An Aesthetics of Post-Communist Resistance to Neo-liberal Politics

Abstract

Current revolts in Romania as well as other spontaneous or long-lasting (social/ecological) movements in former communist countries contradict the mainstream perspective about the silent or passive post-communist transitioning towards a (neo-liberal) globalized world. An important point of controversy has been the lack of unitary leadership and programmatic action, which has often been criticized as either a sign of hidden forces manipulating groups of people or as a lack of professional activism and citizenship. This article uses Foucault’s and Deleuze’s theoretical perspectives to broaden our understanding of movements of revolt/resistance or opposition. I argue for a conceptualization of movements that promotes multiplicity (of sites and forms of resistance), differences, flows, mobility or nomadic thought and practice which is productive and diverse rather than monopolizing, centralizing or unifying.

Keywords

• globalization
• post-communism
• neo-liberalism
• resistance
• multiplicity