We present you their report below.
Saoradh attends Anti-Imperialist Front caravan to Belarus
Following on from a recent trip to Belarus on foot of an invitation as part of an Anti-Imperialist Front caravan along with other Anti-Imperialist organisations across Europe to Minsk for information and educational purposes, Saoradh members who attended would like to make the following observations.
The caravan was organised by the Anti-Imperialist Front and included representatives from the following groups:
AIF – Anti-Imperialist Front
Group Yorum – Anti-Imperialist organisation through music, media and arts
Dev Genç – Revolutionary youth organisation
People’s Front – Anti-Imperialist drugs support organisation
Saoradh – Revolutionary Republican Socialist Party
Free Thinkers’ Peace Movement – Anti-Imperialist Journalism
Anti-imperialist Journalist – Anti-Imperialist Journalism
Revolutionary Peoples Party – Anti-Imperialist organisation
Socialist Party of Latvia – Anti-Imperialist Socialist Party
These organisations include members from Belarus, Ireland, Turkey, Greece, Germany, Scotland, Serbia and Latvia.
Over five days the caravan visited numerous sites across the city of Minsk to get some impression of how everyday life is, and history in the capital of Belarus. Among the places of interest visited were:
Minsk tractor factory – industrial site
Minsk central hospital – hospital & museum
Techno Park – second level student college for high achievers
Belarus journalists and unions
Communist Party of Belarus
Memorials – memorials to the great patriotic war throughout the city
RSDLP Museum – the site of the first meeting of the Russian Socialist Democratic Labour Party
Museum – Museum of the great patriotic war
Amongst the topics discussed at the meetings we attended during the week were health and the social welfare of the people, housing and homelessness, poverty and drug addiction, transport, infrastructure and access to public facilities, politics and ideology, the issue of political dissidents and bloggers, education and youth affairs, Belarus foreign affairs and its perceived NATO threats on its sovereignty.
The two Saoradh members were encouraged to be at the forefront of all these discussions, and we were honoured to be able to give firsthand experience of the social economic life in Ireland which also includes its territories occupied by the Imperialist Britain and including the issue of political prisoners (non-Jury courts and political policing by the RUC/PSNI and the Freestate Garda).
We were able to compare many similarities of experiences between our two countries despite our obvious different cultural backgrounds. In all the places we visited and all the people we spoke with, from state officials to students, there was no question we could not ask and none that went unanswered.
We were of course fascinated by what we seen in our experience of our visit to Minsk. We were quite surprised at the openness of society, the free movement of people and the easy aspects of daily life, there was a strong sense of community amongst the people, clear evidence of collective thinking and support for one another, and beyond doubt it was certain that the gap between rich and poor in Minsk is the closest we have ever experienced.
It is not for us to say that this is the perfect society but what other political system across the globe could claim this? For instance, we didn’t see life across more rural areas and there may be other people who had different experiences of their visit to Belarus but during our time in Minsk, we did not come across any signs of poverty such as rough sleeping, petty crimes or lawlessness and a genuine absence of police on the streets. From what we have seen both the infrastructure and transport were extremely well maintained, the transport costs were minimal whilst running frequently with no queues or disruption.
What did strike us was the enormous sense of pride and respect for the people’s patriotic and cultural history, they clearly take their historic experience of struggle against fascism into current life and use it as an example of what life could have been like under Nazi rule, but rather than been defined from the horrors of the past they are using to foster a bright future for all their citizens, there in perhaps lies an example lies a lesson for Ireland.
We in Soaradh do not suggest that you take everything we say without prejudice but before you blindly criticize a country like Belarus for what you have heard through controlled media, maybe take the time to visit the country yourself to formalize your own opinion. As the Belarus saying goes “better to see something once rather than hear about it 100 times”.
