In times of economic gloom, it can sometimes be hard to remember what all this talk of “the European project” was about. For this series Comment is free and Presseurop have asked several writers to look beyond the crisis and tell us their hopes, fears and aspirations for Europe in 2011.
Danes gostijo Slavoja Žižka, ki v sestavku Europe must move beyond mere tolerance zagovarja stališče, da ni druge možnosti, kot da Evropa oživi svojo izvorno idejo radikalne in univerzalne emancipacije:
The only way to break out of this deadlock is to propose and fight for a positive universal project shared by all participants. Struggles where “there are neither men nor women, neither Jews nor Greeks” are many, from ecology to the economy.
Some months ago, a small miracle happened in the occupied West Bank: Palestinian women who were demonstrating against the wall were joined by a group of Jewish lesbian women from Israel. The initial mutual mistrust was dispelled in the first confrontation with the Israeli soldiers guarding the wall, and a sublime solidarity developed, with a traditionally dressed Palestinian woman embracing a Jewish lesbian with spiked purple hair – a living symbol of what our struggle should be.
[…] Instead of losing time with the costs and benefits analysis of our membership in the EU, we should focus on what the EU effectively stands for. Mostly, it acts as a regulator of global capitalist development; sometimes, it flirts with the conservative defence of its tradition. Both these paths lead to oblivion, to Europe’s marginalisation. The only way out of this debilitating deadlock is for Europe to resuscitate its legacy of radical and universal emancipation.
